Boo Yard Day

We had another yard day today... this job just keeps sneaking off. But finally we have a yard time... unfortunately that yard time is 4am. Whatever, I can do it. It will be painful but I'll be fine.

Today's yard day was painful. I had to "help" change out o rings in the BOP's. That means I watched while other people did it (and still others stood around). I learned more about the BOP and how it works and is pressure tested (or at least gained a bit of clarity). Unfortunately we had to be useless until 2pm before we could go to lunch... which made me a little more cranky than I already was. This wasn't helped by the fact that this afternoon, Anjelica worked on her video while I continued to be useless outside in the heat. When they told me yard day I assumed they wouldn't let us "work on our paper" so I left my laptop home. Lesson learned I suppose. We got to go home at 5:30 so at least they didn't make us stay until they left. Silver lining right? Yea I'll go with that.

When we got home I finally butchered our free watermelon. We have a ton of it so we're going to give some to Nick when he gets back from the liquor store. Now my tasks are to pack and then to go bed at a senior citizen-ly hour. I was told to plan on at least 48 hours in the field (barring complications) so I need to pack a lot of stuff. Lots of food said Nick, and stuff for a shower (we get a trailer) and my pillow and a blanket for the 3 or 4 hours I'll get to sleep at a time (possibly the only sleep we'll get each day... we'll see) said the guys I talked to. I heard there will be no internet connection out there so I may not be "live blogging" this portion of my summer but it's only a couple of days and I can't imagine this being such an integral part of anyone's day that it will be devastating to anyone. Either way the laptop is coming with me so that if I have a spare moment I can finish up my paper. I'll probably be tweeting from the field so you can always check up on me that way (it's over on the sidebar for that reason... even more live coverage!!!).

Wish me luck!

PS My video is on YouTube if you want to see it at what seems like a higher quality. Check it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4DilKtopPo

I hate writing papers...blogs are better.

Today we sat in the office ALL DAY and wrote our papers (ok that was a small portion because I started mine last night and it's mostly finished and whatever...). We worked on organizing our media to make our propaganda videos (that could potentially win us an iPad, iPod Touch, or and iPod Shuffle) and surfing the Facebook. Not until almost 5 did Ryan finally beckon us to come ask him all of our pre-job questions. That took about another 30 minutes and then we got to go home. It was established during this meeting that Anjelica and I would probably go on our job either tomorrow or Thursday (this thing keeps creeping away from us... such the life of a service provider I suppose). It was also established that we wouldn't have free time in the field (contrary to what EVERYONE else has told us...so we are a little skeptical of that statement) so we decided that we would soldier on with our videos in spite of having no coil tubing pictures since they're due Sunday. Our paper is due this Saturday so the coil department might get the short end of the stick there too. We'll see how this pans out.

As I said I spent my evening making this little video. I'm putting it below for your enjoyment. I had fun making it (so much more fun than writing a paper) and I think it's kinda nifty. I hope you like it!

Another slow day in the bulk plant

As the title implies, I had ample time today to practice my new found skill of falling asleep while sitting on pallets of additives. I'm totally grateful that we didn't have a day like Nick had where we were stuck until 11 hauling sacks. Just don't think I'd like it much.

Today we loaded one cement job and then we spend the rest of the day doing cleaning and maintenance. We pressure washed the tanks outside and then helped them change out and clean "fluffers" on the tanks of raw materials. Fluffers are the parts through which compressed air is put into the tanks to help move the product out. I don't know if that's the main means of pressuring up the tanks because these things have rubber sleeves over the ends and Andy said when air goes through they "vibrate" to help the dry dust (cement and such) move better. These things get clogged up with cement and need to be rotated out for cleaning. There are several parts that have to be unscrewed (usually with the aid of a pipe wrench) and then have the cement cake chiseled out of them. This was where we were most helpful. We helped clean them and I helped put one back in too. Big day.

Here's Anjelica helping will get that rubber part off the end of the fluffer. Some of them are wedged on there pretty good. :)

To wash the tanks we got to climb on top of them. They're maybe three stories tall so that was kinda fun I suppose.

These are the tanks in question...

This is Justin, doing the very important job of holding the hose so it doesn't get tangled up. It's hard...

This is Mike doing work while Justin, Anjelica and I supervise. Get it, Mike!

And here I am supervising. Note the size of the truck in the background...we're up high. :) This is also my standard look--"one-sie" blues (not dirty yet), hard hat, prescription safety glasses (so I'm the only one who has to wear them 100% of the time...), and pigtail braids (they fit nicely under the hard hat...no muss, no fuss). Not attractive but whatev...

And...my custom tailoring of my PPE...they are a little big but duct-tape works just great for shortening them...

At one point today Mario was showing off with feats of strength... Justin didn't do an adequate job of tightening the wings and so Mario called him out. This was the result of the show of manliness:

Holding the sledge hammer with one hand... you have to touch your nose...without breaking it.

Of course, Mario can do it.

And then he was hot and sweaty so he had to go stand in front of the fan with his nomex open. He did a little dance for me when he saw I took out my camera. I love this guy...