Morning smoke pit

2-30 am , dorm Q smoke pit, I ask Ray if we gonna work today. He calls Beanie, night shift:

- How are you handsome devil

- Lighting, on standdown

- The rain has been going on all night?

- Yes. Lighting alert has been just lifted

- Are operations still going on?

- Yes and stupid, I don’t know how they’re hauling dirt. They gonna run out of fuel. Metal Haul guys did not show up. The middle of the fuel bay is just a puddle

- Bus won’t go through? I’ll just have to cart people in pickup

Guitar talk in pickup. Dick’s guitar collection - Hummingbird, Taylor, Schecter?

“Before I was a mechanic, I was a musician.”

Toolbox

- Six fifty. Lighting alert. Where? Look out, you fucking retard

- I can’t get fuel, I am at ten percent (in mocking voice)

- That’s exactly what it means. Oh, Travis is like - let me call god.

- Sunridge has all these rules and controls

- They don’t follow their own rules

- Most of rules are for contractors, not directly affecting Sunridge

-Many years ago service truck at base plant got run over by haul truck. Nobody got blamed. They did find cell phone 50 meters tossed behind haul truck though

- All new operators spinning tracks in fourth gear, they got locked out pretty quick

- You guys fix it before it goes full retard

- Really, Doug? He said the code went away

Morning fuel run

Elk Avenue, Gospel Way, gate 9, too soft and slippery, we do D10 but hoe and dozer on top, call foreman - fuel truck is too heavy, and return.

RMT7 is a mud pool. We grease, fuel Volvo hoe before it goes to field. Tow truck driver gets into her and masterfuly climbs the trailer from the side!! Uses boom as a crutch! Later, I walk over her to say she is a bad-ass. She smiles broadly. Appreciate it.

Fuel bay

Eighty seven. Takes one circle, forgot his tank is on drivers side.

Switch.Off.The.Fucking.Engine.

I leave my sandwich on fuel counter, come back its in grease dots, eat it.  Underneath some of these trucks you can stand at full height.

Triple, "I am Tony," older guy shakes my hand - "whats your name?" First time I am being asked my name.

Triple, Rita. Hands out candy.

85, Metal Haul. Nipple grease is on blind side. instead of box its just thin intake pipe. You have to stand there just holding grease gun, cant’do other shit.

-Who designs it, they did not think about maintenance

-No they don’t. Mechanic had sex with engineer’s wife.

Bunny guy, bunny ink on neck: "they don’t love me anymore, they used to put me in sweet G’s, now this shit." Master switch is hard. "Let daddy do it. Big hands. Something else is big too. Oh he’s got fucking muscle in his fingers!!"

Everything leaks:

- I have revised my standards for leaking, now it’s pretty high bar, I tell Luke

- They told us if it does not fill your hard hat in five minutes, it’s not a leak. Production above anything.

Another triple, I start smiling as it pulls up, turn away. Two fat guys squeezed in cabin, looking intently in front of them. Come down, and operator starts blaming second one how big the other is - fat cunt.

Nonstop. I feel like a whore in a brothel, servicing ten clients a day.

I sense genuine friendliness in operators towards fuel & lube . Maybe they look at us, and think they got it easier, in cabin. Wild Rose playing on my head. Symbol of Alberta, they say. Said all beauty must die. Will you follow me. The diesel fumes get you. Voice in my head “Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita".

Radio , ops 15:

-fifty two stuck here

- Get over here now !!! (Angry voice)

-(loud yawn)

Lady: Copy that

Email reply from midstream operator in Calgary. LPG Scheduler, at least six months ago. After careful consideration. In anger, I respond I moved four million tons (plus thirty of crude), and not qualified, OK.

I ask Luke if wheel chokes can stop triple. "Hell no. I saw one bent. Truck will just run over it like a bump."

I think they can stop truck from rolling , but won’t stop it if its in drive. I wipe my face. Instead of mud, its thin layer of diesel.

-On radio: hot dog, hot dog

-What’s that, a wiggle?

-No, being lazy

Another triple, "how many loads today? Nine?" I saw load count sheet at Rundle in the morning, so have an idea.

- eight…nine

-How did I guess, you look like nine loads guy

Before leaving, he turns: I will do four, five more for you!

New grader, master switch has CAT lock on, we can’t put our lock on that. We rush in, before she gets out, she (in thin voice) – I want to get out. Perfume.

Go for smokes, on way back, Earling mechanic, plays loud music doing something on phone, notices me side-eye, quick jerk, shuffling tools. Guess he’s scared I’d rat on him. This is hilarious.

Behavioral optics - can't be seen sitting idle, even if you’re done. That’s why fuel and lube and mechanics sit in their trucks from 3-30 to 4-00 pm. I learn to always hold something in my hand.