New Scenery, New Friends, and Jody.

It's been awhile since my last update... And as usual, I have no excuses. Hah! Well, things have been a bit crazy, and our access to internet is kind of unreliable. But really, not a good excuse.

For starters, we've moved! (Again.) We're now a couple hours west of Oklahoma City, in a charming little town called Elk City. I actually really like it here... There are things to do! Restaurants, bars, a dance club, pool halls, shopping, coffee shops... I could go on. The people are really friendly, and it's just a nice place to call home for now. Pryor was nice, but this is just more home-ey.

Well, I guess I could call it home-ey, if we lived in a home. Since the length of this job is unknown, we couldn't get into an apartment. We may only be here a few weeks, so we've settled into a kitchenette room at the Travel Inn... Not my first choice for lodging, but it'll do. It's nice to have a kitchenette as opposed to a room with just a microwave... But the kitchenette leaves much to be desired. Only one of our two burners works. There is no stove, although we bought a toaster oven that works like a dream. Counter and cabinet space is limited, to say the very least. And the sink is itty-bitty, and too close to the walls. My elbows get sore from banging into the wall when I do dishes. But, we have a king sized bed, so that's a plus!

Another up-side to living in a motel is being close to the other pipeliners. It's nice to have interaction with other human beings. I cook dinners, we go to the bar together, we shoot paintballs out of a slingshot... It's nice to not feel so isolated anymore. And the guys are all really nice... I don't feel like the girly-girl in a room full of dudes. I've been doing some of their laundry, so there's a little income in that.

In the time we've been here, I was introduced to the ugly side of pipelining: Jody. It's a term used mostly in the military, that mainly refers to a man or a woman (since Jody is a unisex name) that is watching your homefront while you're out defending the homefront. Pipeliners are on the road for months at a time, often not going home to see their families. The time apart strains marriages and relationships. I know Skip and I have more issues when we're apart than when we're together. One of the guys on this project has gone through some rough times with his wife... No doubt a product of the distance and distrust that this lifestyle brings. They're getting a divorce, and he took his vacation time to pack up his things, and spend time with his kids.

This whole situation kind of hit me, and put bad thoughts in my head. No one ever wants to think, "What if that happens to us?"... But it enters your mind. At least, it entered my mind. I sincerely hope Skip doesn't plan on doing this traveling job for a great portion of his life. The money is great, and it's nice to see new places... But it's really not conducive to a family. I want to have kids someday, and I want to settle down. The last 6 months have been nothing but me really wanting a stable life... To be in one spot for more than a few months. I'd love to have a home with pictures on the wall and flowers on the porch. I'd love to have furniture, I'd love to live near my friends. I couldn't imagine raising kids in hotel rooms. But then again, I couldn't imagine raising kids a thousand miles away from their father, by myself.

I hope the economy picks up, so Skip can find a job that doesn't travel so much. I don't want to think about what this lifestyle could do to us... I don't want to think of all the tough times that might lie ahead for us, should he choose to do this long-term. I honestly don't know how my grandparents did this for so long while my grandpa traveled as a lineman. I guess their success is like my inspiration. If they can do it, then I guess we can too.

My internet access is now limited to time spent in a coffee shop... And quite frankly, I've been here too long. Three lattes is my limit, I think. Until next time, my faithful readers!

--Malaya

Just Part of the Lifestyle...

Last night, Skip got news that the project may be put on hold for an indefinite amount of time. Apparently the construction crews haven't been able to get work done because of the weather, which has held up the surveying crew from getting things done. They were to have a meeting this morning to discuss the official decision, which would determine whether or not the surveying crews got laid off. We spent the whole evening more or less on edge, Skip thinking the worst and hoping for the best, and me just trying to be a positive little ray of sunshine.

Skip went into work this morning as usual... And less than an hour after he left, he came back home.

There still isn't a 'definite' answer. The guys are still employed, but spent much of today doing absolutely nothing. Skip was in the hotel with me all day. They apparently decided to push through 29 road bores, or places where the pipe has to go underneath a roadway, in the next 3 weeks or so. This leaves very little work for the survey guys, as they more or less just sit in the truck and watch them push pipe through the ground. The chances of them keeping the surveyors out here are pretty slim, as there's not much sense in paying them to do nothing. They may end up sending them home, and then bringing them back in a month or two when the ground has dried up enough for the construction company to work on the right of way. For now, though, it's mostly up in the air.

Just as quickly as we got sent here, we could be going home. My life may, for a brief time, no longer be 'On the Line.' This is very typical of pipelining. I'm really not too surprised.

This, of course, throws a wrench into a lot of things. For One, we just spent a small fortune renting a car to get me and the dogs out here. For Two, I just told Publix (my former employer) that I'd be gone for the next six months or more. Three, my grandpa will be about 45 minutes away in Tulsa receiving concentrated/pin-point chemotherapy for his cancer over a period of the next 4 weeks. Four, we really have no affordable place to stay, as the hotel is costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 a month. But getting into a lease isn't necessarily practical, either, as he may get sent to Oregon or Texas or anywhere else in the contiguous 48 states at the drop of a hat.

For now, the tentative plan is to pack up once he gets officially laid off, and head for his mom's house in Missouri. There, we are at least centrally located in the US, so wherever he is sent next isn't a ridiculous road trip away. Hopefully I'll still be able to come to Tulsa for Pap's treatments... Really, that's one of my bigger concerns. I'm the only member of our family out this far, and he really sounds like he wants me there for after these procedures. I've already prepared my Big Girl Panties for this whole situation, because quite frankly, it terrifies me. It's not easy thinking that I'm the closest next-of-kin should anything go wrong. But... That's a story for a whole other blog post.

So, here I am. Waiting for news, good or bad. This kind of thing happens every day in this line of work, but I really wasn't anticipating it so soon. I haven't even been here one full week. Had I known it would be this soon, I would have stayed in Fort Myers a little while longer. But... We can't live in the "coulda-woulda-shoulda's", right?

All that aside... I love this kid to death. He's currently laying on the bed, and in a little voice, saying, "Baaaaabbbbbyyyyyyy, do yooou know how beautiful you aaaarrrreee?" He's such a weirdo. But he makes me laugh, and I love that. At a time when I want to worry and freak out about everything, he constantly assures me that everything is going to be okay.




"It's gonna be okay, babe. I got this."