It's going to be legendary!

I don't even know where to begin

Ok so I'm not even sure what day this really is, but I know I've been home here for one day out of the past week and a half. Last Sunday, I went to Ohio with the sales guy Bill for a demo at Ohio state. It went fine, Ohio was kinda boring when you don't have anywhere to go. I got back Tuesday night and went into work on Wednesday, I think it was on the 15th. The day was going ok, I was catching up on stuff and working on a problem for a customer who was in Mexico. They had one of our boxes out there and they were having electrical problems with it. I found out our guys were working on it for 2 days and they're still not getting anywhere.

Here is where it gets interesting. Apparently this place in Mexico was an Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The guy we were talking to was late on his project, and he was going to be getting hit with 50K per day charges every day this wasn't working for him. SO needless to say he was desperate. The guy out there (Enrique) was begging the president of our company to send someone out there to help him with this. So my boss was talking to the president and they were trying to figure things out. This meant either Me, Clarke (The new Guy), or Prashant would be going to an oil rig in Mexico. While we were all talking about it, I asked Clarke if he had a passport, and he said it expired. SHIT! So he was out of the running immediately. So that left Prashant and I candidates to go. Prashant had an appointment the next day at the INS office, so he couldn't make it. So it left me to go. But this was still in the "Might Go" phase.

While we were all discussing this, I thought I caught a break because the customer sent us a capture from his Fire Alarm Panel, our box connects to this thing. And it showed that the panel was sending messages in Spanish. Our box only recognizes English messages so I thought I was off the hook, because no matter the electrical problems they were having, they would never still work because of their panel speaks Spanish. So the only option at that point was to have my boss go, to translate the Spanish to English in our driver code and work out the electrical stuff. I thought I was off the hook, but they decided to have another developer do the programming and email me the code as he was getting it done. So I was locked in.

The president of the company didn't like this because the jackass on the rig waited till the last minute to work with our box and is now asking us to bail him out. Enrique on the rig wanted someone to go there that night to work on it. But my bosses said no, because if I take the redeye out there and get there at 3 in the morning, they would make me work the rig that night and get no sleep. So they worked it out that I would leave on Thursday and head to the rig then. Luckily the regional sales manager of our company was available and he is fluent in Spanish so it would help me a TON. So there it was, I was home for 1 day and then I'm getting shipped of to Mexico. All I knew it was an oil rig off the coast and I first flew into Mexico city and there some other city, then choppered to the rig.

So our secretary (oh, sorry Executive Assistant) was making the arrangements, but couldn't finish them at the office, but she said I would leave at 1 on Thursday. So I was planning to go to the office at 8 and leave from there. But that day, at around 9 I still didn't get anything and when she got it, she was going to email it to me but found that my flight was supposed to leave at 930. So here's where the fun begins because I obviously wouldn't make that flight. Basically I end up worrying about when I'm going to leave now. But everything gets worked out and I leave at like 130 to Mexico City. And at this point I don't know where I'm going after that. I never caught the name of the next town I'm heading to before going to the rig.

I end up going to LAX first, then I catch another flight to Mexico, While I was in LAX I was accosted by a bunch of Monks who wanted me to learn about their paths of enlightenment, which included a donation for some books they have, but I forgot to get any cash, so I gave the books back. After some lunch, I was offically on my way to Mexico.

I land in Mexico city and meet up with Clarence. He tells me we'er leaving at 645 the next morning (it's 11 already). This sucks ass because I'd only get about 4 hours of sleep. I get to the room, give a quick call to Jen since I've only been back for one day and left again. I test out the alarm clock and it works, so I catch some sleep, planning to wake up at 430 so we can leave on time.

I wake up to the phone ringing, Clarence is calling me from the lobby asking if i'm ready to go. I look at the alarm clock and the digital display is blinking at me. At this point, every blink is a "FUCK YOU" in spanish mocking me for trusting it. It's 515 at this time, and our plane boards in about 45 mins. I throw my shit toghether so quick and race my ass downstairs. Needless to say I was tired. But we make it.

I finally learn we're going to a place called Cuidad Del Carmen, on the coast. The flight is boring, and when we land, a guy is there to pick us up and take us to the boat that will take us to the Platform. We pack it up and he drives us. Now, I'm not sure if it was just a bad part of town, but we were driving through one real shit hole of a town. Everythng was run down, walls had broken bottles glued to the top to keep people from climbing. We finally get to the port by 8 and we end up waiting for 2 more hours because the driver had to pick up some other crap to send to the rig.

We finally get going and the boat ride, which we were told was only 1.5 hours ended up being almost 3. I'm glad I took the Dramimine with me, cause this little bastard of a boat was rocking around like crazy. On the way there, I notice in the horizon, that there are a ton of oil platforms out here. I counted at least 20 scattered around the 5 mile area.

After that, we finally come up to the rig and the crew boat the "Buccaneer". So to get from this small boat to the Buccaneer, we have to take something, which I call the Basket. I have a picture, but since I don't remember how to post it, I'll do my best to describe it. Imagine a 5 foot diameter circle of wood, with strips of nets tied to the outsides and comes toghether 10 feet above the middle of the wooden part. We place our luggage in the middle and then we have to stand on the outside edge of the wood, loop our arms through the ropes and hold on. Then a 60 ton crane lifts us up and carries us onto the deck of the boat. Luckily it's slow enough we weren't flung around, but it is a little intimidiating thinking that if we slip, it's a 30 meter drop to the ocean. AND to top it all off, I find out later from one of the guys on the rig, the basket has another nickname "The Widow Maker". Which is always comforting.

