Category: work

Oh No He Dinnn’t!

Wow, all the comments on the last post were great!  I didn’t realize so many people would comment.  heh heh  It was great reading all the stories.  Thanks to everyone who shared. 

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I had a bit of a rough week.  Work wasn’t overly busy but the drama over the City’s budget deficit continues.  Not surprisingly, the City is facing one of the largest budget shortfalls in its entire history. [1]The state isn’t doing so well either.  I’ll be the first to admit the City’s paryoll is significant.  SF has 1 civil servant for every 5 citizens.  That is a lot by any standard.  I’m grateful to have a job so I won’t bore you with all the stuff they are trying to take away from us.  And while I’d never support anyone getting laid off, it may come to that.  My department is somewhat immune to layoffs but it isn’t written in stone.  Its gonna get uglier for sure. 

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On top of that, the land my dad left my brothers and I has hit yet another snag.  I’m not sure why I’m surprised but this one is a doozy.  So much so, it may take us years to resolve it.  Ugh.  Blood-suckng attorneys and their double-speak really pisses me off too.  Why can’t they just speak frakin’ English!  So now,not only am I broke but I have no equity to show for it.  Lovely.

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As if my own drama wasn’t enough, my soon-to-be ex roomie has been irritating the hell out of me.  He can’t manage his finances for shit and has been dragging me along for the ride.  He hasn’t even paid rent yet and had the fucking audacity to ask me for money!  We had a few “words”.  On the off-hand chance he doesn’t move, it is time for another come-to-Jesus meeting when he gets back.  I’m done giving him breaks.  He can either start pulling his own weight or get out.  And if he does move, I’ve decided to proceed with finding another roomie. 

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And to top it all off, the weather has been down right shitty today.  Oh well, I guess we do need the rain, even if it is a bummer.  I’m doing lunch and a movie w/my buddy Juan tomorrow to take my mind off things. 

References

References
↑1 The state isn’t doing so well either.

Tuff Stuff

Well, the new shorter gym schedule seems to be working so far.  Keep in mind I’m only into my first week on the new shift.  The biggest hurdle for me is going to bed sooner.  Being a bit of a night owl, I tend to be awake for 2 or 3 hours after I get off work.   This does not make for being an early riser. heehee 

I had a nice triceps workout today.  I’ve been neglecting them lately so they are feeling extra sore at the moment.  My triceps always seem to respond really well so I’ll have them poppin’ in no time.  And considering the new tattoo rolls right across my right tricep, that be important! lol 

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Things are not so rosy at work.  With the economy in the toilet, our dept [1]even though we still are below our staffing requirements is being asked to cut up to 25% of our budget.  While my dept. is immune to layoffs, it does not bode well.  We will probably have to give up days off as well as a cost of living raise scheduled for April.  The latter is particularly bitter as we already gave up raises for next year. 

All things considered, I’m happy to have a job. 

References

References
↑1 even though we still are below our staffing requirements

Tuff Stuff

Well, the new shorter gym schedule seems to be working so far.  Keep in mind I’m only into my first week on the new shift.  The biggest hurdle for me is going to bed sooner.  Being a bit of a night owl, I tend to be awake for 2 or 3 hours after I get off work.   This does not make for being an early riser. heehee 

I had a nice triceps workout today.  I’ve been neglecting them lately so they are feeling extra sore at the moment.  My triceps always seem to respond really well so I’ll have them poppin’ in no time.  And considering the new tattoo rolls right across my right tricep, that be important! lol 

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Things are not so rosy at work.  With the economy in the toilet, our dept1 is being asked to cut up to 25% of our budget.  While my dept. is immune to layoffs, it does not bode well.  We will probably have to give up days off as well as a cost of living raise scheduled for April.  The latter is particularly bitter as we already gave up raises for next year. 

All things considered, I’m happy to have a job. 

