Day 3

The other day I decided to do some research.  I wanted to find out just what company is doing the seismic testing on my road, in an attempt to get some information as to an actual date.  This would then tell me when I needed to harvest my apples, or if I had enough time to let them stay on the trees a few more days.  So I called the biggest gas company here–Shell.  They, although being nice, couldn’t tell me anything, and referred me to another gas company, as well as DOT.  So I called them both and both men were nice, but couldn’t tell me anything.  One referred me to another company, which did seismic testing..  So I called them–all the way to Houston, TX, just to get a local phone number.  Again, another dead end.

After nine long distance phone calls, and no answer to my question, I finally gave up.  It’s pretty scary to think there are so many people and companies out here who don’t know what is going on.(or maybe they do know what’s going on, but they’re not saying anything.)

Then just yesterday, the seismic trucks were coming down the road, with eight workers behind.  In my once-fluent Spanish, I asked a gentleman who was laying the seismic cable.  “Cuando de la fecha?”, I asked.  “No se” was the reply, then pointed to a man in a blue hard hat.  I asked the man in the hard hat;  he couldn’t tell me the name nor give me the phone number of the Project Manager, nor could he give me a business card, yet the company name was clearly designated on the side of his truck  I told him my dilemma.  “Just give me a few more weeks”, I said.  He said he’d talk to his PM when he got back to the office.  

Then a DOT truck pulled up and I recognized my friend I’d seen around.  I asked him, and he couldn’t tell me; he said he was out checking roads to see if they were bad.  My friend let on that he was suspicious of the seismic stuff.  He said they, the gas companies, did it 35 years ago, and laid pipe and much of that is now producing (that’s why there is gas in my area and has been for a while).  He also said he couldn’t see why they couldn’t use the same setup, same pipe, etc.  He, like me, feels that this latest seismic has to do with oil.  

Here’s an interesting observation of the number of vehicles on my road, within a 1 hour time frame, all related in some way to this testing.  
Number of seismic workers: 8
Number of seismic trucks: 3
Number of DOT trucks on the road, checking road surfaces: 3
Number of DOT workers: 6
There was even a truck from downstate, sent by a company to direct traffic, containing four workers, although the only traffic that day was from the other trucks.

Lots of manpower, lots of machinery, and right outside my front door.