I finished my long stretch of working with no days of. I worked off yesterday evening. Yesterday I woke up at 4:40 AM and left the house by 5:15. I got the the refinery fifteen minutes later. When I arrived I went to our central control room to make relief with the Patrick, who worked the night shift.

After Patrick had informed me of the night's events he headed out and I with two "board people." They are the folks who actually run the units in our area. They both sit in front of 7 or 8 computer screens, monitoring, and running things. Ours is one of only one of a number of such boards in the central control room.

After visiting with the guys (one is a gal) on the board, I headed down to the satellite. Two separate progressions work out of our satellite. and both progressions have top operator, two board operators (in the central control room) and three outside operators.

On getting to the satellite, I poured myself a cup of coffee, logged on to the computer, and started getting read for the arrival of maintenance and construction workers who have to come to the top operator to get written permission to go to work. After three cups of coffee I was satisfied that all was ready at my desk. Then I picked up an air monitor, which monitors Carbon Dioxide, Hydrogen Sulfide, the "lower explosive limit" of hydrocarbons (e.g. gasoline, propane, etc...) and oxygen and clipped it on to my shirt. I strapped on my tool-belt, which contains a two way radio, pipe wrench, and pliers, and left the satellite and made a walk through all the areas that we are responsible for. While I made my walk about the area, the outside operators began their much more detailed rounds through their own sections (units) of our area.

My walk about took between 15 to 20 minutes. I came back inside, got some more coffee and returned to my desk and started a very busy day. At the end of the work day I came home to my wife and children.

Later,
Kenith