Friday, November 13, 2009

Lists

Last night I returned from a 5-day stint in the field. During that time we completed two jobs and I made a few lists:


Things I've seen people do:

1. Drink warm whole milk topped with melted butter.
2. Eat spoonfuls of jam plain.
3. Sleep 12 hours in one 24 hour day.
4. Sleep 0 hours in one 24 hour day.
5. Eat Ramen noodle soup with hefty spoonfuls of mayonaise.

What I like most about working in the field:

1. It's like I'm always camping. All the wellsites here are located in or near forests.
2. The world is my toilet. See previous point.
3. The stars at night are big and bright. And you can see the Milky Way. And shooting stars.
4. It is possible to sleep 12 hours in one day (if the job is going smoothly, and you are not in charge, and the workers on the rig trip in pipe slowly).
5. The camp kitchens are much tastier than the base cafeteria.
6. The cold. I really do like winter for some reason.

What I like least about working in the field.

1. No soap. It's like I'm always camping.
2. When the world ceases to be my toilet, a dirty old outhouse becomes my toilet.
3. No internet (to look up constellations, keep in touch, blog, etc).
4. It is possible to sleep 0 hours in a day (if the job has problems, or if your are in charge, or it just takes that long).
5. The camp kitchens do not have hours that work with an odd sleep/work schedule.
6. Catching a cold. Sleeping in one room with the first person who caught the cold does not improve your odds.

All in all, I really like working in the field. A lot. And I am getting over my cold (can one overdose on vitamin C? I think not). I am leaving for another job in a few hours.

16 comments:

Sarah said...

I like the lists. That ramen special sounds delicious! ;)

Anonymous said...

Warm milk with melted butter eh? Yum? :-P

Aaron said...

yes, vitamin c is very difficult to overdose on, since it is water soluble and easily excreted when present in excess. GI uptake is limited by receptor saturation, about 500mg a day max. Most likely, the worst that would happen is some indigestion or diarrhea if you tried to OD. That is unless you had hemochromotosis or glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency. Vitamin C actually increases the uptake of iron in the body, so if you had hemochromotosis, you could easily get iron-overloaded real quick, which would be toxic to the liver and heart. And if you had G6PD deficiency, the Vitamin C as an oxidant can precipitate a hemolytic anemia. So, orally you'd have to take probably hundreds of grams before it was dangerous, although more than 500mg a day when the body is under stress like being sick, (and more than 200mg a day when it is not), is pretty useless. Now if you injected it that would be a different story--as an oxidant it would mess with some important metabolic activites if in excess...

Kathy said...

Ummmmm, I've noticed that mayonnaise is a foundational food group in those parts. Maybe THAT is what's curing your cold :)

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

What's wrong with warm milk topped with butter? Me, I like all that and jam. Speaking of the world being your toilet do you think that people who lived in castles with motes emptied their waste into the motes? At first glance this might be a smart defensive choice, but eventually it might come back to bite them. Thoughts?

Marcus said...

Aaron, here I was popping these 50mg tablets like they were candy. I must have been taking at least a couple of grams a day. Would I even know if I had hemochromotosis or G6PD deficiency? Is there a home test for that? Can I cure it?

Marcus said...

Speaking of motes (moats?), didn't Venice make all their canals in this way?

Fred said...

I once heard of a guy in Russia who makes a "tasty" drink out of jam.

Lindsay said...

i'm trying to get the image out of my mind of a person coming up from their hot mug with a butter mustache.

i hope you enjoy baiting aaron like that. i knew he couldn't resist a physiology question. he always thinks it's cute to go into excessive detail.

Dave said...

mmmm...Smetana(Sour Cream) on everything....how delicious. Love the lists...keep em coming, great insight into the fun stuff!

Masha said...

I remember having to drink warm milk with melted butter on top... and not liking it. Still not sure how that is supposed to help you get over a cold, but good luck :)

Mary said...

Hi cousin. Very interesting post--but I guess I should expect that because you are a very interesting person. I'm excited to add you to my blog list.

Gareth said...

Have you seen the cloths lines in the Banya, now that is inginuity....

Olga said...

huh-huh, the first list didn't surprise me at all. it was like "duh, it's normal" :-)
btw, Markus, milk(but very warm, almost hot) with butter does help, but for throat, when it hurts, not the cold itself.
and they didn't make you breath over pot with potatoes yet?

Unknown said...

I'm sorry, wait...did you say you were deep in the heart of Texas?