Homeless and Sleepless

I can't recall if this blogging site automatically timestamps my entries. In case it doesn't, you should know it's 2:27 am on Friday morning. I am jet-lagged, and not the good kind of jet-lag that comes from traveling the globe; I have the kind of jet lag that comes from an immediate switch from the 6pm-6am shift on a rig back to daytimes at home.

I was summarily sent home from the rig on Sunday with the excuse "they're trying to get a jump start on evacuating non-essential personnel in case Hurricane Ana or Bill come by". This was before Ana became nothing more than a rainstorm and Bill took a right turn to sweep up the Atlantic coastline, so it was a very early jump start.

I was a third hand anyway, out there to give the 2 main MWD hands help since we were expecting the drilling runs to be short and fast, with little time in between. In our job, our heaviest workload is just prior to putting our tools in the hole and just after they come out, so with the responsibility of 4 tools on our shoulders, it was looking to be a rather strenuous time. Little did we know it would be about 5 days from the time we arrived on the rig to the time they actually picked our tools up to start drilling. I was helpful, but ultimately unnecessary and the Company Man eventually realized it.

So Sunday morning, just after I'd gone to bed at 8am, I got a call saying that I was leaving on the noon flight (which turned out to be a 2pm flight). I managed to stay awake until 9pm that day in an effort to switch back to days as efficiently as possible, but we all know how well that worked out. Sigh.

Now I have no idea what rig I'm going to next. I'm probably not going back to that huge monster rig, and I'm not slated for any other jobs yet. I have no home rig. I am homeless. And sleepless. I am full of 'less'.