Friday Night, turn out the lights!

Not a bad day work wise. Stayed busy without having to WORK at staying busy. Nice change.

The Front Office Clowns have issued an edict, "Ya caint clock in til ya gotta a card ta put yer tyme on." (Boy, spell check didn't like THAT line!)

Neither do WE!

This is a little bit of a whine but it's true.

My alarms start going off at 0340. That's 3:40 a.m. I am a snooze slapping S.O.B.

I am not one of those people that can hear an alarm, jump up and immediately begin jumping through the hoops.

I have at least one Brother that can, the "Master SGT". At the last second his alarm goes off, he hits the shower, gets dressed, gets in the truck and drives like crazy to get to work.

Uh-UH! Not me. I need a little warning. I want my coffee. I need my news and weather. I take about an hour just to get ready to shower and jump in the truck. Even then, I leave myself about :20 extra for traffic or truck trouble.

Saying ALL of that to say... I don't get up at 0400 to get to the hangar and NOT be allowed to clock in!

(Info Note: We work three 12 hour days and get paid for 40 hours. IF we miss ONE SINGLE MINUTE, we loose :01 minute AND four hours of shift differential.)

Nothing at all against my Crew Lead, this facility is very different than others I have worked in. Different even from others in the same Company. But, I have run this weekend shift as a Lead.

I was the first member of the crew to arrive. Often the first person to arrive. Friday morning, with note pad in hand, I would quiz each of the Day Shift Leads as they arrived, "Whatchya got?" (Of course they all said something like, "You guys GOTTA take care of My Problem this weekend!")

By the end of that process the Scheduler would arrive. Then I got the priorities. If my guys arrived before the Scheduler. I had somewhere to send them. I may have to redirect them once I knew the true priorities but I had a plan. A plan based in large part on the delivery schedule.

It doesn't work that way here. I almost never have a legitimate card to clock in on at 0550 in the morning.

That's a Lotta Rant...

On to better things!

Benny is BACK!

Benny is one of our Facility Maintenance guys. He transfered here about the same time I got here. He came down from New Jersey after that shop closed. He is of Puerto Rican descent and his accent is thick. We communicate better in Spanish.

I knew he had been ill pretty constantly. Then one day, "Hey, where the heck is Benny?!" This was about eight weeks ago. His illness, unbeknownest to him, was due to a chunk of intestine being "Muerto", Dead!

He told me today that he got up for work that day (he works evenings) got ready for work and the pain hit. He apparently called 911 for an amubulance. Doctor told him twenty minutes later he'd would have been dead.

In Fact, at some point he did die! Had to hit him repeatedly with the paddles!!!

They put him out for surgery, ten hours worth. He woke two days later and his first words were, "Where's my food?"

Really glad to see Benny back at work. Not only is he a great guy but I lost a dear, dear Friend, Old Bill, to an exploding pancreas. I know that I have mentioned him.

LOL! First thing! When I saw Benny today he was with another guy from Facilities. Benny and I go to yakkin' in Espanol and the other guy had that great bewildered look!

Finally he interjects, "Yo no se que usted se habla?!"

"Claro que si!"

Still laughing. I just remembered the look on Benny's face, "How the hell did you NOT know?"

Anyway. Today I got a Friend home from the grave and made a new one too.

THAT Friend n Neighbors is a bit of Smiling Nada.

I may or may not go on for a little while tonight. I read Gringa's blog when I got home and she inspired a couple of war stories. It was also reassuring to hear how long it takes her to up load her posts. I was afraid it was just my old rig here!