Ok here is one that annoys me. This blog is dedicated to "passing the buck", working harder at getting out of work than you actually would if you were working. Passing off work to the next shift which only adds to their already strenuous load. Flat out lying to your relief telling them that the sugar hoppers were out and all you needed to do was spot the empties.

That being said I am only the switchman, otherwise known as the FNG, low man on the totem pole etc, I was informed last night that I had been making some inappropriate comments about others for my time of service. No problem there I will drastically scale back the facetious comments. Sorry RT no such luck on the OLD age cracks I've scaled them back as much as possible already. But back to the source of my ramble this morning. Lazy people that think it is ok to screw the other guy just so they can get out of work. What is your problem with your job? You are paid to come to work to work, regardless of when you actually have to start said work. Be it the moment you punch in or a bit after you get on the motor. You are not paid to set in the yard office, you are not paid to cry about the yardmaster that is out to screw you out of your down time. You are getting a very good salary for what you do and your job is not hard.

That annoyance out of the way there is nothing hard about my job. Yeah sometimes I have to go right to work, sometimes I have to work all night with only a few minutes of down time. BIG EFFING DEAL!!!! I don't think that any of the people that I work with save a handful have ever had a job requiring hard manual labor. Sure I do a lot of walking, sure I lace a lot of hoses and even bleed air off quite a few cars. I make 18.20 an hour on regular time so you know what I will do whatever I am told to do. I am not going to always like it, I am not going to always agree with it, I am going to get aggravated quite often. Once again BIG EFFING DEAL!!!!! Suck it Up and Drive On, SUDO. One of my DI's favorite sayings back in good ole FT Sill OK. No matter how bad work gets, how messed up our moves are, how bad the yardmaster messes up our plans. I know ya got bigger things to worry about than our moves Scott, and I also know you take care of us when you can, and that is very much appreciated.

We are night shift, The A Team, where buck stops. We don't pass on work when there is work to be done. We are paid until we clock out and we are not afraid of work, so what if we have to work a few minutes over we get paid well for it. And I think we are the best crew around the backside, each day we get better and better. I still make an occasional stupid mistake but I recover and do not make the same mistake often. I am still learning my job and all my switches locations, no it's not easy staying on task 100% of the time and I still try to count my engineer down to the wrong switch on occasion. But in my humble and semi valuable opinion "it is my opinion that my opinion is semi valuable" I am getting better and coming up with better and better ideas on occasion.

All things said and off my chest it is time for me to begin winding down for the evening. I have got my steak in the fridge "unthawing" and it should be good and ready for the grill in the morning.

As Always

Love me or hate me, You will remember me

The Ramblin Hillbilly

I enjoy my job, there is no question about that. But lately I've been missing home alot, you can take a hillbilly out of the mountains but you cant take mountains out of the hillbilly. That being said I am in southern florida about 1000 miles away from the only thing I have ever considered home in the hills of West Virginia. I just spent the first christmas ever away from the majority of my family back home. For the first time in atleast 8 years that I can remember there was a white Christmas with almost 2 feet of snow on the ground. I love taking my Jeep 4 wheeling in the snow. I work night shift 7 days a week so I am never at home to sleep with my wife but I usually come home and go straight to bed and get a few hours in bed with her so that is good.

Now all the negativity out of my system, I am sure I could come up with more if I really sat and thought about is but I dont want to get depressed so on to the good stuff. As my regular salary I make 18.20 an hour with a mandatory 16 hours ot a week so the check looks good. I have made in a few months what I made in 2 years back in WV. I just worked Christmas eve and day and made double time, that's 36.40 an hour for 16 hours. Since I have been down here I have purchased 2 new guns, a 37 inch flat screen lcd tv, put almost 2 carats of diamonds on my wife's hand with an additional surprise to come. I bought her a 400 dollar watch for Christmas. Why because I could. I frequently eat steaks, and not the cheap kind. I am sending my wife to the Richard Petty driving school to do 18 laps at Homestead Miami. And to top it all off we are going on a 3500 dollar cruise to Alaska in July. I am going to be in Alaska on my birthday. I have always wanted to Go to Alaska but have never been able to afford it at 8.25 an hour. Life is not perfect, far from it. But I have a good job making a damn good salary, I have a wife that loves me and I am living in a nice neighborhood in a great house. Lawton Oaklahoma is by far a worse place than purgatory, I mean Clewiston Fl to live. All this being said we have to step outside of our comfort zones if we ever expect to expand our horizons. Fortune does favor the bold so here I am. I have taken a big and BOLD step 1000 miles outside my comfort zone and I am going to make the best of it.

As Always

Love me or hate me, You will remember me

The Ramblin Hillbilly