This post is going to start two weeks ago, because I said so. Last week I returned to work after two months of being out due to an optic nerve palsy. I had scheduled my routine eye injection for Friday, so I only had to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Let me tell you, I was so out of shape that by the time Friday morning rolled around, I was HAPPY to get the eye injection and not have to walk another day. My legs and feet hurt so bad that I had to take a tylenol when I got up Friday morning.
The following Monday was Labor Day, a federal holiday, so lots of people got it off. Of course, Mrs B works retail so she didn't. So I was home alone for the day. You know what I did? I watched Cheers for 7hrs straight. Cheers is a sitcom from the 80's and 90's. By the time Mrs B got home I felt like a zombie and realized it was a complete waste of a day. I was worn out still from work (3-4 days ago!) that I didn't care. I just enjoyed sitting on the couch doing absolutely nothing. Ahhhhh.
Then Tuesday happened, da da dum! I was assigned to a job that I could do by myself with the gps equipment about an hour away. The vehicle I was to use had a slow leak in one of the tires but as long as we pumped it up each morning, it was good to go. Well, 10m minutes from the job site, the patch on the hole gives up the ghost and the tire goes flat in 60 seconds. That van is so noisy that I didn't hear anything, but the steering immediately went supah wonkey and I pulled over. Sure enough, that tire was dead and I could feel the air coming out of the hole. Took me an hour to change that tire. It was big enough that I couldn't lift the spare back on, but thankfully a local cop stopped by and gave me a hand. I was sweating like a pig and upset as all get out (they KNEW the tire had a slow leak but didn't want to get it properly fixed) but at least I was only 10minutes from the site and could get going and grump to myself in the woods in peace. I even told the cop that the day just HAD to get better.
Ohhhhhh. I get to the site (which I remind you is an hour from the office) only to realize I've forgotten a vital piece of equipment that I need to do the job. I call the office and they send someone with it to meet me half way at a local town office. I'm waiting and waiting and finally text the guy, asking where he is. He tells me he is there and wondering where I am. He starts describing what he is seeing and I get a sinking feeling in my stomach. There are two towns that both start with Green but have different endings. He had gone to the wrong town. I let the office manager know and that point he said to just come back, as it was a complete waste of time. So I get a second job, just 20minutes from the office.
And somebody had been messing with the equipment and changed some settings, so it wasn't working right. But I didn't know WHAT settings had changed. I played around with what I knew, but by 3pm I was so angry and frustrated and my feet hurt (I had walked about a mile at this point looking for control points) that I just called it a day. Once back at the office the new guy (who is a licensed surveyor from Texas of all places) showed me what he had changed and what I needed to do to get it back to working order. I didn't even punch him for messing around with equipment that he doesn't know how WE use. I came home, ate dinner and was in bed by 8pm. I was ready to quit my job or do murder or both.
AND THAT WAS TUESDAY.
Wednesday was just another day of getting back in the saddle. I was again by myself, but doing a job that is ok for a two man crew and physically challenging alone. I did it but I wasn't very happy and once again, I just hurt. A body really gets soft in two months and I am finding out just how soft.
Thursday I went back to the job I was supposed to do on Tuesday. No flat tires, no forgetting equipment, nothing. Everything went well. Except. There was a company outing at 1pm at a local beer garden (I don't know what they call them overseas), basically a place for the people of the company to socialize and drink a couple of adult beverages. Paid from 1pm to 4pm. I was told however that the job I was doing needed to be done by tomorrow and to "budget your time accordingly". Which meant that I needed to stay out today to make sure I got enough done to finish up tomorrow. Which meant I got back at 3pm and missed the entire thing. So while my coworkers were getting paid to swill beer and sit on their *&^% asses (like the office people don't sit on them enough!) I was out working in the woods. And the kicker is I'm not sure I'm going to finish the job up tomorrow anyway. I have to talk to the project manager tomorrow about some stuff.
And that brings us to Friday, ie, today. Except I'm pre-writing all this Thursday evening, so it's "tomorrow" for the me of Right Now. I don't know if I'll be home by 5pm or not and if I'm not, I wanted a record of how this week went down before I forget. And because Monday was a holiday, we don't get paid overtime because we didn't "work" on Monday. So any extra hours I put in are just at the regular rate. Not a very happy feeling. If I'm home before this goes live, I'll update it accordingly. I know you're breathless with anticipation.
Oh hurray, halloo! I was out by 3pm and I finished up the job with no problems. My legs and feet didn't hurt either, so I'm definitely getting back into battle shape. To celebrate such a great thing, I ordered an extra large pizza for the weekend. Half for me, half for Mrs B. So now, no matter how Saturday goes, I'll be ok. I feel like I actually thrived today instead of just surviving. Oh, that is a great feeling.
Saturday is going to be a long day too. I have a Men's Meeting with the guys from the Sunday church at 8am. Immediately after that, Mrs B and I go to the SDA church for service. It is the first Sabbath of the month, which means the Pastor is the one preaching and he almost always preaches until 1pm. After that is potluck, so an hour minimum, if not more. I don't expect to be home before 3 or 4pm. I'm exhausted just thinking about it :-D One good thing is that I don't have a post going live on Saturday, so I don't have to deal with the blog that day.
I can tell I haven't done one of these My Week posts in a long time because the words just came pouring out. Hopefully if I can do one or two of these a month that will help with the deluge of words coming your way. So blessed Sabbath to you and yours.
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