My husband is having a baby. Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea. When we were married in 1997, he’d been out of the oil business since the late 80’s industry crash, and had been doing contract work in other fields. He ran the graphics department of a high end jewelry e-tailer for several years. He built Websites. He still runs the server and covers the back end tech stuff for DreamForge Media and Access Romance. But his heart is in the oilfield. He is, after all, a geologist.
This well spudded the day before Thanksgiving (he took Snickers out to the field the day after), but things are getting nitty gritty now that they’re getting close to TD (total depth; yes, I’m learning the lingo).
Yesterday morning at 6:00 a.m., the husband left for the part of the job that requires business casual dress (though he still wears dress shirts; to him, that is business casual). He came home around 1:00 p.m., put on the oil field duds and headed out to the platform. He came home at 6:00 and grabbed a bite to eat, made a pot of coffee, and went back. I talked to him a couple of times before I went to bed, the noise of the rig like a roar in the background drowning most of his words. Covered in well mud, he made it home at 4:30 a.m., pulled off his nasty clothes and climbed into bed. He was snoring in under a minute.
This morning, his phone rings at 8:00. It’s the guy paying for the deep casing. Then it’s the well-loggers. Then it’s the driller. Then it’s his Mon-Wed-Fri client. Then it’s his Tues-Thurs client. Finally, he gave up the sleep, and is now headed back to the rig. If yesterday his water broke, then today he’s suffering labor pains. By tomorrow, he should have a bouncy baby gusher, and he’ll be the proud papa geologist of record.
I told you he wanted a baby!! LOL
by #2 December 5th, 2008 at 10:54 amVery cool. Congrats to proud pappa G :)
by Loreth Anne December 5th, 2008 at 11:12 amAwwwww….I didn’t even know you were expecting! Congratulations! Please post baby pics.
by MsValerie December 5th, 2008 at 11:28 amLOL. That *is* the baby pic. An oil well! The hubby’s baby!
by Alison December 5th, 2008 at 11:31 amWow! How cool! Congrats to your husband (and you, too, of course!)
by Fedora December 5th, 2008 at 11:45 amHere’s to a healthy, happy baby!
And I’m so glad we’re not the only ones that get the early a.m. phone calls…
by Bekke December 5th, 2008 at 12:23 pmCongrats on the healthy “oil baby”.
by Liza December 5th, 2008 at 12:34 pmI can do w/o the phone calls, LOL! But at least this won’t be happening on a regular basis! Uh, maybe. ;)
by Alison December 5th, 2008 at 12:35 pmCongrats to your husband.
by Jane December 5th, 2008 at 1:17 pmCongratulations to your hubby for getting to play in the mud again! :)
by Karin December 5th, 2008 at 2:06 pmCongrats to your husband!
by Estella December 5th, 2008 at 2:41 pmI loved this post. If I were having a baby right now, I would definitely want it to be a “bouncy baby gusher”. lolz Congrats to himself.
by Elen December 5th, 2008 at 3:28 pmCongrats to your husband:-)
by Mona December 5th, 2008 at 11:56 pmWell, the congratulations are on hold for now. I haven’t seenthe TV series about drilling oil wells but if you have, you know that sometimes the well can give you problems. Last night, our well gave us problems.
We are currently in the process of fixing those issues and in about 12 from now (1pm Sat) we’ll know more on whether this birth will be caesarian on normal. Right now its a breech birth and the doctor is sweating a bit. I’m just the expectant father and have to standby and watch the specialist do what they get paid to do. If you were flying in an airplane, this would be not the landing that scares most fliers, but the nasty thunderstorm that gives the normally calm fliers the need for three additional Rum and Cokes,and uh, hold the Coke.
The momma (rig) is stable now, but for a while it was touch and go.
This is written on my blackberry from the wellsite, so let’s see if it posts before I make my second comment.
by the husband December 6th, 2008 at 12:43 amCongrats!!! :D
by Colleen December 6th, 2008 at 10:05 amIn the mean time, with “the husband” out in the field getting all oiled up and wrestling in the mud (or so he says), he is leaving me to do the yoeman chores over at Cuppacafe.com.
Not that I’d generally mind, but I’m also trying to finish off the updates to Comics Values Annual 2009 (a book for which I usually only concern myself with the editorial, but have been pressed into service with the database, layout, and updates), plus work on a couple of other (magazine) articles.
So pop that sucker out, cap it off, and start the pumping so you can get back to the real work of posting silly stuff over at our site!
The Perfessor
by The Perfessor December 6th, 2008 at 11:14 amOh, this sounds like the beginning of a good novel–intrigue, mayhem, firedrills a la 3AM calls and the like. Just be safe out there, dude… and I hope this baby gets birthed in time for you all to celebrate for the holidays! Have a good one… Leslie :) ! DANG what a story!
by LA Banks December 6th, 2008 at 1:21 pmAwww…that sounds so exciting. What are you going to name the baby?
by Mare December 6th, 2008 at 2:29 pmThe “baby” is called RanchoCali #1. ;)
by Alison December 6th, 2008 at 3:58 pm[...] continue the Bubbling Crude story . . [...]
by Alison Kent » Blog Archive » The Things We Forget December 7th, 2008 at 12:02 amWhat? no Jr? :) that is so cool. . .and with all the excitement about the baby, you missed your anniversary! Happy Anniversary!
by Mare December 8th, 2008 at 6:29 pm[...] birthing process caused a lack of sleep that will take me a few days to recover from. That, and having the well [...]
by Cuppacafe » Post Topic » Adventures in oil drilling December 9th, 2008 at 8:45 am