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Yeah, so, I had duty yesterday. If there's anyone out there who doesn't know what that is, it's where I go to the ship and have to stay there overnight and stand watches and such in addition to doing my normal job, and can't leave at all for 24 hours, except in the case of an emergency -- and even then I have to find the appropriate people and get their permission. I have to do this every four days. It sucks.
And because all the engineers are gearing up for one of the Navy's asinine insepections, all work on the ship has come to a complete standstill while they prepare for it. I'll point out at this point that last week, my workcenter was involved in a similar inspection of all of our communications and radar equipment, and the engineers weren't called upon to do shit for us. And I had to stand all my normal watches on my duty days, including the ones in the middle of the damn night.
But because the engineers need their sleep in preparation for their inspection, they aren't standing any watches right now. Of course, those watches can't go un-stood, so it falls on me and the other non-engineers to pick up their slack. Which means that yesterday, I got to work at 6:30 am like normal, went on watch at 7:30 (fifteen minutes early, because I felt like being nice)... and stayed there for twelve hours. It was supposed to be a six-hour watch, but the engineers got busy and my relief got pulled in to help them out. So at 7:30 pm (or 1930 to us military types), I was finally relieved of my watch. Which was really convenient, since I was starting to worry I wouldn't be able to get any sleep before my next watch at midnight. Luckily, I was able to get my regular work done quickly and get to bed at 9:30. So I could wake up at 11:30 and take another watch. Until 4:00 am, and then be in bed again by 4:15.
Remember earlier how I said work starts at 6:30? Same thing today. So I had to be up at six. And today, instead of doing my job, I got to support the engineers. All day. Until 6:30 pm (normally work lets out at four). Another twelve-hour work day! And the best part is, I got to spend it in the bilge! That's like a narrow, cramped, stinky, wet, slippery, dark crawlspace underneath the ship's engines. And I got to clean engines. But not the dirt; nobody cares if there's a little dust on the engine. Now oil, that's a problem. We'd better get all that oil off the engines, because we wouldn't want any oil on our engines. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'd think having no oil in the engines would be the cause for concern. But what do I know? I'm not paid to think; I'm paid to clean up after the engineers.
And to make things even better, Sara called me at work, in tears, because some people she thought were her friends -- including one who I know was a really, really good friend to her -- have for some reason spontaneously decided that they hate her. She's been crying all day over it, and I can't say I blame her. I wish there was something I could do, but apparently they not only won't respond to her efforts at communication, they've cut her off from even attempting it. And, I came to find out a few minutes ago, they've decided to cut me off from communications with them, too. Including kicking me off a message board I really enjoyed hanging out at, with a group of people I really liked, and even a few people we both honestly care about. And neither of us even knows why.
So basically, my life has sucked for the last couple of days.
And because all the engineers are gearing up for one of the Navy's asinine insepections, all work on the ship has come to a complete standstill while they prepare for it. I'll point out at this point that last week, my workcenter was involved in a similar inspection of all of our communications and radar equipment, and the engineers weren't called upon to do shit for us. And I had to stand all my normal watches on my duty days, including the ones in the middle of the damn night.
But because the engineers need their sleep in preparation for their inspection, they aren't standing any watches right now. Of course, those watches can't go un-stood, so it falls on me and the other non-engineers to pick up their slack. Which means that yesterday, I got to work at 6:30 am like normal, went on watch at 7:30 (fifteen minutes early, because I felt like being nice)... and stayed there for twelve hours. It was supposed to be a six-hour watch, but the engineers got busy and my relief got pulled in to help them out. So at 7:30 pm (or 1930 to us military types), I was finally relieved of my watch. Which was really convenient, since I was starting to worry I wouldn't be able to get any sleep before my next watch at midnight. Luckily, I was able to get my regular work done quickly and get to bed at 9:30. So I could wake up at 11:30 and take another watch. Until 4:00 am, and then be in bed again by 4:15.
Remember earlier how I said work starts at 6:30? Same thing today. So I had to be up at six. And today, instead of doing my job, I got to support the engineers. All day. Until 6:30 pm (normally work lets out at four). Another twelve-hour work day! And the best part is, I got to spend it in the bilge! That's like a narrow, cramped, stinky, wet, slippery, dark crawlspace underneath the ship's engines. And I got to clean engines. But not the dirt; nobody cares if there's a little dust on the engine. Now oil, that's a problem. We'd better get all that oil off the engines, because we wouldn't want any oil on our engines. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'd think having no oil in the engines would be the cause for concern. But what do I know? I'm not paid to think; I'm paid to clean up after the engineers.
And to make things even better, Sara called me at work, in tears, because some people she thought were her friends -- including one who I know was a really, really good friend to her -- have for some reason spontaneously decided that they hate her. She's been crying all day over it, and I can't say I blame her. I wish there was something I could do, but apparently they not only won't respond to her efforts at communication, they've cut her off from even attempting it. And, I came to find out a few minutes ago, they've decided to cut me off from communications with them, too. Including kicking me off a message board I really enjoyed hanging out at, with a group of people I really liked, and even a few people we both honestly care about. And neither of us even knows why.
So basically, my life has sucked for the last couple of days.
