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Dammit...just DAMMIT!!

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posted on Oct, 20 2018 @ 11:06 PM
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People just don't understand.

It was about 3:30am in the morning, just another day. (Okay, maybe a bit earlier). It was time to start the truck, and this was going to take a while.

Twenty minutes later, the truck was hitting on a couple cylinders. It was cold, really cold (-35F easy, and a wind chill of -70F). I'd had the block heater on all night, had the oil heater on too...it was cold.

At 4:30 we would meet at the Outlaw (a truck stop), all 50 of us. Fifty trucks lined up, parked in unison...it was a big day. We'd run out to Red Desert that day towing pumps, sand, and frac trailers. When Texaco called, you just went. It did't matter what time it was, or what day...you just went.

It was so cold you were afraid to get out of your truck, but you had to. It was just what you did. You'd get in line at the rig site and just hope it would take longer to have them call you in to back in and park. The rig sites were an amazing site of controlled chaos. It was like this ballet with the devil.

You never complained (if you did, it was your last day). It was brutal and miserable beyond description sometimes, and this time was pretty near the top. Sitting there idling, the rig hands were coming out with "salamaders" and laying them under our fuel tanks to keep them from gelling up. They'd just run up and throw these fire breathing propane heaters under your tanks, no asking permission...they just did it.

It was snowing sideways, practically a white out most times. Our convoy had been hard pressed to make it through the snow and wind.

It was just another day in Wyoming. Just another day.

So, why the "Dammit" in the title?

Just came back from hauling some cattle tonight. Lost my trailer brakes...electrical problem. Wife got mad at me for going out and working on my trailer and truck in the dark.

Man, when we ran up in Wyoming, you just fixed it, no matter what time it was. You'd lay in the snow and ice, and it was just what you did. She doesn't understand...it WILL get fixed, no matter what! It's like this passion, this commitment...never let it go unfixed. It WILL get fixed.

Wyoming scares her...it's too big. Doesn't scare me in the least, I grew up there. You learn to be self sufficient on a grand scale.

So I'm out there laying under the truck, after dark, tools spread out all over, and she's telling me I'm crazy.

So, Dammit...just DAMMIT!!
edit on 10/20/2018 by Flyingclaydisk because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 20 2018 @ 11:14 PM
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Perhaps some music for the times...

Are we lost?




posted on Oct, 20 2018 @ 11:19 PM
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FCD, it seems like you need some time off, really as in 'time off', no cellphone, just a few days or weeks to land back on the ground.... all intact. Wyoming winter is NOT forgiving, I lived in Cache Valley off and on over the years and that was mild.

I drove through western Wyoming in the winter where the roads were like tunnels and ten foot deep snow walls. All you could see was the sky...

But when you have livestock, you don't have the luxury of 'time off' I had over a hundred...


edit on 20-10-2018 by Plotus because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 20 2018 @ 11:26 PM
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a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Dude that sounds grueling. I’ve worked in the cold in Oklahoma but that is nothing compared to that. Now I live in Nevada and don’t have to deal with any kind of cold weather really. Man you got balls of steal! I’m envious



posted on Oct, 20 2018 @ 11:31 PM
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a reply to: Plotus

Yes, unfortunately, I do. I have 5 projects, 2 of them are run out of (3) countries and (2) different continents, all of them outside the USA.

I'm tired. The old days I described in my OP are very dear to me. It seems I've traded all that physical toughness for mental now.. I like to go back. And, it scares my wife when I do. (for some reason).

