Consistency and H2S Gas -- Fri., June 1

Cotulla, Texas:

Lissa Coffey's Coffey Talk gives me things to think about. I subscribe to her blog and receive Wisdom News emails with thoughts for the day. Here's today's thought (used with Lissa's permission):

Consistency

"Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead."

-Aldous Huxley

It is our nature to grow and to change. We evolve. We learn. Sometimes we shake things up with our new views and opinions - but that just promotes more growth. Sometimes we have to prune the dead branches from a tree in order for the new buds to have room to grow and for the tree to be healthy and thrive. We can prune away our outdated thinking, and leave room for expansion.

-Lissa Coffey

Whenever I ponder a subject, within a few days more information on that subject comes to me in various forms. It could be a quote, a website, a radio talk show, internet article, or conversation with a friend.

For example, over the past two months, I have been thinking about becoming a vegetarian and running marathons--two things I said I'd NEVER do. (Never say never, right?) I've been very consistent in my thinking about those two subjects. Things change, I change, others change.

While I am not yet ready to go completely vegetarian, I admit our diet needs to be healthier with more fresh fruits & vegetables and more fish. We have started eating quinoa (pronounced KEEN' wah) which both of us love and it's a good source of protein in grain form. We now use quinoa in place of whole wheat spaghetti when we make spaghetti. But I digress.

My point is, change is occurring in my thinking. In order to lose weight and be more healthy, change must occur in my diet and exercise. I've heard the saying, "Change or die." In the case of diet, this is literally true--especially with the increase in obesity, heart disease, diabetes, stroke--in our society. I do not wish to die yet. (I know, I know, there are some ways to die we can't change: accidents, plane crashes, suicide bombers, yadda, yadda. BUT if I can make a difference, by golly, I'm going to.)

Marathon running: I'm not ready to take up running, but I LOVE to walk, hike, dance and bike ride. It's hard for me to understand people who run marathons or do ultra-marathons. I'm working on understanding it. (Actually I've been working on it for a while since Bob has been running marathons for five years.) Good for them. It's not for everyone.

We humans are works in progress. Go with the flow more. Keep an open mind. Have long discussions with those you love. Keep learning, reading, thinking--whatever is is you do that will help you grow and change. I do and I hope it's changing me into a healthier, more open person.

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Update on gate guarding: Yesterday I talked about hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S). Deadly after two breaths. 

 We started gate guarding one month ago, had very little training (the people here before us showed us how to fill out the logs), and no safety training at all. Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago when my friend Kit and I got to talking about H2S gas.

I said, "What is that?"

She said it's a deadly gas that's released from the wells on some sites. Kit & Jerry have been gate guarding for years. We had been told by our LOMA maintenance guy that if we smelled rotten eggs we immediately should go inside our RV and stay there. Wrong information! Kit said if there's an alarm, you should get out immediately in the opposite direction of where the wind sock is pointed. (All well sites actively drilling, coil tubing, etc., should have wind socks or long ribbons to show which way the wind is blowing.) [An aside: H2S gas is heavier than air, so it hugs the ground. If you are 50' away from the well and there is an escape of gas, if you were to strike a match and it ignited the H2S gas, the flame could travel back along the gas to the source and cause an explosion.]

Today, I had lunch with a new friend, Kathy, another LOMA gate guard. She and her husband have been gate guarding for two months. I asked her if they had training/safety training and they did not. Then I asked if she knew about H2S gas. She had never heard of it.

So, in the interest of full disclosure about the hazards of gate guarding, in case your company has never informed you or if you're thinking of working as an oil field gate guard, I offer you the information on H2S gas. Here's the link again from yesterday's blog hydrogen sulfide gas. Our oil field inner gate has a big warning sign with green, yellow, and red flag designations.

Sign at entrance to the Pad.

