h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well I just had an interesting week of work. I came into work on monday and was told to get my bags packed grab some equipment. I boarded the plane a few hours latter bound for NO (New Orleans). I spent the first couple of days down in NO getting a medical exame and then I headed for Offshore Water Survival/HUET training. Getting dunked into a tank upside down in a helicopter simulator was pretty fun. Next off to the helipad to catch my ride out to a oil platform. The oil platform was 100 miles off the coast so there wasn't much to see on the way exept for clouds and water. Once on the oil platform (actualy I found out it was a crane platform supporting an oil platform but I wouldnn't of known ). From the platform I got in on a rope basket with a metal ring at the bottom that lifted me and my gear from the platform over the water and onto a pretty big boat. I went abourd to fix their Sat Comm system. got that up and running but do to helicopter schduleing I had to stay out on the boat for two days. I wasn't sea sick and the food was good so I wasn't to worried . Another basket ride and helicopter ride leaves me here at the NO airport on waiting for my plane back to FL. Not to bad of a trip...next trip should be to Spain. Going to be a busy couple of months of travel

Don't forget your

As long as it's the Gulf of Mexico, and not the Persian Gulf, I'm a little less worried than I was when I saw the subject line and your name, tac.

What about the hurricanes? And the himmicanes?

I did bring my the only trouble being that sometime when I was aboard I must of set it down...because I couldn't find it when it was time to leave

Yes the gulf of Mexico not the other one Pauly

I might not get to go to Spain, I was informed this morning, but I will be getting to go to Venice instead, and as it is company policy that you can extend the trip as long as you pick up the tab for the extra food and hotel time...so I might stay an extra day or so to sight see, it will depend on how much money I will have for the trip, this last comment was so I could use another comma

I had the same thought as Paul when I saw the subject line - I knew it had to be yours, before your name ever came up on the screen.

Enjoy Venice!

Venice is . Wish I was going.

It always looked cool to me that's why I requested if I wasn't going to any of the other locations I was at least going to that one.

I almost had to fly from NO to Mexico to work on another boat, but I lucked out that the captain calmed down and decided that his eng could replace the broken part

This is our last chance to see venice before the place falls into the lagoon.

Do you know something the rest of us don't, Mr. C?

The foundations of the buildings in venice are disintegrating due to the use of porous materials as infill. The city is rapidly loosing altitude.

that and the noticable rise in the water level of the Med due to melting ice caps and such...or at least I read that somewhere

*All* materials are porous if you aim high-pressure water at them.

Well, almost all.

It's actually a facinating process. The foundation bricks are terra cotta, and when they get wet they absorb the sea water. Since the water level is rising, so is the salinization of the lagoon. The salt permiates the bricks in solution and when the bricks dry out, the salt crystalizes, splitting the bricks.

Wow, that is pretty cool.

Looks like I am heading back to the Gulf this week. This time off the Coast of mexico. The ship is 45 miles off the coast of Ciudad del Carmen...which I guess means the city of carmen. Why not just call it Carmen though?

Writer Paul Theroux said that all Mexican towns are named the opposite of the quality they exhibit, so I suppose the City of the Carmen has no auto dealerships.

sadly that took me a moment to get

Carmen can also be members of the Carmen's Union, which is composed of drivers of trolleys and subway trains, and other public vehicles. I get a moment of gleeful hilarity imagine them all dressed in sequined gowns and singing to the toreros, though.