Eye Opening Experience

I'm feeling a bit down in the dumps tonight.
With everything that has gone on for the last few weeks,
how can I not have an empty feeling in my stomach.
At about 1630 hrs today, local time, in the Gulf, I heard the terrible news.
That's right, you probably heard it too by now.
The World Cup is over!
Noooooooooooooo.
Spain won a very low scoring but still exciting game that I'm sure has all of the Netherlands in a funk.
Only 1,460 days till the next World Cup. I'm counting the days.

On a less serious note, I work for a company with a built in strange dynamic.
Our company really comprises 2 separate companies.
One is the oil transportation side, which includes the tug and barges. That's where I work.
The other one consists of oil rig support, which is why our company also operates what are called supply boats.

It could be compared to a NFL football team. One team but really with 2 separate teams, the offense and the defense. Like us, we're all working for a common goal, but also like us, I'm sure there is bickering between the offense and the defensive players at times.

Our company offices are located just a couple of hours drive up the highway from Port Fourchon, the home base for our supply boats. Until recently, most of the tug and barges were strategically positioned in the North East.

We in the tug fleet have always said that the "supply side" has always been the favorite and that was where our company concentrated their efforts and money. Our feeling has always been that we, on the "tug side," have always been treated like the unwanted second cousin you have to invite to Christmas diner.

Just like many business's, the oil transportation side of our company was hit hard, simply because the bad economic environment means people are spending less and traveling less which means their not using as much gas.
Because of that, our budget has decreased to about the size of a kidney stone, so when we order something we need for the boat, it gets questioned, analyzed and eventually turned down.
We accepted that, because we understand these are tough times.
Until now.

Now that our big ugly tug and barge are needed down here in supply boat country, we have looked around at all these state of the art supply boats we own, and we have come to a conclusion, we were right.

See for yourself. Below is our rusty tug boat.


And down here is a state of the art supply boat.

Can you see a difference? These boats are beautiful inside and out. They have the latest technology to operate the boats, the best engines and all the comforts.
They have satellite TV, a flat screen in each room and the whole boat is "wireless."
I mean, come on, they have a helipad for landing helicopters!
We can't even get paint!