The real reason we went to Texas

We are not total strangers to The Longhorn State ... we lived at 2010 Normandy Street, in Irving, Texas in 1982, because Jeff had work there. That's where we lived when I got hired at FedEx.  It was the year FedEx began offering Saturday service and they needed a few extra people the first couple of Saturdays, so I went to work with my good friend, Roni Lynn and was eventually hired.  We lived near the Dallas Cowboy football stadium ....  even though we never went to a game because we had zero money for that type of entertainment.  It's where we lived when I bought my first blow dryer and curling iron ......  oh..... this is supposed to be about our trip to Texas last weekend........ anywhoo....  the reason we when again is the very same reason we found ourselves in Texas last time, Jeff has work in Port Arthur, Texas.

Jeff works for Barnhart Crane and Rigging.  They have a branch in Dallas, and they ask him to manage a job for them at an oil refinery in Port Arthur.  Barnhart moves B.I.G. stuff.  We are just trying to stay on the team and in the game and keep making money while there is work to be had ....  check check

This big thing, a "Pipe Module", was transported to Port Arthur on a barge.  It is 250 tons. Barnhart will lift it, and place it where it needs to be in middle of the oil refinery.  Which looks like it would be like putting a needle in a haystack to me.  

The yellow crane is a Barnhart crane - in the middle of that oil refinery...  sometimes it takes a few days to put the crane together before they can begin doing what they have been contracted to do

still with me????

By now I had lost the yellow crane and or maybe I just lost interest in the whole explanation ....  this is a wider picture of the refinery ..  there are lots and lots of these places in Texas .... as far off as you can see and in clumps of crowded dirty tanks with cages around them doing necessary things to oil.... oil that we have become dependent on.

 - - for instance - -   these items all have oil in them

Here are a few "oil-tankers" out in the Gulf of Mexico, just outside of Galveston

Still with me???   Even though I've seen it with my own eyes, it is still hard for me to comprehend.

This just in.....  they have one of those big mothas in position

Now it might take 3 days to maneuver it 6 inches

I wish I had a picture of the love of my life doing his thing with his Ironworker garb on ....
ya'll know he is cute in his "get-up" and September can't get here quick enough!