Daily Archives: April 12, 2012

More Thumb Twiddling . . .

We were awakened this morning by something very unusual here . . . a heavy downpour that lasted about 30 minutes. That was it for the rain, but it did stay pretty cloudy and windy the rest of the day which kept it a little cooler. Nice.

I headed over to the office later in the morning to mail a letter, and also check in with Jamie. And he just said “Soon”.

But while I was there I got to finally meet in person Bob Lindsey, a gate guard that I’d corresponded with for a year or so. He’s currently at a gate about 15 miles south near Three Rivers, TX. Hopefully we’ll be able to get together soon.

Back at the rig, I ordered some things things from Amazon, including this canopy for our upcoming gate guarding adventure,

Canopy

It’s 10 feet x 10 feet and the sides are removable.

This is how it will be used.

Looks like a rough life, doesn’t it.

By ordering using Amazon Prime, and paying an extra $3.99 we get next day delivery, so it will be here tomorrow. That’s pretty good for a box that weighs over 40 pounds.

I did get some more info about how the sewer trailers work. It turns out they’re essentially a portable septic tank.

Gate Guard Lot 8

The small green tank at the front of the trailer is removed and placed near your rig. This is where your rig’s sewer hose connects. It also contains the lift pump that pumps the waste up into the big green tank.

As the big tank fills up over a period of time, the solids settle to the bottom, and the liquids rise to the top. When the liquids reach the outflow outlet, they flow down into the smaller white tank. Here they are treated with a high dose of chlorine using swimming pool chlorine tabs. Then after treatment, the disinfected waste water is drained out into the field. When needed, the solids are pumped out of the big green tank. In fact I suspect that the whole trailer is just swapped out at that point and the servicing is done back at the yard.

A little after 5 Jan and I headed down I-37 to Three Rivers to have dinner at Agave Jalisco, a Mexican restaurant that our fellow gate guarder, Bob Lindsey, had recommended.

Turned out to be very good. Just good ole straight-forward Mexican food. Jan had the Chicken Fajitas and I had the Combo Fajitas with Beef, Chicken and Shrimp. Nicely done and well-seasoned.

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Thought for the Day:

"No pecuniary consideration is more urgent, than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt: on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable." –   George Washington, Message to the House of Representatives, 1793

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