Things go wrong...

I've been in Cloverdale for just about 2 weeks now, and not a single
thing has gone as planned for this well since I got here. When I first
got here, the cones had come off the bit, they spent a week trying to
get them out of the hole before giving up. Then, they needed to cement
the very top of the casing in place in the well, but it was too hot and
the cement expanded too much and kept blowing back out of the well. They
spent a few days messing around with that. And just a few days ago, we
were pretty much done, they just had to go in the hole to the bottom and
come back out to be sure it's all cleaned out. They got everything stuck
about 2 miles down. So for the past 2 days they've been running charges
of dynamite down the hole to try and break the pipe so they can get out.
Hasn't worked yet. And the latest development is that the flow line that
comes out of the well and goes into a big muffler/seperator thing for
the steam has broken. At first I didn't know what had happened but when
I tried to go outside to see, my eyes and nose started to burn and I
couldn't breath very good. Turns out all the chemicals we pump to break
down hydrogen sulfide coming out of the well were also spraying out of
the broken flow line. Yikes, no wonder it burned. The chemicals we use
are extremely strong and dangerous. So right now there is absolutely
nothing for me to do at work. From the way I see it, they've got a big
problem right now, they can't fix the flowline without closing the well,
and they can't close the well with the drill pipe stuck in it. And now
we aren't meeting any of the air emission regulations because we can't
pump and chemicals. I'm so glad I'm not in charge of this.
Whenever we finish here, hopefully in the next few days, I'll be heading
down to the Imperial Valley. I'm actually looking forward to it. The job
won't be very fun, they drill really fast, but I'm looking forward to
some time in the desert and seeing the huge sand dunes down there. And
if we have a day or two off at all, I'll probably head down to Mexico.
I backed my boss into a corner and got him to agree to let me book a
plane ticket to fly home on the 18th. He was reluctant, but Isaak will
just be back from Costa Rica and will come relieve me. My boss said
something like I may need to fly back on Christmas Eve or something for
work possibly, and said, "yeah... ok...". Really, even if he needs me
to, I don't think I'll be able to get a ticket at that point. The way I
see it, once I'm home I'll be good until possibly after New Year's.
I've taken a bunch of pictures lately but they're all film (I forgot my
digital in Tahoe and didn't bring my scanner with me). But I'll be
heading back to Tahoe for a night before going to Imperial Valley and
I'm going to bring my scanner with me. So there'll be some new pictures
up soon, I hope.
That's all for now, back to "work" for me!

Back to Work

The vacation is over and I've come back to work again, with a completly unexpected raise! My vacation was extended by a few days because of some more car trouble, this time it was partially my own fault. I lost some fluid out of the clutch slave cylinder and had topped it off and was going to bleed the air out of the line and accidentally snapped off the bleeder valve. It took a few days to get the part and get a shop to fit me in, so I just enjoyed the extended vacation. Tahoe has been fun, it's nice to be hanging out with friends on my time off. We've been playing a lot of guitar, going out to some bars, free bowling on the weekend (our friend works at the bowling alley and has free reign of the place on the weekend and lets us bowl for next to nothing... and makes us drinks...). I almost need a vacation to rest after hanging out in Tahoe for the past 2 weeks.
Now I'm back in the Geysers, but this time I'm staying in Cloverdale at a Best Western and not in Cobb. It's way nicer in Cloverdale, the motel is nice and the weather here is beautiful. It's like summer, yesterday was in the 80's and sunny. I haven't taken any pictures yet but it's pretty nice here, palm trees and what-not. I'll only be here for a week and then it's either straight down to the Imperial Valley near Mexico or a day or two off and then down there. I'd like a day or two off, I forgot a few things in Tahoe that I'd like to have brought with me. I could almost go there on the way down, in fact if we finished here on say next Monday early enough it's only 3 or 4 hours to Tahoe and I could go there for Monday night and be in the Imperial Valley the next day. I don't think I'll need to be down there until Wednesday, I just don't know exactly when we'll be done here. This job is going slow, the bit they had been using fell apart in the hole and the three cones are in the hole somewhere. Right now they are using magnets to try and get them out, it's slow and who knows whether it will work. I'm going to get a picture of the bit without cones next to a few with cones, in fact I'd do it right now, but it's 1am and I've got no flash. Oh-well, I think I'll go take a nap now!

My new place in Tahoe

My new place in Tahoe
Originally uploaded by jono1515.

My new place in Tahoe

My new place in Tahoe
Originally uploaded by jono1515.

I'm all set here in Tahoe now. My parents were out here to help with the move from Portland. They've left, it was really great to see them again though.
This place is a lot smaller than my place was in Portland, but we somehow managed to fit all my stuff in. I'm planning on going back to work in a week, but I think I may need a vacation after hanging out here in Tahoe! I'm having a good time.