the lifestyle
lifestyles of the rich and shameless...... jesus christ.
its a different set-up out here. no wonder these dudes have a reputation. it can be pretty hard living. as of the moment we are set up in hotels about 45 min outside of where we are workin. everyday the crew truck picks us up, drives us in... we do a safety meeting then its 12 hours of work... no breaks(eat and dog it when you can). there are three crews that run in cycle of 2 weeks on 1 week off, so you get relief by another crew every 12 hrs switching from days to nights. there is 6 guys on your crew on the actual rig and then about ten additional support workers(safety, engineers, directional, geologist, and various machine operators) speckled throughout the lease(the title of the site). you are basically with the same dudes all the time. some you fukin hate, some you are cool with. there are dudes from all over canada, a bunch from the maritimes, some ontario guys and the rest albertans. me andje and terrance form the kelowna crew.
i guess its kinda like ball or being on a team. always travelling, always together, all thrown together in the mix. sometimes pretty adverse conditions, lots of testoterone. party hard.
i mean it aint like i'm out here to make friends but you do have to develop a certain amount of trust with these people because at various points throughout your day, your life is in their hands. safety is a big thing with these companies. it is the difference between making money and being shut down. companies reputations are built largely on safety records and the bosses get paid alot of money to have clear safety records. this kinda goes against the principle though because often you are discouraged to make injury reports or claims to preserve this record and their money. often it just seems like we just go thru the formality of a safety meeting without actually dealing with real situations. but for the most part they do look out for you, especially when you are green and prone to making those mistakes, because there is alot that can hurt you and everything out here is heavy as hell. doctor says i need a back-iotomy! for real.
you realize quickly how much money goes into these operations though, why you pay so much at the pump. everyone here, gets PAID. i'm pretty near the bottom of the scale and i'm like damn is there money to be had up here. u get compensated for everything you do up here. live outs, travel time, safety meetings, bonuses. rig operations alone are mind bottling. as an example in a typical day, the rig can go through 5,000 to 16,000 litres of diesel to fuel and heat operations. think of that cost alone..... for one day. these wells we drill must put out like a girl on prom night(except mine). don't think these dudes don't take advantage.
you catch on to the work pretty quick, esp with any kind of constructon background. its tough; some days you just hate where you are at and what you are doing while other days are easy money. getting your mindset right is important and things become much more tolerable. since i've been up here on this extended hitch(35 straight days ended today) i haven't drank, kicked it with mary jane, no women, no caffeine, no athlete candy(ibuprofen), i've eaten good, worked out, been reading alot again, so its been kinda like a cleanse while i bank. focus on my future. on the other hand; these other dudes...... like cam'ron says.... oh boy
since i've been here, on my crew alone, five dudes have either quit or been fired for a variety of reasons. its like this crew is cursed. i can complain cuz i've been promoted twice and got big two raises as a result. like i said, alot of rednecks walking around with fat lips of chew and even fatter bank accounts. you combine this with small towns and its a special little recipe. these dudes live HARD. between work and travel that is 14 hrs of our day. the other ten these dudes fill with boozing and drugs. some mornings i look at em all strung out pounding back these energy drinks, get right amped up on taurine. i saw one dude drink 5 of those big monster energy drinks(which on the can says do not exceed two in a day) stay on a constant up during their shift and then do it all over again. on the drive back to the hotel like...replay. its pretty funny to watch. inevitably it catches up with them and they crash or stumble their way into the week off. they sleep in miss shifts or better yet get arrested.
last week this dude kevin went out after our shift drinking(alone). we wait for him in the morning, bangin on his door; no answer. at shift change he shows up with the driver to get his things. he got fired for missing his shift and getting arrested. apparently he went out got punched, mad drunk, blacked out, woke up in a jail cell. he asked the cops what happened. they said they got a call at 3am from a guy sayin there was someone in their kitchen. apparently he had kicked someones door in and the cops found him making a sandwich in the house. they brought him in and charged him with breaking and entering, mischief, and theft(of mayo...lol). he has to pay for the damages, has a court date later in the month, can't go home to ontario, got fired and got all around punked. the crazy thing is that these dudes don't care. they get skidded off one rig and land right back on another a week later because they are hurting for guys with experience, so its never reaaaally a lose lose situation no matter how dumb they get.
