today was a "Deliverance day."
Deliverance the movie, not the good kind of deliverance. I suppose it's better than the nightmarish "Dr. Seuss" days I had in Castle Rock.
By Deliverance I mean one guy had chew in his mouth and didn't care if when he spit where it landed including on himself. Yep, himself, yuk.
and that's all I'm going to say about that.
It does remind me of my last days at CR when the TMII joked about this new region, singing the Deliverance theme and talking with a heavy accent and pretending to spit on himself. There were six of us in the one-ton going to a Company memorial remembrance day. It wasn't funny to me at the time. All the guys laughed until they cried. I do kinda chuckle now even though I shouldn't. Especially since they said I'd laugh about it later and I hate it when the nightmarish "Dr. Seuss guys" are right. I had no idea how soon that would be. Irony, it's a heartless bitch.
Send me all the news.
Love, L
Monday, April 23, 2018
Sunday, April 22, 2018
Urban Sketching...
I haven't shared my sketching in awhile.
I-25, Happy Canyon mile marker (mm) 187 - This sketch was given to my TMIII - just because.
and because I didn't care for my first attempt I tried sketching Happy Canyon again:
Patrol 03 and Hwy 86 looking East towards Franktown (I gave the second sketch to my LTC OPS - just because --- my daughter informed me that I was very generous to give them my originals. She informed me that she would not have done that).
Schweiger Ranch at I25 and Ridgegate
P25 inside shed looking out towards the east. 3803 Sander is in shed being washed.
There will be no more from this area as I have transferred regions.
happy sketching, L
I-25, Happy Canyon mile marker (mm) 187 - This sketch was given to my TMIII - just because.
and because I didn't care for my first attempt I tried sketching Happy Canyon again:
Patrol 03 and Hwy 86 looking East towards Franktown (I gave the second sketch to my LTC OPS - just because --- my daughter informed me that I was very generous to give them my originals. She informed me that she would not have done that).
Schweiger Ranch at I25 and Ridgegate
P25 inside shed looking out towards the east. 3803 Sander is in shed being washed.
There will be no more from this area as I have transferred regions.
happy sketching, L
Saturday, April 21, 2018
Dear Friend...
my first snow shift has gone well in my new patrol.
I will confess to being sneaky as we have a brand spanking new tandem in this patrol, which the TMII and the other guy drive. I took a photo of myself with it and sent it to someone in my old region, hoping he would unknowingly play into my mental game with my old cranky pants patrol and show them the photo (crossing fingers that he does)(smiles).
I get an old manual plow that is currently parked due to an exhaust leak. My TMII taught me the controls to the new tandem and we rode around a bit yesterday getting reading for snow shift. He asked me if I was wing certified and I asked what do you mean? He said the TMII is supposed to train the TMI on how to properly and safely use a wing, not allow a new employee to be on night shift, etc. I said my last TMII said this or these as was my case were the buttons to the wing this one makes it go up, this one makes it go down, now go out and plow and be careful and don't hit anything or we'll have a bunch of paperwork to fill out and filling out paperwork makes me really mad.
side note: I never did hit anything and I had also asked for additional training that I never got because to me this seemed a bit thin on the training.
My new TMII gave a disgusted noise and showed me the controls yesterday and after driving around early this morning (he drove) felt comfortable enough to send me out in the new tandem with the wing chained up. There wasn't much to do. I only cleared a few places and then took a sneaky selfie, and sent it to an acquaintance that I still keep in touch with hoping he'll share it with my old patrol, implying the impossible by only stating that I was driving it not that it was assigned to me.
Send me all the news,
Love, L
I will confess to being sneaky as we have a brand spanking new tandem in this patrol, which the TMII and the other guy drive. I took a photo of myself with it and sent it to someone in my old region, hoping he would unknowingly play into my mental game with my old cranky pants patrol and show them the photo (crossing fingers that he does)(smiles).
