Hello, I Must Be Going

don’t look now, but things have changed again. Today’s version of the story has me moving to another state later this year and then going overseas early next year. Tune in later this afternoon when I will find out that I am in fact not going anywhere but now must insist that I am King Richard III, dress appropriately for my title, and annex southern Arkansas in the name of the empire. And then, tomorrow, I will be moving to another, different state later this year, and then going underseas next year. Until it changes, again. Followed by another change. Which will be immediately followed by, another, different change.



Spring Ain’t Here (or perhaps it is)

(always good to quote Metheny, I feel). The inspection that has many at work gnashing their teeth and grimacing draws closer. I guess it’s unavoidable that people will have to be scrambling at the last minute for these things. I still hold to the opinion that if everyone was diligent towards their tasks all year long then the inspection wouldn’t be so stress inducing. I’ll allow that even if we were so lucky as to be blessed with 100% dedication and industry among all our workers, that a measure of panic would still set in before any inspection, so perhaps it’s just the nature of these things and not necessarily particular to a staff of both dedicated and indifferent.



Significant developments on the homefront (or maybe not)

The last week has been tumultuous to say the least. On the professional side I have learned that I will deploy overseas (I won’t go into details). That last part was as of 22 Feb and now on 6 Mar I can say that it is no longer valid. There was much argument and posturing between the various levels of my supervisory chain. The end result is that my name is on the lips of far more people than when this process started, so it’s more of a matter of when and not if I’ll eventually go overseas or not.

God Bless the French (today’s whine)

Without going into detail, my job is medical and one large aspect is filling a slot on an emergency response team for the facility where I work. Our typical emergency response role is for a long term process going on here that essentially runs 24 hours a day and will continue to do so until complete (several years from now). The specific medical coverage we provide is actually for a support operation that usually runs during business hours (close to that, anyways) and has been running on Saturdays for several months (and will also continue to do so for several years). As luck would have it, the large 24 hour operation was going to be shutdown this weekend, so we would have had our first truly free weekend in several months.

Cue the French. Part of the large process is that it involves international treaties with several countries who will send inspectors periodically. Usually they come during the week and their presence is barely noticed by the facility at large. However, they require medical coverage just like the big operation and wouldn’t you know it, they schedule their visit for not only a weekend, but the one weekend in several months in which we were actually going to be off. Nothing of note happened, but we we’re still required to be present and available in case something did happen. I’m sure it was of no consequence to them that they were screwing dozens of people out of time off with their families. I don’t know, perhaps their international inspections take them away from home as often as we have to work weekends. Doesn’t make it any more tolerable, though.