Chemical Co. Capers (or other work related fiascos)
THE SNAKE
We had 2 large tar pumps at the rear of our plant. On the way to change a valve on another pc of equipment we noticed the pump had a seal leak. Wasnt hard to see, it was about a 10 x 10 area and app 1" thick. The top of the tar had cooled and was solid. Before the tar had cooled a small (app 12") snake had crawled into the tar and coiled up, it looked like it was ready to strike. The tar was so hot it had eaten the underside of the snake away. My buddy was fixin to throw it into the ditch but I thought it definiately had possibilities.
When we got back to the shop I found an empty Blue Bell ice cream carton. For all you NON-Texans---Blue Bell ice cream is the food of the gods. -----anyway I put a pc of wood in the carton to give it some weight and taped a pc of cream colored paper over the see thru window (it was vanilla ice cream) and put it into the freezer ---At the time we had a contractor janitor working there that was a chow hound---couldnt leave anything on the lunch table or the refridg, she would eat it. A few minutes latter she was sitting in the office talking to my working buddy. I stuck my head in the door and told him "There is a little more of that Blue Bell left, if you want some you better get or the graveyard shift will" and closed the door. About 30 minutes we were sitting in the office--heard a blood curdling screem and something hit the window of the lunch room. She had found the snake. Dont remember what she called me but it wasnt honey ---About 3 or 4 years after I retired we were on a bus trip to one of the Louisiana casinos. There she set---when she saw me she came running over gave me a big hug and started to eat on me about the snake --AGAIN ---Buzzard
Years ago ,when I was still a trainee learning the pipefitting trade. I went thru the progran with a guy named Kenneth. Somewhere along the line Ken was given the nickname "DoDo". Dont remember how he got the name or who gave it to him. Needless to say he did not like the name and he let everybody KNOW he didnt like it. Bad move----where I worked If you didnt like a nickname the LAST thing you wanted to do is let anybody know you didnt like it .--Well over a period of time it was changed to "Dookie". (He didnt like that either). As time passed the name evolved to "The Duke" (he liked that). The day of this incident, I owed Duke one. Dont remember what he did to me but im sure it was worth retaliation. That morning ,when I got to work I filled a 10 quart bucket with ice and water. Every morning "The Duke" would make his daily visit to the throne. The restroom and showers were next door to the shop. There was a 6 or 7 foot wall between the commodes and the showers, (where the bucket of ice water was stashed.) I followed him to the rest room and watched him settle down on one of the commodes (with his Playboy magazine). Gave him a couple of minutes to get comfortable and I dumped the WHOLE BUCKET over the wall. I ran back to the shop and stood at the door watching for him. When he came out,soaking wet, pulling his pants up I started walking towards him. As he passed I made the remarked "I WONDER WHERE PAUL WAS GOING IN SUCH A HURRY". Paul being our welder. Well "Duke " went into the shop, put his hard hat on ,walked thru the plant until he found Paul and wet him down with a water hose. PAUL HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON and I didnt tell Duke it was me untill almost 10 years later ---Buzzard
We have a large tank to store waste oil in,there's two ways to fill it:lift up the wheeled drain buckets up to the top fill hole (no thanks,my back hurts enough just lifting up wheels all day) or fill the contents of those buckets into a larger bucket like this:
You pressurize these buckets with shop air,then the oil exits out that hose lying to the right of the photo. To make the oil exit out only through that hose,you lift the pan section up until the metal tube its connected to stops (you'll hear it lock). You then insert the tube into the waste tank's fill hole then insert your air line to the drain bucket. Once it's empty disconnect the hose and let the pan down.
Now there's one guy at work,I'll just say he's one sandwich short of a picnic and I'll call him Bob. It was a slow Saturday,about 30 minutes from quittin' time so we start cleaning up;putting away our tools,mopping up any mess,and emptying out the drain buckets. I'm talking to some coworkers when we hear this splash kinda sound by the drain tank. We turn around and the words "holy sh*t" came out from just about everyone. Bob's standing next to a drain bucket,the oil coming out the pan like a geyser...yep he forgot to lift the pan up. It took a few seconds for Bob to finally pull the air line off,and he's still standing in the same spot,kind of in a daze. Yours' truly and a coworker run into the parts department,grabbing as many absorbent pads (no more of that kitty litter stuff,these pads soak up oil like a chamois to water) as we can and threw them all around Bob. I also threw over a cloth fender cover and told him to start wiping himself down. Bob is totally covered in used oil,the only clean spots were his eyes (wears glasses). After he took his shirt,boots,and socks off he runs upstairs to the shower. Our ceilings are about 20-25 feet high,the oil hit the rafters and the actual ceiling His boots and socks couldn't be saved,he left them outside and drove home barefoot. The following Monday there's a small puddle around them,the oil "unsoaked" itself from the boots.