that don't care mentality is trouble though. you can see it in their eyes. imagine a bunch of uneducated rednecks all making at least over $100,000 set loose on a town. unlimited budgets for limited imaginations. combine that with a bunch of drunk indians and its a witches brew. fights abound. property destruction commonplace. basically going out would be like the double deuce from that movie roadhouse before patrick swayze rolled into town(an ironic sub-note; the main nightclub named rivers here actually looks like the damn place... for real, porch, gravel parking lot, swinging doors). my ongoing work is to develop an idea of how to extract the money from these fools in these small places cuz they are literally looking for places to throw their loot at. drugs and booze just seem like their only options here, at least till walmart showed up.
most of them have at least one DUI. many don't have licences(doesn't stop 'em from driving though). this dude chad told me he has had 3 in the last 5 yrs. i was like damn dude how are you still allowed to drive or insure a vehicle. he says he just pays a lawyer a good chunk of change and he usually gets off. his first dui he said he had one of those hard hats on with the two beer holders attached to the top with hoses running down. he said he got pulled over wearing it and drinking from it and was so drunk that when the officer came to the window he just kept on sucking and laughing till it was gone. he said he got beat up by the cop pretty good for that one. this dude is on another level though, stories are just insane from a bunch of them. too many to even think about writing. lets just say i'm seein these rednecks in a different light.
the thing is they just don't care. they don't think ahead. there is no reason to get an education. they just live day to day. cheque to cheque, blowing money like its nuthin. having money here really doesn't mean anything. soon its gonna be black gold trails and ghost towns(a lil chbc shoutout). no wonder we hate albertans. aint no money like new money.
its a different set-up out here. no wonder these dudes have a reputation. it can be pretty hard living. as of the moment we are set up in hotels about 45 min outside of where we are workin. everyday the crew truck picks us up, drives us in... we do a safety meeting then its 12 hours of work... no breaks(eat and dog it when you can). there are three crews that run in cycle of 2 weeks on 1 week off, so you get relief by another crew every 12 hrs switching from days to nights. there is 6 guys on your crew on the actual rig and then about ten additional support workers(safety, engineers, directional, geologist, and various machine operators) speckled throughout the lease(the title of the site). you are basically with the same dudes all the time. some you fukin hate, some you are cool with. there are dudes from all over canada, a bunch from the maritimes, some ontario guys and the rest albertans. me andje and terrance form the kelowna crew.
i guess its kinda like ball or being on a team. always travelling, always together, all thrown together in the mix. sometimes pretty adverse conditions, lots of testoterone. party hard.
i mean it aint like i'm out here to make friends but you do have to develop a certain amount of trust with these people because at various points throughout your day, your life is in their hands. safety is a big thing with these companies. it is the difference between making money and being shut down. companies reputations are built largely on safety records and the bosses get paid alot of money to have clear safety records. this kinda goes against the principle though because often you are discouraged to make injury reports or claims to preserve this record and their money. often it just seems like we just go thru the formality of a safety meeting without actually dealing with real situations. but for the most part they do look out for you, especially when you are green and prone to making those mistakes, because there is alot that can hurt you and everything out here is heavy as hell. doctor says i need a back-iotomy! for real.
you realize quickly how much money goes into these operations though, why you pay so much at the pump. everyone here, gets PAID. i'm pretty near the bottom of the scale and i'm like damn is there money to be had up here. u get compensated for everything you do up here. live outs, travel time, safety meetings, bonuses. rig operations alone are mind bottling. as an example in a typical day, the rig can go through 5,000 to 16,000 litres of diesel to fuel and heat operations. think of that cost alone..... for one day. these wells we drill must put out like a girl on prom night(except mine). don't think these dudes don't take advantage.
