Things have been mighty quiet...exactly 180 degrees from where we were the last time I was here. That was a long 4 weeks. People here have told me that I look a lot better now than I did when I left last month. Plus, when I picked up the boss at the airport in week 3 of my last visit, he commented that I looked haggard. But, I thought I was doing just fine. The fact that I burst into tears like a girl when Paula picked me up at the airport with a backseat full of daughters and my grandson notwithstanding. Lets just say I had the best Father's Day [the next day] that I can remember.
Swine flu is a BIG deal here. They've had 35 cases develop in 6 days. That's 35 people out of 90,000 or about 50 or 60 times the infection rate that we have in the US! Not many swine flu jokes around here any more. They're taking it pretty seriously, now.
Went to lunch today and had a mushroom and escargot soup and a conch salad [basically a Caesar salad with some grilled conch on it]. It was all, remarkably enough, pretty good...but it still needed salt. They just don't get it. Salt is a flavor enhancer...it makes food taste better and 'brighter' [but if you can taste the salt, you have too much].
The people here in the refinery have taken a resolute attitude to the condition they're in. The conventional wisdom is that Valero is not going to start it up but will leave it down until they sell it. That is bad news. It could take months or even as long as a year to sell. There is a lot of concern that PetroChina will buy it. Everyone knows that those guys aren't particularly interested in safety, training, and investing back into a place for maintenance. They believe the place will deteriorate quickly [and I agree] if PetroChina takes over. It's not exactly a picture of health at this point.
My only concern is that I may not get anything ont his trip for my "As the Refinery Burns" screenplay that I'm determined to write. Think I'll stir something up tomorrow.
OUT
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