A new post for a new day...though it is 7:50pm and I have been working for 13 hours already, so I don't know how new the day really is. No matter though, as it has been quite a day...annoying at every turn. Today has just brought problem and headache after problem and headache...it is enough to make a guy want to go and take a long walk out into an Iraqi mine field. But, the worst of it is now behind, I think, so I finally have the chance to put a little work into my post. I guess last night I said that I would give you a run-down of the day to day life that I am leading out here, so I suppose today would be as good a day as any to do just that.
My day typically starts at around 5am which is usually when I wake up and get dressed in my work out clothes to get in a bit of exercise...I shoot to do 30-45 minutes and usually it is primarily weights. It is cold. Following my workout it is off to the shower to get cleaned up...it is cold in the shower too, no lie. Following my brisk shower, I hike the 100 yards or so through the wind and dust back to my trailer to get dressed. I typically dress warmly, because as you all know...it is cold. Usually by now it is around 6:30am or so, so I head over to the processing shack in the weak light of a new dawn for a cup of coffee and to get a look at emails, etc from the US, as they have been up working and living while I have been sleeping. Typically, I try to check in on the outside world at this point as well, so news sites must be consulted to ensure the rest of the world is still spinning on along out there. I respond to emails and get my mind around the day until 8am or so...8am is important because it is breakfast time. I love breakfast...eggs fried over medium and dowsed with cayenne hot sauce and beans and chicken sausages browned up real nice, perhaps some yogurt and a small hunk of the interesting creamy cheese that they have here, bread fresh from the oven and lightly toasted...can life get any better - the whole day to look forward to with a warm, full belly!
I am going to diverge for a moment and talk a bit about meals offshore...life revolves around them. The mess trailer is the sun around which our days orbit. Meals provide us with nourishment and pleasure as well as a brief respite from the day's labor. In the mess you hear funny stories and learn about people and their lives. For instance, at lunch today I learned that there are more than a few here who buy into conspiracy theories surrounding the American founding fathers and the Freemasons...interesting stuff. Last night at dinner I discovered that the rift between the Sunni and Shi'a Muslims was due to the killing of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Husayn in the Battle of Karbala, a place not very far from where I am now (I am telling you, Iraq is like the center of the world). Apparently, the people of this region still mourn the loss, so every year there is a festival called the Day of Ashura wherein many flagellate themselves with chains or swords and two are chosen to sword fight TO THE DEATH! No joke...this still happens in the 21st century...SWORD FIGHT TO THE DEATH to commemorate and do penance for a death that occurred something like 1300 years ago. So as you can tell, mealtime is not just about eating, it is also about community. But, this being an offshore environment, food quality is paramount! If the food is bad morale suffers, fights break out, and injury rates increase...these statements aren't from my personal observation, but from my online research into the topic. I was talking yesterday at lunch with a couple of the client representatives and they said that they had been on jobs where poor cooks were literally run out of the camp into the desert...cooking it seems is a dangerous profession in the oil field. Luckily, the food here is VERY good, so on the whole, people are content, happy, and hard-working and our cooks have little to fear from the inmates.
 |
| I'll have mine black, please... |
So after breakfast, usually around 8:30am or so, I head back to the trailer for an espresso (yes we have a little manual espresso pot and a hot plate). While drinking my tiny cup of bliss we usually meet with the client representative to discuss testing objectives for the day and review anything that came in overnight in email or whatever. Once that meeting is finished, perhaps 9am, we are on our way with work...currently we are testing flows and seeking to finalize our geophysical parameters. Work continues at a good clip until lunch at noon. Often after the noon meal there is a little time for shooting the breeze or whatever out in the sun, but we are almost always back to work by 1pm. These conversations are usually quite enlightening, as today, for example, I learned that just down the road I could purchase an AK-47 for about $100 or an RPG, that's right, a friggin' missile, for just over $200. How neat is that...I could outfit my own little militia group just up the road for a couple of weeks worth of salary. My dream of becoming a dictator in some remote land is alive and well...but I am seriously off topic, back to the average day. I work until 3pm or 4pm and then take about an hour to an hour and a half (most days) to go back to the gym for a run and to beat the morning's frustrations out on the heavy bag. Back to work after that, continuing with testing and any other tasks that have arisen so far. Around 5pm the disk arrives from the guys that have been out acquiring the data all day, so we begin the day's production. Evening meal is at 6, though some days we have meetings, so we go after, between 7pm and 8pm (that is the only meal where the cafeteria is open for 2 hours). Most people on crew are off for the day, so the mood at dinner is often very boisterous and many tall-tales are exchanged. Upon finishing dinner, I return to the trailer and continue with the daily production and deliverables. These items usually take anywhere from two to three or four hours depending on the night (timing depends on how much data was acquired as well as how fast we can get the geometry file from the QC team that shares the trailer with us. And that gets me to between 11 and midnight when I head to my little sleeper trailer to get a few well-deserved hours of shut-eye. And that, my friends, is a day in the Iraq life of this Chief Field Geophysicist.
 |
| Night over Iraq...that is a safe haven bunker behind me. |
One last thing to mention for the day, I learned today that next week I can go out with the crew into the field and see the data acquisition...I am stoked about it! I will get to leave the walls behind for a while, which in and of itself makes me really happy, but once outside I will get to watch the drillers drill and the shooters shoot and the observers observe...sounds like fun! The highlight will be a ride on on of our airboats...we have boats out in the desert currently because the rivers are in flood and one of the levies into our survey area is broken, so it has flooded. Of course this state of affairs is troublesome for shooting seismic data from a logistical perspective, but downright awesome for me!
Well, that is about all I've got for today...good night and good luck.
 |
| Not a great picture, but I thought it looked sort of cool...that bright thing is fire... |
No comments:
Post a Comment