Category: work

I Hate Traineee’s!

. . . no I don’t but yesterday was a long one. 7am to 11pm. OY!

Another long day today but not like yesterday.

Btw, if you’ve been following The Aids Ride this year, you can hop over to Jack Hampster and see is photo montage. If you stop by, leave some kind words of encouragement too!

Happy weekend for those of you who work some sort of normal schedule. (who me bitter? naaaaaah)

Looong Day

I worked from 8am till 11pm today. To say I’m tired is putting it mildy. Oy! Teaching a class then a full day of work. I’m tuckered out.

I have a date for Monday though. Details later.

Random Kindness

A co-worker bought me a sewing machine today. I know, you are thinking “what an odd gift.” True enough. This particular co-worker is a newer dispatcher. One I’ve watched blossom from a greenhorn into a very competent caring dispatcher. She works very hard at her job and makes an effort to get it right the first time. How could I NOT like her? I’m always of the mind if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right. I forgot who taught me that but it’s always stuck w/me.

This all came about while we were training for the new fire deployment. Lady N (not her real name, duh!) is a superb knitter and can often be found knitting a variety of items. Knitting takes too much patience in my opinion. An opinion I expressed to her but w/interest. During our down time, we’d often talk about our lives, tribulations, etc. I confided to her that I’d always wanted to learn how to sew. I talked about my earliest memories from childhood. My foster mother was an expert seamstress (spelling?) and made all my clothes up until she passed. She would often include me in her chores of finding threads, fabrics, etc. Very good memories from a time in my life where everything was as it should be. I used to spend hours watching my mother sew. I’ve always thought making your own clothes a very noble sort of thing to do. I know many folks consider it gay but hey, I am gay after all. (Ding Ding! Whatta we have for’em Johnny?)

So Lady N, out of the kindess of her heart, decided to buy me a machine so I could learn on my own. I was am really touched. She doesn’t owe me a thing and here she is buying me such a nice gift. I checked and it’s a pretty decent one too. Not decadent as that’s not her style however, a sturdy well made one that will see me thru my beginnings and well into expertise. (Yeah, I know it’s not good grammar, get over it!) When I asked her why, she said “because you have always been so supportive and kind to me w/o having a reason to be.” My response was well that’s just who I am. She said, “exactly!” Kindness really does go along way.

Tomorrow, I get to bring it home on muni. What? You think it will fit on the back of blue?

Work Work Work II

I’m over this week. Nothing overly exciting just over it. You know how it is. The weekend fast approaching and you get ants in your pants.

I was goofing off w/the camera and snapped this pic of my buddy kristaki. He so ignunt. Didn’t anybody tell him flipping off the camera is ‘so 80’s’? *g*

799 to 802

One of our regular callers died this past week. Harmless lady, just a bit addled by life and a little fuzzy in the logic dept. She would call us almost daily w/some new story about her husband or son stealing from her. (Both of which have been dead for years.)

The way the system works here is even if we know you are a complete loon, we have to send out the first call of the day to confirm you are, in fact, ok. The beat units know them just as well if not better than we. So, it was a bit of a surprise to see a medical call instead of PD at her address. Sadly, they discovered our dear 799 (senile person) was in fact an 802 (dead). All natural mind you. Nothing suspicious. But still very much 802. It upset several of my coworkers. Besides the obvious surprise, we were all very sad. We talk to her so much she almost felt like family. In the end, we decided to send flowers as a form of respect.

We actually have a whole contingent of crazies who call us often. Some worse than others. We have the “voodoo puppet victim” who is the worst offender and always spews obscenities. The lady who claims the KGB is running sex gadget all over her body as a form of mind control. Another sweet lady albeit loony as a jaybird. Then there is the guy who complains about the automated voice on muni buses harassing him wherever he goes. These are just a few of the more noteworthy ones. Sometimes, if we aren’t too busy, we spend time talking to them. Nothing revealing just casual conversation. Usually this serves to calm’em down and life goes on.

So, what’s your crazy person story?

Clarity…

I guess what I should have said is sometimes I’m forced to be a real bitch. And don’t you know I’m good at it too. I don’t like doing it but sometimes it is required to get ones point across. Chicky decided she wanted to loose her ever-loven’ mind on me for a problem that wasn’t of my making. She found out, I’m not quite the easy mark she expected.

I’m reminded of a phrase from Dolores Claiborne, “…sometimes being a high-riding bitch is all a girl has to hold onto…”

Fiction imitates life? Life goes on…

Table for One

For whatever reason, I’m feeling lonely today.

I had two meetings this morning for work so I’m in early. There were too many major decision makers in attendance to blow it off. It would have taken another month to reschedule. In the end, it went smoothly.

I have to start getting ready for the new roommate. I’d forgotten about it until he emailed me yesterday w/some details…ooops! I’m looking forward to it though. I don’t mind living alone but I often prefer having a roomie. And since we already know each other it makes it that much nicer.

Depending on how things shape up in the coming months w/my ride a alongs, I may have to take time off from work to continue my education. Nothing definite yet.

Duty calls.

Nice Moby

This past weekend everyone kept saying how nice I was like it was a surprise. I must admit I was a little taken aback by that. Of course, I’m a nice guy! *g* But, I guess I sorta take that for granted. It’s pretty easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it in my writings.

Work has been a terror this week. WAY too much going on. Our contract negotiations are in full swing and the city is playing hard ball. The union is using my dept as the focus of it’s campaign. Mainly, as we are the extreme compared to other depts. in the city. No word yet on what affect our efforts have had on the process. Only time will tell at this point. We have one more big rally coming up next week. If the turnout is good, it will definitely help.

My friend in the hospital is still not doing well. On top of that, the family has shown up and causing more harm than good. Thankfully, he is still intubated so he is unaware of all this. I’m beginning to lose hope he will recover. Every step forward is met w/two steps back. It has been weighing on my mind a lot this week.

I finally got back into the gym today. I’ve only been once in the last two weeks and it’s been driving me nuts. It felt good but I only got half a work out in. Back and biceps. Tomorrow is quads and calves. I’m still working on the work out tips post and am hoping to have it up over the weekend.

I’ve been so distracted this week, I totally forgot last night was the final contest for the BCC contest. Ooops! I don’t even know who the winners are. How sad is that? Ugh. I’m glad the hard part is over. Now my work drops off quite a bit till June. Hey, I’ll take my breaks anywhere I can get’em.

Duty calls…happy weekend all.