Different Truck , Different Job.

       Im going to have to replace my 1995 z71 pickup. Keith rear-ended someone in it while driving it the other day in Muskogee Oklahoma. He had gone down there to get a battery at Wal~Mart for his pickup truck. He got the battery and was about to go to a Chinese restaurant down there for lunch. It was a day or two after it had snowed and there was still some melting snow on the roads and the roads were still frozen in places.....He was stopped at a traffic light for a bit sitting in the left of two lanes. When the light turned green the traffic took off. He was still accelerating out of the intersection when he looked in his right mirror to see if he could get in the right lane. When he looked back forward someone a couple of cars ahead had decided they were missing their left turn into a restaurant or something and had stopped dead in the left lane...the car behind it was like a jeep cherokee which was hard on its brakes trying to stop so it was nose down putting on the brakes and barely got stopped. Keith was behind the jeep in my truck which was closer to the intersection where the road was wetter and slicker....probably from pickups full of melting snow taking off at the light and leaving water behind....he wasn't tailgating or anything but when he looked up he was several feet behind the jeep but the combination of the slick road and the diesel truck with all the weight on the front axle and none on the rear axle just slid and slid with its nose down until it was almost to a stop when the dipped front bumper of my truck went under the lifted rear bumper of the jeep....so the jeep bumper hit my grill ...not my bumper and smashed far enuf back to put the radiator against the fan and make the battery pretty well stuck in its compartment....the drivers door will not open because the left front fender is pushed to the rear just enuf to make the door catch...he tried to go right to go around but there was someone in the right lane as they had just left the light.....when he hit the jeep he was also standing on his brake so there was not much give. Everyone at the scene said that he did all he could do to stop..so the cop just gave him a warning is all....meanwhile my Geico insurance has been calling me to ask some questions but when I call them all I get is the guys voicemail.....so they will have to wait.

     Looks pretty tame until we pried the hood open and took the plastic grill out in chunks.all the oil coolers in front of the radiator are damaged...engine oil, transmission,powersteering oil coolers....all damaged...oil in the street. Frame that holds all this is bent back. Of course the car that caused the problem went ahead and turned left and disappeared......So i've been looking on Craigslist for another set of wheels to drive around ....something that uses gas since diesel is about 40 cents higher....today I found a ford ranger for 1700  and I talked him down to 1500. Its a 96 model with a 4 cylinder that has 8 spark plugs it has a 5 speed in it...and seems to be geared very high. I took it for a drive but think the speedometer is off because you dont shift into fourth out of third until your going about 50 then dont shift into 5th unless your going 65 or 70 on the speedometer....seems a bit generous...but will check it with a gps when i get the chance. It has the seats out of a 2000 ranger in it that dont look like they've been sat in. the floor is like rubber or black plastic that will be easy to wash out ....with carpet floor mats on it.....has a pioneer tuner/cd player ...I noticed the gas gauge doesnt work. It has a sliding back glass. ...I tried the AC but it was a bit to low on freon....he told us it had been cycling on and off like it was low on 134a. I jumped it with a paper clip to make the compressor run and it was quiet as a mouse so I think its fine.....it looks like it has new wires on the sparkplugs....and he has put new u joints in it....tires look pretty good too. Although it looks blue, it  is as purple as a grape....it looks like a welchs grape juice  can. I took a picture of it with my iphone.