I get an old manual plow that is currently parked due to an exhaust leak. My TMII taught me the controls to the new tandem and we rode around a bit yesterday getting reading for snow shift. He asked me if I was wing certified and I asked what do you mean? He said the TMII is supposed to train the TMI on how to properly and safely use a wing, not allow a new employee to be on night shift, etc. I said my last TMII said this or these as was my case were the buttons to the wing this one makes it go up, this one makes it go down, now go out and plow and be careful and don't hit anything or we'll have a bunch of paperwork to fill out and filling out paperwork makes me really mad.
side note: I never did hit anything and I had also asked for additional training that I never got because to me this seemed a bit thin on the training.
My new TMII gave a disgusted noise and showed me the controls yesterday and after driving around early this morning (he drove) felt comfortable enough to send me out in the new tandem with the wing chained up. There wasn't much to do. I only cleared a few places and then took a sneaky selfie, and sent it to an acquaintance that I still keep in touch with hoping he'll share it with my old patrol, implying the impossible by only stating that I was driving it not that it was assigned to me.
Send me all the news,
Love, L
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Dear Friend...
it is day four and I have spoken more in the past four days at work than I have in the past year. How very sad is that?
Today was the first meeting for me to attend in my new Region. This would be another milestone for me as for the past ten months whenever we had a meeting I sat alone. There would be at least a four chair radius around me, like a "no man's land." It was strange. No one would sit by me or speak to me. I recall one meeting when I sat by one of the men in my patrol and he got up and moved to another seat. If I chose one side of the room to sit on my patrol would choose the other. It was as if I had the plague or at the very least cooties. I was sadly very isolated by my own patrol.
Here, I chose my seat and waited.
A gentleman actually chose to sit by me, unafraid, willingly. How refreshing that he did not lose his manhood nor was he kicked out of the man-club by choosing to do something so simple. At my old patrol he would have been considered insane. Perhaps he had no choice? Let's give him the benefit of the doubt shall we? I don't know who he was nor would I be able to pick him out of the 30 men or so that we have working here, as currently they all look alike to me. LOL. Kudos to him for being brave and knowing who he is. I didn't speak to him as that would have most likely crossed the "invisible" line of no return and caused fear and chaos for all who were present.
I kept quiet and tried to cause the least amount of fear & mayhem for everyone involved.
Send me all the news.
Love, L
side note: the meeting was on Pre-trips.
Today was the first meeting for me to attend in my new Region. This would be another milestone for me as for the past ten months whenever we had a meeting I sat alone. There would be at least a four chair radius around me, like a "no man's land." It was strange. No one would sit by me or speak to me. I recall one meeting when I sat by one of the men in my patrol and he got up and moved to another seat. If I chose one side of the room to sit on my patrol would choose the other. It was as if I had the plague or at the very least cooties. I was sadly very isolated by my own patrol.
Here, I chose my seat and waited.
A gentleman actually chose to sit by me, unafraid, willingly. How refreshing that he did not lose his manhood nor was he kicked out of the man-club by choosing to do something so simple. At my old patrol he would have been considered insane. Perhaps he had no choice? Let's give him the benefit of the doubt shall we? I don't know who he was nor would I be able to pick him out of the 30 men or so that we have working here, as currently they all look alike to me. LOL. Kudos to him for being brave and knowing who he is. I didn't speak to him as that would have most likely crossed the "invisible" line of no return and caused fear and chaos for all who were present.
I kept quiet and tried to cause the least amount of fear & mayhem for everyone involved.
Send me all the news.
Love, L
side note: the meeting was on Pre-trips.
Monday, April 16, 2018
Dear Friend...
It's like night and day; day and night or that I've walked into the twilight zone!
My new patrol is so inviting and all the men love working here and are so positive. We have 8 patrols working out of this "super shed." Now that's a lot of men!!!
And miracles of miracles, well adjusted happy men too! I'm still in shock and wondering where they keep all the cranky unhappy guys. Perhaps they'll turn up later as today they were on their best behavior to meet the 3 newbs.
In fact, when my TMII announced that "she" (meaning me) would be coming to this shed he said they all looked at him and went "wait, what??? She???"
I spent the day with my TMII and am very impressed by his positive attitude. It's so refreshing after having to deal with the negative culture that was promoted in my last patrol. I am so relieved.
