I'm doing it because the doctor scared the hell out of me. Elective only means It's better for me to wait until I lose 70 pounds and 6 inches on my waist. It could turn into emergency surgery (or sudden death) at any time.
I have an enormous and fast growing umbilical hernia. It's a ticking time bomb.
I have an enormous and fast growing umbilical hernia. It's a ticking time bomb.
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Sure. He could lie to me about my dire health status and let me die.
Maybe you don't understand how sick I am. All my numbers were literally off the charts. You know when they give you a printout of your biometrics, and there's a chart, and they plot your number on the chart? Well, my numbers were not on the chart. Blood sugar, blood pressure, all the cholesterol and whatnot, off the chart.
All my numbers are going in the right direction. But even though I'm starving myself, my blood sugar (I check it daily) still clocks in at 140-160. When I started, it was 220. Blood pressure is still 140/100 (checked daily) but when I started out it was 210/170. Numbers like that could lead to sudden death.
I didn't have health insurance for 10 years. I worked the night shift at a shite job after getting laid off from my real job. Working at night was a major contribution factor to my decline. Plus I really hated it. I got really sick and gave my boss three days notice (NO sick days or any kind of days off allowed) and boy was he pissed. I still haven't gotten my last paycheck. I realized I was paying to work anyway. So I quit and got disability and free health insurance and I make more money now than I did while working. Two thirds of his employees jumped ship around the same time during the Great Resignation.
That's how I got so sick. I was a sucker.
Speaking of numbers, it's 54 degrees F here and rising. No cold snap yet this winter, and no sticking snow.
I have a feeling there will be a rebound effect. Winter weather can last well into April and in recent years there's been a few winters with a whole lot of snow. It's unusual for the first measurable snow to be so late; in fact every day sets a new record.
In 1983 on this day, the high temperature was -11 degrees F. That's another record.
It's worth mentioning that these high temperatures (it's 70 degrees F in St. Louis) can fuel some mighty blizzards and even tornadoes, like the unfortunate events a few days ago. I'm fascinated by tornadoes and clearly remember the Oak Lawn tornado of 1967 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Oak_Lawn_tornado_outbreak . We could see it through our picture window and we hid in the furnace room. My mom was scared and when I saw that then so was I. I grew up at 79th and Pulaski in Chicago and the tornado passed one mile from that point, traveling up Southwest Highway right through the intersection of Southwest Highway, Pulaski, and 87th Street. There was no damage in my neighborhood, but just one mile away everything was completely demolished. I remember rows and blocks of toilets sticking up through the rubble, still bolted to the pipe. Those houses were in Hometown, and they were shacks compared to houses in the city. There were no basements either. It certainly left an impression on me as a small child.
I have a feeling there will be a rebound effect. Winter weather can last well into April and in recent years there's been a few winters with a whole lot of snow. It's unusual for the first measurable snow to be so late; in fact every day sets a new record.
In 1983 on this day, the high temperature was -11 degrees F. That's another record.
It's worth mentioning that these high temperatures (it's 70 degrees F in St. Louis) can fuel some mighty blizzards and even tornadoes, like the unfortunate events a few days ago. I'm fascinated by tornadoes and clearly remember the Oak Lawn tornado of 1967 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Oak_Lawn_tornado_outbreak . We could see it through our picture window and we hid in the furnace room. My mom was scared and when I saw that then so was I. I grew up at 79th and Pulaski in Chicago and the tornado passed one mile from that point, traveling up Southwest Highway right through the intersection of Southwest Highway, Pulaski, and 87th Street. There was no damage in my neighborhood, but just one mile away everything was completely demolished. I remember rows and blocks of toilets sticking up through the rubble, still bolted to the pipe. Those houses were in Hometown, and they were shacks compared to houses in the city. There were no basements either. It certainly left an impression on me as a small child.
Night shifts are for young'ins. I worked one week, so the young'in guy could attend some training class out of state and realized it would probably kill me. I quit the place after my PC surgery and the young guy got my day shift slot after about a year on nights. He manages everybody on that team now.
Hang in there, Fast Eddie D!
I did the 4 PM to 1 AM shift for over 10 years back when I was young, age 20 to 32 with a few short periods on the "normal" shift. At that time, I liked it since I could be sailing on the Atlantic Ocean from 10 AM to about 2 PM, then wander into work. It also made running a side business (computer stuff) easier, on rainy days of course. Those days are gone forever.
Absolutely true. I made the case for transferring me to the day shift for years. I told my boss it was making me sick and ruining my life and he just said bull. Truth is he needed me at night for two reasons. One is that night shift had almost 100% turnover a year (except me) and two is that I was the senior supervisor.
