Report from the Field, Tuesday
Well, I'm back on the case. My contribution to the UCSA project has come to a close, so I have been re-assigned to a project in South Carolina. Instead of working for Umbrella Corporation, I am now working for the US government. Well, the department of education, anyhow.
That's right- I'm working in schools. Elementary schools to be precise. While elementary schools aren't quite as exciting as high-dollar medical research facilities, the more relaxed atmosphere is a nice change of pace. No longer do I have to fear that every move might knock over some vial over, and inadvertently cause the zombie apocalypse. No. Th worst case I can think of here, is that some kid chokes on a screw that I leave behind, or something. Unfortunate, but certainly no global catastrophe.
This project's got a few other perks, too. For one, it's hourly. This puts a hard cap on my earning's for the week, but also allows me to relax a little. It's quite nice to not be in a constant rush. My pace can be more along the lines of this, instead of this (caution: ridiculous)- not slow, but not heart attack hectic. I can actually take my time to do the job right, while staying safe, too. Not that I did anything differently before, it's just that I don't get financially penalized for it now.
The other nice thing is that this project is actually a retrofit instead of a straight relamp. We are converting the majority of the schools' straight 3 lamp fixtures into reflected 2 lamp ones. It's a lot easier to stay focused on the job when you have a more complicated task to do. To convert the fixtures, I have to pull out the old lamps, replace the ballast and tombstone (the little end caps that hold the lamps in place) brackets, add in the reflector, and install a new set of lamps. It's still a pretty straight-forward operation, but at least I get to use a couple tools, and handle a wider variety of materials.
I am also rather pleased that, as it turns out, I am pretty good at this retrofit business. Today was my first day doing it, and yet I still managed to place 3rd on my 4 man crew. Nothing amazing, but not last- and I'm the only new guy. I expect that I'll get noticeably faster as time goes by, and my team leader is already happy my work. Not too shabby. :)
Yet another plus is the close proximity to home. Since the drive from the job site to Atlanta is only 3 or so hours, the office is allowing everyone to go home on the weekends. I am absolutely stoked about this. No matter how obnoxious the job may get in the future, knowing that I only have to deal with it on weekdays will do wonders for it's tolerability. To make the deal even sweeter, the office is holding on to the rooms while we're gone, so we can leave our crap in SC. We also have the option to stay, but I don't really see why anyone would.
In addition to that other stuff, I also got lucky with my crew and lodging assignments. I'll be working with what seems to be a solid bunch of guys- one of which whom was part of my UCSA group. We're staying in a classy extended stay, which appears to be a retrofit residence in. The rooms are spacious, and even go so far as to have a fireplace. There aren't really any store near by (just a 24 hour gas station and a WaHo), but it's still a nice enough place.
So yeah, this job looks like a winner. This may lead to my updates being less... colorful, but that's a trade off I'm willing to make. I'm looking forward to coming home feeling accomplished, instead of cheated, and I'm looking forward to actually being able to come -home-.
Tales of Yore
Some fun stuff happened during my last week/weekend in Texas, but my extreme fatigue and later laziness led to me never reporting them. For the sake of said events getting chronicled, I intend to slip piece them into my current and future posts, bit by bit. Who knows, perhaps my less-than-pristine memory will make stories more interesting that they ought to be...
First off, a quick word on the Great One-Day Strike. In the end, very little ending up coming from this. The Monday after our little stand off, my crew and I all received a phone call from our division manager. He raged at us in an extreme, and most unprofessional, manner- seemingly oblivious to the finer points surrounding our situation. We later received an email apologizing for said phone call, and also informing us that an angry letter was being place on our permanent records.
The letter puts an unfairly negative twist on the events, and is outright incorrect in some points. For what I hear, our permanent records, and contents thereof, don't really mean anything. Despite that, I still intend to talk to that manager about the letter, and see if he can at least adjust it to be true. No matter how important a document may be, if it's a judgment of my character, I prefer it to be accurate.
Other than that, though, nothing really happened. TL never asked us to do that work again, and never brought up that night in later discussions. Nobody was fired. Nobody was even asked to do their jobs differently. A pretty lame ending if you ask me, but I suppose I'm glad that I'm still employed.
Off the Clock
Keeping this journal up-to-date is a surprisingly hard challenge. When I get home from a long day of work, writing is usually not terribly high on my list of things I want to do. If I put it off 'till the morning, I usually end up forgoing the update for the sake of sleeping in. Before long, I have several day's worth of updates to write. The task becomes more daunting, and my drive to work on it is further lessened. When I finally get to my days off, the thought of catching up on all of my missed days seems extremely unappealing.
The ultimate solution is to just not be a lazy-ass in the first place, but procrastination is just in my nature. I'm hoping that working this job, and writing this journal will help to lessen my affliction, as that very same procrastination is part of the reason I was eating it in college. If I ever want to get back into school, I'm going to have to change my way of looking at things.... Anyways, this is your favorite, lazy-ass, back-in-gear ottah fawks wishing you a good morning, good afternoon, and good night.
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