It's colder than...

The forward hull of a capital warship cruising through a dense star forming cloud in the shoulder of Orion...
smiley_smartass.gif
 
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In 1982, I was attending the University of Texas at Arlington (great EE program and for the aerospace guys, they had an enviable wind tunnel) and the off-campus apartment had cable in it. It was Showtime an on came this series of vignettes and this was one of my favorites. Also, it speaks to the cold.

 
I always heard:

a witch's titty in a brass bra
a well digger's tail (never really understood that one)
Years ago when I was right out of high school I worked with a guy who had worked on drilling rigs.

He said the coldest he had ever been in his life was on a rig out in west Texas in the winter... No trees, flat land. Nothing to block the wind for miles and miles.

He related that they took turns out on the deck... A few guys would sit in the shack and warm up for a bit while the others worked.

He wore a bandana over his face to help block the wind. But the vapor in his breath would freeze the bandana to his beard... He said it would take 10 or 15 minutes in the shack to thaw it out enough to take the bandana off of his face.

Old Bob said they were drilling those wells, not digging them... But he figured he had a pretty good idea of what, "colder than a well digger's ass" was all about.

I always think of Bob when I hear that phrase.

Mike
 
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It's so cold that when I speak outside, the words instantly freeze. I have to wait for the spring thaw to hear what I said.
 
a witch's tit in a brass bra, sitting on the shady side of an iceberg, sipping on ice tea, while singing "ode to Alaska".

and it isnt that cold YET.

worst i ever saw, was -34 below with sustained 40mph winds and gust much higher. it wasn't snowing, but the wind was picking up the snow and it was a white out. we were dressed for it, but it was still so bad that we had to take turns getting out of the truck to do a step of the job we had to do. i have NEVER been in a situation before or since that 3 minutes was all i could take. my hands were freezing up to the point that dexterity was lost in such a brief time. "never again" would be too fucking soon.
 
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Years ago when I was right out of high school I worked with a guy who had worked on drilling rigs.

He said the coldest he had ever been in his life was on a rig out in west Texas in the winter... No trees, flat land. Nothing to block the wind for miles and miles.

He related that they took turns out on the deck... A few guys would sit in the shack and warm up for a bit while the others worked.

He wore a bandana over his face to help block the wind. But the vapor in his breath would freeze the bandana to his beard... He said it would take 10 or 15 minutes in the shack to thaw it out enough to take the bandana off of his face.

Old Bob said they were drilling those wells, not digging them... But he figured he had a pretty good idea of what, "colder than a well digger's ass" was all about.

I always think of Bob when I hear that phrase.

Mike
Coldest I ever got on a rig was about 4am midsummer 50 degrees and soaking wet. When it was windy or cold, we put up the wind walls on the Derrick. In the Dakotas they just left them up all winter or all year.
 
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Coldest I ever got on a rig was about 4am midsummer 50 degrees and soaking wet. When it was windy or cold, we put up the wind walls on the Derrick. In the Dakotas they just left them up all winter or all year.
Never worked on one. I considered it. But everybody I knew who had done it told me to find another line of work. The general consensus was that there were better ways to make money.

Mike
 
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My brother drove over the road for a long time. He would pick up timber from Nova Scotia and bring it to New York. It was so cold that it took hours to strap the load safely. He could get a little done and then have to get back in the cab and warm up.