What just happened?

Have you ever had a day that is so crazy, so abnormal, so weird that at the end you ask yourself - What the heck happened today?? This happened to me today. I got a call at 8am flipping my world upside down. I had finally been getting used to the camp that we were at and making really good friends with the people there - then my boss called me and praised how well I made my camp run and how impressed they were with me. He told me that another camp was in really big trouble and two engineers quit and one got fired today - and they only had 4 engineers total!!! He wanted me to go to this new camp and get it running smoothly too - I would leave in 2 hours. To top that all off, when I arrived at the camp he asked me to have a meeting with the superintendent of drilling, and the head of the geologists.

As people were finding out that I was leaving the camp many people came and told me that it sucks that I'm leaving and the head of the geologists sent a really nice email to my bosses that said "I hope that this will not be a full time assignment and you will be returning here shortly. I understand there are difficulties with the other camp and the reason you are leaving is to assist them but feel this will certainly be at the expense of our logging operations here." So I guess those things are good.

So I started packing all of my things in my two duffel bags and the driver came to pick me up. I had one final lunch with my good friends, shook their hands goodbye, and was on my way to this new camp 2 hours away. I talked with people the whole way two hour drive. My manager, the engineer that got fired, the engineer that quit, and another engineer that is from Canada and tried to get everyones perspective why this customer is so unhappy. I talked with people until the minute that we pulled into the camp, I didn't even realize how small and different this camp was...

I walked into the camp managers office and he was really nice. He put me right next to the guys from my company and showed me around. The cafeteria had 8 tables in it!!!! I went to my room, unlocked the door and just let it shut. I didn't even want to go in. I thought that my room at Firebag was small, this new room was even SMALLER!!! I can literally put my palms on both walls. Check out the picture!

I feel like I'm in a jail...

So I put my stuff in my room and ran off to talk to these two big wigs. The meeting went really good and it seems like we could repair our relationship with this company before the end of the projects. I got alot of information from them and they took me back to the camp.

There is one good thing to this small camp - THE FOOD IS AWESOME!!! Can you say prime rib & sauteed mushrooms, prawns, baked potatoes with all the fixin's with REAL bacon, a cheese bar with crackers 3 different types of break, all the caned soda you could ask for and a nice serving staff!!! Well I can and did eat all of it tonight!! =) On top of that I guess they always have some sort of food out for you to eat any time day or night. Which is way better than our other camp. I'm looking forward to what we have tomorrow night!

I met one of the engineers and an operator I will be working with up here. It seems like they are in really low morale. I told them that things are never as good, or as bad, as they seem at the time. I think that they are a little pepped up. Anyway, they helped me make the new crews that we would be using for each of the trucks.



The more and more I plan on how we should run things here the more complex and impossible they seem. No wonder the last crew had a really hard time. I feel like this will be a defining month in my career here, whether good or bad it will come to light. Lets hope for the best.

I went to bed last night thankful that I was not going to have to work for ~3 days, now Im at a camp were they have wells every 18 hours! CRAP!