Category: work

Work Hell

I love my job but the constant petty harassment from our management staff is taking its toll on me. I joined the Union to help reform the problem but I just don’t know if I can last that long. The constant daily petty harassment is slowly nawing away my stamina.

We are entrusted with answering emergency life and death calls on a daily basis yet somehow we can’t be trusted for anything else. Management for our building loves to try and control our social behaviors with every rule imagineable. They actively seek out people for the tiniest infraction regardless of whether said person is actually plugged in doing their job. And don’t get me wrong, we need rules to keep order and professionalism. However, when someone is doing their job, LEAVE THEM ALONE!

For anyone not in the know, I work for the Police/Fire dept under th City & County. That means I’m a civil servant. That also means I can’t be terminated by the whim of a managed. I can criticize all I want. Not to mention, if they fired me, I’d park my trailer house (or someone’s) right in front and have every news station in the 9 bay area counties broadcasting my drama on the 6:00 news.

But I’m not bitter.

Random Tidbits

Lets see, not much to report today. Mostly random crap that I feel worth mentioning.

First, Republic of T had a great post regarding the Shiavo case and the Democrats total lack of a voice during the whole process. While I’m normally of the mindset that the “christian-not-right” drive more people to my side than against with all their madness, it would be nice if more than a few Dems. would grow a spine and voice an opinion once and awhile. As I’m writing this, I am thinking originally the Democrats probably thought it was a non-issue and the fact that the republicans latched onto it w/such fervor caught them completely by surprise. As a result, the Dems. are caught w/their jaw open staring in total disbelief at the sheer ignorance of the republican party. Well, thats my hope anyway.

The BCC contest this past Thursday went well. We got 3 more really good contestants. *I’ll have photos of the contest posted by Sunday on the BCC site. There are two more preliminaries to go before the finals so any of you locals who are having thoughts of making a go of it, get off your duff and get down to The Powerhouse next Thursday. You can even download an application to compete here.

TH’s family is in town for the weekend so I won’t get any solo time w/him until at least Monday. I know it is selfish to want him all to myself but at least someone I know has good family ties.

roblog is doing a bit better in his drama as of late. I’m very happy to hear that. I’m trying to squeeze in another lunch in w/him so we can catch up.

I think I discovered a way to create a static html/php page using a plugin I found for WordPress. WTF you say? Static just means its one page instead of several. It would make it much easier for me to copy/past code into the layout of the new template. Thats is kind of low priority right now but I promise I’ll eventually get to it.

I’ve been hitting the gym sporadically but I’m almost back into my normal routine. I’ve lost some strength all over but not as much as I had feared. I got a nice pump today from my chest workout and that put me in a good mood. *G* The eye candy today was better than usual as well.

I was released on the fire side at work which means I can work solo over there now. *We are in the process of taking over dispatching from the Fire Dept.* The down side to that means I’ll be back on the PD side Monday and no more getting off early.

I think thats about it. No deep thoughts today. Just sort in the moment.

Blech Reloaded

I’m still feeling very icky. I thought I was doing better and then last night I had a low grade fever and super sore throat to go w/the coughing. Ugggh! I called the doc and they plan to squeeze me in tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, my voice hasn’t completely come back yet. I’m not going to work today either. Maybe giving the ole voice box a break will do the trick.

The domain is still in flux. Sometime between now and tomorrow it is supposed to be completed. Today would be perfect as I’m off and have time to kill. Daytime TV is sooo overrated. 😛

Double Ugh!

I’m pulling a 16 hour shift today. Two 4 hour sessions w/the first starting promptly at 7:00am and then my regular 8 hour shift. I am beat! The first to teach the incoming academy class and the second for my CPR recertification.

I didn’t really plan it that way. I signed up back when I still had Fridays off. It didn’t really hit me that I was working 16 full hours until I got to work this morning. Technically, I’m not allowed to work more than 12 but since I’m spanning several shifts, no one noticed. *g*

I’m still icky but not coughing quite as much today. I’m hoping I’m back on the mend. I’m sure my long hours today aren’t helping at all. I hate Hate HATE being sick. Can you say CRANKY!?

Ugh! / Ramlings

I’m miserable sick today. I probably shouldn’t have come in to work but I’m here now. I’m in fire training and they have a particularly snotty supervisor on the overlapping day shift. She got her fill of me today after she incorrectly gave me a brief nasal toned speech on an error she thought I committed. I think it surprised her as I am usually very polite and jovial. She’ll think twice before she uses that tone w/me next time though. [1]I say that now, I’m sure she’ll whine to one my sup’s who will have a “talk” w/me. . . whatever

I got a follow up from the clan today. The funeral went over well and no one made an ass of themselves. That was a total surprise. However, Aunt Holy-Roller did make the funeral after all. She was ganghawled by the whole family for her attitude and pissy remarks in the email to my brother. Apparently, word got out she was playing goody two shoes and they weren’t having it. I’m led to believe she burst into tears at the wake after the umpteenth family member gave her an ear full. Gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling.

So, I’m left w/my sorrow and anger right now. I’m super cranky today but managing to hang in there.

A super huge THANK YOU to everyone who sent their thoughts, prayers, and kind words about my father. I am forever grateful for it. Being someone who has never had any close family ties I’m sincerely touched by the support of strangers and friends alike.

References

References
↑1 I say that now, I’m sure she’ll whine to one my sup’s who will have a “talk” w/me. . . whatever

Missing Blog

My apologies I’ve kinda been neglecting the blog this week. Been in a so/so mood since getting back from TX. Probably just need to recharge my batteries.

