Notes from the wind swept oil fields of Wyoming……
The night shift:
I have had long nights in my life, nights with no sleep, nights of dealing with sickness, to much noise, to much light, a bed to soft, a bed to hard. But never have my nights been as long as the nights spent on the cold flats of the Wyoming oil fields. (-35 to -40 degrees sort of cold)
Everything is a fight when the temperature sinks that low. Rubber O-rings don’t seal, the electronic meters don’t like to meter, heaters don’t like to heat, and if you bare skin touches a piece of metal it will feel as though it is on fire. There is no cure for the wind. It is the wind that will separate the men from the boys, there are nights when I would like to give up and join the boys.
“What am I doing here?” I ask myself. what would possess a man to do this, to choose this? Is it the love of the job, the challenge, perhaps the opportunity to play with explosives? No, nothing like that. It is the love of a woman that possesses me, that carries me through the night, to know that a have the most wonderful wife waiting for me at home, to know that she loves me no matter what and supports me no matter how crazy my ideas may seem. To love and be loved…. This is what makes my world go round, these are the thoughts that I find wondering through mind in the middle of this cold, dark night.. And to see those Wyoming sunrises is one of those fringe benefits that doesn’t come with to many desk jobs.