you catch on to the work pretty quick, esp with any kind of constructon background. its tough; some days you just hate where you are at and what you are doing while other days are easy money. getting your mindset right is important and things become much more tolerable. since i've been up here on this extended hitch(35 straight days ended today) i haven't drank, kicked it with mary jane, no women, no caffeine, no athlete candy(ibuprofen), i've eaten good, worked out, been reading alot again, so its been kinda like a cleanse while i bank. focus on my future. on the other hand; these other dudes...... like cam'ron says.... oh boy
since i've been here, on my crew alone, five dudes have either quit or been fired for a variety of reasons. its like this crew is cursed. i can complain cuz i've been promoted twice and got big two raises as a result. like i said, alot of rednecks walking around with fat lips of chew and even fatter bank accounts. you combine this with small towns and its a special little recipe. these dudes live HARD. between work and travel that is 14 hrs of our day. the other ten these dudes fill with boozing and drugs. some mornings i look at em all strung out pounding back these energy drinks, get right amped up on taurine. i saw one dude drink 5 of those big monster energy drinks(which on the can says do not exceed two in a day) stay on a constant up during their shift and then do it all over again. on the drive back to the hotel like...replay. its pretty funny to watch. inevitably it catches up with them and they crash or stumble their way into the week off. they sleep in miss shifts or better yet get arrested.
last week this dude kevin went out after our shift drinking(alone). we wait for him in the morning, bangin on his door; no answer. at shift change he shows up with the driver to get his things. he got fired for missing his shift and getting arrested. apparently he went out got punched, mad drunk, blacked out, woke up in a jail cell. he asked the cops what happened. they said they got a call at 3am from a guy sayin there was someone in their kitchen. apparently he had kicked someones door in and the cops found him making a sandwich in the house. they brought him in and charged him with breaking and entering, mischief, and theft(of mayo...lol). he has to pay for the damages, has a court date later in the month, can't go home to ontario, got fired and got all around punked. the crazy thing is that these dudes don't care. they get skidded off one rig and land right back on another a week later because they are hurting for guys with experience, so its never reaaaally a lose lose situation no matter how dumb they get.
that don't care mentality is trouble though. you can see it in their eyes. imagine a bunch of uneducated rednecks all making at least over $100,000 set loose on a town. unlimited budgets for limited imaginations. combine that with a bunch of drunk indians and its a witches brew. fights abound. property destruction commonplace. basically going out would be like the double deuce from that movie roadhouse before patrick swayze rolled into town(an ironic sub-note; the main nightclub named rivers here actually looks like the damn place... for real, porch, gravel parking lot, swinging doors). my ongoing work is to develop an idea of how to extract the money from these fools in these small places cuz they are literally looking for places to throw their loot at. drugs and booze just seem like their only options here, at least till walmart showed up.
most of them have at least one DUI. many don't have licences(doesn't stop 'em from driving though). this dude chad told me he has had 3 in the last 5 yrs. i was like damn dude how are you still allowed to drive or insure a vehicle. he says he just pays a lawyer a good chunk of change and he usually gets off. his first dui he said he had one of those hard hats on with the two beer holders attached to the top with hoses running down. he said he got pulled over wearing it and drinking from it and was so drunk that when the officer came to the window he just kept on sucking and laughing till it was gone. he said he got beat up by the cop pretty good for that one. this dude is on another level though, stories are just insane from a bunch of them. too many to even think about writing. lets just say i'm seein these rednecks in a different light.
the thing is they just don't care. they don't think ahead. there is no reason to get an education. they just live day to day. cheque to cheque, blowing money like its nuthin. having money here really doesn't mean anything. soon its gonna be black gold trails and ghost towns(a lil chbc shoutout). no wonder we hate albertans. aint no money like new money.
posted by miceail | 8:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home