I basically saved the whales.

[Mike Money]

I was on my way to a podunk town about an hour north of Bakersfield... I was 10 minutes out, and had 20 minutes to be at the job site.


Job site?


Yes, indeed! I have the pleasure in cleaning out old crude oil tanks for our friends at Shell. Oil is so high right now, the oil companies are paying top dollar for us to seperate the sludge from the oil.

Basically, we spray it with hot water, vacuum up the product, separate the solids and liquids, put the liquids in a truck and send it off to the refinery. Great fun.

Anyways.

We get a call...


Oil spill at Highway 46 and 33. 45 minutes back.


So we turn on our flashers, drive across the I-5 median and head back south.


We get to the spill site and apparently a minivan had gotten into a fight with an oil tanker truck... I'm gonna call it a draw.

The truck driver was trying to make a U-turn on a two lane highway. The minivan, somehow, didn't see the sun rising and glaring off of the big shiny tanks in the middle of the road.

So no one is hurt blah blah blah.


So we squeegie the oil to the side of the road... onto all that nice pretty dirt.

Then we lay sand down on the road, soak it all up... then get a vacuum truck and pick it all up.

Then we get a backhoe and dug up all the contaminated dirt to be put into containers to be shipped off to god knows where.

Then we get back in the truck, drive back north to where we were going in the first place... Collect our $25 for being out of town. And for beer.

Now I'm at the hotel drinking essentially free beer, watching TV, and posting on TB.


Great job.

[Vince S.]

incredible

[GeneralElectric]

Its only relevant to the thread title, but who cares?

[wdinc01]

Originally Posted by GeneralElectric

Its only relevant to the thread title, but who cares?

I think the whales definitely care.

[DigMe]

Your job sucks.

Sincerely,
Mike Rowe

[DigMe]

Originally Posted by Mike Money

Now I'm at the hotel drinking essentially free beer, watching PORN, and posting on TB.

I like how you consider the beer that you bought with your paycheck "free beer". Did you consider that volunteer work?
Hopefully some day when you have a family you'll do enough "volunteer work" to score some free bread, free milk and free diapers on top of the free beer.



bc

[SoComSurfing]

Be careful in those tanks, Mike. A friend of mine did oil recovery for a while, and he nearly had some VERY close calls sending him to the nearest emergency room.

[Benjamin Strange]

Save the whales! Collect the whole set.

[Pacman]

Wow - Mike Money, environmentalist.







I threw up in my mouth, a little.

[Benjamin Strange]

What I want to know is, did you kick flip to indy grind into a humpback's blowhole?

[baba]

...and did you stab said humpback with your Linkin Park pen?

[Techmonkey]

hey funky momma, save the whales...

[john turner]

Originally Posted by Pacman

Wow - Mike Money, environmentalist.







I threw up in my mouth, a little.

makes me cry for the future, really. but mike pretty much has consistently done that since....well, since he got here.

[EricF]

It's a dirty, ugly job, but the oil companies are going to pay someone to do it, so why not Mike? I say, job well done.

I'm not sure what oil sludge smells like, but I'd guess it's pretty bad. In a former job, I came across a substance called "lechate". Lechate is the liquid ooze that seeps out of a landfill. A properly designed landfill will collect the lechate and dispose of it like toxic waste. It's the most digusting, gawdawful-smelling substance I've ever encountered. I gag just thinking about it.

[bkbirge]

rats off to ya, that sounds like real work, deserving of a cool off beer at least.

[DblG]

Originally Posted by Mike Money

Basically, we spray it with hot water, vacuum up the product, separate the solids and liquids, put the liquids in a truck and send it off to the refinery. Great fun.

What do you use to seperate the solids and liquids?

[jazzy grille]

Originally Posted by wdinc01

I think the whales definitely care.

No they don't, I contacted them and asked.. They could care less.

[L-A]

Funny how we can link jobs together. You see, I work at a hardware store. I am a counselor for anyone who walks into the store.

And it is my job too, to prevent disasters.

But I don't save things as big as whales.

[MonetBass]

And I was hoping that you had a "I got busy with Hayden Panettiere" story. I'm so disappointed.

[guy n. cognito]

Wow, that sounds like the type of job that would make a grade-school custodian feel pretty good about his life........


Seriously though, how do the whales get on the highway in the first place, so that you can save them????