The two of us in an eight by twenty-four foot trailer, twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. It such a lovely idea in theory, but work so gets in the way in actuality. I work twelve hours a day and she works twelve hours a night. At the start we take a little overlapping time morning and evenings, as we are fresh and rested from our time off. The start of a job is also fast and furious and takes its toll quickly.
Soon we find ourselves getting a quick bite to eat, a quick shower, a few quick kisses, and then it's off to bed in exhaustion. In ten days to two weeks we collect, analyze, and evaluate ten thousand feet of twelve and a quarter inch hole drilled into the earth. All of this is accomplished among the din of diesel engines, pounding pumps, and clang banging equipment, twenty-four seven.
To make it even more fun we are cooped up in this little trailer set right on the edge of the drill site a scant fifty feet from the action. A shade less than two hundred square feet sounds fairly large but it's not. You have the data gathering area, the sample cleaning and analysis area, the drafting table, and the kitchen in two thirds of the trail. The other third of the trailer consists of a set of bunk beds, a shower, a small closet, and a small room with a toilet.
One small sliding pocket door separates your work from your sleep. Right down the middle of this whole mess is the only walking space and it's only as wide as a swivel chair. People wonder why mud loggers as we are called are a little crazy. It's a white-collar job that pays well in a blue-collar mud hole. You're your own boss but the redheaded stepchild in the pecking order of life on a location.
And then we reach a casing point. A point where we stop running our asses off and have some time to rest and recuperate. It's now time for someone else to test the hole electronically, shove ten-inch steel casing down it's throat and cement it in place. Other than monitoring gas a couple of times as they circulate the hole out, we are free. We can't leave but our time is our own, more or less.
*****
We changed shifts at seven and my wife Kitty was in bed by eight thirty. By ten we had reached the predetermined depth where we were to set the casing and an hour later my last sample showed enough shale to make a good seat for the pipe and cement to adhere to. An hour later the rig started to pull the drill pipe out of the hole.
I had the paperwork finished and shipped off to the oil company geology lab by the time they started out of the hole. I zeroed my pump stroke counters and set the alarms on my gas meters as low as possible, Any increase in background gas would set off a buzzer and flashing lights.
After a little cleanup of the work area, it was safe enough to kick back and relax. It would take them about ten hours to pull the pipe, another sixteen to eighteen hours to electronically log the hole, and eight to ten hours to trip back into the hole.
We had twenty-four hours of nothing to do except listen for the gas buzzer. I wondered if I could get a shower without waking Kitty up. If I pulled the curtain on the lower bunk that we both used and I was quiet, it was quite possible. A shower sounded great especially if I could slip into the bunk and cuddle my wife afterwards.
I had installed a second buzzer on the wall in the bunk enclosure so I switched it on. Now we were wired in to the gas panel back there just in case the gas went up. There's nothing like being able to sleep with your wife and getting paid at the same time. Sometimes I just love my or should I say our jobs, since we both get paid.
*****
The shower went off without a hitch but I had forgotten to lock the main door to the trailer. I slipped on my house shoes, opened the pocket door, and went to lock up. When I returned the small reading light was on behind the curtain and it was now partially open.
As I closed the pocket door I heard Kitty say, "Hey, there's a naked man in my bedroom."
I leaned in the curtain and smiled at her. She frowned and added, "Oh, it's just my husband."
"Who were you expecting?" I asked with a frown of my own.
"Well, there is this one movie star and then there was this guy I saw on the way down here but I guess I forgot to give them my new address."
"Wench."
"And your point is?" She replied with a big grin.
The bottom bunk is a little over three and a half feet wide, six feet long, and has about four and a half feet of headroom. It's a cramped space but cozy in it's own way. I climbed in on top of her and kissed her deeply. Her arms were trapped under the sheet and blanket; only her head was showing.
She kissed me back with growing passion for several minutes and then twisted her head to break the kiss.
"Get off of me you big lug unless you want to sleep in a wet bed."
"I love it when you get all wet." I told her with an evil chuckle.
"Not that kind of wet, I have to pee."
"Oh, in that case...." I whispered as I got up to my knees. "Do you want me to hold your hand?'
"No, I think I can handle it all by my self."
"You're no fun." I said with a laugh as I got off the bunk. "I like handling it for you."
"I know you do dear but wait until I get back. I'm assuming we've reached casing point."
"Yes we have, so we have a full day to rest." I told her as I watched her pull back the covers.
At work my wife always wears a shift type nightgown and if I knew her as well as I thought I did, she had panties on under it. She grinned at me as she crossed the few feet to the door of the bathroom. I knew that grin also; it was her rest my ass I've got something better in mind grin.
As she closed the door, I pulled the curtain open, crawled into bed, and moved over until my back was against the wall. I'm six feet tall and weight close to two hundred pounds, so Kitty doesn't like to get between that wall and me. She's five six and one twenty, so I understand.
A moment or two later the door opened a crack and a pair of panties flew out to hit me in the face. I laughed before I held them up to my nose and inhaled. While her scent wasn't strong it was there. I love her sweet earthy smell anytime and anyplace.
It wasn't long after that, that the nightgown joined me on the bed. "Hmmmm, now there's a naked lady in the bathroom if I know my wife at all." I called out.
The door opened a crack. "You think you're so smart don't you. I could have hung clothes up in here."
"But you didn't so I'm laying here visualizing my beautiful wife sitting in there on that little pot."
"You would, wouldn't you?"
"Oh yes, I love to look at you and you know it. You love it too, now don't you?"
The door closed and then there was the sound of the toilet flushing. A moment later the door opened and my wife moved out of the darkness to lean on the doorframe. My eyes wandered up and down her slender body, pausing at her face, her small upturned breasts, and the dark vee of hair on her mound.