  1. even though we still are below our staffing requirements

Gracias

Thanks for all the kudos on the tattoo. I appreciate it. I go back on the 2nd for the color and shading. I’m still extremely excited about my tattoo. Considering it is permanent, I guess that is a good sign. lol The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Everyone is eager to see the final look. *hint – so am I.*

As for work, I got a little embarrassed yesterday. The #2 guy in the fire dept. chain of command came by to personally thank me and shake my hand. [1]To be clear, he was there for other reasons but took the time to seek me out. I don’t always take compliments well. And to have the #2 guy personally shake my hand was a bit unnerving and daunting. hehehe He was clearly sincere and gave me a great honor by telling me to call him by his first name instead of sir. If you are familiar with military and/or para-military organizations, that is almost unheard of. I didn’t expect it but I quickly recovered and promptly picked my jaw up off the floor.

References

References
↑1 To be clear, he was there for other reasons but took the time to seek me out.

Emergency? What Emergency?

Monday night was probably one of the most stressful of my career. I’m basing that on the knots in my stomach and the bottle of wine I consumed after work. [1]Yes, you read it right, Mr. Light-weight downed a bottle. In a nutshell, a circuit panel blew out in our building and a full two-thirds of our system(s) went down in the blink of an eye.

As part of our ongoing reconfiguration, I am currently detailed to the Fire/EMS side of operations. At the direction of the RC, [2]the highest ranking medical officer on duty I quickly ran down the hallway and setup one of the few functional terminals. Within minutes, I had a summation of everything going out and coming in. Let me clarify that statement. Instead of being in charge of one channel focused on a section of the city, I’m now in charge of 5 channels encompassing the entire city! No pressure right? No, not at all. lolol Anyway, with the help of my co-workers and others I managed to bang thru it. I don’t think I did anything exceptional as frankly, it is my job but whatever. The work itself wasn’t overly taxing but I just couldn’t shake the awful feeling some calls might have fallen thru the cracks. There was no way to stop and check and I was too busy at the time to worry beyond the present. There was easily a 10 minute window between when the system went down and getting it back up. Meanwhile, call-takers are still trying to input calls into the terminals that did not go down. I know I bitch and moan at times about the crazy public but, I take my responsibilities very serious. It bothered me thru the whole ordeal and all thru the night afterwards.

The system came back up just in time for me to get off on time. [3]Ironic huh? I left relieved but I tossed and turned all night worrying some calls might have slipped thru the cracks. I personally felt like we failed the public that night. There is a silver lining here though. After polling all the terminals yesterday, we discovered there was in fact no lost calls. Everything got handled. A huge relief, I don’t mine telling you.

Yesterday, we were on a patchwork system which apparently went down again mid-day (prior to my shift). My shift went off without any problems. Parts are being flown in to create a permanent fix from what I’ve been told. There is also a redundancy system being added to hopefully avoid such a catastrophe in the future. I shudder to think what would have occurred had this happened on a busy night like New Year’s Eve. And I could go the rest of my career and not have to do that again and be completely happy.

References

References
↑1 Yes, you read it right, Mr. Light-weight downed a bottle.
↑2 the highest ranking medical officer on duty
↑3 Ironic huh?

Post Holiday “Something”

The great gobble gobble has come and gone.  I worked and it was pretty uneventful.  In my line of work holidays can be a mixed bag.  More people leads to more problems.  Also the depression that some experience over the holiday seasons can sometimes lead to unfortunate results.  We had a nice big feed and I ate more Turkey than I probably should.  heehee  I had some sweets but not too much.

The weekend is a bit of a blur.  Since the roomie is out of town and I had no prior obligations, I used the opportunity to be a bad boy. [1]Are you logged in? You should be!  I also ran into my old friend Tim W.  I hadn’t seem him in ages and we hung out and had dinner all the while catching up on the latest geekiness and gossip. 

Friday is a blur of sleep, xbox, and a few random errands. 

Saturday, I went to see Transporter 3. OY! Some very tasty flesh scenes with Jason Statham.  The movie is very typical of the series.  If you liked either of the first two, you’ll love this one.  There were only a couple of really “over-the-top” scenes but the martial arts fights are top notch, as usual. 