I think it is the fact that she is truly worried about my lack of fear sometimes. I get up at 2am in the morning and start working on the vehicles, and don't even get a cup of coffee until about 6am..



posted on Oct, 20 2018 @ 11:41 PM
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The difference between Wyoming and where you are now living is that your wife is now with you. She thinks that you need to roll over and die instead of fixing the vehicle. My wife is like that, she tells me to just take the car into the garage to get the brakes done, I am fussy, it gives me a chance to do a thorough job and inspection of things. I will keep on changing the brakes as long as I can, even if I win that megamillions. I might build a real fancy garage if I win the Megamillions though. Of course, I will want to hire a crew and supervise the job.



posted on Oct, 20 2018 @ 11:48 PM
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a reply to: Allaroundyou

It would take 45 minutes to start the trucks, at those temps. They used to tell us to shut them down to save fuel, but at -30F they were a total BITCH to start back up again. You'd normally figure the batteries would go dead, so you'd get something else which was running to jump it from (Negative DC batts are always fun there).

My longest truck was a Mack with 318 Detroit. We'd spray the crap out of that engine with ether and it would go. Always sounded like it was going to blow on start up (which i hoped it would), but it would fire.

When I was runnin' for Halliburton, they'd always have the trucks warmed up and nice and toasty inside before you left. They'd be smokin' hot inside, but then you'd start going down the road and they'd cool off. No heaters could keep up with that cold. Fifty miles out you'd be scraping ice off the INSIDE of the windshield, and when you got on-site you'd better be wearing your heavy Carrharts because otherwise you'd freeze solid!



posted on Oct, 20 2018 @ 11:54 PM
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a reply to: rickymouse

Yes, she doesn't understand the "Wyoming way". Some might call it the "Oilfield way".

All weather, all the time, any time, any where...always!



posted on Oct, 20 2018 @ 11:55 PM
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a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

HOLY CRAP that’s cold. I’ve been camping and gone on winter backpacking trips in below freezing environments but nothing that cold!

One time I was helping mark a cave and it went so deep and it was winter that the temperature hit -10 Fahrenheit. I think that is the coldest I have ever experienced.


edit on 2/19/2013 by Allaroundyou because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 21 2018 @ 12:08 AM
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originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: rickymouse

Yes, she doesn't understand the "Wyoming way". Some might call it the "Oilfield way".

All weather, all the time, any time, any where...always!





I grew up here in the UP fixing stuff out in the snow. If it has to be done, it has to be done. Nowadays though, it seems like the younger people don't do that kind of stuff, they are getting spoiled, they call it in and get it taken care of by a repair person, one that goes out in the cold and fixes it.



posted on Oct, 21 2018 @ 12:18 AM
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originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Allaroundyou

It would take 45 minutes to start the trucks, at those temps. They used to tell us to shut them down to save fuel, but at -30F they were a total BITCH to start back up again. You'd normally figure the batteries would go dead, so you'd get something else which was running to jump it from (Negative DC batts are always fun there).

My longest truck was a Mack with 318 Detroit. We'd spray the crap out of that engine with ether and it would go. Always sounded like it was going to blow on start up (which i hoped it would), but it would fire.

When I was runnin' for Halliburton, they'd always have the trucks warmed up and nice and toasty inside before you left. They'd be smokin' hot inside, but then you'd start going down the road and they'd cool off. No heaters could keep up with that cold. Fifty miles out you'd be scraping ice off the INSIDE of the windshield, and when you got on-site you'd better be wearing your heavy Carrharts because otherwise you'd freeze solid!



That kind of weather investing in an air starter is the way to go.



posted on Oct, 21 2018 @ 12:24 AM
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a reply to: Allaroundyou

Minus -30F was fairly common, but the wind was the real killer. Wind chills of minus -75F were not uncommon. Winds would blow 35mph sustained, gusting to 50mph, all day long out in the high desert in winter.

You'd get so hardened to that kind of cold you could hardly go inside. For twenty years I used to freak my wife out when I'd go outside in the snow and ice in my bare feet! I lived outside. I couldn't even stand to be inside a heated house! I'd go crazy.

To this day, this is why my wife freaks out when I'll go lay on the ground outside in the snow and frozen muck under my truck and work on it.

