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astillarWhile I was out in the field this morning, I walked past Jeff’s rig. I noticed that he was off by himself, walking slowly with his head down. He didn’t even look up at me. It was still early, so I assumed that he was just "low-energy" because he hadn’t woken up completely yet.
When I was headed back to my truck about an hour or so later, I noticed he was still acting depressed, just dragging his feet, eyes on the ground. Normally Jeff’s a fun, chatty guy; he’s always got a raunchy quip or joke. Plus, he’s the only other comic-book nerd out here (which makes us BFFs) so it was especially odd that he didn’t even say Hi to me. I was wondering if he might be depressed about something. Was he having trouble back home, maybe some argument with his wife? It bugged me to see him so out-of-character, but I followed the Man Code and didn’t ask him about it.
This afternoon when I went out to pick up paperwork, he was still like that. This must be serious. Grudgingly, I broke Code and asked him what was going on. Why was he acting so depressed?
Jeff laughed at me for suggesting that he was depressed. He explained.
A couple days ago, some random office lady, while walking out to her truck, had found a pea-sized gold nugget on the ground. She took it to her company’s geologist to see if it was real. Oh yeah it was, and worth a pretty penny too. Apparently this area has both oil AND gold deposits, as if one weren't enough. She didn’t get to keep her find though, since this is tribal land she had to surrender it to some tribal official or whatever. There are very clear rules about what we can do/take from the land out here. Any finds like that belonged to the First Nations tribe, officially. Unofficially though, word had gotten out about the gold and now everyone was looking for the color.
Jeff pulled out a bubble gum wrapper and unfolded it to show me quite a bit of gold flakes he’d found just in the past day or so. That’s why he was walking around with his eyes on the ground and dragging his feet through the dirt! He’s prospecting!
And word must’ve travelled fast, because I began to notice all the other technicians doing the same. Of course they all played dumb and pretended not to have heard about the lucky (unlucky?) office lady. Officially, no one knows anything about any gold. Officially. ;)
When I was headed back to my truck about an hour or so later, I noticed he was still acting depressed, just dragging his feet, eyes on the ground. Normally Jeff’s a fun, chatty guy; he’s always got a raunchy quip or joke. Plus, he’s the only other comic-book nerd out here (which makes us BFFs) so it was especially odd that he didn’t even say Hi to me. I was wondering if he might be depressed about something. Was he having trouble back home, maybe some argument with his wife? It bugged me to see him so out-of-character, but I followed the Man Code and didn’t ask him about it.
This afternoon when I went out to pick up paperwork, he was still like that. This must be serious. Grudgingly, I broke Code and asked him what was going on. Why was he acting so depressed?
Jeff laughed at me for suggesting that he was depressed. He explained.
A couple days ago, some random office lady, while walking out to her truck, had found a pea-sized gold nugget on the ground. She took it to her company’s geologist to see if it was real. Oh yeah it was, and worth a pretty penny too. Apparently this area has both oil AND gold deposits, as if one weren't enough. She didn’t get to keep her find though, since this is tribal land she had to surrender it to some tribal official or whatever. There are very clear rules about what we can do/take from the land out here. Any finds like that belonged to the First Nations tribe, officially. Unofficially though, word had gotten out about the gold and now everyone was looking for the color.
Jeff pulled out a bubble gum wrapper and unfolded it to show me quite a bit of gold flakes he’d found just in the past day or so. That’s why he was walking around with his eyes on the ground and dragging his feet through the dirt! He’s prospecting!
And word must’ve travelled fast, because I began to notice all the other technicians doing the same. Of course they all played dumb and pretended not to have heard about the lucky (unlucky?) office lady. Officially, no one knows anything about any gold. Officially. ;)
