I was last night on my last of 4, 12Hr night shifts. At about 04:00 I was needing to concentrate on a problem that was happening to the process, so I decided to put some music on (Nickelback – All The Right Reasons). Turned the volume up and enjoyed the sounds while I checked my adjustments to the process on the monitors. All was good with the world.
Unknown to me, a wagon driver (we fill H2 and CO2 trailers as a by product) had come into the control room with a problem he had, I hadn’t noticed him and he stood behind my seat and put his hand on my shoulder. Well f**k me did I jump, totally out of my chair (music far too loud to notice if I screamed or not – probably did though) and I nearly punched the guy, I had my arm pulled back and fist clenched ready to let fly – Flight or Fight syndrome, I must be a fight.
I have never in my life had such a fright, it took at least 30 minutes for my heart to stop racing. The driver had to sit down as he was pissing himself laughing so much.
I’ll certainly never forget that one, any one else had a massive fright and survived the consequences. It’s funny now but wasn’t at the time.
Andy - SDDW