Dear Friend...

Really, this is crazy!!!

It's been a month and I finally get "the talk" by an "elected member" of the "boys" club (co-workers).

OMG!!!

It will leave you as speechless as it leaves me.

The talk:

"we do one thing at a time around here and one thing only" "you had better change your way of thinking or you won't be allowed to stay" "we are not going to go willy-nilly doing one thing and then another and then get nothing done around here"

That last one is a kicker. Because yesterday we were doing only delineation for the on/off ramps. And what did this co-worker do but race up to exit 193 then go 5 more exits past that so we could pick up a ladder that was on the center shoulder that was on the other side of the highway because a co-worker asked him to go and get it. What makes absolutely no sense is when I want to pick something up that isn't even out of the way he refused and gave some made up phoney baloney excuse. Personally, I'm wondering what happened to the "doing one thing only" baloney. and I'm not asking to go willy-nilly everywhere. I'm asking to fix things as we pass them.

I should probably start this post explaining two days ago instead of skipping around but I'm in such "idiocy" shock that I can barely think straight. Or maybe, I should start with the actual real Dead Animal Policy that's true and go from there. Because my downfall seems to have come partly from that, and the other part is from being female. I'm still freaked out by the Dead Animal Policy.

So here it is in all it's gory detail (warning---it won't seem like much but when you actually experience it in real time--it's almost unbelievable):

Dead Animal Policy:
1. remove dead animal from the side of the road (usually this is a deer or elk so it's pretty big and smelly).
2. dump the dead animal anywhere on the roadway where it is not visible. (say what????--yep, true)
3. do not dump the dead animal in a waterway or tributary. (well thank goodness)
4. do not dump the dead animal near homes or restaurants. (I would certainly hope so)

Ok enter stage left....me.

Dead Animal Scene (which happened approximately 2 weeks ago):

Work gets a call that we have a dead deer on the side of the road. B assigns Q to show the newbies, me and K, how to disburse the animal. Q states that he knows a place and no problem boss, he's got it covered. I'm like what??? What does he mean "he knows a place." This sounds quite ominous to me. We go and get dead doe off the side of the road. Poor thing is smelly and bloated. I think K is about to loose his lunch. Surprisingly, I'm doing fine. Q wraps the neck with a strap and winches it up into the back of the one-ton (this is not pleasant to witness) and smelly blood squishes out. We then drive around to the other side of the road, and back up to a hillside and dump the doe down the hillside. I am totally shocked and surprised and in constant chatter about how "this has to be illegal, etc, etc." and I do mean constant chatter. the chatter is so bad from me that it even irritates me.

Q informs me that this is what he has been told how to dispose of dead animals. I say I have no doubt that this is the case but I will be speaking to B and M. Because I need to hear it from them. Because I am totally shocked by this. This is not the agriculture requirement for disposing of a dead animal. You have to dig a hole at least 3 feet deep and wide and then bury the animal with enough dirt that covers it completely up.

Unfortunately, this dead animal scene sets the stage for me and Q as he dislikes me intensely to begin with and questioning this makes it worse. Plus anything female in this setting seems to be scary to the men. Q and I have later joked about the dead animal scene. About how shocking it was to me, and I jokingly stating that I was ready to call the governor himself. We all laughed. and I informed Q that he was correct in doing what he did. I thought maybe this might give me some camaraderie with him but to no avail. It did not.

enter stage right...mid morning...and afternoon...
Bathroom joke scene:

Three days ago, a co-worker was looking for B. I thought I found B in one of the bathrooms. I pounded on the door taking what I mistakenly saw as an opportunity to play on the female gender fear that seems to be prevalent in this atmosphere and said, "hey per M this is the girls bathroom and did you know you were using the girls bathroom?" M is the boss. B is the lead man in the shop.

I thought no more of it and little did I realize it was not B, it was Q in the bathroom. Oh, buggers. and he did not take kindly to having his afternoon constitutional interrupted. He went to B and M and made a complaint. Towards the end of the day, I got drug into the bosses office and given "what for" regarding the bathroom situation. I immediately apologized meaning no disrespect for my joke. M and B informed Q that he accepted my apology (he never did accept it). I did have a hard time not laughing and did snort a little during the office conference. B said it's not funny. It really was ridiculously funny. Even my own mum laughed at it later and it's hard to make her laugh. I learned right away, that anything funny around here is only funny if the guys make the joke. Fine, so be it.