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In other news, I am once again signing up for my schedule for the next 6 months.  The bad news, I’m not going to get a full weekend slot on my current 5-8 shift. Even worse, I’ll end up being bumped off my current shift all together.  The upside (depending on how you look at it) is I’ll still end up with a weekend slot, just on a 4-10 shift.  I’ll either get Friday/Saturday/Sunday or Saturday/Sunday/Monday off.  There are certainly worse options however, if you’ve been reading for awhile, you know I’m not the least bit thrilled about going back to a 4-10 shift.  In a nutshell, it plays havoc with my gym schedule.  All things considered, I’m not really complaining as it could be a lot worse.

References

References
↑1 Are you logged in? You should be!

Grumble, Grumble, Grumble

Today was a test of my patience. Nothing really awful but several unfortunate happenings found me in a particularly foul mood. A mood which seemed to only worsen as they day went by.

First, I get spurned at the gym by a hottie I’ve been oggling. Not the end of the world but a kick to id.

Then, I find someone has backed into my bike and cracked the side fin. Thankfully, the same fin that has been scratched before. I think they might have actually knocked it over as I discovered later my low beam headlight was out.

Lost my favorite shirt. It could be in the laundry but I don’t think so. I haven’t worn it lately. My own fault, I know.

Work starts off slow. An incident in policy occurs between myself and a field unit. It was a huge safety issue for the field unit. I called him on it and his reply was completely out of line, I made a complaint and management did nothing. I’m not sure why that surprised me. They don’t give a rats ass about us. Anything outside their immediate bubble of responsibility is shunned and avoided at all cost.

Of course, I get a barrage of cranky callers who are insolent and nasty. I almost cursed one lady out. I told another she needed to grow up. Not very civil servant like behavior to say the least.

To top it off, I read some posts on an employee forum whining about how victimized they are and how the [Union] chapter was doing nothing. Well that just set me on fire. I bust my ass to defend my coworkers. I don’t get paid for it and it eats up a lot of free time. And frankly, I’m good at it. [1]not arrogance just confidence in my abilities I’ve gotten numerous punishments overturned and/or reduced. Management knows if I’m involved they better have their ducks in a row or I’m gonna have a field day tearing it apart. Anyway, I wrote a very scathing reply, thought better of it, edited most of the bitterness out.

I’m home now. My mood is foul, my bed is empty, my libidio is up, and I’m not a happy camper. Thankfully, I’m starting a 3 day weekend.

References

References
↑1 not arrogance just confidence in my abilities

Self Portrait

Rooster + Pork?

Recently, not one but two of my blog buddies sent me T-shirts in the mail.  This pic was sent by Large Tony.  I absolutely love it!  He was worried if I would wear it.  Hell, I’ve already worn it 3 times. lol  *Thanks T, I greatly appreciate it!*

Oddly enough, the 2nd shirt is also black and was sent by an anonymous source.  When I get time to wear it, I’ll snap off a pic. 

My weekend is fast coming to a close.  Friday, I spent about 3 hours doing continuing education for my Fire training.  I’ve mentioned before I’m a training Officer for the Fire civilianization project.  I previously went down to SFO to see Fire operations at the airport.  This time I got to drive all over the bay in one of the 2 fireboats owned by the Fire department.  It was awesome of course! 

The Phoenix - Full Shot

This trip is normally reserved for Supervisors and Managers.  There were a couple of snarky comments made in the background questioning whether I should be there.  I was happy to hear the Fire training manager silence them with a curt explanation. [1]Forgetting for a moment, I have more fire/medical training than most of them combined.  I don’t understand petty power trips at all . Anyway, you can click over to flickr for a full rundown on the pics.  I tried to take a few more this time even though some are pretty much the same picture. 

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Saturday was pretty low key.  The Latin came into town and we spent a good chunk of the day just hanging out.  I hadn’t seem him lately, we had fun.  We also decided to go see the Batman flick.  I’d been wanting to see it and he hadn’t seen it either so it worked out great.  The movie was exceptional!  Much better than I ever expected and way better than part I.  Keith Ledger turned in one of the best performances of his career.  Not to mention, the plot was very complex and constantly evolving. 

