Tulsa Topics

I actually looked at my Tulsa Topics blog the other day and noticed it has been awhile since I have posted.  Whether you are having fun or not, time flies.  I was a road warrior for the whole month of February.  A pleasant aspect of my work is doing familiar, yet different, tasks at each job site that I go on.  Take for example “South”; Ingleside, Texas:

Welcome to Chevron Blind Faith.  Initial production is expected to be about 30,000 b/d of oil and 30 mmcf/d of gas.  The semisubmersible Blind Faith platform will be towed to Mississippi Canyon Blocks 695 and 696, 160 miles (275 km)southeast of New Orleans, where it will be installed in 7,000 feet (2134 m) of water.  The platform left Ingleside on February 23^rd and luckily I finished my very small part before it left or I would have had to ride it out to sea!  Cost of the platform is around a billion bucks.

Ingleside, TX is a stone’s throw from Corpus Christi, TX and the weather was beautiful while I was there.  One thing I didn’t plan for on this trip was having to head to Billings, MT.  So when the call came for me to head North to Billings, I had to make a detour back in Tulsa to pick up some warmer clothes.  Unlike the nice warm weather in the Gulf, the temperature in Billings was a frigid -4 degrees F with howling winds.  On this particular assignment, I helped with the commissioning of a hydrogen compressor.  The WWII era refinery was upgrading the process and upgrading the capacity throughput.  Since the United States hasn’t built a new refinery in ages, existing refineries are increasing capacity by upgrading and adding on to the process.

My next job was in Boston, MA (actually a suburb called North Weymouth) and it came up unexpectedly.  I left Billings early in the morning and two time zones later I was driving my rental vehicle through Boston’s Big Dig heading to the job site at a facility on the Fore River.

I arrived at the job site for a hurried test run of a system that went less than favorable.  I was asked to stick around, do my magic, and make the unworkable… workable.  Of course this took two weeks to make it so, but that’s the name of the game.

During my two week stay in Boston, I took my first subway/elevated mass transit train ride.  Boston seems to have a really nice mass transit with reasonable prices.  I bought a “Charlie Ticket” that was good for 7 days for $15 which was good for any of the trains.  One of the trips that a co-worker and I took was to head from Braintree, MA to downtown Boston in search of Faneuil Hall Marketplace.  After being completely lost for at least 15 minutes or so, a local told us to follow the “red line” that was prevalent in the sidewalk.  She explained this designated the Freedom Trail and if we followed the line it would lead us straight to Faneuil Hall.  Of course the local picked up on my Oklahoma accent and said “You’re not from around here are you,” to which I replied, “No, I’m from Brooklyn, NY.”  For some reason she didn’t believe me.

After we reached the markets surrounding Faneuil Hall, we decided to the touristy thing and grab a bite to eat at a reproduction “Cheers.”  The weather was in the high 50’s and rather pleasant for February.  Boston was just teasing us for the 9 inches of snow that fell two days later in a winter storm.  I’d like to go back to Boston and spend some time taking in the sights when I’m not working on a project.  Some quick observations about Boston…..  Great seafood!  You need a GPS navigation system.  I’ve never been so lost in my life.  A car is almost a hindrance in Boston.

Here’s a picture of the USS Salem that is just across the water from the job site I was on. (notice the snow on the ground from the winter storm)

That’s pretty much how I spent my leap month.  How did you spend yours?