What makes this so relevant to us is the following: This morning the Safety Supervisor from Pad B knocked on the door of our 5er and told us they had a release of H2S gas at the well. They changed the flag from green to yellow. He told Bob the gas only made it 50' from the well and we weren't currently in any danger. The workers closest to the leak had to put on masks. We are only 500' from the well. If the flags go to red, we have to evacuate immediately. Scary!!!!!

Here is the information direct from the Safety Supervisor...if there is a leak/alarm/red flag to evacuate, look at the wind sock, go AWAY from the well perpendicular to the way the wind is blowing. That way you quickly leave the most dangerous area. Me, I'm going to run whichever way all the workers on the pad are running. They have safety meetings about this subject and MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets), something LOMA never provided for us.

I don't know if other gate guarding companies omit this essential information. I am going to open a topic in MyOldRV.com Forums under the Forum: "Oil Field Gate Guard Q & A," Topic: "H2S--Hydrogen sulfide gas" to find out if other gate guard workers have been instructed about this deadly gas.

Consider this my public service announcement for gate guarders and gate guard wannabes. I think you need to understand your risks.

The other thing that happened this morning while I was sleeping (I don't know how I missed it), Bob said there was a big boom and the ground shook. The Safety Supervisor from earlier told Bob it wasn't Pad B, then the Safety Supervisor drove down to Pad A. It wasn't Pad A either. Not on this property. Makes me wonder where it did happen and what it was. I hope everyone around it is all right!

Flame pipe burns off H2S gas. (Some gas can still escape and be deadly, though.)

The Safety Supervisor told me this evening that no workers with beards are allowed on the Pad. Reason: If there is a deadly release of gas, the oxygen mask would not get a tight seal over a beard.

This job sounds more dangerous every day. My eyes are wide open (bugged out, really).

Bug-eyed Travel Bug out.

You Have to Eat a Peck of Dirt Before You Die -- Thurs., May 30

From The Free Dictionary.com:

You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die. 

Prov. No one can escape eating a certain amount of dirt on his or her food. Everyone must endure a number of unpleasant things in his or her lifetime. (Often said to console someone who has eaten some dirt or had to endure something unpleasant.)

OR...You could work as a gate guard in south Texas on a very windy day and eat MORE THAN a peck of dirt. Most unpleasant!

Today for Bob was very busy. Both Pad A and Pad B were hopping.  

Pad B

The temperature was about 102 F. The wind and blowing dust were relentless. The awning was out this morning, but by the time I got up at 11:30 a.m., we had clouds of blowing dust so bad we couldn't see the road 200 feet from us. No cars or trucks were coming at that time, just strong winds and blowing dust. The awning had to go in. Bob got it tucked away. He couldn't wait for his shift to end so he could relax inside. 

Activity in the evening was lighter; nothing like what Bob endured. The wind and dust continued unabated until about 8:00 p.m. Going outside felt like getting sandblasted in an oven. 

My sun hat that I wear outside when it's sunny or windy has a wide brim. With the wind coming straight into my face, the brim of my hat blew over my eyes, making it very hard to read the license plate numbers for the log.

Around 10:00 p.m. great big raindrops started falling, but it only lasted a few minutes...not long enough to wet down the dust. But the wind let up. Yay!

Pad B is a beehive of activity around the clock now. They are doing coiled tubing. Apparently they tapped into some H2S (hydrogen sulfide gas), and now they've got a pipe up in the air burning off the gas. That is one BIG flame.

Tomorrow, I am meeting Kathy, another gate guard who works near Millett, Texas. It will be fun to compare notes. We'll have about 1-1/2 hours to talk before I go back to take over from Bob at 3:00 p.m.

The roadrunner was out again today. The mockingbirds were all riled up and chasing the roadrunner. According to my Audubon bird book, roadrunners will eat the young of ground-nesting birds. Mockingbirds, however, nest in low-lying scrub so I'm not sure that qualifies as "ground-nesting." The mockingbirds apparently thought it did. They were dive-bombing the roadrunner.

That's all the excitement for today. Stay tuned for tomorrow.