He was hiring people and putting them right on the day shift. That really pissed me off and I let him know. He didn't care. I told him I was going to quit one day and go on disability. I clearly qualified for the benefits. Then I got real sick and said screw it and made good on my promise. I really wanted to work (not there) and still do but I'm afraid that can't happen now. I have a 9 year hole in my resume and I sure can't have a prosective employer talk to him.
I worked there nine years and that was a record for his shite company. I heard through the grapevine that I'm still living in his head. He had big plans for me... to milk me until I dropped dead. I really tried to make a go of it but I was just porking myself in the bum. I wasn't making enough money to even begin to afford health insurance.
I always wondered about how the "other half" lived. I found out. I had a good life with respectable jobs, two careers, until 2008 when I became a second class citizen, persona non grata in the country of my birth.
And I'm grateful that my father, a WWII veteran, didn't live to see what happened to my life because it would have killed him. He was adamant about me going to college, which he thought would be a magic bullet to insulate me from such hardships. But things changed drastically. He would have been devastated to see what the orange dictator has done too, as well as the rise of the American Nazi Party. I know these events would have profoundly disturbed him. He fought in a war to prevent these events!
More than one time I've been riding in the car with a child, driving through a particular place that they'd call the "rich people's houses" or "rich people's neighborhood". Always wondered why they didnt teach in school - explicitly - "if this is what you want in life, this is what you need to do". I guess they dont teach that, because a good proportion of it comes out of someone else's hide. They'd be embarrassed to teach someone these are the kinds of things you have to do to other people, in order to get that. Not everyone, not every case of course.
I got a little taste of stooping down job wise when they closed the joint where I was working as an engineer, basically as a corporate spreadsheet shuffle to make things appear a little bit better from the point of view of their stockholders. I was hoping to get 5 more years with them, there. The CEO even admitted he knew what "he had to do" was going to put some real hurtin on 1000s of employees lives. Choice offered was move to a place where every aspect of work and non-work life was demonstrably worse, or stay and get whatever job you could - at 60 - in the area. I stayed, got a worse job. (And I'm lucky to be alive, instead of dying as a result, as it turns out)
Hang in there, I'm hoping there are better days ahead for you!
I did the 4PM to Midnight, or 4PM to 4AM shift one summer in college. The factory was on piece work so you got a paid lunch half-hour and the pay was pretty incredible by Midwest standards. When the shift was over I would get my sister who was working at the "Big Boy" as she worked similar hours. Company was eventually bought by Berkshire Hathaway.
While George was riding the waves, I was playing golf before the shift as the plant was only a 20 minute drive from the golf course!
They would close the plant down for a week in July and me and the other college kid had to scrub off the graffiti in the locker rooms off the stalls and lockers.
Just got back from walking Ringo. -2.3C.
Cold, and getting colder. Snowing parts of Xmas day for a little WC, then all melted away in the rain. Midnight, got snow cover on the roads outside and its sticking. Forecasted going below freezing tonight, got all 4 water spigots covered. Better lookup those clamp-on boot grippers (now where did I put?) before taking the pooch for his morning relief tomorrow - lest I end up on my *ss to start the day.
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It's late December and we have had no measurable snowfall at this house this year, just rain, lots of cold rain. Some friends who live less than a mile from us have seen over two inches. The difference is about 500 feet in elevation, fed by warm humid air rising off the Ohio River a mile west of us. It was a warmish 55F all day yesterday with rain here.....lots of rain.
We also had a 1 to 2 week plant shutdown in July. Being a (test equipment) maintenance man, I had to work the shutdown on the night shift. UH, there is nobody but "us" in the plant during shutdown at 10 PM. Can you imagine the ultimate playground a large research and manufacturing facility offers to six curious 20 somethings......What can we fry with a 200 watt CO2 laser? Will it erase an EPROM, Yes, permanently? Ever blow a garbage can to pieces by sealing liquid nitrogen in a plastic bottle? Did we make the evening news with one of our "UFO" launches?
Just the regular forecast. Snow will start melting in late March,and will be gone a month later. Lakes open up in early May.
Covid omikron is ruining my bithday plans next week, lockdown... We had opera tickets in capitol city Helsinki, then overnight visit to Tallinn, Estonia. But that changed to some skiing and skating aroud the corners. I have my winter holidays now 2½ weeks off from work to enjoy all this kaamos (=loss of daylight). In early Aprill I hope to visit my newborn first grandchild in London!
Covid omikron is ruining my bithday plans next week, lockdown... We had opera tickets in capitol city Helsinki, then overnight visit to Tallinn, Estonia. But that changed to some skiing and skating aroud the corners. I have my winter holidays now 2½ weeks off from work to enjoy all this kaamos (=loss of daylight). In early Aprill I hope to visit my newborn first grandchild in London!