The Marcellus Formation

This is one of the buses that brings the "oil and gas" men back to the Motel 8. The sign on the door reads "Universal Well Drilling". The men are mostly strong, strapping, and young (20s and 30s).  The night shifters started waking up and milling around about mid afternoon.  I talked to the one with smiling eyes when I took Jubie out for her afternoon walk.   He says that they are working up at zelie (zelienople, PA, about 10 miles north of here), drilling for oil.  They are working 2 12-hour shifts, and since their company is about 2 hours from here, they opt to bring them all up here so that they can just work, eat and sleep for the week.  The money is good, he says.  It always is on these drilling and energy projects.  I asked him if the work was hard (I was imagining them down in some well), but he said that he operated the computer and that was easy.

We were in zelie over the weekend and John noticed the Marcellus Oil Shale Plant.  I think that is what it was called.  The sedimentary rock that is deposited here and over into Western New York state is known as the Marcellus Formation and is gas rich.

I have a feeling that there is more to this story.  Here is an article that I found in today's New York Times:  A Shale Gas Boom Brings Change and Stress to a Quiet Town.

"Williamsport (population 30,706) and its neighboring counties are ground zero for gas companies drilling into the deep geological formation called the Marcellus Shale. It stretches across West Virginia, eastern Ohio, Pennsylvania and southern New York, and it contains enough natural gas to meet the heating, electricity and industrial needs of the densely populated Northeast. "

Meanwhile, this is my weed photo for the day.  It is of the tiniest little flower down in the grasses.  I bet the flower in the photo is larger than the real flower was.

I'm collecting weed photos for my "Songs for Nobody" book, due out at Xmas for all my dear friends.  If you're a faithful reader of this blog, you'll get one!  Interesting things can come from spending days on end in a motel room.