On a lack of Inspiration…

I was recently talking with a friend about my blog and the fact that I haven’t written as much lately. I blamed it pretty thoroughly on a lack of inspiration. I’ve been thinking about that the last few days and wondering, where did my inspiration go?! For a while I thought, well I’ve been here in Mexico for a long time now, over two and a half years… Have I stopped experiencing new things? Is everything boring and the same old thing all the time? Maybe. Then I realized that I haven’t stopped experiencing new things; I just haven’t been fully recognizing everything I’ve been doing as the exciting and fun adventures that I used to when I was a new trainee. So, in an attempt to bring some inspiration to my life:

New things I’ve done in the last 4 months.

I watched and wondered if my computer would explode.  

Part of my job is programming my tools. To do that, I need to connect to my tools using a computer, a box, cables, and adaptors. Usually the computer and the box are inside and the cable goes outside the trailer and connects to the tool. The computer is safe and sound inside. The tool is outside and it’s tough so it doesn’t matter. Recently though, we encountered this problem: see picture on the left. My tool couldn’t move close enough for my cable to reach. So we went to plan B and brought the whole set up outside. It was great. Until it started to rain. What you see on the right is my computer covered in a rain jacket. I’m far away hiding (and taking pictures) under cover waiting for the whole damn thing to start sparking and fry my computer and my tool. Luckily, it didn’t. I did have a great safety report though.

I went to a Mexican wedding on the beach.

It was a pretty awesome weekend. My rig (with the exploding computer) was on a break and I was just sitting in the base waiting for it to start up again. One of the engineers I’ve worked with was getting married and most of our office was making the trip out to Cancun to go to the wedding. I wasn’t planning on going, because I figured with so many other people out, I’d have to work and cover them, but then my rig worked out perfectly and I was free. I hopped a plane with some friends Friday night. We got to Playa del Carmen and went out that night, of course hitting up Coco Bongo.

Saturday, we spent getting ready for the wedding (and eating the best steak sandwich EVER).  I learned that in Mexico there’s often two ceremonies, the first is the legal ceremony where you sign the marriage certificate and then after there’s a separate religious ceremony. Other things, the bouquet is left for the Virgin Mary as an offering. Lots of bridesmaids, no groomsmen. And the entertainment was definitely pretty high quality; there were fire dancers with drummers and a band. All and all it was a great wedding and having it all in the sand under the stars only made it that much better.

I hosted Thanksgiving Dinner

After I got back from the wedding, my rig still wasn’t ready. It was getting closer to Turkey day and starting to look more and more likely I was going to be in town, with an oven, for Thanksgiving. On Wednesday, they confirmed for me that we would be going out Friday. I ran out and bought everything that night and spent a good deal of Thursday cooking. Of course, since everyone still had to work, we ate late. It was great to be able to cook for friends and introduce them to some of the traditions my family has of Thanksgiving. The turkey was actually pretty good and cooking a whole turkey is something I got to check off my bucket list!

I discovered exactly how waterproof pelican cases are

I arrived at a rig (Cactus!) and shortly afterwards, our water pump failed. We arrived on a Saturday and even though we reported the failure that afternoon, it wasn't replaced until late Monday night. That of course meant about 3 days without water. Now if you think this is nothing, let me remind you... no water? No toilet, no cooking, no washing, no showering. And you have to continue to live in a 40ft x 15ft box with the other people the entire time. Not very pleasant. Luckily, we were two engineers and we quickly determined a solution that allowed us the basics... a way to clean (kind of) and a way to fill the toilet and flush it. To the left is a picture of my coworker filling one of our giant pelican cases (they sent them to us filled with cables and sensors). We then buckled it closed, turned it sideways, and put it in our tiny bathroom. It worked surprisingly well, and while I was skeptical at first, it really saved us the next two days. 

I ran a mud motor

This is actually still in process. I’m currently at a job with a motor sitting outside, waiting to run in the hole. I’m super excited about this because it’s an awesome learning opportunity.  I've been running our ‘smart’ tools for about the last year and while they’re great tools and can do amazing things, I've really wanted to get to know the basics of directional drilling. Running a mud motor is pretty much it. A mud motor is considered a ‘dumb iron’ tool and it requires a lot more hands on work. It will be a tough job and I’m sure to be exhausted by the end of it, but I’m excited to add to my skills as a DD.