Monday, July 09, 2007

busy, driving rule

I know I've posted very little lately. I've been busy. Very busy. Home was busy in a great way for a few special days. Hermione came to visit and graciously put up with Farmington (and our silly trip to the Aztec Speedway) for a few days. I've been in a really good mood since then and haven't felt the need to brood about and ponder things worthy of this blog. Work has also been busy. People have been on vacation and I've been covering in the field since my extended long weekend with Hermione ended. I've also had about three different things going on in the office that I'm trying to wrangle under control. And I've been a bit preoccupied with the wedding I'm going to in just a couple of days. Congratulations Chris and Christine. (For what it's worth, I'll be in San Diego [maybe LA briefly] from Thursday morning to Sunday afternoon.) This is the first wedding of friends of mine and probably marks the beginning of many wedding I'll attend over the next three to four years.

We also have this awesome new rule at work that applies to all of North America. We're not allowed to drive between 2300 and 0500. I'm less than thrilled with the rule. (Exemptions are possible, but need to be for compelling reasons.) I've already gotten to camp out twice because of this rule. I understand that accidents are umpteen times more likely during those hours, but it completely strips away our ability to gauge our own level of alertness and ability to drive. I also counter that one of the times I had to camp, I was less alert to drive when 0500 rolled around than when we finished at 0300. Most of the time when I'm done with a job, I'm riding at a pretty good energy level. But if you tell me to sit for two hours, I become drowsy and probably won't be anywhere near as alert as I was earlier. Here's a not so hypothetical example for the supervisor who has managed to have the worst luck with the rule so far. He's camped out about five, now going on six, times because of it. At 1400, a rig calls with a four hour notice for a crew. Crew arrives on location by 1800, set up by 1900, waits on rig for an hour, starts job at 2000, done with job by 2130, cleaned up by 2230, ready to go home, oh wait, they can't. It's time to sit on their hands for six hours and wait till morning when everyone is surely far more alert now that they've had six hours to do nothing but try and get some fitful sleep in a truck. Like I said before, I'm less than thrilled.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rules are like that -- solve a problem, create a problem. You should try the Army for rules. Wait. On second thought, just take my word for it.

What's different in this blog post than all blog posts prior? Names of real people. Or are they real people?

Brian said...

They might be real. I don't have any reason to believe that they are not real.

C(A)CC or just triple-C said...

I think I'm real. I'm so excited for the Pseudosuite to come together again!

Anonymous said...

Rule like this makes people take drugs just to keep onself alert. When it's time to go to sleep, one takes another drug (sleeping pills)to sleep. It's a vicious cycle. Eventually it becomes a habit. Drugs to stay awake and drugs to help you to sleep. By the time you know it, you've already become an addict.