B later sent Q, C2 and me out to pick up trash bags that the prisoners had left on the side of the road. It was unpleasant and you could cut the tension with a knife. C2 kept up a running commentary, which was irritating. At one point when only Q and I were in the pickup I took the opportunity to apologize for the dead animal thing too. Q was not appeased. No matter. I'm done with that now.


enter center stage...same day...early morning...
Safety meeting scene:

the Big Boss R (BBR)(ops boss) calls a safety meeting. And states, if you are passing something that needs fixed or taken care of, stop and take care of it. Now that's what I'm talking about!!! About time someone has some semblance of common sense and thinks the way I do. Unfortunately, everyone and I mean everyone had glazed eyes and the look of NO understanding. In fact, I was informed later by a co-worker that yeah, BBR did say that but didn't mean it. SAY WHAT????? BBR only said that because there were some even bigger bosses at the meeting. OMG!!! You have got to be kidding me!!! I cannot believe the thought processes of these people, AHEM not people, men. No wonder men and women don't get along.

enter stage right...same day...afternoon...
Guardrail scene:
It's lunch time, but somehow all the guys but me know that we are going to be replacing guardrail this afternoon. C1 created and printed out the traffic plan. Which should be gone over with everyone. C1 left the traffic plan on the lunch table so I decided to read it during lunch. I innocently read some of the things out loud to the guys and said "hey did you know..." The guys all said it may say that but that is not how we do it. We do guardrail and when we do guardrail that's all we do. We do it quickly, safely and get off the highway and out of the way of traffic fast. The part I read was to take a weed wacker to help remove weeds that may be in the way. The traffic plan was not covered because the guys already know what to do. Really??? what about me??? sheesh. I cannot catch a break and irritated everyone again by reading the plan and suggesting we take a weed wacker. They all looked at each other and then Q informed me to knock myself out they were not weed wacking they were doing guardrail. I did take the week wacker, just in case. I should have used it because they had no use for me and refused to show me how to do guardrail. I asked what do you want me to do and they ignored me.


enter stage left...two days ago...
Delineation on straightaways and only straightaways scene:

This was the all day long "talk" from K about IF I was going to be allowed to stay, I needed to change my way of thinking and to stop bringing up the traffic book. That when something was assigned then that is what is done until it gets done. It gets done safely and it gets done their way not necessarily by the book way. We don't go willy-nilly everywhere trying to do everything. In the morning we dove down an on ramp where two delineation posts needed a little bit fixed and a small gasoline jug picked up. I asked to stop and take care of it. I was informed that it would be taken care of when on/off ramps were assigned and that we were only doing straightaways today. One thing and one thing only. K did inform me that if there was time at the end of the day he would appease my ego and we would fix those things but only if there was time at the end of the day. Say what??? this has nothing to do with my ego! It has everything to do with time management and not wasting taxpayer money. I was not asking to go out of our way willy-nilly. I was asking to stop for a moment and fix things as we went. I also wanted to pick up the jug. nope couldn't do that either. We passed these items 5 times this day. Instead, we had to wait until the end of the day and make an extra trip. And I was blamed by K for wasting taxpayer money by having to make this extra trip! GRRRRR!!!! This story is really true. This really did and does happen. This makes me so mad at the waste. I made fun all day long about this idiotic attitude. K finally got at the end of the day what a moronic idea I thought all this was and got a little mad at the end of the day. Good. Sadly, K still did not get that we didn't have to waste any time or money to do my suggestion.


enter stage right...one day ago...
Delineation on the on/off ramps and 86B:

Made a joke early in the morning with K about if something was in "the book." K jokingly said am I going to have to give you the talk again? and didn't I learn anything yesterday??? I also overheard Q thanking K for his service yesterday during work. K said no problem just doing my job. Say what???? K drove, I was the one working my A@@ off, hopping in and out of the truck fixing delineation. K got out once in awhile. I know Q was talking about "the talk." That was agreed that K deliver to me. Especially since I overheard, C2 and K speaking about "the talk" the night before after work. and how did it go with me and K informed C2 that it went well and that I was open to his "suggestions."

This is the day we rushed up (willy-nilly) to 193 while we were at the 184 to get that ladder. I guess it's ok to go willy-nilly as long as it's a male idea. Although, I will point out I wasn't being willy-nilly, I was being very logical about wanting to fix something that would take a moment as we went by it. I will admit the ladder did help to have to be able to fix a speed limit sign later in the day. And it was shocking that K agreed to try to fix it too as this is not what was assigned to us to do.

Got to also help with shutting down 86B so a tow truck could get an electrical truck out of the mud. It was fun to help out. We then sat out of site for awhile to take a break. I know I needed one since I did most of the fixing, which I preferred.

We fixed two sets of on/off ramps on the highway and all of 86B delineation. At times, K made me fix things that didn't need fixing, so I started making a big production of it and taking a little bit longer to fix. He didn't like it and started to get out of the truck and helped fixed delineation too. I may bring a protractor to work with me to prove this.

What a commentary, right???
That's all for now.
Send me all the news.
L

Dear Friend...

I had to let you know how the first day of work went in the new Region.

I get to Headquarters (HQ) early. Hang out for an hour and then have orientation for a few hours. Strangely enough I have to deal with "the male attitude" in this region. Unbelievable, the other region had not had a woman in my position for 10 years and were more welcoming than this group. This region does have women. What is up with that???

Anywhoo, the first thing stated to another guy was, "well, I hope you get through this issue. Good luck." I mean really??? What is the other guy supposed to do? He knew I was listening and could tell I knew exactly what was up. He at least was decent about his reply and said, "yep, you never know, it is what it is. We'll just have to see." Really??? These guys act like they've never had the male gender be problematic in a job. Sheesh.

