In reply to Appleseed :
I work construction, it's still to berkeleying hot to work outside. What was I doing today? Working outside.
In reply to Appleseed :
I work construction, it's still to berkeleying hot to work outside. What was I doing today? Working outside.
I quite literally need one more hour of work and I can go sailing. A few more screws to insert and another coat of varnish on the bulkheads and I am done. All it has done for days is rain and Thunderstorm. I can do the screws in the rain, but the varnish needs some drying time.
The joys of owning an old wooden boat, the punch list every spring is extensive
Amid rumors swirling for literally YEARS about my position being shifted from engineering to police service, nobody has ever come and spoken to me about it (officially).
Today I got an email saying that the police want me in 30 days and that I'll keep my office and job description in every other way. There are so many problems with the implementation of this but nobody seems to know what's happening.
And the police service is saying that it's the new standard across the entire governmental agency, but a quick survey of the country via usajobs shows 4 locksmith positions open and all are in engineering. So I feel like someone is trying to pull a fast one.
In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) :
Several large companies I work for have their locksmithing services under their security departmants. The thinking is to let the security department handle all security.
Most of them are still under the engineering/facilities department but some have oversight from security as far as access to keys and access cards.
As security gets more important, I'm betting all lock hardware and locksmithing services get moved under the security umbrella. It's a sign of the times.
Well it finally boiled over at work. Co-Worker/ buddy has been pressing political /social issues for months. I haven't played along. At all. Many of my recent post here have been directly about his bullE36 M3.
Protesters are tearing down monuments. Uh, don't you mean states are? No. Protesters. They're trying to erase history. The reality is is that 3, 3 monuments were defaced. Dude made it sound like a giant, roving gang was traveling around tearing up everything in sight. 3 were removed by the governor of North Carolina and 1 was removed by the mayor of Birmingham. Hardly the giant wave of destruction he's implying.
Then, get this, he tells me to watch the news and stop listening to those guys on Grassroots. He has never been on the site. How could he? We don't discuss politics (precisely because of the E36 M3 I ended up dealing with today at work) He would have known that we have people from all walks of life, and all political spectrums.
He ends it by calling me, "A whiny bitch."
If this post is incoherent and rambling, it's because I'm pissed. berkeleying pissed. Completely berkeleyed up the rest of my day. I didn't respond. I was stunned. I've also held my tongue for that and a ton of other E36 M3 because he has more pull around here. And he's about to be my manager in a couple of weeks. I think it's time to look for a different job.
Edit* So I guess there were more defacement than what I read about. I concede that. Doesn't change the underlying issues at work.
In reply to Appleseed :
Do you still do Land Surveying? I don't know of anything off hand and I am nowhere close to where you are, but I can still keep an ear/eye out.
Overly long story time:
I was at my family's lake retreat over the 4th of July holiday. This is a big day for boating at the lake so traffic was thick. Many boats were proudly flying the American flag as one would expect. There is a large contingent of Latvian Americans due to a Latvian ethnic/religious camp at one end of the lake making this a summer hotspot for folks hailing from that part of the world. They often fly Latvian flags, though that flag was consopicuously absent over the hoiliday, proudly replaced by our nation's flag. Cool.
There was ONE boat of the many dozens making laps of the lake that had a politician's campaign flag in the place of prominance. Ok, not the coolest, but I can ignore them. They lapped the lake all day long so I saw them several times. Unfortunately, they seemed to embody some of the worst sterotypes one might associate with the their political affiliation of choice. They were old, white, and loud and seemed on a mission to get noticed. I did not enjoy seeing them, but whatever.
Then, my neighbor happened to be out on her stand-up paddleboard when they went by. She is mid twenties, tall, thin, very pretty. She happened to be wearing very nice bikini. Yes, she is very hot. No, you do not need to leer at her. You certainly don't need to motor too close to her, lean over the side of your boat and literally "hoot, hoot, hoot" and holler at her. It was one of the most apalling displays of sexual harassment I have ever witnessed. She did respond with a chagrined smile and a wave. We were pretty sure she did not actually enjoy the attention. The boat motored on and she promptly returned to shore and went back into her house for much of the day.
I wish I could have done something. In retrospect, I probably should have recorded their registration number and called the Sherrif on suspiscion of druken boating. It's been bothering me that I said and did nothing.
In reply to WilD :
Some people are douchebags, and douchebags are feeling very empowered right now.
