Petro Pork-Stack

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Ralph Klein has an orgasm everytime he sees a flarestack or a drilling rig?

The reason I pose the question was because the very thought occurred to me at my new job, about 1 AM as my supervisor and I lit up the flare at the well I was at. Yes, I have a new job, and am now ack in the oilpatch. I don't think I can say who I work for, or necessarily where the wells are, cuz I had to sign all sorts of confidentiality agreements and so forth. What I can say though, is that I am now working as an Oilwell Production Tester.

What, may you ask, does that mean? Essentially, I record pressures, temperatures and volumes at various intervals, usually half an hour, and perform a few calculations on it. Oh, and play around with flare stacks :D That's pretty much it, aside from rigging in and out, which gets a little more annoying, but thankfully I avoid a lot of that as I am on the night shift.

the periods between are filled with the obligatory cleaning, but nowhere near what I had to do as a roughneck, say, an hour in two days :) The rest of the time seems to be spent reading, watching DVD's, and the inevitable oilpatch bullshitting.

One of the pluses of the job is being paid on a daily rate, not hourly. While I don't know what the means with regard to Overtime, that doesn't seem to be much of an issue. The really good part of that is if I work on any part of a calendar day, from midnight to 23h59, I get paid the entire days amount. Lat week, for example, I worked three shifts, but got paid for five days, even with a 36 hour break in the middle.

The best part wasn't really part of the job, just a benefit of staying at the Super 8 in Drumheller. Their Continental Breakfast has a Make-Your-Own-Waffle set up. I was captivated, not to mention enthralled, by the novelty of it. I mean, I've made waffle before , but only at home, and never in a nifty cast iron waffle iron on a smooth-moving pivot with an electric timer, into which is poured a pre-measured amount of rich waffle batter. God, my life is sad if Waffles excite me, no? Either way, they were tasty.

Here's hoping I'll be able to work for the next 2-3 weeks straight through, or thereabouts. And after that, a triumphant return and shindig in Edmonton, not to mention getting down and some sort of pahr-tay.