This guy has only had it for about 3 months...he bought it for his son that decided he wanted a big chevy pickup....the guy that he bought the ranger off of had just changed the oil and put a new battery in it....I noticed it had a new filter and battery and the oil looked new....but he said he didn't know if the guy really changed the oil or not....and I told him that it definitely had clean oil in it...So battery, tires , oil , ujoints, seats,AC, all seemed ok.  A few small dings and dents scattered about...but nothing big. a little peeling paint in places too but no rust anywhere. It needs a wash. It also has something that looks like mag wheels on it....I took a pic of it sitting there today and will post it here along with my dented truck pic from Keith's Iphone.
         In other news.....I am no longer in the field where I was.....about the time I got all the pipe in the field and how it was laid out and how much needed fitted and drew up some blue prints for some complex angle changes.....the fitter back in the fab shop that I was working under managed to get himself fired for speaking up to a foul mouthed welder that called him a name I dont care to repeat....anyway he told the welder in no uncertain terms that he  was not to call him or anyone else that. The smart mouth welder in a taunting manner asked the fitter named Jeff....."So what are  you gonna do about it?" To which Jeff replied, " Look , I may be a fifty some year old man but I could still whip your but in the parking lot!"....Meanwhile, everyone sitting eating lunch who were all glad somebody had said something to this jerk about his foul mouth, were listening in ....as it was vewwy vewwy quiet. This all occured just outside the breakroom window.....and all were listening thru the windows....the welder had been sitting outside the window on a tool box eating and had hurled his foul language thru the window into the breakroom full of people when jeff promptly got up from his meal and came outside to read him his pedigree.....I was already outside sitting on our school bus eating and reading in a pipefitter math book that jeff had given me to look at that morning.....so was only about 20 feet away listening. Jeff returned to the break room and I got up with my lunch and went inside to break the mood and silence.....I opened the door and everyone was quiet and looking at me.....I said...."Well that certainly sombered up the mood!", and they all busted out laughing ....so then I moved the subject on to other entertaining topics such as my Greek Fisherman's cap that they all like to make fun of so much.....It was all forgotten about....now this fitter Jeff has been a great help to me ....very knowledgeable on refineries and blueprints and the way management works and so on, and has  been a great help to me...he never cusses and considers himself to be quite the expert on bible subjects....I just listen and don't challenge what I hear him saying to others ...I was just building a mental database of what he knows and doesn't know about the bible...he doesn't even have a television in his house.....
         Later on that evening Im back in the field in a hooch making a fit for this same welder that is the idiot when he sticks his head in the hooch where Im grinding and says, "Hey, they got rid of your buddy." I said "What?". He says, " Yea they fired Jeff and sent him home." I ask him why and he says, "Yea I turned him in for threatening to beat me up....I couldn't believe it....everyone is saying the same thing. " They sent the wrong guy home."......that was on thursday. Friday morning the safety man gave us a little speech about harrassment and how we need to take in to consideration other peoples feelings....and lo and behold guess who didn't show up for work friday.....the welder...I hope that he stays home.....I hope they fired him too.
        After the safety meeting I was told I was now over the fab shop so I had to get my tool box moved back from out in the field to where it was to start with....in the fab shop........So Friday I spent trying to figure out what Jeff was working on when he got fired ...there were pipes and fittings sitting around everywhere so I had to figure out what was already made on the print and what needed made and get an inventory of what was laying around ........so needless to say I felt like I had landed in the middle of a tornado.....with a couple of high dollar welders standing around waiting on ME to tell them what I wanted them to do.....remember I went to Oklahoma to work under somebody to learn more about pipefitting. Now they are asking me how to do different fits and help them do the math. And Im taking my calculator and drawing prints with dimensions for them and making copies and sending them to the field. There are prints for this job but they dont have all the dimensions on them...You have to know how to do the math to come up with the dimensions that are missing. And it seems I'm the only one at present that understands how to do the trigonometry necessary. But thats what I enjoy.....a puzzle.....How do I get into these situations? I always end up being the teacher instead of the student.....to top it all off......I got my check Friday and they are still paying me a helpers wage instead of a pipefitters wage which is 10 dollars more an hour...so I have some back pay coming. I don't really like telling 30 dollar an hour welders what to do on a helper's wage.........

Outside the Hooch Walk Around.

Moved to field

Pipe Pics

This is the pipe I showed earlier...now it has all its Flanges.

    This is the first pipe I have made with flanges on each end.

This is the Idea....keep the rods burning...

Snow Day

Walking around tank farm

This is video I shot of where I'm working now....