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At this rate we'll have a well by 2012. Maybe.
Orion and I have noticed, in our time in Fairbanks, that quite a few of the businesses here seem to regard customers as, at best, a necessary evil, if not something to be avoided at all costs. Any attempt to coddle your customers -- by, say, being on time, or being open the hours that it says on your door, or being friendly, or providing services as advertised -- might encourage them to (God help us all) come back. It's possible that the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce yanks the license of any business caught helping its customers in a timely fashion; that kind of behavior can only encourage the growth of the economy, which will bring more people here, and no one wants that.
In any case, after trying all last summer to get a well drilling outfit out here -- being put off with vague promises of "we're very busy, but we'll be out next month" and then not returning our calls -- earlier this spring we actually got someone to show up in our yard and promise that they'd come out and drill "sometime". Hey, it's not an appointment or an estimate, but at least someone came out to look at the yard, insult our plans, explain that what we wanted wasn't possible but they could probably do this other thing, and then vanished again, as usual. Two months later *sigh*, just when we'd given up hope and started leaving messages at other drilling places in the hopes of maybe, by next fall, getting someone to call us back, the company owner or representative or whatever she is showed up again on Thursday. (Another thing about the unique Fairbanks approach to business is that it's really hard to tell what anyone's specific job at the company actually is -- they could be the owner, could be a delivery driver, could be some other business's delivery driver who's being blackmailed with vague promises of well-drilling, etc.) Anyway, she said they'd bring the drilling rig out on Sunday and they'd start drilling on Monday.
When I heard "bring the rig out on Sunday" I foolishly assumed that this meant Sunday afternoon, not 3 a.m. Sunday night/Monday morning, as actually turned out. I woke up to the dogs going nuts, peeked out the window, saw a giant truck in the yard, went "oh god" and put my pillow over my head and went back to sleep, because I really should have expected this. And now it's 4 p.m. on Monday, I've been sitting around all day thinking they had to show up eventually, and they're still not here. Are they nocturnal? What are they doing? They can't be drilling someone else's well -- the drilling truck is HERE! At least I have a hostage...
I just hope they don't show up and start pounding pipe into the yard at 3 a.m.; I could never tell them to go away, because just getting them here took a year and a half, and the last thing we want to do is start all over again.
In any case, after trying all last summer to get a well drilling outfit out here -- being put off with vague promises of "we're very busy, but we'll be out next month" and then not returning our calls -- earlier this spring we actually got someone to show up in our yard and promise that they'd come out and drill "sometime". Hey, it's not an appointment or an estimate, but at least someone came out to look at the yard, insult our plans, explain that what we wanted wasn't possible but they could probably do this other thing, and then vanished again, as usual. Two months later *sigh*, just when we'd given up hope and started leaving messages at other drilling places in the hopes of maybe, by next fall, getting someone to call us back, the company owner or representative or whatever she is showed up again on Thursday. (Another thing about the unique Fairbanks approach to business is that it's really hard to tell what anyone's specific job at the company actually is -- they could be the owner, could be a delivery driver, could be some other business's delivery driver who's being blackmailed with vague promises of well-drilling, etc.) Anyway, she said they'd bring the drilling rig out on Sunday and they'd start drilling on Monday.
When I heard "bring the rig out on Sunday" I foolishly assumed that this meant Sunday afternoon, not 3 a.m. Sunday night/Monday morning, as actually turned out. I woke up to the dogs going nuts, peeked out the window, saw a giant truck in the yard, went "oh god" and put my pillow over my head and went back to sleep, because I really should have expected this. And now it's 4 p.m. on Monday, I've been sitting around all day thinking they had to show up eventually, and they're still not here. Are they nocturnal? What are they doing? They can't be drilling someone else's well -- the drilling truck is HERE! At least I have a hostage...
I just hope they don't show up and start pounding pipe into the yard at 3 a.m.; I could never tell them to go away, because just getting them here took a year and a half, and the last thing we want to do is start all over again.
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Coming to Showtime - a series about this whole other WORLD of people who only come out between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. For some reason, possibly mob-related, they have moved out of their normal livelihoods in adult entertainment into the various civil engineeringish trades.
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(Anonymous) 2008-06-24 01:17 am (UTC)(link)I attended a wedding this weekend where the priest blessed the rings with holy water. My first thought was that the happy couple could now effectively punch vampires.
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Though now I'm curious - why are you getting a well in the first place?
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