Aristo! Aristo! A la lanterne!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

It's my second week of working for a living again. The place is getting busy, and I got tagged to work the weekend. That will make twelve days in a row of work. Others on my shift are doing 12 hour days now as well. At least I am spared that for the moment.

Physically, I'm reminded daily that I'm not young anymore. The work itself is not altogether challenging, but that is made up for with the internal battle I have to fight. That battle is against myself, as many of the best are.

Today I spent my hours feeding documents to a beastly contraption.... a LOT of documents.... pallet loads..... that never ended. Tomorrow I'll learn to deal with what comes out the other end of the beast. Thousands of pieces that must be directed to specific places across the entire country, without error.

I can see the direction the last few weeks have taken, with me being directed to experience something new every day. I suspect I'm being trained to deal with every job that must be done, eventually.

I can do that.

Meanwhile I am up at 5:30 every morning, and coming home exhausted and drained. This may explain my lack of blogging, as well as anything else one might consider a 'life'. I hope that gets better with time.

2 comments:

Old NFO said...: Or you're being groomed for something else???; August 22, 2013 at 9:25 PM
JohnMXL said...: I can come home exhausted from a full night in the shop and still feel better than coming home from 8 hours of 'easy' work like training or administrative duty.

Hard work makes me tired...'make work' kills my soul.

I sense a similar pattern in you.

Congrats on returning to the workforce. HRH BHO appreciates the addition to the tax generation corps, er, workforce.; August 24, 2013 at 6:32 PM

Post a Comment

Robert Heinlein

"Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.

But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please — this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!
So learn to say No — and to be rude about it when necessary.
Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.

(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)"