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!