I believe I have angels watching over me. There's lots to tell but I am truly speechless. Suffice it to know that this transfer will work out well.
Send me all the news,
Love, L
My new patrol is so inviting and all the men love working here and are so positive. We have 8 patrols working out of this "super shed." Now that's a lot of men!!!
And miracles of miracles, well adjusted happy men too! I'm still in shock and wondering where they keep all the cranky unhappy guys. Perhaps they'll turn up later as today they were on their best behavior to meet the 3 newbs.
In fact, when my TMII announced that "she" (meaning me) would be coming to this shed he said they all looked at him and went "wait, what??? She???"
I spent the day with my TMII and am very impressed by his positive attitude. It's so refreshing after having to deal with the negative culture that was promoted in my last patrol. I am so relieved.
I believe I have angels watching over me. There's lots to tell but I am truly speechless. Suffice it to know that this transfer will work out well.
Send me all the news,
Love, L
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Dear Friend...
I haven't posted in awhile. Things with the company have been a bit strange and the guys have been very grouchy for quite some time.
April 2-6
First, P25 has been working on a center wall replacement as two storms ago a semi-tractor trailer was going too fast in the wet snow and blasted through it. The wall broke like powder in places and to be fair cement is only good for so long. I recall speaking to a city engineer and he informed me that most governments never replace their bridges or any infrastructure when it needs to be and usually take the infrastructure 50 years past the replacement date or wait for it to fall down before replacement.
Back to the center wall replacement. Helped set traffic and then got sent back to the patrol to do shed work. C2 got sent back too. He was not happy as P24 got to stay. For him it made no sense that anyone in our patrol got sent away since its our road. He called us the D-Team. For two days this went on. On the third day I got extremely frustrated with J2 as instead of helping with traffic we just drove in circles as he said it wasn't safe to move to the center lane in two miles and that traffic was too busy. Oh ugh. He later sabotaged me being able to help C1 and C2 with traffic for the afternoon pick up. We just drove and drove and drove in circles. At one point I informed J2 that the night crew had a plan and I watched him go to the TMIII and "innocently" change the plan. J2 saw how well the night crew works together and put a wrench in that real quick.
Things happen fast on the Interstate and you must be ready to get things done, done quickly, efficiently and safely.
On the third day, C2, J2 and I were again the D-Team and I let J2 have it. C2 thought it was very funny that I called J2 the devil. C2 later told all the guys it was really funny and was like being with two kids who were fighting. Our TMII said it best about the patrol that we are like a bunch of siblings. That even if we don't like each other and say bad things about each other that no one else is allowed to say bad things about us but us. And of the TMIII, he said that the TMIII was like a brother that you dream of running over with the family car but never do because he's your brother and you would protect him with your life and you get to say bad things about him too but no one else does.
OMG!!! Yes it's very dysfunctional here! and a bit scary too.
On April 6, the night crew got to be on snow watch because the area expected an inch of snow. OMG they are so spoiled in the Denver Metro area it's not even funny. Just slow down people. I had fun joking with C2 and K (C1 was out of town and was not on night patrol with us). I had a good time calling P25 - Cranky Pants Castle Rock. C2 tried to sabotage my happy transfer by stating "wow, going from a 9 man patrol to a 3 man patrol. Yikes, what if you don't find anyone you like to hang out with? At least with a 9 man patrol you have choices with 3 your choices are few."
I was so happy he said this so I could drive an intensely sensitive point all the way to the heart. I said, "how is that any different than here? Who have I found here? I'm excluded from everything. At least there I only have to deal with 2 men with possible bad attitudes instead of 8 that actually do." C2 got real quiet and said,"good point." From that day on C2 made an effort to include me. Too bad it's too late. The others have ignored me the past two weeks and the filthy mouths are also back with a vengeance. It's as though I am invisible.
Remember my interview back on March 1? Well...
On April 3, the LTC OPS from Region 2 called me and asked if I would like to come work for him. Yay, I received my transfer and just got 10 hours of my life back!!! No more traveling 46.5 miles one way to work. Nor do I have to put up with 8 intensely bad male attitudes. Even Q speaks to me now that the end of tolerating me is near. 10 months and I can count on one hand how many times he's spoken to me. He even had another guy call me on my phone to tell me what he wanted done when he was "acting" TMII so he didn't have to speak to me.