In reply to WilD :
If she's your neighbor and you know her well enough, even popping over to say, "i hope you're ok, i saw what happened from a distance and it looked wildly inappropriate" might help cheer her up and to know not everyone approves of that sort of thing. If shes as cute as you say, its probably happened before unfortunately.
I thought the registration number was a good idea. Sometimes they dont occur to you until after the heat of the moment has passed. Maybe mention it to her so you can both keep an eye out in case it happens again.
One of the neat things about working from home is the fact that our house is far closer to my company's other facility nearby that works on the helicopters that I do analysis work on, and they frequently do shakedown flights of them during the day that take them almost directly over our house. Yay, right? Wrong... our house is largely surrounded by trees, which is great for shade and keeping the temperature in the house down- but it means that it's almost impossible to see them flying overhead without going all the way out into the driveway when I hear one coming.
Writing letters is supposed to be cathartic. Unless it is writing letters to an insurance company. Then it is teeth grinding infuriating.
In reply to Appleseed :
Short story. I have pretty significant political leanings. 5 years ago I enrolled in an English class at the local U because schedule and needing that credit. Pretty early on I got pretty irritated with the professor and his constant demonstrations of having different political views than mine. Almost quit the class, tuition be damned. I stuck it out and learned a very valuable lesson about learning to listen and always exercising critical thinking. He was a fantastic teacher and one of my favorites even though I hate English classes. The lesson, which seems like common sense now but somehow I missed it growing up, was to avoid echo chambers and always try to get as many sources on a particular issue as possible.
NOT saying you should stick out the job. Not saying you should roll over and submit. NOT saying your coworkers mantra is even a valid source of info. NOT even saying you should try to calmly explain your views and try to have a civilized discussion. What I'm saying is what I learned. Which is #1- to try to learn as much as I can and to recognize that the arguments and disagreements I find myself in are almost always the result of either myself or the other person being stuck in an echo chamber and getting so loud about a belief without really being able to defend it, because how can you defend an opinion if you've never been exposed to honest and calm opposition? And #2- to not take it personally, and recognize that we all gravitate towards agreement and tend to take it personally when someone disagrees. #3- if a civil conversation with civil disagreement cannot be had, to make it very clear that I will avoid that conversation and if the other party cannot avoid it, I will simply avoid the other party.
Sorry for the novel. TL;DR- keep your head, keep your reason, better jobs/environments are out there.
In reply to barefootskater :
I have a friend who's usually on the other end of my beliefs, yet we've had a good number of arguments that were civil, and often enlightening. I know people can disagree and still be on the level.
When someone calls me a whiny bitch, it is no longer civil. Name calling because someone disagrees with me means I can no longer take you seriously.
It just left a sour taste in my mouth.
Our autocross "season" just got announced. Three events. Thats it. And they take the best two for your final results. Yeah, I should be grateful there is even going to be a season, but damn, three events? I should probably jump in my friend's E/S car for at least one event and spike myself way up in the results.
Appleseed said:Well it finally boiled over at work. Co-Worker/ buddy has been pressing political /social issues for months. I haven't played along. At all. Many of my recent post here have been directly about his bullE36 M3.
Protesters are tearing down monuments. Uh, don't you mean states are? No. Protesters. They're trying to erase history. The reality is is that 3, 3 monuments were defaced. Dude made it sound like a giant, roving gang was traveling around tearing up everything in sight. 3 were removed by the governor of North Carolina and 1 was removed by the mayor of Birmingham. Hardly the giant wave of destruction he's implying.
Then, get this, he tells me to watch the news and stop listening to those guys on Grassroots. He has never been on the site. How could he? We don't discuss politics (precisely because of the E36 M3 I ended up dealing with today at work) He would have known that we have people from all walks of life, and all political spectrums.
He ends it by calling me, "A whiny bitch."
If this post is incoherent and rambling, it's because I'm pissed. berkeleying pissed. Completely berkeleyed up the rest of my day. I didn't respond. I was stunned. I've also held my tongue for that and a ton of other E36 M3 because he has more pull around here. And he's about to be my manager in a couple of weeks. I think it's time to look for a different job.
Edit* So I guess there were more defacement than what I read about. I concede that. Doesn't change the underlying issues at work.
It's probably time to start speaking to those above him. Generally speaking unless you're a very smal group, there's a harassment line out there for employees. I believe calling someone a whiny bitch immediately prior to assuming a position of power, SHOULD negate that position, or at least move you out of the line of fire.