Latin & Moby

He took off to go bar hopping with some coworkers and I met up with Adam for Sushi for dinner.  Brad is at a conference so it was just the two of us.  We were caddy as usual.  Afterwards, we hung out at 440 Castro (aka the old Daddies bar) with Dan.  Ironically, we spent a good chunk of time watching the Olympics while there. lol  We watched this one chick slaughter the entire competition in a long distance run.  Even if we kept laughing at how emaciated and hungry she looked. 

I didn’t stay more than a couple hours. [2]I get bored in bars easily these days w/o some sort of carnal distraction.  hehehe.  I left the boys and came on home.   

So now, I’m just finished uploading pics to flickr, made myself a yummy egg/bacon bagle, caught up on Tivo, and replaying thru Gears of War.  GoW 2 is due out in November and I can’t wait! 

Not a bad weekend.  Not too terribly busy but still managed to be preoccupied. 

References

References
↑1 Forgetting for a moment, I have more fire/medical training than most of them combined.
↑2 I get bored in bars easily these days w/o some sort of carnal distraction.  hehehe.

SFO

I often bitch a lot about my job and the complexities it entails.  That said, there are times when I get unique opportunities.

Star

*A real pic taken today. No zoom function, I was this close*

Today was one such opportunity.  I got to go out to SFO airport as part of my continuing Fire Specialization training.  As an instructor for dispatchers learning Fire duties, it is my responsibility to teach all aspects of the response patterns.  Part of that includes airport emergencies. 

A group of managers and myself got to tour the SFO comm. center and Fire stations.  We also got a field tour of the entire airport.  I enjoyed the trip immensely.  Beside being very educational, seeing such massive carcasses of metal taking off so close is a very surreal experience.  To this day, it still boggles my mind how we can force such amazingly large heavy objects into the air.

Floor it Clyde!

*me sitting in the driver’s seat for the airboat.  Click on any of the pics to hop over to my flickr account.*

I also got a chance to see all the unique Fire apparatus specifically used for fires on airplanes.  Being on the water, the above pic is me sitting in the driver’s seat of a very large airboat.  This badboy was about 3 times the size of airboats I grew up crashing in the swamplands of Louisiana.  The bad-ass engine here is an 8.1 liter fuel-injected 525 horsepower monster.  It could propel the boat down a dry runway at 60 miles an hour easy. 

Poker

*look carefully at the long cylindrical pipe with the sharp point on the end*

The sharp stake here is used to pierce the skin of an aircraft and inject foam directly onto a burning fire.  I kept picturing the brain bug from Starship Troopers looking at this thing.  Only instead of sucking stuff out, it pumps foam.  You can’t see it but the prong attaches to an articulating boom that can rise over 75ft into the air. 

Needless to say, I an awesome time today.  I didn’t want to leave.  I could have spent the rest of my shift playing w/gadgets, poking buttons, pulling levers, etc.  The trip gave me some great insights into how Fire depts. handle airport Fires. 

Survivor

I survived the 4th at work.  The day started off very slow and ended in a blaze of drama.  The last two hours of my shift, I processed just over a 100 calls.  While most folks looks forward to holidays, there are a couple that I absolutely dread in my line of work.  New Year’s eve is always a total cluster fuck.  People are often just drunk and stupid.  The 4th of July comes in right behind that as a minor meltdown.  Not so much from the noise but from the increase in crime.  We also get a lot of false calls for gunfire.  We have to respond accordingly however, it takes services away from other areas.  On the other side of the coin, we also get a real increase in shootings and gun play.  Criminals know they have a higher chance of getting away w/stupidity on such nights. 

People are always indignant from the noise which is a total surprise to me.  You know the holiday comes every year.  You know it is going to be noisy so why act so indignant?  I can understand frustration over noise however, have you ever heard of ear plugs?

As for me, The 4th of July has never been a big holiday.  Frank commented on twitter about holidays becoming less important as we age.   I agree to an extent.  As kids, I think every holiday is exciting.  As adults, we come to pick and choose the holidays that mean a lot to us.  For me, the holiday itself isn’t as important as being w/friends and loved ones. 

Anyway, I was a total slug today.  The one bright spot was my roomie’s guest made us a very delicious pasta for lunch.  hehehe.