At this point, I am smiling everyday at work, which is highly unusual, and really irritates the guys, which makes me smile more. Even one of the other guys from P26 informed me that there is a "spring" in my step.
The guys have been a bit perturbed since learning about my interview last month and one guy has been asking me everyday if I've heard anything. I finally shut that irritating behavior down one day by not even looking up from my phone and answering a succinct "no" and sighing real loud after answering, he quit asking me after that.
April 9-13 - was so miserable it's not even funny when working with 8 cranky guys. I still smiled. M-24 asked if I was taking Friday off. I said no and later thought what a great idea. the next day I asked for Friday off. I got a cranky answer of "well, we were going to do something nice for you."
Oh please please stop the hypocrisy!!!...I thought to myself. Anything "nice" from these guys is subject to a high sense of unease. Long story short on this subject, I got to attend a highly awkward lunch on Thursday that barely anyone attended. ugh. The TMII paid for my lunch, which is like taking food from someone evil and I would have rather paid for it myself. I did choose a place that I believed no one would go to: Pho 777. The food was good even though someone not very nice paid for it and it wasn't easy to eat because of that.
That was Thursday. Let me back up a bit.
Surprise among surprises, after setting traffic for the center wall replacement work this week and K volunteering to go with J2, he's better with a guy so as not to look so bad with the men, I was placed on the center wall replacement crew. I was not happy about this as I had plans for being at the shop and had my work week planned for that and I had many things in my head that I wanted to get done there. Nope. C2 and I got placed on the A-Team. grrrr. C2 was so happy I thought he was going to float away he was so happy.
After spending the day at the center wall on the second day I also got to run the loader to move concrete barriers. Boy, I was not happy about that at all. We have traffic illegally traveling at 90mph and you want a newb moving tons of concrete??? OMG!!! This training would have been better done at the shop when they were loading and unloading the forms for crying out loud. That way there would be no chance of the barriers swinging wildly with a chance of hitting a car or pushing a coworker out into traffic! Geez, these guys have no common sense at all when it comes to training safely. I did get the barriers moved back in place safely with no mishaps for anyone.
The next day (Wed) they also had me move the barriers for the morning concrete pour. M2 informed me that I did well I just need to be faster since there is a time crunch and I barely got this done in time before the concrete truck arrived. After the pour, I was asked if I wanted to move the barriers by the TMII and I succinctly said "no." It was pretty funny he was like "what???" I said "don't ask just tell, you asked if it's something I wanted to do, I don't want to do it." He said "ok, at least we got you on it a little and are familiar with how to move forms." He then told the guy who's been doing it from the beginning to do it. I swear these guys have no sense of when training needs to safely happen.
The rest of Wed and all of Thursday we are stuck at the shop doing busy work because of the high fire danger that a spark from anything even a car engine can create a fire. These guys smoke a lot and that says enough about that. but talk about even more cranky I am so thankful that I am taking Friday off it's not even funny.
K was sent to pick up supplies which was a cluster and I thought the TMIII was going to get a bad migraine from it all. I just laughed inside, a lot.
Thursday's lunch as mentioned above was very awkward. J2, myself, TMII, TMIII, TMIII-P24,26 attended.
I finished washing 3804 and happily cleaned out my locker. I gave original sketches to R-P24 - Greenland sketch , my LTC Ops here - Franktown sketch, and my TMIII - Happy Canyon sketch (I tried to match the road areas to the men), as thank you's for believing in me even though no one else at P25 did or does. I've learned a lot here. Sadly mostly about the male human nature instead of training even the TMII admitted in a meeting that he hasn't trained like he should. Geez that wasn't smart of him in front of everyone. Oh well, these cranky guys have been fairly easy to read as they are very predictable and I am happy to be leaving and they are happy to see me gone. I have a peace about it.
