the sand

This time the rig is pretty much on top of a very very big dune (flattened at the top by hours of bulldozer work to make a space for us).
Two new things in the sand around us. At least one spot is "singing" sand. When you walk on it (at least during the warm part of the day, I haven't tried when it is cold) the sand makes a double sounds, sort of like a "booom, booom" for each step...hard to describe...To be clear, this is not a subtle little thing between sound and vibration, It is a loud sound. Kind of cool!

AND, I found so me very small snail shells in the sands...quite a few of them. I have no idea if they hard last springs generation of some local snails, or if they are quaternary/tertiary or what ever! I don't know enough about snails to know if they are at all indicative of environment. I considered for a split second trying to find somebody who does research in this type of things, but then again I cannot do this without asking the petroleum company and I don't even want to get started with that...Shame though. For all I know maybe somebody would be thrilled to have them.

Back at work

Well I actually managed to get up from my plane sit after 9 hours, carry my heavy bag to the bus, then up to the hotel, etc, etc, etc, back on another plane (only three hours this time) and stand up again, thanks to the wonder to modern drugs and a weird velcro belt that Steph and Pat lend me...the belt is actually designed for people like me who need a little extra help standing up the right way...this thing prevents me from getting stuck quickly into a very painful position... but I still had to take "drugs"!

I am in Algeria, back in the Sahara and once again I was surprised to see how unless the dunes are right in front of me I really do not really remember how beautiful they are...maybe the start of Alzheimer, LOL!





I left home on the 18th, it is the 23rd today and my sleep pattern is still screwed up. Last "night" I slept from 5:00pm to 11:30pm (local time) which in Canadian time would make it from 9:00am to 3:30pm...even this way it doesn't make any sense! Either way I have no way to know at what time of day I will have to start really paying attention to my critical casing point so I see no need to try to adapt myself to day time anywhere on the planet...at least not until the end of the well.

colourful pain

Here is the thing, I can usually describe pain with a colour and sometimes either with a pattern or with a texture.

These days of course pain in on my mind because of my back. Earlier this week my back was so painful that the pain was changing the way I perceived the luminosity of colours around me.

Since I arrived in Calgary I went to the massage therapist 4 times for my back and she had it until I decided to shovel snow!!!
One of the thing she does during massage brings up this weird pain which has a weird colour - pink...I'd never had a pink pain- ....and a shape - I never had shape associated with pain before!

Tomorrow I thing I will go and buy some painkillers for the 9 hours in the plane. I don't like to take painkillers but in this case I will make an exception. I have to be able to get out of the plane at the end, grab my bag, take the bus from Heathrow to Gatwick etc etc etc....

Right now I have a yellow pain...Yellow I one of my favourite colour, and pink is one of my least favourite, but right now I would switch from a yellow to a pink pain without a second of hesitation.

Last night in Calgary

It is Friday night nearly 10:00pm. I am leaving tomorrow early afternoon. I am not packed. I need to absolutely write and send my resume BEFORE I go, and I just went to pick up "something" the office wanted me to take to Algeria. This "something" turned out to be 4 big folders!!!
Honestly it is too heavy a package to ask somebody to carry in addition to their personal gears!
They have absolutely no sense!
Jeeze, I am grumpy about work these days!

On the plus side this is my last well in Algeria.

I haven't blogged in a long time...the thing is really nothing has happened. I basically have been home struggling with a sore back on and off, painting part of the house (only a little bit) and reading, reading reading reading.
Mostly I read "cozies"murder mysteries with no violence...basically old british ladies finding bodies etc etc....
Among all this crap I did read one interesting book "the seven daughters of Eve" by Bryan Sykes, a book about the mitonchondrial ancestry of humans. It was actually a pretty good book, but the author comes across as an arrogant scientist.

Calgary has been cold...sort of...in the -10C to +5C range, icy and miserable.

I am supposed to go back to work on the 18th...I can't say that I am looking forward to it. I hear that at night it is getting down to +5C in Algeria right now...brrrrrrrrrrr!