Howdy from Texas where we are approaching Memorial Day weekend where we remember all of those that served and died in wars and conflicts throughout the world.
I just got off the phone with a sales lead that I've been chasing for a very long time. Our conversation focused on the needs to be able to schedule the facility. They have nothing really in place other than some Excel sheets, and they are so busy with work that they are having problems with missed customer delivery dates, not knowing true capacity, etc. It made me think of the old alligator allegory that you see above. One of their issues is that they are so busy they can not see towards the future. The way you start to get ahead is to just slap one alligator at a time and toss out one shovel full of swap as you are battling off the alligators.
This in turn, reminds me of my days actually working in a swamp. Yes, a real life Louisiana swamp full of alligators, leeches, cottonmouth snakes, and everything else you don't want to think about. I was in the Atchafalaya Basin working for Chevron GeoSciences field crew Party#5 as a college student intern one summer. Actually, I worked in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi for two summers and did another summer stint in the Big Horn Basin in Wyoming. I was "lucky" as the majority of my time was spent on the survey crew so we had a lot of additional benefits and a more relaxed work environment. We were out looking for oil, Texas tea!
But, being on the survey crew I was the "rod man" that got to walk ahead through the swamp and setup points to "shoot the shot". Most of the time, the surveyor kept his feet dry with boats and drive arounds. We could shoot up to about two miles in the right conditions. So, I'd swamp through the swamp for two miles and then he would join me. We used a state of the art TI990 (Texas Instruments) Transport System for recording all of our survey data and plotting it out.
Believe it or not, the entire summer was spent in the Atchafalaya Basin and for that entire summer I never washed my work clothes. I wore the same clothes, everyday all summer long. Why? Well, when by 7am you are waste deep in swamp, there is no point in having clean clothes to start out in. I did have to buy new boots about once a month. The pay was awesome for a college kid, we worked 12-14 hour days fourteen days on and seven days off. Overtime in the states starts at forty hours so I was wracking up almost sixty hours a week of OT. Plus, in addition to that, we got paid a daily rate for food and motel. I have stayed in some of the most low down places around, but when all you are doing is working, all you need is a bed and a shower.
I'll share some pics with you from long ago - 1982ish.
Until next time, see you on down the road. And yes, I've always wanted to go back into the swamp. Just never had the opportunity. The most enjoyable thing about being in this line of work was getting to drive the great big giant swamp vehicles.
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