Six Weeks Feels Way Longer

I am referring of course, to my new job which I started on September 21st. But it's not because the days drag, the work sucks, or my employer is shitty.... quite the opposite on all accounts. The amount of skills and knowledge I have acquired has been equated to drinking from a fire hose, but that's OK because I have kinda done that most of my work life. In my mind it is as though my time at the FD never happened because I don't even think about it... consciously or subconsciously. I drive by the firehouse twice a day and don't even glance over to see who is working or what activity is going on. I JUST DON'T FUCKING CARE!!! I am also no longer "accumulating" the bad stuff that leads to PTSD or other mental health issues. My "always simmering in the background" angry feeling has greatly subsided and I am kind of a happy go lucky guy lately. Don't get me wrong, I still carry 7/24/365 and have no qualms about having to defend my life as necessary. So it's not just sunshine, lollipops, rainbows, and unicorns.

At my position in the company, I am only responsible for completing my work assignments on time, which I always do, many times quicker than expected. Sometimes my manager has an urgent matter that requires me to stop what I am doing and do what he needs done. No problem and there is no stressing about it because whatever I was doing probably had no time frame. Wednesday he came to me with a box of 25 blank 4-pin connectors, male pins, weatherproof boots for each pin, a new crimping tool, and spool of wire. They needed to be made shorting pins 1 & 2, and pins 3 & 4. He needed them for a road trip to the midwest on Monday. In between waiting for paint to dry on resealed hydraulic cylinders (another new skill I've learned), I sat at the bench and knocked them out. I handed him the box of completed connectors yesterday before lunch. I told him not only were they assembled, but all tested good with an ohmmeter. He was very appreciative of my efforts. Huh, imagine that... an expression of appreciation. I have been set up with a company provided laptop, access to the software library, and provided a CAN-BUS cable in order to do software upgrades on our machines. I was shown the procedure and have been doing upgrades as necessary. Along with the laptop came a company email so I can start corresponding on an official basis. Monday I will be shown how to access and use the inventory software.

These are the positive and enjoyable things about the job to me:

• Putting my extensive skill set to good use. Mechanical, fabrication, assembly, electrical, electronics, blueprint/schematic reading, shop math, etc.
• Working with my hands and seeing the end product of my work
•  I am still building out my toolbox; but using mostly my own hand tools every day is therapeutic for me. When I am done with a task, they are all cleaned and stowed and then the appropriate tools are pulled for the next task. I roll my tool chest around to be closer to my work area depending on what I am doing.
• Every day I am either learning new skills, or using my those new skills to keep them fresh. I hate learning something once and then not seeing it again for a year.
• The job is VERY physical, but it is constant. I am on my feet all day long. Standing for long periods, lifting heavy stuff, getting under a machine on a creeper, climbing up and down, etc. At the FD I sat around all day waiting for a call.
• I had to set alarms on my cell phone to remind myself to go to lunch and to punch out. No clock watching or counting the hours and minutes to lunch or end of shift.
• I use my cell all day long to stream music using my Sirius/XM account on the app. At the FD I sat and watched news all day long and doom scrolled on X in our down time. I like watching news but I don't need the fuel to the fire to piss me off more about politics, fucking commies, and terrorists in the world.
• I am pseudo site safety guy. I noticed the fire extinguishers were all out of date and one was partially discharged. They have all been professionally serviced and inspected and I will stay on top of monthly inspections for readiness and marking the tags. Just because. No one has asked me to.

I am the last guy in an absolute parade of incompetent idiots or employees with shitty work ethic. Some only lasted a few weeks. A couple just stopped showing up. One guy used illegal drugs and stole a quantity of tools to sell for drugs. He was caught hiding tools for later retrieval and removal from the shop. It seems like every other day I hear yet another name of a previous jackass that claimed to know how to do something but had no clue or destroyed something by doing something totally wrong (like driving a hydraulic cylinder pin out by the threaded end or using a steel hammer on it dinging the shit out of it). Then there were a couple of millennials that spent most of their time finger-fucking their phone. My manager asked if I knew anyone that they could hire to work in the shop with us, especially one named XXXXX because the last one (meaning me) worked out so well. I do, and his name is also XXXXX, but he is enjoying his retirement and I doubt he wants to go back to work full time. He is also a member of the FD Board of Directors... the one that actually fired me and I have cut off all contact with, so there's that too. 

 

I just wish I had heard about this place a few years ago so I could have left the FD on my own terms. But as the old Catholic saying goes.... "If wishes were fishes, we'd never eat meat on Friday."