My dad is a Tool Pusher on a drilling rig in Colorado. I got an email from him with three pictures attached. You don’t have to understand drilling to get the gist.

We ran 2000′ foot of 9″ casing yesterday, the bottom of it plugged and we had to bring it back out and lay it down. It was full clear to the top w/ drilling mud. Every time the casers would break a joint off here came a 9″ diameter column of fluid 45′ long. People were just totally soaked in it. One guy got his hardhat & safety glasses blown off. They had to wash his eyes out. Oh, and it was around 32 degrees. But everybody was still smiling and doing their jobs. I was pretty proud of them all. I don’t know if brave is exactly the right word, but those guys sure had a lot of heart. They’ll be back tonight and we’ll try it again.

My dad isn’t in any of these photos, but the guy in the green slicker is his best friend, David. They’ve been friends since before I was born.