Colorado is like Tahiti compared to Wyoming!



posted on Oct, 21 2018 @ 12:31 AM
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a reply to: BigDave-AR

Air starters would usually freeze up because of the water.

I can't count the number of times I had to jump some hot shot with an air start on his truck. Used to get really pissed at those boys!

Got sick of putting the salamanders under their air tanks, so we'd just jump 'em.

Pull one of the big rig-up trucks in with 12 batteries, and these guy's eyes would pop out of their heads. That, or we'd just winch the whole damn truck right up over the tail roll and get on down the road! There was no screwing around in that business!!



posted on Oct, 21 2018 @ 12:45 AM
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a reply to: BigDave-AR

I could tell you a funny story about a hot-shot with an air-start on his truck one time!!!

It was an emergency out on the rig site and there were no prisoners!

It didn't go well for him! (he was late, and I'm not sure to this day how he ever got home)

ETA - We tried to pull the tree off the trailer, but it was just ripping up the trailer, so we pulled the tractor and trailer apart (in about 3 minuntes), winched the trailer up over the back of my truck, and pulled his sorry S# into the ditch. These were two big AutoCar 4x6's, and this other dude was asleep in Motel 6 after a long night out with with the strippers in Rock Springs. I still laugh to this day about what he found when he drug his stupid ass out of the rack!!

We got reprimanded for that "stunt", but it was like "Please don't do that anymore, but awesome job getting the gear on the rig!" (wink...like, we don't give a F#). "now get back to work!"

If you can imagine two monster AutoCar 4x6 winch trucks pulling apart a tractor trailer in a Motel 6 parking lot at 6am, it was a hoot! (not too funny for the driver, I imagine). And then, one of those winch trucks pulling the his whole trailer up over the tail roll, and driving off. Knocked his landing gear down and had the rears strapped up about 5' off the ground.

On down the road!

That's how it was. Some people "got it", and some didn't. When the oilfield called, you answered!

I actually miss those days.
edit on 10/21/2018 by Flyingclaydisk because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 21 2018 @ 01:23 AM
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Anyway...it's a long way from "Dammit" now.

Truly, for all my wild days, now I like peace more than just about anything....

I guess I'm about 'out' for tonight, so I will leave you with this...




posted on Oct, 21 2018 @ 02:32 PM
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posted on Oct, 22 2018 @ 04:58 AM
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a reply to: Flyingclaydisk


Oh man... I hear that.

As a human being, leave alone as a man, it frustrates me no end when anyone, be they a loved one or a halfwit with a clipboard, tells me I cannot or should not do, what it occurs naturally for me to do. Thing needs moving? Fine, I will shift it. I don't care if its a packing box, or a drill press, or a parked car. Its getting shifted, and its being done by main strength and QUICKLY, no faffing around, no putting it on a tarp or a cloth to help drag it. Its just getting lifted up, or pushed and put down where its going, in one fluid motion. I don't need some fusspot over my shoulder, getting in the way, and making it more likely that I will injure myself somehow. I just need to be left to get on with it and let my body do what God made it to do, that being WORK!

I don't need telling to spray an area down before I drill it or cut into it. I don't need fussing over whether I am wearing knee protection when I am trying to solve a complex problem, I don't need to have eyes or even THOUGHTS directed at me when I am working, I need for folks to either make themselves physically useful, or sod off somewhere I can neither see nor hear them, so I can concentrate on the task at hand.

And yet, all the helpful, no doubt caring people will insist on trying to tell me how to do a thing, or that I should not be doing a thing, when the only thing that needs to happen is for someone to make the workhorse a cup of tea, first in thanks, and second to stay out of the way while he gets done what others either lack the physical capacity to do, or the wit. Its frustrating as hell, and I can only express my deepest sympathies that you are experiencing that as well.




edit on 22-10-2018 by TrueBrit because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 22 2018 @ 08:03 AM
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a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Spent a year in Laramie reopening a call center. I liked the weather...my wife hated it. We moved back to Texas.




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