This was almost two years ago,and Bob still holds the record for the only person to hit the rafters. It's happened to two other new guys at work,one was smart enough to pull the airhose off right away and only needed to change his shirt. The latest one is our new apprentice,he's another Bob. It was his first Saturday shift,and we already told him about the Bob incident. He also froze up,but pulled the airhose off before it could cause any major mess. But when he tried to walk away he slipped and fell right on his ***. He required a shower and full change of clothes. Nobody ran to the parts dept. this time,we were too busy laughing our asses off
I hope we're hiring again,it's time for another initiation
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San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station here on the SoCal coast, when Construction went to install the nuclear reactor vessel on Unit 2, seems it was 180 degrees out of position for the locking lugs/ bolts.
The Engineers told Construction they were Nuts!
After a review, Engineering corrected the drawings
for Unit 3; Construction fixed the problem for Unit 2.
Construction ... 2
Engineering .... 0
Eh Buzz, Ain't it always the case.
[BTW, when y'all SoCal'ers drive by SONGS on I-5,
Unit 2 is the first big domed Containment building w/the nuclear rector vessel on the North side; Unit 3 is the South side. The little hat shaped guy to the North of Unit 2 is Unit 1, built back in 1958 & now de-commissioned due to not meeting the latest NRC guidelines.]
we have a hmmwv at work. not a hummer, a hmmwv...usmc surplus. mgmt decided it needed new decals and a cami paint job, so we sent it off with instructions.
when it came back, i was the first to be shown...thankfully i was the only one at the time, because the first thing i said was "there's supposed to be an 'e' at the end of Mobile!"
...the camoflage paint scheme, while nice lookin' was...semi-gloss. semi-gloss brown and black, right over the nice, flat, hmmwv-colored olive drab original green...and they were lazy enough to spray right over the usmc serial number, as well as leave things like the ladder on the back in place, so if you move something a few inches in the wrong direction, the paint don't match.
Originally posted by Red Hornet San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station here on the SoCal coast, when Construction went to install the nuclear reactor vessel on Unit 2, seems it was 180 degrees out of position for the locking lugs/ bolts.
The Engineers told Construction they were Nuts!
After a review, Engineering corrected the drawings
for Unit 3; Construction fixed the problem for Unit 2.
Construction ... 2
Engineering .... 0
Eh Buzz, Ain't it always the case.
[BTW, when y'all SoCal'ers drive by SONGS on I-5,
Unit 2 is the first big domed Containment building w/the nuclear rector vessel on the North side; Unit 3 is the South side. The little hat shaped guy to the North of Unit 2 is Unit 1, built back in 1958 & now de-commissioned due to not meeting the latest NRC guidelines.]
Cheers,
-RH
We normally did ALL of the pipe work in our plant. One of the plant engineers had the "Engineering Dept" come in a design a small 4" deluge system. It changed directions 11 times and they ended up making 12 welds to correct the mistakes the "Engineering Dept " made. -I think I drew a cartoon on that one---Buzz
When I use to be on my tools as a pipefitter/welder that was when all hell would break loose with pranks.
This good ol' boy, JB (now retired), we use to always have fun with him as he had a great sense of humor and was good at pulling pranks on all of us as well.
We all knew JB had a fear of snakes, he talked about it all the time (any fears you may have, you sure as hell better keep them to yourself around this bunch). Many rubber ones were bought and placed somewhere that we knew he would stumble across and wait to hear him yell. Everyone would look at each other with grins and someone would say. "Guess JB found that rubber snake."
Well one day one of the guys at the plant had found a good sized real snake (hognose), needless to say it had JB written all over it. Now JB was not that tall and would always put his lunchbox on a shelf that was pretty high for him to reach or even see the top of it. So the real snake was tied onto his lunchbox with some string, when he went to get his lunchbox down that snake fell perfectly, it draped on his shoulder.
We hear Ol' JB scream. his eyes all popped out and that lunchbox with the snake on the string when flying across the shop. After that, he never put his lunchbox on that shelf again.
In all the years at the plant, when JB retired we threw him the biggest retirement party. To this day, we talk about JB's shenanigans and he comes out to the plant to visit us.
Sometimes you get real lucky finding co-workers that make the usual grind of work easier to tolerate and keep your sanity.
Dan
BTW...rate this thread Gang, some great stories are on it!
One day i was leaving for work, opened the back door and about 2' right in front of the door was a SNAKE. I had already taken a step out the door when I saw it but my first step never touched the ground. Took care of him with my trusty garden hoe. Dont remember what kind of snake it was, but im sure it was only a chicken snake. The next day I cut a pc of rope and put it in the same place the snake was the morning before. ( Going to give Mrs B a charge). About 2 hours later Mrs B hadn't gone out the back door yet but I came walking around the corner of the garage to go into the house---forgot about the rope and almost had a heart attact with my own BS ---Buzzard
Was working @ GD, General Dynamics - Ft. Worth, mid 60's. This new engineer fresh out of school bought a new VW Bug & was braggin' bout the 31 mpg it got. When we had enuff of it, a few of us went out & poured a gallon of regular in his tank every few days & told him the mileage might increase as the Bug got broken in.
