|
|
|
||||||||
|
The Richards Bend Journal
|
|||||||
|
This Until the Hepatica Bloom
October 27, 2001 - Late Feburary/Early March
Page 12
|
|||||||
 |
|||||||
|
Listening to: Sound Track to
Field of Dreams
December 8
People.
There are two worlds for me - the natural one - the rocks and woods; all the wild things and flowers... the human one - the individuals, the leaders, bosses, co-workers - the heroes, the artists, writers, musicians and the drillers.
Rightbrained, leftbrained - I'm a scientist; a good one at that - went to college to learn to be whicheverbrained you are when you are a logically thinking scientist - not sure which one it is - anyway, did that and got degrees in geology and physics - geophysics; used to be able to cypher lots more than now - made a career out of the geology, what great math I learned, it served me well in college - and only somewhat afterwards; Had to get a bad marriage, an even worse divorce and a wonderful little boy to be whicheverbrained you are when you are more humanities oriented - For the last several years, I've read a lot, a whole lot of poetry, listened to a lot of music - so now I honestly believe, and this is not an opinion, but a genuine anotomical phenomena, that I am whateverbrained - all of it, left and right - but the two don't connect - I go about my life making sense of the earth and the universe, and it's easy for me - and I view people and politics and it makes sense to me - but I'll never, ever be able to make logical sense of people and the way they act sometimes - sometimes it is outstanding, majic - other times, it's horrifying.
Drillers are the most interesting people in the world - the live down in the mud and muck and they never complain about their physical environment; almost like it would be unbecoming of them - My company is teaming up with another company to drill several hundred 300-ft deep borings - and I sometimes go to the jobsite to check on things. We have one drill rig there, and our partner has two - each drill rig can drill two of the borings in a days time. Each drill has a two man crew. It's very load and impressive onsite. It is dirty work - the ground is extremely muddy from the drilling fluids and cuttings - sometimes, air pressure builds up in the bore from the drilling process, and a giser of mud and water blasts out of the bore, not only soaking everybody on site, but rendering those closest to the drill unrecognizable - this is how I first met Climm - a driller who works for our partner. I'm not onsite often, but when I am, I am clean - so I stand out like a sore thumb... Climm saw me the other day, standing there, and comes over to introduce himself - Nice to met you and all - and he's covered with gray and brown already dried mud - you can tell it had been splattered on him, the way is streaked away from some central convergence point outside his person somewhere - Climm is a real mountain person - born and raised way, and I mean way back in the east Kentucky Mountains - and he still lives there. So, he's got a pretty good job compared to his countrymen - the area is poverty stricken... Climm is over a hundred miles away from his home, which is no big deal - he's a driller and that's the driller life. He runs a nice drill rig and he drives a nice company truck - life seems pretty good for ole Climm, Except for his working environment, so muddy,cold and wet, it will kill some people. With a thick mountain vernacular, Climm talked about what a great driller he is, and he is, no doubt - on and on - he can drill with two rigs at the same time, and I wouldn't doubt it - but then he mentions he's got a back ache - he said it was from having slept on the drill rig lastnight. On the drill rig? Hey. He took another big drawl from his cigarette - i turned to Climm from where I had been watching my own drillers drill - He's face was wrinkled and leathery - his eyes were ocean blue - an older man, looked to be near retirement age - his face and hair covered with mud - his feet submerged in the soft earth below us - and a patch on his stripped workshirt - "Climm" ...
"Climm, it was a cold night lastnight. Why did you sleep on your drill rig", I asked.
"I can't afford to pay my boss $0.40/ mile to use the company truck to get home", he said.
"There are motels all around here, Climm. Why didn't you get a room", I asked.
"Boss won't pay for it, so I can't afford it", he said. "The other boys drove the company truck home, but I couldn't pitch in."
"So you stayed here, with no way to even leave the site", I asked.
"Yep. But I was able to take a shower".
"You took a shower here"?
"Yep, run that water right there, through the welder to heat it up - took me a nice warm shower - but my back shore does hurt this morning".
Poor, poor Climm - the fact that his back hurts is not even the tip of the iceberg...
Wow. What some people will do for a job just amazes me. What some people will do to their employees just amazes me - It causes me to recognize the gap between my rightbrain and leftbrain.
|
|||||||
| page created with Easy Designer |