I GOT IT!!!! changin diapers full of POOH!!! I could scrape out hog pens and fall right in it with a little splatter on the lips thats gross, but o.k.-but get baby pooh on you and I freak out! mybe thats just me!!!!???

 

Had to clean out a central coolant system (oil based). Had to shovel out what the filter missed. Knee deep swarf and thick. The smell was intense. Stayed on you after a shower and your vehicle would smell of it in the AM when it was time to go back to work... It would take about a week for the aroma to subside. - JKE

 

Got you guys beat. Im changing my story.. Worst job was last night fixing the exhaust on my truck. No room in the shop, so did it outside. Rolled over into the biggest pile of dog stuff I ever saw. Could have been an elephant too, I guess.

 

A job I haven't seen mentioned (and I haven't done) is cleaning out the sludge from the big oil tanks in the refineries. The company I work for delivers banks of breathing air on-site to a company that does this work. The guys go in the tank with a vacuum hose and suck up the loose stuff, then they scrape the floor with shovels until it's clean. They're wearing long underwear or regular street clothes under Nomex coveralls, under Tyvek coveralls, under a rainsuit which is duct taped to their boots, rubber gloves, and respirator. They say in winter it's not so bad. In summer they can only work about 1/2 hour at a time inside the tank before they need to be relieved. Only one man in at a time, in a harness with a rope going back to a man at the access hatch watching the air line and listening for the low pressure alarm and keeping an eye on the man in the tank. Hard work that's dangerous and unpleasant. They say it pays real well, but I'm not interested.

 

Hottest
Safah Field, Oman
Working around running gas compressors, wearing 6 oz. Nomex with an ambient temp of 139 deg. F.

Smelliest
Ponca City, OK
Re-tracking a JD-850 Dozer that jumped the rails in the part where the honey-hunters (septic vac. trucks) dump. I was a mechanics helper (high school kid), so I stood in the muck and wrestled the rail onto the sprocket while the mechanics stood on the dozer telling me what to do.

Dangerous
Jusepin, Venezuela
Working around 5 (5000 hp) running gas compressors while the flare is puking out little flaming ***** of asphaltines. Fun.

 

and all this time, I thought stirring the 55 gallon drums of burning poo was bad while I was in the Army.... You guys have me beat!

 

Here is my worst. I'm an electrician. While I was an apprentice I did some work for the sewer district in North St. Louis. This one job was to install float levels to turn on a pumping station for a storm sewer. Well we pulled the manhole cover and much to everyones surprise the sewer was full of used, how should I put this..., used rubbers! Hundreds. Even on the steps going down the hole. Turns out there is a cathouse a couple blocks over. Of course there was also that sewer downstream from the rendering plant...

 

I guess on a positive note, you probably couldn't smell the rotton egg smell of "Eau de Sulfer" that hovers over the town! LOL!

 

got a new one, had a horse get out during the night. dont get the phone call untill morning. race down to the ranch and the hose has broken out of its stall, not got out i mean broke out of a wooden/metal stall then found its way through a fence and into the middle of our polo grass field. get there and the horse is messed up, i wont go in to detail. ok called the vet and the owner and we ended up putting the horse down. think my days over no its only 7:30 am 8:00 we get a call they want to figure out what was wrong with the horse. well in order to find out we need to get the horses head to a clinic. we call the vet back up and layed out the tarp and cut away. ened up sending the head in a cooler. thats how my day started.


chris

 

Death notifications are the worst... ever.... no arguement..

Used to be ona SAR Dive team and did a rcovery once of a guy who couldnt remeber that when you inhale and hold your breath, the lungs will pop like a couple of big balloons..... needless to say, the air in the body expands as the ambient pressure decreases. I was 17 at the time, my first recovery, and guess who gets to " ride" the body up? Still cant look at the foam on a glass of Cherry soda with out feeling sick...