I’m looking forward to meeting Brat tomorrow. This will be our first in-the-flesh meeting so I’m all excited. He was one of my first blog buddies when I finally ventured into blogging last year. He sounds like he has a busy weekend lined up so I hope he manages to squeeze me in.

Been a bit busy this week as well. Monday & Tuesday are a bit of a blur. I think I was on auto-pilot. Wednesday, was I worked a short day. I’ve started Phase IV of Fire Training. (WTF you say?) San Francisco has a unique agency. When you call 911 for Police/Fire/EMS, the person who answers can help you. We don’t transfer you off to anyone else. We are one of a very few agencies w/the universal call-taker model. However, agencies all over the country are flocking to our Comm center to check it out. We took over Fire/EMS call taking 2 years ago. The last phase (phase IV) is taking over the Fire/EMS dispatch side of things. I’ve been detailed for the last two days. The bad part is I had to switch from evenings to mornings for the classroom part of the training. My body hasn’t been very happy about that. Hasn’t added to my mood one bit.

This is my first sat/sun off and I’m sooo looking forward to it! I finally get to have a semblance of a social life again. Wahooo!

Steady Decline

I was right in the middle of a patting myself on the back for being elected Union Treasurer and Steward at work when the phone rang. Talk about a mood killer. Apparently, daddy-o has taken another turn for the worse. I guess my brothers aren’t giving me all of the info on his condition. Somehow, its gone from just having cancer in his hip to having cancer in his hip, abdomen, and prostate. I was none to happy to discover all the new info this late in the game. My father has gone back to not knowing where he is. Both of my brothers think he is in the last days and urging me to hurry home.

Well, the flight is booked for Thursday. No thanks to my so called friend George, at twice the cost. I had to max out two credit cards. UGH! Shame on me for depending on someone else I guess. George works for an airline and had offered to let me use one of his buddy passes so I’d have more flexibility on dates. Well here it is the week before and he keeps blowing me off.

So rather than call him yet again to firm up, I booked the tickets myself.

Updates on the fly

So tying up some lose ends, I thought I’d update my 15 readers on my so called ‘life’. Lets see… *mumbling. . .’where to start, where to start?…*

Ok, well lets start w/the not so obvious. I blogged a while back about my social life taking a nose dive and putting in some overtime. If anything, just the opposite occurred. For a change, guys seems to be crawling out of the woodwork vying for my attentions. I’m flattered to no end but I’m not looking for anything serious right now. *course, it’s always that way. when you need’em can’t find a single one. You don’t need’em and your scrappin’em off w/a stick*

Anyway, I need to keep focus and take care of myself for awhile. And between volunteering my time for the BCCs website, making up w/an old friend, and meeting a few new ones, I just ain’t had any free time to work over. And with more than a little guilt, I’ve been neglecting the gym a bit too. I’m just now getting to a point where I’ve started putting in the OT. *including tonight* Just too many activities pulling me in odd directions. I guess I’ll use February for my OT month. The charity is going well. Thank GOD they are getting it for free because they’d already be broke if they were paying me.

I’m also making a conscious effort not to let my domestic chores pile up so much. I’m horrible at household chores and being a typical bachelor, I’ll go out and buy new undies rather than wash the old ones. Creates a vicious cycle! I’ve been really good at keeping up, I’m actually rather proud of myself.

Now on to the obvious. Work STILL sucks. We have the pettiest supervisors I’ve ever encountered. Its no wonder city agencies carry so much dead weight. Any sort of excellence or above par attitude is slowly drilled out of you over ever petty infraction they can imagine.

I’m still looking at starting school but probably not till the fall. Oddly enough, I seem to be keeping focus on long term goals. A very hard thing for me. Maybe this really is going to be my year. Hope springs eternal.

Dog or No Dog

So I had a call today that got me thinking. Sf tends to be a very compact city. We have lots of people everywhere. Throw domesticated animals into the mix and you are bound to have a few problems. So todays rant goes like this. . . A man is playing frisbee in a non-dog park (meaning any dogs in the park have to be on a leash). A dog runs up and bites him in a scuffle for the frisbee. The owner shows up afterwards w/o seeing what happened and is very confrontational, denies any wrong doing and flees w/the dog. The victim follows while calling 911. So the police show up and the owner is still very uncooperative even though the victim has an obvious bite to his hand/arm. Needless to say, the dog gets taken away by animal services and will probably end up euthanized. Sad, considering the animal probably wasn’t that dangerous.

My issue is with the owner. First, he invites drama by having the dog off his leash in an area where it’s clearly posted not to. Don’t get me wrong, dogs need room to run. SF has several parks specifically for dogs. Granted there aren’t many but they are located all over the city. Second, instead of just owning up to the issue and possibly avoiding having his dog taken away from him, he acts the complete ass. So now the poor dog gets to suffer for his stupidity. I think they should lock the owner up in a cage for awhile and see how he likes it.

Holiday – oops!

Since I’m working, I’ll keep this short. [1]I’m posting via email so if it comes out screwy I’ll fix it later..

Tonight is a big night for drunk driver fatalities. I ask you, PLEASE, if you get toasty, call a cab, walk, take the bus, whatever it takes. Don’t drive drunk. And if you are in SF, the police are out in force tonight doing random stops so that goes double for my fellow SF’cans.

Have fun but be safe!

References

References
↑1 I’m posting via email so if it comes out screwy I’ll fix it later..