this is more of a had a bad day/whining post..
i was out in the field today, loading up some really thick and nasty crude.
wind was blowing like hell, 50+ i would guess, it's still bad now, tree limbs all over the place, and looks like i'm short a fence and a few shingles now.
so i'm up on a plateau on top of some tanks, tring to hold on to my measure with one hand, the rickety about to fall off catwalk with the other.
get my numbers, fall/stumble/crawl down the stairs, holding my crude smeared glasses in my teeth, pants in one hand(don't ask)measure in the other. recover from that, try to get tests done on samples while dodging big-assed tumble weeds (some of them came to level with the hood of my tractor)while i'm being sand-blasted on every exposed body surface.this evening is going great so far isn't it?
tests are fine, wrestle hoses for a while, they are unwieldy in the breeze to say the least, get hooked up, pump finally running, only one small leak this time.so i'm waiting to load...sending all kinds of negative vibes my dispatcher's way,) i was there that morning, had it all done before, she calls and wants me to unhook everything, and haul ass to another tank that was about to run over)
so while broadcasting these negative feelings, i walk around to the other side of my truck to check my levels(sending some more negative energy to the asshole who thought that it was a good design feature to put the most vital guage on the trailer on the oppisite side of the loading equipment)i notice a burnt smell, like a grass fire....not a good thing to discover when you are soaked in crude(don't ask either).i walk around to front of truck, and start looking around.when crude oil is pulled up, it is put into heater tanks to help seperate water and oil. this is accomplished with fire under said tanks(more negative waves to the genius who thought this one up)..one of these fires, barely contained in a rusted-out weather beaten firebox/smokestack apparatus, was apparently upset by the slight breeze. it was sending out a pretty display of sparks/embers directly towards my truck with open vents, as well as about 4 other tankd with about 1000bbls of nice heated, vapor-producing crude.
as soon as the shit stopped flowing into my shorts, i made a quick call to the boss, politely suguesting that my situation might be considered precarious at the moment. after a brief consultation with the saftey guy, they felt it would be in my best intrest to remove myself from the area at my earliest convienence, and would i mind finding them the number on the lease sign so they could inform the well owners? i declined, informing them that said sign would prolly be somewhere in the next county by now.
it's amazing how much easier the hoses handled at that point, made record time stowing them.only got half my load(i get paid by the bbl)but at this point, figgured that was better than becoming trucker flambe.
so in the future, when filling the supe up...take a moment, and reflect on how it is that that gas made it to your car......
=
i was out in the field today, loading up some really thick and nasty crude.
wind was blowing like hell, 50+ i would guess, it's still bad now, tree limbs all over the place, and looks like i'm short a fence and a few shingles now.
so i'm up on a plateau on top of some tanks, tring to hold on to my measure with one hand, the rickety about to fall off catwalk with the other.
get my numbers, fall/stumble/crawl down the stairs, holding my crude smeared glasses in my teeth, pants in one hand(don't ask)measure in the other. recover from that, try to get tests done on samples while dodging big-assed tumble weeds (some of them came to level with the hood of my tractor)while i'm being sand-blasted on every exposed body surface.this evening is going great so far isn't it?
tests are fine, wrestle hoses for a while, they are unwieldy in the breeze to say the least, get hooked up, pump finally running, only one small leak this time.so i'm waiting to load...sending all kinds of negative vibes my dispatcher's way,) i was there that morning, had it all done before, she calls and wants me to unhook everything, and haul ass to another tank that was about to run over)
so while broadcasting these negative feelings, i walk around to the other side of my truck to check my levels(sending some more negative energy to the asshole who thought that it was a good design feature to put the most vital guage on the trailer on the oppisite side of the loading equipment)i notice a burnt smell, like a grass fire....not a good thing to discover when you are soaked in crude(don't ask either).i walk around to front of truck, and start looking around.when crude oil is pulled up, it is put into heater tanks to help seperate water and oil. this is accomplished with fire under said tanks(more negative waves to the genius who thought this one up)..one of these fires, barely contained in a rusted-out weather beaten firebox/smokestack apparatus, was apparently upset by the slight breeze. it was sending out a pretty display of sparks/embers directly towards my truck with open vents, as well as about 4 other tankd with about 1000bbls of nice heated, vapor-producing crude.
as soon as the shit stopped flowing into my shorts, i made a quick call to the boss, politely suguesting that my situation might be considered precarious at the moment. after a brief consultation with the saftey guy, they felt it would be in my best intrest to remove myself from the area at my earliest convienence, and would i mind finding them the number on the lease sign so they could inform the well owners? i declined, informing them that said sign would prolly be somewhere in the next county by now.
it's amazing how much easier the hoses handled at that point, made record time stowing them.only got half my load(i get paid by the bbl)but at this point, figgured that was better than becoming trucker flambe.
so in the future, when filling the supe up...take a moment, and reflect on how it is that that gas made it to your car......
=
