Massage In Utero

My office today...


Her office today...


Waiting for a baby is tiring. I think waking up in the middle of the night will be cake after this. We had what may be our final midwives appointment today. Moving right along as expected; station 0 and 2 centimeters. At this rate she'll be born sometime around Halloween. I'm guessing things are gonna start picking up. In the meantime, I've noticed the baby's squirming in there has started to feel like one of those massage chairs at Brookstone, so hopefully she won't be surprised when I press my back up against her belly in the middle of the night.

I Had To Keep On Moving

I really had no right being in as good a mood as I was today. Back to work after a glorious three day weekend. I kept singing that Matthew Wilder song, "ain't nothing gonna break-a my stride, ain't nothing gonna slow me down, Oh No!" you know the one. I think I was singing it out loud for a while. Got a few looks. I also talked a little baseball. Place is full of Mets fans. The Latino guys anyhow. The rest are for Philly. But I had the punch/serrate guy offer me some box seats, when he couldn't use them of course. His sister gets them thru work. This is something people say quite often. But wouldn't it be nice. That was another song I sang in my head today.

But what I did most of the day? That little drawing up there. I think it's good, for a scratch pad scribble. I see a guy drawing a bow & arrow. Maybe I subconsciously visualized what I might rather be doing. Maybe I was trying to look busy. Maybe I have figured this thing out.

Tonight is our second lamaze class. It's the third class in the series, because we missed the first one. For everyone else in our class it's the third. It's our second. I hope we don't get confused. I hope we stretch again. I felt my bones. They felt good.

Danger Napping With Dirty Hands

I made a mistake today.

I had a lot of yardwork to do. The unfun stuff. Raking. It seems the more I rake the more there is to rake. But on the way home I stopped by the home depot to buy me a new hammock. We have one but it's kinda icky. A hammICK. Ha! I hung it up right when I got home. And twisted the screws into the trees. I measured the lengths of chain and I hung with care. So how do you test a hammock, just to make sure it's right?



It wasn't a long nap. Only moments. I miss my afternoon naps. Haven't had one in awhile. But I had a rake waiting.

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This job is panning out. Transitioning away from the inventorial and into the solo excursions. I hit the road on my own today, much to my own surprise. Trusting folk. And I wasn't nervous at all. I was pretty awesome if I do say so myself, having never driven a rig before. I don't know if what I got is technically a rig, but I'm calling it one. I'm a rigger.



But man is this world of backwoods plants a dark and devious one. I've already met some shady shady characters and it makes me smile. I was in a place today that powder coats and it must've been 150 degrees in there and the dudes looked like skeletons. Closest to hell I've ever been. I don't know how they do it. And I don't know how I get so dirty. I bought a brand new pair of jeans on Tuesday and they're already filthy. Like proper filthy. I look like Daniel Plainview.



This is after I washed my hands.

Wednesdays With Arnie

I must be really conceited or have and issue with authority or something but, why do I always work for people who seem to have little to no knowledge of what it is their job entails and I end up doing it for them, in turn breaking my neck and making them look good. Guess that's how the world works. I'm not mad about it. Just being perceptive. Which brings me to Arnie.



Arnie is the guy who I'm replacing. Don't worry, he wasn't fired, just promoted, sideways. But he's the guy who's gonna show me the ropes and the straps and the donut shops along the way. We spent most of the day together and in that short time I learned what Arnie's been up to for the past 40 years.

You see... Arnie grew up in Bensonhurst, and when Arnie was 15 he inadvertently got a job at his neighbors radiator shop. That's radiator with a short 'A'. The shop was owned by two firefighters and when one died, not in a fire, the other gave the shop to Arnie. He made quite the profit when he cornered the neighborhood market in AC repair, especially in the summer months, especially when Ford started using those O-rings in the radiators, because they'd slip every winter, ensuring triple parking outside his shop. As time went on and manufacturers improved their stock, Arnies business began to dwindle and he went to plan B. In 1991 he had a house built out on 715 between 209 & 80 near Peddlers Village and had his wife and two kids move out. He joined them on weekends.

About 5 years ago Arnie sold his shop and moved out, got the job at Bustin and has made his way. His wife works at the Brodheadsville diner, where the food is decent and they lock the doors around 2pm, because she can only go to the mall so much.

The real information I enjoyed hearing was how everyone in the plant feels the way I do about my superior. Glad to know that just 2 days in, I got it pegged. Today was pretty good.

Bustin V. Smooth-On

V.

I gotta weigh some pros & cons and I choose to do it here....

COMMUTE

Bustin: 40 minutes round trip thru wooded backroads & a small suburb

Smooth-On: 2 hours 10 minutes round trip out to 80, down 33 and thru the city of Easton

Advantage - Bustin


ATTIRE

Bustin: whatever the hell I want

Smooth-On: a navy blue Dickey suit, buttoned up, tucked in & belted

Advantage - Bustin


MUSIC


Bustin: each station has it's own personal radio, so I heard a mixture of death metal, hip-hop and jazz most of the day, but I'll usually be driving alone all day so it's all about the iPod

Smooth-On: satellite radio usually tuned to 80's or 60's pop

Advantage - Bustin


SUPERVISION
Bustin: a collection of mellow, probably ex-hippies that know there's a job to do but aren't worried about it actually getting done and like my jokes

Smooth-On: a gaggle of overly obsessed foul-ups that think if a mold rubber doesn't make it to Germany by tomorrow the world may very well come to an end, and no jokes

Advantage - Bustin


DECOR


Bustin: a confusing mix of multi-decadinal decor including 70's wood paneling, 50's art deco bathrooms and a kitchen full of microwaves & refrigerators from the 80's.

Smooth-On: concrete floor, concrete walls, no windows

Advantage: Bustin


ACTUAL JOB
Bustin: driving back and forth between Stroudsburg, Allentown, Scranton, Pittstown, Perth Amboy & Elizabeth, and all the places in between

Smooth-On: packing boxes full of plastic molds & rubber, mixing batches, crashing forklifts and throwing anything I can get my hands on at Sarah

Advantage - Bustin


WILDLIFE


Bustin: bunnies in the brush

Smooth-On: possums in the plant

Advantage - tie


MONETARY COMPENSATION
Bustin: 5% more than Smooth-On, not to mention the money I'll save on gas

Smooth-On: 5% less than Bustin plus two tanks of gas in the Dodge Dakota each week

Advantage: Bustin


FINAL RESULTS
Bustin: 8
Smooth-On: 1

Gotta go call to quit. New job!

Lunch Break Bonus

I love the new job.