Here’s a post I’ve been meaning to write for a long time about the work I used to do in the diving business. Although I worked for several different companies during those years the images below are from one company in particular. It’s name was Santa Fe Engineering and Construction and I worked in the Diving Division as a Systems Engineer and a Dive Controller. The company is no longer in business under that name as far as I know because it was bought out and absorbed by some huge offshore company in Dubai in the middle east. That put me out of a job but it was no big deal at the time because I had been offered a better job with another company.

The first picture is a view of one side of the diving complex with the diver’s living quarters (steel pressure chambers) underneath and the diving bell being hoisted over the side into the water in the Gulf of Mexico. The arrow in the photo is pointing to me watching the hull clearance as it’s lowered down. The divers lived in the system for up to 30 days at a time where they stayed under constant pressure equal to the water depth we were working in. This allowed them to save all of their decompression to prevent the bends until the end of the job. This also allowed them to stay underwater using the diving bell for up to 8 hours at a time where they worked in shifts. Notice the 20,000 pound anchor on the vessels deck in the foreground, there were eight of these used to stabilize and hold the position of the ship we were on.

Two divers could ride to the sea floor in the diving bell at one time where one would go outside and work for 4 hours and the other one would stay inside to tend the hose and the diving bell controls, then they would swap out for 4 more hours before returning to the surface. Then, 2 more divers would transfer into the bell and they would go to the seafloor to continue the work. This type of diving was called “total saturation” and allowed underwater work to be done around the clock, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Up to 8 divers could live inside the system at one time. The quarters were extremely cramped, but the divers pay was extremely high.

Total saturation meant that the divers body tissues could absorb no more gases no matter how much longer they stayed down, allowing a fixed amount of decompression at the completion of the job. Sometimes it took to up 3 days of slowly releasing the pressure in the chambers before the divers could safely emerge from the system. It was not very much unlike going into outer space actually, if the diving system were to become quickly depressurized the end result would be deadly, sort of like losing cabin pressure in a space capsule.

This next photo shows the back side of the system and most of it’s auxiliary equipment, including hydraulic power units, air compressors, an emergency chamber, breathing gas bottles and much more and also the control room sitting on top. That’s the small white building with the 2 rear access hatches open. Again the arrow in the photo is pointing at me. That’s an offshore oil drilling platform off in the distance

It took a shitload of equipment and personnel to put men on the bottom to do this type of work where only one man could work at a time. Although the vessel we were on was capable of doing many different roles, when diving was going on the entire crew of up to 300 men did nothing but support for that one task including technicians, mechanics, cooks, clerks, welders and riggers.

Below is a photo of the inside of the control room where 2 dive controllers would sit and converse with the divers on the bottom and in the living quarters. They had a lot of responsibilty because they had to monitor the divers environment pressure and control the mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and other gases in the divers breathing air. They also had closed circuit tv monitors and specialized radio equipment. You can see part of the diving bell thru the window.

The job that these photos were taken from was actually the trial runs for this particular diving system as it had just been completed construction. Everything had to be thoroughly tested on the job site before it could be certified safe to use as life support capable. At this point in my career I didn’t normally work offshore very much, not like I had used to. I was now only going out for initial trial runs because I was in charge of construction of the control rooms and the final asembly of all the major components. That was all done inshore at the companies main base where we completed 5 of these multi-million dollar systems. They were capable of being broken down into it’s smaller components and then reassembled and used at almost any location around the world.

Most often they were used in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea and in the middle east but I was always on call to go wherever they were to trouble shoot or help with technical problems that may come up. I loved doing this type of work, it was actually a lot of fun and the pay was damn good too. Not to mention traveling to lots of cool places. One job I was on I spent over a year in Europe. Eventually, after 12 years I did get sick of it and after missing dozens of family holidays and spending time at home with friends I gave it up.

Hope you guys are having a good weekend! The N.O. Jazz Fest started yesterday and I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to go or not. If I do, I’ll certainly get some photos and video to post!

My grandmothers house is just about to be sold, my mom put it up for sale several months ago and soon a new family will be moving in. It’s an old “shotgun” style house built in the old New Orleans tradition, raised on short blocks just 2 or 3 blocks from the Mississippi River in old Algiers and near the old Naval Support base. It’s just across the river from the old French Quarter area. I have a lot of fond memories of the place as a child, playing in the yard, Easter egg hunts given by my french speaking Grandfather with pocket change given out as rewards and wonderful cajun style cooking from my Grandmother’s kitchen. Chasing the seemingly millions of dragonflies that fluttered about, getting bathed in a galvanized steel tub out in the backyard on balmy summer nights, and my Grandma’s delicious, sweet tea poured over ice with an unlimited amount of love and affection. Those were some good days and I miss them.

My grandfather was a strong, handsome man, a fighter and a lover and a gambler. He worked for years in the offshore oil industry and had quite a reputation as a ladies man. My grandmother was a home maker that knew how to cook and sew and had a strong sense of self. She was well loved and respected and always gave, always sacrificed, never asking anything in return. I was pretty lucky as a child, I guess I knew it then and I know it now. Those days will never return, but at least I have most of the memories and old photos to remind me. I hope the new family moving in will appreciate and enjoy their new home.

Curse the Children, Make Them Cry

I’ve been awfully busy lately and I have a new project up that I’ve been working on in my spare time, it’s a new website and it’s called Evil Six if you want to check it out. Yes, I decided I wasn’t spreading enough evil goodness so I dropped down a number and started a new site for fun. It’s intended to be a sort of tongue in cheek, “poke evil in the eye” look at news, movies, videos, people and events, past and current.

This fake movie poster I made up is part of my latest article about none other than Alec Baldwin and his recent embarrasment, and the site also features polls to vote on various articles and subject matter. Check it out!

