JeepersSheepers: Reflections on the Week

I got home from Virginia a day early! I think everyone was conspiring to get home early; the drillers, Nate and myself were working at top efficiency using ultimate teamwork skills to get all the new wells on site that we put in, in addition to the wells that have been there forever, up in working order. That included pumping out all the gunky dirt that settles in the bottom (me and Nate working on separate wells), building cement pads around the outside with posts to keep cars from running them over (two drillers did this), painting the posts yellow so they are visible (two drillers did this) and a few drillers to be errand boys, running supplies and equipment back and forth to all the different teams. Anyway, I'm sure this sounds uninteresting, but I thought it was pretty great work to see it all come together Monday night. All that was left was to face Dennis.

Tuesday morning the drillers came onto site to pack up their rigs and hit the road. Meanwhile I knew Nate was shaking in his boots because Dennis was back from vacation, as evidenced from the scurrying of mowers pulling their ride-on lawnmowers out of the garages and heading out en-mass to the fields.

Dennis, to give some background, is a very nice man but when it comes to the plant's grounds, he is a real tough sergeant. He prides himself on keeping the plant's lawns and fields looking tip-top shape, for when visitors and clients come for a site visit they like to see a pretty plant (that is a tall order for a manufacturing facility-all eggs have to be in one basket: landscaping). So, when we first started on this project in March, Dennis spoke volumes with his eyes as to what would happen if we messed up his grass with our drill rigs and paraphernalia, and he let us know in plain words too.

But a week into the project Dennis left for Hawaii and subsequently it rained on site, turning the grass to soft muck under the heavy rigs to the point where two of the rigs got stuck in the mud, having to be towed out with a backhoe. Then, there was the bobcats and my rig that run on tracks like tanks. These really just shear off the top layer of sod whenever they turn. Dennis' lawn turned to ruts and grooves and slop in just a few short days into his vacation.

Yesterday it was time to face him and own up to our doings. Poor Nate had to face Dennis alone because I had some last minute samples to collect. An hour or so later I found Nate loading up his truck and I asked, "Do we have some big-time yard work to do today?" He let out half a laugh and said, "Dennis just said, 'that's OK Lad, we'll talk about how we can get that patched up later.' so all I can say is it's a good thing Dennis went to Hawaii." I was thinking for a minute... "Why's that?" "Well because he got -- you know -- as in the flower necklace of course, well never mind, bad joke." I had to laugh.

A few hours later after a nice shower back at the hotel and good-bye partings to the hotel staff (now my second family) I was driving home yesterday, all geared up to surprise Paul with my early arrival. I had good music playing on my ipod and the scenery couldn't have been better out the window.

All the trees are spring green and there's still some flowering trees - I think it's dogwood blooming right now (big flowers). The pictures were taken while driving so they aren't so good and my windows were dirty.

Funniest thing was that I was cruising down lane 2 on the freeway, going towards Greensboro, NC when something caught my eye: a pigeon flying in lane 3 right next to me keeping with the flow of traffic. He was flying my speed, 60mph, when he decided to change lanes and take the next exit. How cute he was! Not a look in his eye indicated that he didn't do this every single day on the way back to the nest.

Shortly after I saw a sign "Dairy Queen exit 204" so because it was Mom's birthday and her scrapbooks have a fair spattering of Dairy Queen pictures from her many travels across the country, I thought I'd stop and grab a picture for her.

And while I was there thought might as well get a chocolate dipped ice cream cone in honor of her birthday. Here's a big happy birthday to you, Mom! No tripod available for this shot.