Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Busy and Business


Today's pic - Jesse's girls.

It is going to be a busy day. I am taking food to the family with the newborn twins. Our church ladies try to do a week or so of meals for mothers with new babies. It serves two purposes. First, it helps the new mom and the other members of her family. Second, it is a good excuse to go visit the new baby or in this case babies. I have been pretty excited waiting my turn to do dinner for the family and seeing the twins. I plan on making my infamous chicken enchiladas which are just PDG. I will do refritos and Mexican rice as side dishes. Keep in mind that I am feeding about 12 people in one family. As I type this, I am cooking beans and boiling chicken.

To add to the day, my daughter-in-law called and asked if we could keep GBN1 for a few days. That is certainly not a problem. I look forward to getting her to myself. Toby did ask if this was going to be like “The Ransom of Red Chief” where they won’t take her back, but he was just being funny. Working out the logistics of picking her up was a bit more of a problem. We decided to meet in Chickasha this evening and make the swap – no problem. I just have to get myself in gear to fix dinner and get it to the twin’s family. Then get myself on the road to pick up Red Chief.

In yesterday’s comments, Buck said, “So, Lou...are you and Toby moving to Dubai? What's the office buzz? Enquiring minds are DYING to know!!” Well, Toby does not have an inside track on what the CEO is doing or why, although he and Cheney were close at one time – not! Toby did have some thoughts on this latest Halliburton move. Halliburton is big in North America which is mostly natural gas production. The price of natural gas is not as steady or booming like oil production. They need to be where oil production is growing. Toby thinks this is a marketing strategy. The CEO needs to be where he can schmooze new businessmen more easily and be more competitive.

For those of you who do not know, Halliburton is not an “oil company” so to speak. It manufactures oil and gas drilling equipment. At one time Halliburton had a patent on certain drilling equipment, but now there are several other companies that provide similar oil field services. Duncan, OK, is the home base where Mr. Halliburton started his company. When Houston became the big oil center, much of the company was moved there for obvious reasons (easy access and travel – center of oil boom). Duncan is still a big manufacturing center. When other people are fretting over the high price of gasoline, people in Duncan are doing well – employment here is high. Recently, four new manufacturing centers have opened around the world where oil and gas production is growing and labor is cheap (Mexico, Malaysia and some other places). Wherever there is big oil and gas production, you will find Halliburton. Toby is currently on a rotation with several other Halliburton employees to be sent to other parts of the world to do accounting and office management. Halliburton sent Toby to Italy several years ago. This summer he is up on the list to be sent out again. Depending on where he goes (and if he goes), I may or may not get to travel with him. There are many places that are considered dangerous and travel is limited. So, to answer Buck’s question – It is doubtful that Toby would be sent to Dubai, but it is always possible. More likely, he could be sent to Malaysia. He jokes about being sent to Algiers and some remote area of Russia. Of course, he teases me about wanting to move to Alice, TX. Please Lord, anything but that!

1 comment:

Buck said...

Great answer to yesterday's question, and I thank you, Lou. I was semi-joking about y'all moving to Dubai. But, as you well know, anything is possible in business. Probable is another story altogether, though.

There aren't many (if any) places in what used to be known as The Third World I'd want to go work in today. Lord, how things have changed...