It's amazing to me that just one year ago I sat down with my TMII in Nederland and created this plan. He asked me what do you want? I at first said I don't know. He kept repeating what do you want? I said to get closer to home. He said ok, then let's make a plan. He said what's closest to your home? I said Castle Rock was the closest. He said, uh-oh, you don't really want to go there but they do know guardrail. They are the best in the state when it comes to guardrail. I said Castle Rock is closest right now. He said Ok. Let's do it and hope for the best. He informed me to be honest with my knowledge(which was very little) and to be open in any interview my plan to get closer to home. We came up with a plan and almost to the very day it has become a reality. I am truly humbled.
Send me all the news,
Love, L
April 2-6
First, P25 has been working on a center wall replacement as two storms ago a semi-tractor trailer was going too fast in the wet snow and blasted through it. The wall broke like powder in places and to be fair cement is only good for so long. I recall speaking to a city engineer and he informed me that most governments never replace their bridges or any infrastructure when it needs to be and usually take the infrastructure 50 years past the replacement date or wait for it to fall down before replacement.
Back to the center wall replacement. Helped set traffic and then got sent back to the patrol to do shed work. C2 got sent back too. He was not happy as P24 got to stay. For him it made no sense that anyone in our patrol got sent away since its our road. He called us the D-Team. For two days this went on. On the third day I got extremely frustrated with J2 as instead of helping with traffic we just drove in circles as he said it wasn't safe to move to the center lane in two miles and that traffic was too busy. Oh ugh. He later sabotaged me being able to help C1 and C2 with traffic for the afternoon pick up. We just drove and drove and drove in circles. At one point I informed J2 that the night crew had a plan and I watched him go to the TMIII and "innocently" change the plan. J2 saw how well the night crew works together and put a wrench in that real quick.
Things happen fast on the Interstate and you must be ready to get things done, done quickly, efficiently and safely.
On the third day, C2, J2 and I were again the D-Team and I let J2 have it. C2 thought it was very funny that I called J2 the devil. C2 later told all the guys it was really funny and was like being with two kids who were fighting. Our TMII said it best about the patrol that we are like a bunch of siblings. That even if we don't like each other and say bad things about each other that no one else is allowed to say bad things about us but us. And of the TMIII, he said that the TMIII was like a brother that you dream of running over with the family car but never do because he's your brother and you would protect him with your life and you get to say bad things about him too but no one else does.
OMG!!! Yes it's very dysfunctional here! and a bit scary too.
On April 6, the night crew got to be on snow watch because the area expected an inch of snow. OMG they are so spoiled in the Denver Metro area it's not even funny. Just slow down people. I had fun joking with C2 and K (C1 was out of town and was not on night patrol with us). I had a good time calling P25 - Cranky Pants Castle Rock. C2 tried to sabotage my happy transfer by stating "wow, going from a 9 man patrol to a 3 man patrol. Yikes, what if you don't find anyone you like to hang out with? At least with a 9 man patrol you have choices with 3 your choices are few."
I was so happy he said this so I could drive an intensely sensitive point all the way to the heart. I said, "how is that any different than here? Who have I found here? I'm excluded from everything. At least there I only have to deal with 2 men with possible bad attitudes instead of 8 that actually do." C2 got real quiet and said,"good point." From that day on C2 made an effort to include me. Too bad it's too late. The others have ignored me the past two weeks and the filthy mouths are also back with a vengeance. It's as though I am invisible.
Remember my interview back on March 1? Well...
On April 3, the LTC OPS from Region 2 called me and asked if I would like to come work for him. Yay, I received my transfer and just got 10 hours of my life back!!! No more traveling 46.5 miles one way to work. Nor do I have to put up with 8 intensely bad male attitudes. Even Q speaks to me now that the end of tolerating me is near. 10 months and I can count on one hand how many times he's spoken to me. He even had another guy call me on my phone to tell me what he wanted done when he was "acting" TMII so he didn't have to speak to me.
At this point, I am smiling everyday at work, which is highly unusual, and really irritates the guys, which makes me smile more. Even one of the other guys from P26 informed me that there is a "spring" in my step.
The guys have been a bit perturbed since learning about my interview last month and one guy has been asking me everyday if I've heard anything. I finally shut that irritating behavior down one day by not even looking up from my phone and answering a succinct "no" and sighing real loud after answering, he quit asking me after that.
