July24 - breakfast at the northern lights

before i left stanley, nd and jim conklin's place, we had breakfast.  he took me over to the local restaurant, the northern lights, and we sat at the morning table. the morning table was a rectangular table in the middle of a sparsely decorated room.  there  was a short ccounter that didn't do much to separate the serving and prep area.  three others were already at the table:  joe, bob and betty. 

the waitress, martha, was a big friendly woman.  not much on standing still, she did her talking while on the move.  her ten year old boy was asleep at the next table, with his head down on his crossed arms.

turns out , bob used to be an architectural draftsman.  he grew tired of being his boss's lackey.  i told him i grew tired of being the boss.  bob now works as a manager for a trucking firm.  one thing there is no lack of in the land of fracking is trucks.  apparently there is a lack of experienced truck drivers.  bob says the worst thing is a kid right out of school who thinks he knows everything.  especially driving tankers full of liquid.  he prefers a driver that's scared, says that they're teachable. 

martha doesn't say much of anything.  she's older, weathered skin.  she eats and listens.

i ask about the gas burn off at the wells.  joe talks a little about the dangers of  different gases.  apparently, h2s is deadly.  the drivers all wear monitors.  they talk of deaths on the job in a way that is almost casual.  it would make any official at alcoa or ornl cringe.