March Hitch

Back to work ..... blahhhhhh.They changed my travel and flew me through Atlanta. So like usual I was up at 0300 and usually get into New Orleans around 1330. NOT when you go through Atlanta - got to the hotel around 1800.... company was trying to save a couple of bucks... So when we helicopter out - we again are up at 0300 (thats 0100 Oregon time) and get to the heliport at 0400 and fly around 0630... then the flight to the rig was about 1 hr 20 mins. I was whipped all day.

We are done with this well - and are unloading the rig right now. We will then pull anchors which takes about 3 days - then a 2 day tow - then anchors again. But here is the catch... they dont have anchors set - so we will be floating around the next site for about 2 weeks until they can get ready for us. We finished this well 27 days ahead of schedule....

HATE and DISCONTENT is all I can say for work. I hate my relief and I dont see it getting better..... hate hate hate...spit....spit...spit.....The crew that works opposite, are such backstabbers - I just have never seen the likes.

To put this into perspective: The contract (yep, day-rate-whore) HSE, was telling me how much he liked living in Oregon. The people there are just.......simple!

Simple????, W T F?????? Simple are the Mississippi rednecks!!! Where I come from, we do our thing and let other do theirs. We dont mess in other peoples business or really care with what they do with their business. As long as it does not affect me on a daily - or hell, as long as it does not affect me - I dont care what they are doing. But SIMPLE... NOT!!!! So I guess he can just take his complex ass right back across the hall and do something constructive or maybe send an email on ending world hunger. Oh I got it..... how about explaining to me, how if we have SAVED the Client over $200 Million on the last 4 wells we have completed, in the last four months - and just finished this one 27 days ahead of schedule. They can not afford to give a bonus.... Seems my simple mind can not comprehend how if they are budgeted X amount of dollars to finish a project - we finish ahead - they do a presentation on how great the performance was - how much ahead of the curve. How about they pay a bonus off the interest they earned on the money they did not spend or even plan on having at the end of the well?

You are right - we are just simple, where I am from....

Ok enough of that rant.

Lets get back to the hate and discontent. So, apparently the only way to look good - is to play off someone elses ideas, mess up spreadsheets (hit them with the fill button - now it looks like a damn kid was on them with a Fat Ole Crayon), move equipment into the office and not leave complete or informational handover notes. Unfortunately for my relief - I understand the game. Been played before - it didnt go well. I WON. So I can figure out what is going on. Be original. Complete a project - and look good at it.

So you can imagine my comment to the Contractor - "you know with life so simple in the Pacific Northwest, imagine how I hate working with these cut throat bastards!"

In other words.....

Fuck You - You Fucking - FUCK ! ! !

Yep, that is what is on the t-shirt I got for my best friend. Picked it up on Bourbon Street... I think that is exactly how I feel about those bastards.

Recipe for Roast Beef

Gracie Allen's Classic Recipe for Roast Beef

1 large Roast of beef
1 small Roast of beef

Take the two roasts and put them in the oven. When the little one burns, the big one is done !

This is sooooooooo ....... how I cook ! ! !

Jack McAllister Shows Up

So as you can see from the pictures - the place was an absolute mess, disaster, D all the above!!!!

The girl had sent me some pictures while I was still at work from her phone, so I would be prepared for the mess and not just absolutely FLIP OUT!! when I saw the ceiling on the floor and the massive water damage to the furniture.

Everyone goes home, the snow comes again, and then melts off, Pepe goes home. Now is time to get the contractor up here and the insurance company notified yadda yadda yadda.

I decide a smart thing to do is, take pictures of all the breaker panels, well head, propane tank, heat pump anything and everything that I had the girl looking at or for. Should be so much easier to walk someone through if I have pictures in front of me. yes, I do know the horse is running down the street - but hey, im catching on. Out I go with the camera, taking pictures of everything - and the damages and the property and the.... on and on. I load them on the computer, and looking through them.

scroll up and look at the first picture...

Who the hell is that? Standing next to the door, in the plaid shirt - not to mention he is taller than the door. He must be 9 foot tall. Holy SHIT!!!! I send the picture out to everyone in an email. Who is this - what is this?????

The girl is on her way back up here for the weekend, from Eugene, wasnt going to send it to her - she knows this place is possessed this would only confirm it for her.

I call Pepe - he is tripping. Tells me to go back out there and see if I can get another picture. He starts googling logger deaths in this area. There is a logging gate at the end of the road. I call my best friend - she trips out! I keep her on the phone with me, to go back out to the shop. Nothing there, phewww. BUT, there is nothing there that can be interpreted as plaid either. There isnt even anything red in that area. Only a white refrigerator. I go back in to get the camera and take a picture from the same area to see if he shows up again. Nothing....