We, the orientation class that consists of a whole 4 people, head to get our equipment and boots. And every place I go I get "the look." It's pretty irritating that I'm already being judged as inadequate.
I really hate that. I then get to head to the patrol that I am assigned. There are two guys working this day. Both are pleasant. We get called out for debris. Wow, it's very fast paced. The trucks seem bigger because of the fast pace. We also get to repair fence, which I found interesting, and then more debris. The debris takes awhile because they use trucks with a V-plow on it to move debris from the road and sometimes they miss it and have to turn around and it's not easy to find a turn around for such a big truck. It's safer than being hit by someone going 90 miles per hour trying to pick it up by hand. We had an assist by the local police for the last debris call out. People pay attention to the red and blue lights but don't give a fig about our yellow and blues. They should, it's like a $1000 fine. Unfortunately the police are too busy with other more important crimes than to hand out fines for not slowing down for us.

Anyway the afternoon went quick. C hit the plow really hard one time. Geez, it was so hard I thought for certain there was damage. Nope, it checked out ok. J had lots of really good advice and asked if I wanted to drive. I said no not today. I just wanted to observe and help out where I could. Cripes, the cars go by fast. The Interstate is a whole new ball-game. It will be a good experience.

Anyway, tomorrow's a new day (today was a holiday that I got to take off with pay, Yay!). Everyday's an interview. It won't be boring.

Send me all the news,
L

Dear Friend...

Dear Friend,

It's been awhile. I'm still alive. I been places, done things, and am still alive. Sometimes this surprises me and sometimes it doesn't. I'll give a shortened version of what's been happening.

Let's begin with the new boss in 2014. His first words to me were: "I don't know what you're doing here as I consider your position highly frivolous and unnecessary."

No Joke. The above were his exact words. Yikes, and Uh-oh I'm in trouble as my days are obviously numbered. He's a mean, old man and I curse him until he makes getting rid of my job right, and I'll let the powers that be do the rest. The last guy I cursed can barely see or walk now, and still can't figure "it" ou . du-uh. Make it right and all that will go away.

Anywhoo, fast forward to 2016. For the past year I've been dealing with safety issues at work for a year. Co-worker brings wife suffering from dementia and frailness to work with him. Who does that??? additional different co-worker brings his kid with him for the past 7 years because he's too cheap to pay for a babysitter. Who does that??? Men, men, men do that. And men allow them too. GRRRR.

Turned in the safety issues to HR in March. The "babysitting" issue was of more interest to HR than the "dementia/frail" issue. Go figure, the kid is now old enough to take care of herself now and I only spilled the beans on that one by accident while speaking with HR, I still laugh inside when I think about that one. One minute, I'm talking along so fast I hardly know what I said when HR interrupts me and says, "hold on, back up," and I have to describe the "babysitting" issue. The "DF" issue is much more dangerous; the woman gets lost 3 times a day and has almost been ran over, fallen over or almost extremely hurt by equipment flying around. I haven't been late to work since this issue was taken care of.

But I could tell the very day when HR informed the Mean Old Man Boss. He was so pissed that day he could barely look at me. Supposedly it's anonymous, phooey on that. Two weeks later I get written up for being late and early to work. 6 weeks later, May 2016 right after the holiday no less, I get laid off due to a phoney-baloney "workforce reduction." And my prior boss doesn't stick up for me yet he stuck up for some dumb schmuck for 15 years prior to this and can't help me out???? oh, bother. I cursed him too.

I checked with an attorney. He said my case was so strange that the judge would laugh me out of the court room. No case, good luck with life.

Anyway, I sent out over 75 applications in June 2016. Nothing. I cannot find a job to save my life. and it's only me here to do any saving if I don't want to end up under a bridge and homeless. I CURSE MC and SR, I really do! and the dumb schmuck too.

Finally, get a city bus driving job. I love it. It's not easy as you deal with a lot of people with mental health issues. I still like it. I do not like the extra board hours safety issue. They have people working 15-17 hour days. It's really not safe and can be done another way. I bring this to management attention and they deny, deny, deny. Good God, does anyone have any sense around here? I resign Dec 2016.

Once again, I must think outside the box. I do a search for how to use my CDL class B driving license. I don't want to be stuck in an office again. Guess what??? I find a job as a snow plow driver in the high Rocky Mountains for March/April 2017. Way cool. I love it! Plus it scares the begeebees outta me. It's only temporary, but enough to keep me alive.

Fast forward to today, July 2017, I start as a snow plow driver for a new Region along the Interstate.

Wish me luck and send me all the news.

L

Did You Know...I didn't...

Did you know that if you wet a strip of cloth long enough to go around your neck and tie it gently around your neck when its wet it will lower your body temperature 10 degrees!!! That's huge. And must be why in all those old cowboy photos I see cowboys with a neck-kerchief around their necks. It's to keep them cool in the hot dry work they have to do. Who knew??? not me, I'm embarrassed to say.

Good day.