Our youngest daughter was supposed to be working at a research lab this summer but that went away due to Covid. She picked up a job, as a greeter, at a chain hardware store local to us. This week they had to post a "Do not drink" sign on the hand sanitizer sitting at the entrance. I worry for our future.
Wayslow said:Our youngest daughter was supposed to be working at a research lab this summer but that went away due to Covid. She picked up a job as a greeter at a chain hardware store local to us. This week they had to post a "Do not drink" sign on the hand sanitizer sitting at the entrance. I worry for our future.
There's a lot of desperation in the air, and a lot of it comes from blue collar folks, the ones that would more often shop at a hardware store.
I feel like i'm on the edge of breaking. No, I'm not going to do anything stupid, but this stress level is maxed out and unsustainable. I'm clamped down on spending due to job uncertainty, my in-laws are driving a wedge between themselves and my family over COVID safety (they aren't taking any precautions) uneducated political and racist FB posts that they don't see as racist (I had to unfriend my MIL) and they have stopped talking to us; I have no motivation to continue working for a company that doesn't value me, yet I need to keep pushing in case I get another extension, and I have a wonderfully awesome daughter entering the explosive temper 3 year old phase. And there is no relief in sight. I just need a break. I know whenever I get to give my 2 weeks notice, I'm taking an additional two weeks off before starting the new gig for some R&R. I'm tempted to give my 2 weeks notice and immediately take two weeks of vacation (I have 4 total), but I can't burn that bridge.
In reply to PMRacing :
Today, I'm feeling like my heart attack/stroke is in a race with my retirement date in just over two weeks.
I am so burnt out. I don't enjoy my job that is quite frankly boring as hell. I had a couple interviews right before everything really kicked off but both those positions have been sitting on hold due to COVID. I am going through the whole lack of sleep thing that comes with a newborn. I have the stress of someone having tested positive to COVID at work and more people awaiting testing results and worrying about taking it home to the baby who spent the first week of life in the NICU. I haven't seen friends in god knows how long. My only relief right now is the occasional bike ride.
I bought some very nice 5", double wall, 304 stainless exhaust tips for my truck. I went to put them on today to discover the clamps that hold the stock tips on are spot welded to the tip. I tried using my cheapo knock off rotary tool with a cutting wheel to try and cut the spot weld so I can re-use the clamps but failed miserably.
The clamps are for ball and socket joints and are only available through the dealer. Of course none of my local dealers had any in stock so I was forced to buy them online. They are $25 EACH and I have to wait a week.
Disappointed, I figured I'd pull the other side tip off as well and polish some of the carbon buildup off. Both tips needed to be realigned anyways from when I did the muffler delete pipe and the position changed relative to the bumper cutouts. Polished both tips (heh!) and reinstalled them.
Now I can't get the passenger side clamp tight enough to keep the tip from drooping (hehe). My truck looks like Forrest Whittaker now 
I really like it when I fix something until it breaks 
Need a new monitor for home mine is starting to die. There is literally nothing in stock locally that fit the bill as everything is out of stock. I have two fantastic 34's at the office that would work but cannot take them to work from home for some dumb reason.
Solidworks does not work on a 13 inch laptop screen. It just does not. Also for some reason I am locked out of my remote access big system is not working so I am searching though 100 terabytes of files at 0.5mb a second link.
I got to drive a Model 3 today.
It is, in fact, a nice car, except for the glass roof and the way all driver info comes to you on a glass screen that my eyes find to be illegible in daylight because it has no hood. Can't see a screen through reflections.
The nightmares are getting worse.
I'm reminded of something that I said a while back. Late one night SWMBO asked where I was going. Well, to sleep. Or straight to Hell. We laughed. As she walked away, under my breath I smiled. "The jokes on you. They're the same place. "
Third party contractor sends me to the VA. Contractor sent me to the WRONG place.
I cant get across Kansas City in less than 10 minutes. Contractor finally answers and marks me as a no show, so sorry.
I am torn if I should feel bad for the VA Nurse Practitioner busted down and doing clerk work at the front desk because they didn't get a budget and most of the staff was laid off.
Most likely I won't feel too bad, it took me 5 years (and an attorney) to get them to admit I was right. If they were better at their job maybe it wouldn't have gotten contracted out. Im not sure its any better.
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