My best friend and I start discussing the possibilities. Maybe he was killed years ago when they first logged the area. He doesnt seem to be a threat - he is just watching what is going on. That is when my phone beeped another call coming in; it says Jack McAllister. Ok, then; that is what we will call him.

This is hours on the phone, maybe I need to smudge the house and shop again. I havent had any issues with spirits for over a year. Maybe I need holy water? Maybe it is all ok, and he is just watching. Apparently not watching over me too good, or the damn pipes wouldnt have broke!!!

The girl finally shows up! I run through all the pictures on the computer. I get to that one and say "who is that?" She was like, its my boyfriend mother... Oh no, I tell her - no one was here when I was taking those pictures, I just took them this afternoon. She reassures me that they were the ones that she took with her phone and downloaded to the computer to email me. I dont remember seeing Jack McAllister in any that she emailed me. I wouldnt believe her, until she showed me on her phone the picture she had of Jack. And how did he get so tall? He was standing on a bucket.

Do we not understand the stress this just put me through? All day long, worrying that I had a logger hanging out in the shop? And who ever said I was not creative? Look at that mind, whipping up a story and running with it... not to mention the help I had from my friends!!!

Done with Classes

This picture in the news for 1-9-09

So now that it is the second week of March and I FINALLY have all my recertification hours for the National paramedic - I have a couple of classes to recap...

I attended a Difficult Airway course in Portland. KEWL, it was at home (bonus column) I knew the people there (negative column). Lets discuss the arrogance of some people...

Now, typically if you work that type of job you are going to have confidence. you have to - how else are you going to perform a skill or even attempt a skill if you are not confident that you can do it??? Where do you cross the line to arrogance. Well, the best example was at this class... This guy has worked at the same company for 23 years in the metro area. Great - no problem with that. He thinks he has "got it" - he has seen all there is to see and done all there is to do. You know what I think???? "Hey if you got it all covered - do something else!" I dont want to hear about you. You bore me. You anger me. You aint shit. So of course when he starts on his "scenario" and the flight nurses are perplexed with which way to go. I stand there with a cric- going "here"... Apparently he felt that I was too aggressive and he wanted to continue to fuck with the other people. So I get a run down of his resume... Still not impressed!! and less impressed that he needs to spill his 23 years of accomplishments (or lack there of)... So, whatever man it's your show. Then he talks up this other dude - "well he has 30 years in the field" ok - I remember him, not sure how he has had so long in the field without having his certification pulled for being an idiot. And this dude, when we were all back in the auditorium taking the test. He starts SNORING, shit you not! It was quiet as could be, and he is snoring, when everyone starts laughing - he wakes up. Hummm, dont know what to think of that.

So, I guess I am ok with him finding a spot in life that makes him happy, and he can be the big fish in his isolated pond..... Good luck to ya!

Two days of that course, then it was back to the other ambulance service that I had worked with. I guess the good news is that I have aged (not terribly gracefully) over the past few years. Quite a bit heavier than I had ever been in my life - excluding 8 months pregnant. Oh and the grey hair - I call those platinum highlights. But when I havent had the rest of my hair highlighted - it looks like grey... Bastards - getting that taken care of today.

So the first person I see, that recognizes me - was just starting their paramedic carrier about the time I was leaving. She had to ride as a third person with me for a couple of weeks. She was like "oh my god! you were such fun, we had a nursing home transfer - a good song came on the radio, you cranked it - the patient was foo-barred and we sang all the way to the nursing home" ok, I dont remember that but, thinking it could very well be true...

The instructor has worked that area for ever - before time. And she still has the same stories. Living in the logging community - gutting an elk, when discussing kinematics of trauma. And stories of her child and pregnancy (note, the kid is 20 now). Again, happy in the world they know - never to move on or find new challenges....

Then some dude is there in a kilt. Thats ok, we love our freaks here in Oregon. Why Austin, TX has shirts all over "keep Austin weird" has never been to the Pacific Northwest. So we are doing a two day trauma course - I know this is going to be hands on... maybe that is why he wore the kilt? Then he was all talking he works offshore, for Frontier. Kewl - nice to be a contractor and a day-rate-whore as we call them. No wonder he is wearing a kilt. He was talking a big game, till he found out who I worked for, then he wanted contact information. He go to the web site and submit a CV like everyone else - I aint giving my name up for you.

The second day was entertaining in that - he showed up in a kilt again. There was a girl in there that had been a student about three years ago. I got to telling her funny things, and making comments and she was laughing uncontrollably. So not all was lost.

I did one day see the Operations Manager - or at least that was what he was when I was there. Thought maybe I would drop a pay stub on his desk. Best I could do, was pass him in the hall and call him by name. I think he knew who it was...... I'm pretty sure they dont still have my picture at the front desk, as a management threat......

Gotta send all that paperwork today!!!!