For me it was one of those rare days you get once or twice a year. First, I work in a large airplane factory on the south shore of Lake Washington. Being as the weather was nice, the doors were fully open. These are big floor to ceiling doors, originally made for 707’s and 727’s to roll through, then later 737’s and 757’s. From the factory you can see Seattle and Mercer Island to the north. There were herons standing on poles in the lake. Crows chasing a hawk.
Then not one, but twice, we were treated to an airshow by the Blue Angels practicing for a show this Sunday. They swooped and dived and looked like they were having a good time in the cloudless sky. Then Fat Albert, a Blue Angels support airplane, gave the factory a slow and low flyby, the pilot waved the wings of the airplane acknowledging the waves from large crowd that had gathered outside the factory.
We were treated to free hot dogs as a promotion to collect school supplies for local low income children.
Then to top it off, I was treated to an airplane that every system I tested worked perfectly. Every functional test ran without a hitch, I didn’t even have to change any burned out light bulbs. This is extremely rare, to have something built with literally thousands of parts made all over the world and have them all come together and work as designed.
Then to top things off, my crew does not have an airplane scheduled for tomorrow so I am taking the day off. 3 day weekend, here I come.
I have to tell you about my day. Since it is airplane related.
I woke up at 0230, really tired and not feeling my All American Best as Arlo would say. I went to work and we got a tent and food set out for America’s Finest Paratroopers (ok, those who chose to, or needed to exit an aircraft while in flight). By this time I had little to do, so I educated those who thought that they might want to become a Paratrooper on what it would be like. We watched about 300 people exit an aircraft while in flight with no injuries. I thought I really would like to have that feeling again.
I took charge of the tent removal. I talked to my First Sergeant who said I could release my detail at 1300, I did and was home by 1400.
Well, mine isn’t airplane related but I did get a three day weekend.
My job is moving 10 miles closer to my house. My commute which has been 23 miles for 10+ years will now be 13. I still can’t believe it.
We have been packing up the lab since Monday but were basically done by Wednesday. We all came in on Thursday and took a nice long lunch in a big group with a bunch of people who worked in the same building as us but won’t be moving out to the new location for a year or two. Then we got back to the lab and they sent us home, I don’t have to go back to work until Monday.
Today didn’t have anything to do with airplanes for me…
I took a half day off work to take my dog to the new local dog park, “Bow Wow Beach.” It is a former human swimming lake that a nearby city put a big fence around and declared “for dogs only.”
My dog, a golden retriever, had the most fun she has ever had in her life. She chased balls into the water and swam for 2 hours straight. She won’t chase balls on land for more than 20 minutes. I have honestly never seen her happier. She was in her element.
I’d say it was the best day of her life. It made me pretty darn happy, too!!
My day wasn’t too bad. It was hot as hell, but we weren’t too busy.
I scored a cool new travel mug from the hospital (free!) and got back to the office with an hour to kill.
I spent that last hour on the sofa in the crew lounge watching TV. (Basically, I got paid to watch a repeat of CSI.)
My day? Meh. I’m recovering from a dislocated kneecap, and as a result, I’m completely dependent on other folks for all of my transportation needs. Luckily, one of my coworkers has been kind enough to take me to work for the past week. Unfortunately, someone rear-ended us earlier in the week, and she’s trying to straighten out the repairs on her car, and as of today, I may or may not have a ride to work tomorrow.
Also because of my knee, I have to keep my leg straight and elevated, which is pretty difficult when your desk isn’t deep enough for you to stretch out your leg straight. My assistant was out of the office today and will be again tomorrow, so I had both of our workloads to balance, and walking from one side of the office building to the other takes way longer than it ought to.
So, I’m physically uncomfortable, feeling like I’ve lost my independence, frustrated that I’m being a big drama queen about having to depend on other people for a couple of weeks, worried that I will have to get someone to speak in my place at a conference in a couple of weeks, and procrastinating on my schoolwork.
At least tomorrow’s Friday, right? That, and I keep reminding myself that every day brings me closer to the day that I get to start bending my knee again.
Wheeeee, I got some great OT 5 hours worth! It was a field project, so lots of physical activity and not much brain required (very good, since I have a cold and couldn’t finish the report I’m working on if my life depended on it).
It was the perfect sort of day, warm but overcast (I burn very fast on sunny days, they’re so pretty, but I think I’m at least borderline allergic to the sun) and a little rain, but not too much.
Just got through at a quarter to 10 AK time. All in all, not too shabby a day (now if the cockatiel would stop making dog toy squeaky noises right in my ear, I’d be great! :D).
