Perpetual Ruminations

Monday

Today is Memorial Day, a day set aside to remember and honor our brave who gave all in service to country and freedom. So, why am I at work? If there was any specific holiday that should require everyone to have the day off, it’s today. After all, our country, as we know it would not be here if it were not for the brave souls of th9ose who serve and fight for freedom, especially those who gave their very lives to earn and preserve that freedom. But, that’s also why I am here, at work, today. Yes, because they preserved freedom, and that means it’s by choice whether businesses are open today, instead of mandated.

It’s been a very wet weekend, and today is more of the same. To wet for camping, or much of anything outside, but the winds aren’t bad, the temperature is fair, and we have not had any severe storms. Today it’s light rain, and from the forecast this morning, no storms at all today. Of course, the weather forecast here is updated and changed every couple of hours, as if they look out the window and change it to meet the current conditions. I have never read or heard such terrible weather forecasts, from the wording to the accuracy, they are just wrong. I don’t know if this national or just local, but around here the forecasts stink, and the wording is horrid.
I was scheduled for a longer day today, but once again our newest guard has asked to work the afternoon for more experience. That means I’m done at eleven, and since it’s a Holiday, the store didn’t open until six-thirty, a pretty short day.  Because if that change, I would have had to wait for six hours for Rhonda to finish and give her a ride home. Normally I would drive home and come back to pick her up, but our van is suffering trans-axle problems and I don’t want to put any extra mile on it until we get it in for repairs.

So, I drove the Jimmy in today, even though that also is not running very good. I’m pretty convinced it just needs a good tune-up, but have not had time to do anything other than work. It had not been run in two weeks, so it didn’t want to start and stay running, butt after a couple of tries it smoked, choked, and misfired, but stayed running. After a few minutes, it smoothed out pretty well, but was still misfiring a bit. After driving about half way, it smoothed right out and ran pretty good again; better than it was running when I parked it. This convinces me even more, it just needs some new plugs, wires, distributor cap, and rotor.

I’ll pick them up before leaving town today, then tomorrow I should be able to work on it and give it a good tune-up. It’s a miserable thing to work on, there just isn’t any room to reach for anything, but I did change plugs once before and know I can do it again. The wires may be a bit more difficult, but I think I can reach them all. It may require taking the front tires off to reach in, but whatever works, right?

Other than working on the Jimmy, I have no real plans for my days off this week, except mowing grass. That’s going to be a twice a week ordeal if it keeps raining like it has been the last month. I do want to set up our screen tent and see if it needs any repairs. It’s pretty nice, but does not weather strong winds at all.  Even so, it’s not bad to put up and take down, and I may find a way to just drop the tent part and leave the supports up. I’ll have to look it over, though, it’s been a few years, well actually quite a few years since we had it up.

I’ve also reached a conclusion from these things I mentioned, as well as many other things. I need to resign my position as supervisor and drop a few hours from my schedule. The reason we have not used the screen tent for so long is the same reason why we have only been out camping two or three times in the past few years, and why we have only mad a couple of trips outside of our home area over the same period. I just don’t have time. Because o9f the nature of our job, it requires me to bring a lot of work home and be on call when I’m not at work.

So, I go to work in the morning, then clock out and go home, to work. On my days off, I’m interrupted by my work phone almost all the time, I am coming in to cover for people, talk to people and serve corrective actions on people. It leaves no time for much of anything else. Of course, my wife is supportive, but it cost us time together and leaves much left undone that she just is not able to do. What little time I do get off from work is spent taking care of the worst of the situations at home, whether it’s mowing grass or fixing a leaking pipe, There is zero tie for writing or studying, and I need to do both. I need to study up on grammar so I can edit my writing, and do better on future writings.

If the company will permit it, I will train Rhonda to take over all supervisory tasks, freeing up a lot of time for me to keep things working at home, and providing more time to study and write. It will still require a lot of time from her, but her shift is better situated for her to see everyone, meaning less time spent driving in, and less of her off work time spent talking to anyone. Also, I have already begun to set up a new procedure that will put another guard in charge in our absence, so we can go and do without being harassed by that damn work phone.

All in all, these changes will provide me a lot more time for things other than work, less stress, and more time to do things at home, besides my studies and writing. Because I know the job, I can offer a lot of assistance, when needed to keep things easier for Rhonda, and with the new procedures, it will provide her more time off from and the ability to get away.

I’m reluctant to resign, but it’s the only way.  I can work part time, maybe even full time and still study and write, but I can’t have a career as a supervisor and a career as a writer at the same time, they both require to much, and there is only so much in me to go around. The writing is very important to me, and I’m not willing to give it up, therefore y career as a supervisor must go; it’s the only way. If working as a security guard full time is too much, I will look into reducing hours as well, but for now, it’s just a step down to see if that frees up enough time for everything else.