April 9-13 - was so miserable it's not even funny when working with 8 cranky guys. I still smiled. M-24 asked if I was taking Friday off. I said no and later thought what a great idea. the next day I asked for Friday off. I got a cranky answer of "well, we were going to do something nice for you."
Oh please please stop the hypocrisy!!!...I thought to myself. Anything "nice" from these guys is subject to a high sense of unease. Long story short on this subject, I got to attend a highly awkward lunch on Thursday that barely anyone attended. ugh. The TMII paid for my lunch, which is like taking food from someone evil and I would have rather paid for it myself. I did choose a place that I believed no one would go to: Pho 777. The food was good even though someone not very nice paid for it and it wasn't easy to eat because of that.
That was Thursday. Let me back up a bit.
Surprise among surprises, after setting traffic for the center wall replacement work this week and K volunteering to go with J2, he's better with a guy so as not to look so bad with the men, I was placed on the center wall replacement crew. I was not happy about this as I had plans for being at the shop and had my work week planned for that and I had many things in my head that I wanted to get done there. Nope. C2 and I got placed on the A-Team. grrrr. C2 was so happy I thought he was going to float away he was so happy.
After spending the day at the center wall on the second day I also got to run the loader to move concrete barriers. Boy, I was not happy about that at all. We have traffic illegally traveling at 90mph and you want a newb moving tons of concrete??? OMG!!! This training would have been better done at the shop when they were loading and unloading the forms for crying out loud. That way there would be no chance of the barriers swinging wildly with a chance of hitting a car or pushing a coworker out into traffic! Geez, these guys have no common sense at all when it comes to training safely. I did get the barriers moved back in place safely with no mishaps for anyone.
The next day (Wed) they also had me move the barriers for the morning concrete pour. M2 informed me that I did well I just need to be faster since there is a time crunch and I barely got this done in time before the concrete truck arrived. After the pour, I was asked if I wanted to move the barriers by the TMII and I succinctly said "no." It was pretty funny he was like "what???" I said "don't ask just tell, you asked if it's something I wanted to do, I don't want to do it." He said "ok, at least we got you on it a little and are familiar with how to move forms." He then told the guy who's been doing it from the beginning to do it. I swear these guys have no sense of when training needs to safely happen.
The rest of Wed and all of Thursday we are stuck at the shop doing busy work because of the high fire danger that a spark from anything even a car engine can create a fire. These guys smoke a lot and that says enough about that. but talk about even more cranky I am so thankful that I am taking Friday off it's not even funny.
K was sent to pick up supplies which was a cluster and I thought the TMIII was going to get a bad migraine from it all. I just laughed inside, a lot.
Thursday's lunch as mentioned above was very awkward. J2, myself, TMII, TMIII, TMIII-P24,26 attended.
I finished washing 3804 and happily cleaned out my locker. I gave original sketches to R-P24 - Greenland sketch , my LTC Ops here - Franktown sketch, and my TMIII - Happy Canyon sketch (I tried to match the road areas to the men), as thank you's for believing in me even though no one else at P25 did or does. I've learned a lot here. Sadly mostly about the male human nature instead of training even the TMII admitted in a meeting that he hasn't trained like he should. Geez that wasn't smart of him in front of everyone. Oh well, these cranky guys have been fairly easy to read as they are very predictable and I am happy to be leaving and they are happy to see me gone. I have a peace about it.
It's amazing to me that just one year ago I sat down with my TMII in Nederland and created this plan. He asked me what do you want? I at first said I don't know. He kept repeating what do you want? I said to get closer to home. He said ok, then let's make a plan. He said what's closest to your home? I said Castle Rock was the closest. He said, uh-oh, you don't really want to go there but they do know guardrail. They are the best in the state when it comes to guardrail. I said Castle Rock is closest right now. He said Ok. Let's do it and hope for the best. He informed me to be honest with my knowledge(which was very little) and to be open in any interview my plan to get closer to home. We came up with a plan and almost to the very day it has become a reality. I am truly humbled.
Send me all the news,
Love, L
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)