[Maddog78]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', 'V')Max! At one time I wanted one of those really bad.

[evilgenius]

That's right. Sorry for the slip of the tongue. VROD is the bike. I used to ride a Kawi and wanted one of those instead, or a Fat Bob. I think mine would have just been a simple all black job. I always liked plain for some reason for myself, though, I like looking at the more fancy paint jobs on other people's bikes. How do you like riding it? Some of the Harley guys I knew swore they would never ride one. Mostly they just said that because they couldn't stand how different the VROD was from other Harleys. Me, I looked at the performance specs and my eyes were on stalks.

[Maddog78]

I love it.
Some "traditional" Harley guys don't like them but I don't really care.
I also have an old '78 Shovelhead chopper so I know about the old school bikes too.
Bought my first Harley back in 78 a 76 Electra Glide (not the chopper I have now) so I've been riding them a long time, apart from about an 8 yr. gap when my kids were first born and young.
The performance difference is like night and day, no comparison at all.
VROD is 125 hp, air cooled Harleys are around 65hp stock.
Bought it new in '03 and I've put around 18,000 miles on it now. It has been trouble free.



pstarr,
You are too funny. I'm happy with my current job, thank you very much.
I don't know why you think I have anything to do with oil sands?
You know I'm a shale gas driller.
I guess you are just trying to piss me off.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')Exploration Drilling is dangerous work. Each day we confront danger by using safe work practices. These work practices are a standard for our industry that we as workers demand. Government only steps in when they can make profit from our labor. Government safety standards require bribes by corporate raiders who also steal our labor.
When we die in helicopters there are no memorials. When we burn to death there is no green peace outrage. If we drown in frigid waters there is no Presidential visit with our families. When we lose a leg, arm, hand or foot government does not shut down for a single second. Media does not visit men that cannot stand straight because of failed backs from the heavy lifting required in our jobs. We shut down operations when someone is hurt. We perform safety stand downs to prove our work can continue forward safely. We pre task each operation to ensure safety. We observe each other as a natural part of our work to keep each other safe. Government does not keep me or my workmates safe we do it because we care about each other. We know what a wife goes through when a husband is lost. We have raised children of lost work mates. We are brothers. We are Teams of men that provide oil and gas to America.

Oil field workers hear the garbage of those who don’t have a clue what our families deal with each day. When we miss the first steps of our children do you care? When we leave women to take care of a household by their selves do you care? Our loved ones die and we are on a rig hundreds of miles away do you care? Hurricanes enter the gulf and we are stuck offshore do you care? When we see friends burn to death do you care? When we are clear that a company has killed our fellow workers do you care?

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', ' ')...get....a different job!

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', ' ')...get....a different job!

[Maddog78]

Working in the oilfield is a matter of pride and brotherhood.
Much like the military. You're not just doing it for the pay cheque
!2 hour shifts. 14, 21 or 28 days straight. 365 days a year.
You travel home on your own time. No holidays or weekends on a rig.
Any courses or classes are done on your own time.
Not everyone can handle it so the ones that do know they are a special breed and the ones they work with know their coworkers are of that same special breed.
I've seen a shit load of people last maybe a month or two, sometimes not even that.

Might sound corny to others but if you are part of it you know instantly what I mean.


I worked the early 80's in the North Sea.
In 1996 I was changing planes in Singapore airport and I hear this French voice holler out, "Hey, Maddog"
It was Frenchie, who I met in the North Sea 15 years earlier.
We had a few drinks and caught up and it was like we had just seen each other the week before.

A friend of mine died in the early 90's.
I went to Aberdeen for his funeral. There were oilfield workers from literally all over the world who showed up. They paid for their travel arrangements out of their own pocket. The widow could not believe these people had shown up from around the world.
Could any other industry have had a funeral like that?
Again, it sounds corny maybe but the oilfield is a special place to work with a special bunch of people.

[OilRefugee]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fiddlerdave', '
')If BP were union, workers may have had more ability to bring pressure on BP for their unsafe and insane practices.

[Fiddlerdave]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilRefugee', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fiddlerdave', '
')If BP were union, workers may have had more ability to bring pressure on BP for their unsafe and insane practices.

[Fiddlerdave]

In fairness to Oilrefugee, some parts of my response to you goes far beyond what could well be a reasonable question that is not attempting to whitewash BP. I have been going back and forth with some pretty rabid Conservatives who essentially seem to feel we should indeed apologize to BP for the cruelty of our president wanting cash up front, seeming to accuse that BP would divest its assets and BK out of the lawsuits.

So, sorry about attributing to you motives that others have been exhibiting, without basis.

But this catastrophe, along with so much else in the oilfield and among societies using oil, is the result of the "groupthink" our "deep water rig hand" exhibits where each little cog justifies their individual helplessness and personal need to "make a living" to perpetuate a societal suicidal crash by not changing societal suicidal policies while making that living.

A person can quite rationally work in the oil business or burn oil, if in the meanwhile they are voting for alternatives and directing as much spending as possible to conservation and renewable alternatives.

[The_Virginian]

I'm glad the "ban" was lifted by our glorious POTUS.

We need to drill relief wells for EVERY rig ASAP. More work, more safety, sensible regulation.

[OilRefugee]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fiddlerdave', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilRefugee', '
')What particular practice did BP do that qualifies as insane? I've seen all sorts of other types of accusations, but not that one.

[Fiddlerdave]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilRefugee', 'I') see the result of an accident. I do not see insane, certainly the well depth doesn't meet your criteria and if it did, that isn't insane either. Over at TOD others have talked of drilling down 4 miles in the GOM and they certainly didn't seem insane for having done it. Low probability, high impact accidents are certainly not a good thing, but its not like worse ones haven't happened in the Gulf before, and there might even be some way to calculate the odds of it happening again sometime in our lifetimes. Hopefully the odds of that are quite small.

[OilRefugee]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fiddlerdave', '
')Oh, so its not "4 miles". So maybe it is only 18,000 feet deep instead of 20,800 (not likely given BP's lying).

[timmac]

Shortonsence last post was May 30, OilRefugee joins on June 9, OilRefugee sounds similar to SOS.. ??

[dorlomin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hen we die in helicopters there are no memorials. When we burn to death there is no green peace outrage. If we drown in frigid waters there is no Presidential visit with our families.

[Maddog78]

Maybe Britain and Norway respect their offshore workers more than the U.S.
We'll see if anything like this happens for the D.H. workers.

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2010/03/26/ ... -disaster/

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')arch 26, 2010
Hundreds of people have been gathering for memorial ceremonies in and around Stavanger in recent days, to honor those killed when the Alexander L Kielland oil platform capsized in stormy seas 30 years ago. It was the worst accident in Norway’s post-war history, and left a scar on the nation.

[evilgenius]

I'm going to use a stupid sports analogy because it fits. The thing that makes a great NFL quarterback is that he makes few mistakes, not that he has the most talent. This business of going for the long ball at any cost is inviting a black swan. Black swans happen because nobody thinks they can happen, so they take chances that over time cause the probability of failure to increase, it is multiplied along with the error in the calculation. It is multiplied and because human beings have so much trouble seeing the increased error they don't see that the probability for disaster is actually quite high.

This applies to oil rigs drilling at this depth that don't have pre-drilled relief wells or some new generation of BOP and to geo-political things, like Iraq. Either way the innocent get ground under a slowly moving sledge of error that won't stop until the number sacrificed becomes large enough for people to bother recalculating. Until then the situation is a juggernaut (look it up) grinding the bones of the noble willing under its wheels.