The Blue Angels tried to wake me up this morning. (I live on Capitol Hill.) But I slept firm. Kitty and I cuddled. A little pissed to not hear from the Not-A-Boyfriend, but that’s been par for the course lately, and cause for some thought.
Work was pretty good. Nobody yelled at me at work today, we were pretty slow and never far behind on phlebotomies, so…yeah, it was pretty good. Went out to the bar after and bumped into a couple of travelling nurses who’d just stopped working at a different hospital. I never get to talk shop at the bar, so that was way fun. They even forgave me for wanting to be an MD.
You may want to skip this post, I’m just bitching.
Last night I went to bed wondering why I bothered to get up and endure yesterday. Work was meaningless and repetitive and I didn’t get anything done. Then when I got home, I fell asleep for a while. When I got up, I wanted to spend some time with my son, who had been alone all day and was obviously craving some companionship, but he threw a ridiculous tantrum about doing the dinner dishes and I threw one in return. Then we both apologized but I still felt awful. Then it was bedtime and I hadn’t spent any quality time with either my son or my husband or even gotten to open a book. I went to bed but couldn’t sleep because I’d napped in the afternoon, so I lay awake and thought about what a useless day it had been.
Now, today is Friday and payday, and it’s going to be better.
I hab a cold. My nose has become a dripping tap and my throat is all scratchy. I feel bleurgh, but not bleurgh enough to justify going home sick. Bleurgh.
Today’s okay. Yesterday was a pain in the ass. Literally. I had a sigmoidoscopy, which my doctor had talked me into having without any sort of anaesthetic. It was exceedingly uncomfortable, although intellectually interesting – watching the TV monitor was like watcjhing some sort of “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride, except instead of looking for pirates lurching out, we were looking for polyps and hemorrhoids and suchlike. Fortunately, it was a dull ride, and I was glad when we went back up that waterfall to go home.
THEN I got to go to the dentist, because my temporary crown had fallen off and my permanent one was ready, and there was a lot of adjustment and poking and probing. And the assistant kept teling me jokes, punctuated by poking me in the shoulder. By the end of the session, I became convinced that this poking in the shoulder was actually worse than and of the poking that had gone on at either end of my alimentary canal.
And then at work… but, never mind, that was a whole other ballgame.
My boss called to offer me a company position, with more hours than I currently work in my temp-agency payrolled position. Which is freaking awesome. And I made Panang Chicken for supper, also very awesome.
Lucky bastard! I used to work at Ridley Mission Control Center at Edwards AFB. It was like an airshow every day when I went to lunch or left at the end of the day! Actually I miss Edwards and working around aircraft. Not enough to move back, mind!
Today I took my MGB to the body shop to have the panels fitted better than the original body guy did. I took the car to the mechanic – when? June? – to get the freeze plugs replaced. (The guy who built the engine apparently wasn’t familiar with the technique used to install the British plugs – hit them with a hammer until the sound changes.) Got the car back and a week later took it back to have the generator replaced. (One of the guys who worked on the car supposedly rebuilt it. I should have had it checked based on the errors the final resto guy found in his work.) May as well have the panels fitted, so I left it at the shop. And there it’s been. It did go to a body shop at one point but after three weeks it was untouched. So the mechanic was going to take it to a different shop. Two weeks go by and the car was still at the mechanic’s shop. So today I took the car to the body shop myself. So I guess it’s a good day, since I got something accomplished.
Pretty good day. A month ago, I requested and received today off so I could catch The Bourne Ultimatum. Pretty good movie. Hung out at the BPL to read and stay out of the heat and went to Chinatown for some Dim Sum. I also worked out on the treadmill, so I’m feeling pretty good. The only downside was the 96 degree weather downtown. I’m chilling out at home now, so yeah, a pretty good day.
I haven’t had to take any pain medication since 8:00 yesterday morning. So that’s good.
No one turned in my lost cell phone to security, and now I’m going to have to get a new one, and I’ve lost all my photos that were on it, including my sister and the camel. So that’s bad.
I had eggs with Bacon Salt for dinner. So that’s good.
Our day is just beginning. Just after 10am Saturday here. We’re 7 hours ahead of GMT. And it’s the wife’s birthday! We’re headed out soon for High Tea in the Authors’ Lounge of the Oriental Hotel, on the bank of the Chao Phraya River and routinely rated among the top 5 hotels in the world. Then we’re going to go see the Woody Allen film Scoop, which FINALLY made it to Bangkok (although only on one screen). We MIGHT see Hairspray after that. All in all, it promises to be a pleasant day.
Not bad. I worked a full shift but I also had some nice petting time with the cats and good Chinese food for lunch. Then someone annoyed a skunk around 8 tonight. My living room stinks.