We get on the Buccanner and meet up with Enrique. We get some lunch first then get outfitted with jumpsuits, steeled toe boots, saftey glasses and hard hats. I have another picture of me in this getup, I'll try to figure out how to post them. We then take the Bucket to the rig.

I'll try to get through the next part without boring anyone. From my understanding, we were there to do two things. 1) Work out the Electrical issues between the alarm panel and our box, and 2) test our newly translated driver to see if it works. It's now Friday, and we planed to be there till Saturday night, in which we leave, go back to Mexico city and I'm on the 5pm flight on Sunday back home. I get the electrical stuff fixed in about an hour and test out the driver and so far it's working. Buy the end of the first day, I'm 80% done with what I'm there to do and I'm stoked. We go back to the Buccaneer and to our room. Ok for this room, imagine our dorm rooms, then imagine half that size. Then put 2 bunkbeds with the hardest cot-like mattreses in them, one small bathroom, and a closet. They fit 4 people in that room. Clarence and I end up taking the separte top bunks since the bottom ones are taken. These SUCK sooo much. There is barely enough room to climb up and roll over. Now Clarence is a guy in his 60's so imagine how much fun he had getting into this bunk (I coudln't watch).

The next day rolls around and we get an early start, since I wanna get my ass home that night. We are given to this guy Manuel who is working on the alarm panel. We test out the driver and it's working perfectly. We test it out and see that every event is working. So I'm ready to leave, and here is when Enrique turns into a rat bastard. We tell him it's working, but the front end system isn't working. He tells us he needs the entire thing to the front end up and running or won't be able to arrange transport for us back to Cuidad Del Carmen. I'm getting pissed, but I do the entire configuraiton file in about 2 hours. I also work out the other guy's connection in an hour. So I now set up a demo that works for everything in the room and it works. We call Enrique over again to test and he sees the things we do, but is asking about something else now. So now we're stuck adding more and more stupid points. And we're getting close to the last boat of the normal day.

I finally get everything working and we finally get to demo to Enrique's boss on the rig. They come in and I can feel my salvation is at hand. They pull one alarm, the light shows up on the front end just like we expect, but then they start looking at a light and talking rapidly in spanish about something. Apparnetly when the alarm is pulled, a light should have come on as well. So this was nowhere in the list of points I was given and I start to feel like I'm never going to go home. Enrique starts talking to Manuel and Pablo asking about what they can do about it, and they can't do much. The light isn't working electically, and they wired it back-assward in the panel, so I can't even map anything to the point. They finally ask if we can make any alarm turn on a stupid LED on the front end. I tell him I can do it, but it'll take a while. Clarence tells them if I can get it done by 12, they call the boat over and take us back to Cuidad del Carmen.

I start to do work, then Manuel starts getting into an argument with Enrique over the radio. They go back and forth for about 2 hours and at this time, i'm doing nothing because now we don't know if they are going to be assholes and change things again. Finally they come back over and ask that if anything goes into trouble, can I turn on another stupid light. I tell them yes and tell Clarence that we lost another 2 hours. SO I get back to work and finally get things done at 10. We demo it again and it works just fine. They go off to test other stuff and we end up not hearing back from them at all. We endup waiting around till 1 and decide to say "fuck it! let's got back to the boat" We go the crane and find out that Enrique went back hours ago. This royally pissed me off. We get back and Clarence finds that the boat is on it's way and should be ther aby 2. From there we'll get to Cuidad Del Carmen by 5 which was fine by me, I just wanted to get the hell off the damn boat.

I get packed and ready and then Clarence comes back and tells me the boat was diverted and we're stuck another fucking night on the boat. At this point I'm too tired to care and just go to sleep. The next day we go find Enrique to find out when the hell we can go home. We're told that a helicopter will be there by 2. We meet up with Enrique and he's trying to call the airlines to get our flights re-booked and he "says" he gets them done. We kick it and luckily on Sunday, they have a BBQ on the helipad. We get some good ass food and wait some more. We are then told the chopper will meet us at the rig. So we suit up and take the bastket over there one last time. We hang out with the guys for a little while longer and then we're told the chopper will be there soon. We end up having to drag our luggage up to the very top of the rig. It's at LEAST 6 stories up and took a helvua time.

We get there and the chopper is waiting. Nothing ever looked so good. But then 6 other guys run up to it ahead of us and the thing takes off. We find out that they were making a delivery on another platform and will be coming back. We wait and finally get on the chopper. IT's totally cool flying across the ocean in one of those and when we came up on the coast, the view was AMAZING. We finally land and it's about half a mile away from the airport. We end up walking in tropical heat over to the airport. We get there and now there's another hassle about getting our tickets to Mexico city. but we finally get on the plane.

We land in Mexico city and book the hotel again, I call Jen and it sucks that I'll be there an extra day. But it's all good and everything is set. The next day is soo sweet in the fact that I get to go home! It was a direct flight to San Jose and it felt awesome.

SO the trip itself on such short notice sucked total ass, the extra day and threat of not being albe to leave was very troubling. But it was quite the experience and the adventure. Being out in the coast and the view was awesome. I think it was definatly worth going once, but I think it'll be quite a while before I want to go back. I took a bunch of pictures, but I don't know how to put them in this blog. I'll work on getting one of those Flickr accounts and put them up there.

posted by Adam @ 3:04 PM 2 comments