Sure nuff it soon went up to about 45 mpg & he really let us know. Was spending more time talking about his gas mileage than working. Couldn't stop talking about it!
Then we began siphoning out a little gas at a time over a few days each week & after a while we asked him how his MPG was going now the Vdub was getting broken in. Well he got real quite like & very busy with his work at hand: said he hadn't measured it lately.
Buzz, quit chopping them poor little snakes up with that hoe. They eat Bugs, you know.
Originally posted by Red Hornet
Buzz, quit chopping them poor little snakes up with that hoe. They eat Bugs, you know.
Cheers Y'all,
-RH
YOU THE ONE THAT DID THE VW THING. ----I dont kill um anymore unless the get in the garage. If i didnt kill them in the garage----Mrs B would kill ME. I just swept "Bubba" out of my shop with a broom the other day. Note---If you cut a watermellon in half, jack a pickup up, put a half under each rear wheel---It takes longrer to get the truck moving --Thats what somebody told me--anyway--Buzz
As far as harmless snakes go, i catch em off the road & brang em home & let em go in the pasture to scare the gophers. Buzz Tails [rattlers] are different. Shoot em on sight here on the prop cause got three long nosed Lassie Collies. Kill about three a year & save the rattles. A bullet is cheaper than a vet bill.
Watermelons -- if i recall those big ones from Weatherford are called Texas Diamond Backs. They are dark green with black Diamond Back rattler markings on them. A small one goes about 80 lbs.
They still got them watermelon stands in Texas in the summer? My grandma always told me when a kid i had so much dirt in my ears they would sprout watermelon seeds.
Work related Fiascos...
Had any jobs when you were a kid they sent you searching for a left handed monkey wrench or a box stretcher ...my stories latorrr, it's past my bedtime here!
Originally posted by Red Hornet As far as harmless snakes go, i catch em off the road & brang em home & let em go in the pasture to scare the gophers. Buzz Tails [rattlers] are different. Shoot em on sight here on the prop cause got three long nosed Lassie Collies. Kill about three a year & save the rattles. A bullet is cheaper than a vet bill.
Watermelons -- if i recall those big ones from Weatherford are called Texas Diamond Backs. They are dark green with black Diamond Back rattler markings on them. A small one goes about 80 lbs.
They still got them watermelon stands in Texas in the summer? My grandma always told me when a kid i had so much dirt in my ears they would sprout watermelon seeds.
Work related Fiascos...
Had any jobs when you were a kid they sent you searching for a left handed monkey wrench or a box stretcher ...my stories latorrr, it's past my bedtime here!
Cheers,
RH
Havent seen many watermelon stands lately but the is always someone with a pickup or a trailer load on the side of the road. There's one about 1/4 of a mile from the house this morning. Left handed Monkey wrenches --My trainee and I were cleaning off the work bench one afternoon. It had lots of grease and pipe dope on it. I gave the trainee a polystyrene cup and told him to go out side and get us a cup of perchlorethylene to clean the table. When I told him that everybody stopped what they were doing to watch. When he filled the cup the bottom fell out of it before he could turn around (with about 10 people watching him). He came in and told me " Damn you Don, I knew better than that before I did it. I guess he was just good at following directions. ----Buzz
Was painting a red table one time & had some paint thinner in one of those little plastic Solo party cups ...AND... was dranking some red wine in another exacto-sameo cup setting on the same bench.
After some paintin & some drankin i laid down the brush & went into the house to answer the phone. Came back & picked up the cup and took a swaller. Wrong cup! Spit it out but some got down my gullet!
Survived though & mebee "vaccinated" in sum manner cause us high school guyz used to siphon gas from parked cars when low on dough & in need of the five-finger discount.
Chemical Co. Capers (or other work related fiascos)
-----anyway I put a pc of wood in the carton to give it some weight and taped a pc of cream colored paper over the see thru window (it was vanilla ice cream) and put it into the freezer
---At the time we had a contractor janitor working there that was a chow hound---couldnt leave anything on the lunch table or the refridg, she would eat it. A few minutes latter she was sitting in the office talking to my working buddy. I stuck my head in the door and told him "There is a little more of that Blue Bell left, if you want some you better get or the graveyard shift will" and closed the door. About 30 minutes we were sitting in the office--heard a blood curdling screem and something hit the window of the lunch room. She had found the snake. Dont remember what she called me but it wasnt honey
---About 3 or 4 years after I retired we were on a bus trip to one of the Louisiana casinos. There she set---when she saw me she came running over gave me a big hug and started to eat on me about the snake --AGAIN
---Buzzard
Fun Thread To Read
His boots and socks couldn't be saved,he left them outside and drove home barefoot. The following Monday there's a small puddle around them,the oil "unsoaked" itself from the boots.
Re: Snakes!
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