I’ve got tons of new sites and blogs that I’ve done in recent months listed over at BGW! Way more than I want to list here, but here’s a link to my updated portfolio. Here are a couple of links to a some of the latest ones though. Mahlers on Safari who is an American mother living in Tanzania, Africa with her 2 children, another new one for Afro Nerd featuring Steve Urkel, a very nice recipe blog for Janet is Hungry, her beautiful food photos always make me so hungry! And a very well written political commentary blog called The Dishpan Chronicles written by The Kitchen Window Woman.

And, how about this? Gary’s Condors has collected over $2,000 toward the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life fund drive and event. That’s pretty impressive and kudo’s go out to Sara for setting it up.

Hey, hope you guys have a nice weekend! The weather here looks to be pretty nice, I know I’m going to enjoy it!

I’ve been listening to all the talk (who hasn’t?) about Imus’ racist remark and it’s true, his sorry ass should be run off the radio. He is a racist prick and his feeble apology isn’t good enough to excuse what he said. I’m sure he can get a job as a radio jock for some neo-nazi, white supremacist hate group because that’s right where he belongs.

I’ve noticed though, that no one seems to have been offended by the fact that he called a group of young female college students ho’s! Black or white, this is just wrong on so many levels all by itself. Where does this bastard get off using such a derogatory term to describe young, hard working, college age athletes. These are peoples daughters, not Vegas hookers for craps sake. I can tell you this much, if I had a college aged daughter and she happened to be on the Rutgers basketball team, I would want to kick his sorry fuckin’ ass. I would like to see his reaction if his daughter had been called a “ho” by some loud mouthed racist lout on national talk radio. Bastard! Eat shit and die!

Ok, now for something fun! You guys just have to try out this hilarious Flash game, see how many tries it takes you to catch the worm. Post your scores in the comments, it only took me 5 tries. Lets see you beat that! Bet you can’t! Make sure your sound is on too!Catch a Worm Game

Sara over at Life is a Journey is sponsoring a team relay for one of her co-workers who has been diagnosed with stomach cancer thru the American Cancer Society. You can check out the site; Gary’s Condors that I helped set up for news and information on the event to be held in Utah on May 4th and 5th. You can make your donation thru Paypal, a Paypal account isn’t necessary, most debit and credit cards are accepted. Please give to a worthy cause, even if it’s just a few bucks or whatever you can afford!

Cancer is a subject that hits close to home with me, my wife died from breast cancer over 10 years ago and it was a very painful experience that I’ll never forget. Early diagnosis is the key to survival!

When Newbie Vampires Strike!

I took my final chemo injection last week, so I went in for some blood tests this morning to get the final results of how well the treatments have worked and I ended up getting a newbie phlebotomist to draw my blood. And now I feel like this guy!

I had a bad feeling right off when she didn’t seem to know her way around the computer interface as she looked up what tests I needed. I definitely knew something was wrong when she only had 3 vials to be filled. On a normal visit, they usually fill about 5 and today they were supposed to be doing several extra tests, but she insisted that was all. After she finished drawing the blood, I kept insisting that something wasn’t right. She had to pull the needle out to go look at her computer again and finally realized her mistake. So she had to stick me again to get the rest of the necessary samples. I ended up getting needle stuck twice! In the same arm! grrrrrrr!!

At least she hit the vein on the first try each time. She wound up taking about 9 vials all together, and I think she left me with just a few drops. I don’t really mind getting blood drawn, It’s become a routine thing with me the past few years but having to do it twice in one sitting is not so nice, dammit!

Ahh well, it’s almost all over and I’m actually starting to feel a bit better now that the chemo is done. It will take a few weeks to start feeling completely normal again, that shit stays in your system for a long time and it will take a while just to recover from the severe anemia. I’m just so happy it’s finally all done and I can resume a real life.

I’ll be looking for full time work at an actual job soon, damn, I haven’t had a “real” job in almost 5 years! I’m looking forward to it! Back in the rat race!

Have a happy hump day and don’t forget to donate!!!

I don’t know why Islamic Muslims think they will be rewarded with a harem of virgins at their disposal when they die and personally I really don’t care, but this photo made me laugh out loud.

If you think your “god” will reward you for being an evil, murderous, son of a bitch, it’s time to go “god shopping” is all I can say. And have your brain removed for forensic study…

Local Council Woman May Be Delusional
Sometimes an idiot comes along that really grabs my attention, and seriously pisses me off. There’s a story in the local New Orleans newspaper today about a city council woman named Cynthia Hedge-Morrell that was stopped by a Louisiana State Trooper for traveling over 100 mph on the shoulder of the road and weaving in her city owned SUV while she had a “blue light” flashing. When he stopped her she yelled at him “Do you know who I am? . . . What the hell are you stopping me for?” Apparently this isn’t the first time she’s been stopped under similar circumstances. This womans main claim to “fame” is that she was once a school principal and is the wife of La. State Representative Arthur Morrell. It’s good to see that we have such “quality” people with “god complexes” and who think they’re above the law running this city. Her “excuse” was that she was late for a meeting. Now there’s a good reason to risk the lives of everyone else on the highway. Link to the article

Yeah, like New Orleans doesn’t have enough problems, the state police have to deal with morons like this. I’m disappointed that the police didn’t haul her sorry ass in to give her a DWI or blood sample test to see if she was drunk or on drugs! Feel free to email her here: CHMorrell@cityofno.com if you want to give her a piece of your mind.

Here’s a nice parting shot for Papa Johns, I got this in my email the other day advertising their “Easter Special” and since we all know how I feel about their lousy ass service, I thought I would put it up. Apparently they think we should associate eating pizza with the resurrection of Jesus, LOL How frikkin lame is that! “Light the candles, say the prayers and pass the pizza!”

Have a fun weekend!