I'm a stone cold rookie, gonna work the texas oil fields

ok, so its about that time, gettin ready for work. I got my bag ready and its full of stuff i normally use and some extras. I got my log book, ticket book, spare pretrip/postrip book, basic hand tools, gps, extra pens, flash light, stapler, magnifying glass, extra socks and shirt, rain gear and an extra poncho, extra ppe gloves, binoculars, gear oil for axel hubs, micro mist lubricant, tank guage with color kut and baby powder, extra batteries for my helmut light....man i come prepared for anything i can think of.

ok, i worked as much as humanly possible despite the fact that i was forced to take additional days off because i got switched to a different work group (group 2) and i only got 149 hours in.....like i said, its not easy getting in 155-160 hours. I been studying the work week and i figure if i average 14 hours a day and only take one day off a week, i can always get an average of 160 hours i think without going over my 70. Its sort of complicated working nights because of the spill over from one day to the next on the same shift......when you get a "friday" off, you worked into friday moring and then you are off. Its so much different than day shift when everything is done in the same day.

 

earned my money last night, manual handling of a lot of hoses transfering brine from a pit to flow back tanks on a really screwed up location. After 5 loads, the pit started getting shallow and i couldnt pull anymore, so i had to climb up these huge rocks to the pit, pull the bucket and screen and hoses out of there, just alot of hard awkward type work, meanwhile, with a messed up wolverine boot on my left foot that is absolutely torturing my heel, i can barely walk in it, gonna take them back on friday.

The location was really F'd up with ankle breaking type sized rocks, uneven surfaces, muddy, cold, hard on the truck as well. What i did was hook up all my hoses to the flow back tank so when i pulled from the pit, all i had to do was pull forward and then hook up to the hose that ran up to the flow back tank and unload, that way i didnt have to do much driving on the location and possible get stuck or trash the truck too much, even so i lost a mud flap, so i heard the best thing to do when working on a site like that is to tuck your mudflpas up so they dont get caught between a wheel and a huge rock. I also manually moved some bolders to clear a path to the hoses i had hooked up to the flow back tanks.

Now to be honest, this sort of work doesnt bother me one bit but this is some of the stuff you run into from time to time, so when ive stated that the work is easy, this is strictly my opinion, it might not be what others would want. I'd say i have to bust ### like this on average about once every few weeks, so its not like its like this every day. Even if it was every day, i wouldnt care because ive always done manual labor and this stuff pails in comparrison to working with a shovel, pick or sledge hammer all day. I'm just bringing this stuff up so people interested know what to expect. To be honest, i wouldnt mind if it was like this more often, it beats the hell out of getting sleepy behind the wheel, i really hate that.

I also hit my first deer last night, i absolutely destroyed it, it was horrible, i really like animals too.....ALL ANIMALS. Oh well, what can a guy do?

 

its easy to have a good attitude if you like your job, see you out there!

if i knew about this trade 10 years ago, i'd be retired by now.

yeah, how about that hazmat gisquid? find out anything?

not a scratch except for some blood along side of the trailer. I had a load of brine, so it was like 76k pounds vs. a deer, it felt like i was rolling over bones and grissle.

we are instructed not to swerve for obvious reasons.......its a deer holocaust out here.

no armadillos yet but ive hit a few rabbits, if i ever quit this job, it would be because of the poor animals, i really like animals and nature and the outdoors, probably why i like this job too, but the poor animals thing doesnt sit too well with me......but dont get me wrong, i'll kill alot of deer before quitting, i need to make my money and probably one day i will make it up to the animals. I just hope they dont know what hit them and its a quick death.

all the time and your biggest nightmare is one coming at you asleep at the wheel when blazing down the road at 65mph. When i see those headlights coming, i study them as close as possible to get an indication of how they are driving. Most people use their high beams, when they click them off, then i feel pretty good that they are awake and aware because alot of these roads are sort of tight and the only thing seperating you from a head on collision is a driver paying attention to the road. I had one otr driver 3 feet into my lane going the max in the middle of a decent turn......IT SCARED THE HELL OUT OF ME.

its just really hard to explain, you are fully loaded, the roads are not wide and in great shape and that tanker takes you where it wants to go sometimes and when you start to come into a turn at 65mph and your going a little down hill and another truck is coming full speed, i tell you what, you grip that wheel and feel your nuts come up to your throat and steady that ship as best as you can.......you cant just jerk the wheel when fully loaded.....and espeacially when the weather here has reached freezing levels and the road looks dry but you just never know.

I was fully loaded the other night and could have sworn there was a small stretch of road coming into a turn at full speed and my front tires didnt feel like they turned responsively the way they normally do, it felt like a slight "wash"....for those who dont know what washing means, it means you turn your wheels but the vehicle still pushes forward.

I dont mean to sound over dramatic but ive honestly just accepted that i stand a decent chance of dying on this job and more than likely, its not going to be pretty. I just simply cant slow down or "drive according to conditions" unless the conditions are obvious. I mean really, i got to drive cautios all night because there was some black ice on the road 50 miles away and the rest of the roads "appear" to be ok......i just cant do it, i haul ###, its what keeps me awake.

ok, go to go max my 70 today and then i got a really hard stretch coming up where i can just about get 90 hours in......the "long" check is coming.

see ya!