YO YO YO

First of all – I’m OK, there is nothing wrong. Thank you for your concern though. I’ve been busy lately. Both of my children play soccer and we are on the run nonstop. Now it will calm down a little and only consume 3 days per week until it concludes in August. Of course that is when football starts and runs 5 days a week for practice and games on Saturday. Other than that I have gotten back into poker big time. I have to, OK maybe not have to, get 100 points a day and that takes from 1 ½ to 2 ½ hrs a day. I try to do this poker time while the family is sleeping most of the time. And finally bringing up last place for time consumption is my pysch courses. So as you can see I haven’t had a lot of time to spend online. I have even neglected to read any blogs lately. When I’m playing online poker I have 8 tables going at once, which requires me to make decisions every few seconds, which leaves no time for web surfing. I am on vacation again for 12 days.

The sad thing about my vacation is why I took it at this particular time. You see, I work that odd 4 on-4 off schedule so my days and nights at work progress forward 1 day a week. Well I absolutely hate day shift. That is when all the big wigs are at work and I have to deal with them all shift. But in my business and needing to do things with my production, which causes havoc more often than not. Plus I absolutely hate a few of my bosses. One because he is a bully type that has to stroke his own ego whenever possible, plus he thinks he is intelligent when his intellect is mediocre at best, and the other boss due to his utter lapse from reality. I’m telling you this guy breathes flowers and shits sunshine. He is quite educated, yet he believes the world should be perfect and when it isn’t he doesn’t get it. He thinks everyone should just want to do extra things like joining teams and extra work for the good of the company and not for monetary reasons. Employees should just put forth extra effort and be happy to give up their time. So he is basically ignorant and totally unrealistic in all of his opinions and goals. So he always comes up with these projects that I then have to go back to my people and try to gain support by way of his brainless propaganda. Everything is to make him look good in the eyes of his superiors. So when he starts one of his rants you better have your sun-screen with you because he is about to pump sunshine up your ass. He is basically a cardboard cutout with an ever-present faux smile on his fake façade. So back to the main point of this short story of a paragraph: I took a vacation solely to avoid my job. Also the most stressful day during the week on dayshift is down day, which occurs on Thursdays. The mill is shut down and maintance is performed on countless mechanical and electrical items. I am then in charge of over 50 people and have to keep them on a tight schedule. At times I have to be a stern taskmaster, is uncharacteristic for my demeanor. I’m not a soft leader, but I’m not an unquestionable dictator. I govern through the old adage of treating people the way you want to be treated. I show respect and thus I’m respected and given great loyalty from my close-knit crew. Not to say that I never snap; I don’t think any bipolar individual could proclaim that. But with this extended group I have to regulate with a stronger arm sometimes although I show respect. So this day is the most difficult day of my job. It always seems to go wrong; nothing ever starts up smoothly. This day only happens, due to my schedule, once a month or so. To remedy this stressful time comprising of Down Day and working on days for my entire 4 days on I took a vacation. I guess that is what a vacation is for really: to relax and relieve stress. But I feel weak for this maneuver.

I should have plenty of time for blog-life and extra studiousness very soon. My division of the corporation is feeling some hard times due to the anemic housing market. The 3 plants making our product are taking some downtime for product curtailment. Starting in July we are taking 2 weeks down. We will then produce our exterior siding for a month and then shut down the mill for another 2 weeks. We will continue on this schedule for the remainder of the year. For most employees this means 2 weeks every month and a half for 6 months. Only salary employees will remain during the down weeks. I am luckily one of the few. There are 125 employees at my workplace and less than 20 are salary. So all my whining about not getting overtime or paid for my extra time during Smoke School week has its counter balance. I will continue with my regular wage which is sorely needed since my wife has been off of work for a year now with an injury. That is a solace that I am grateful for. I sure hope work doesn’t go under, that would be a life altering situation, just as if I lost my temper again in a manic rage and lost my job. The good side is that I will be left to my own vices for the down times, unless my dick of a boss tries to make me a laborer on occasion. On nights I would be alone in the large facility, but they put another department head with me for safety reasons. He will likely live in his office as will I, which will give me unadulterated time to myself.

On the mental front I am still feeling that sense of normalcy for the most part. Though I am habitually playing and thinking poker, poker, poker. Maybe I am not manic; maybe it’s just my addictive tendencies. I do think maybe I am a little manic though. If I don’t take my Seroquel I don’t get tired, I just continue to click that mouse while playing a plethora of tables at once. Also I both 2 jerseys off of Ebay totaling $100 with my favorite pro poker player’s name on them. I also bought a huge box of cards with 26 packs in them. They are expensive all-plastic casino quality cards and I got a great deal on them. But that seems a little obsessive now that I have bought them. I will never have to buy another deck of cards in a few decades. I am not overly emotional. I get irrated less often. Normal people get agitated and they aren’t considered different, so maybe I getting a little pissed here and there is normal too. While I guess I will end this extended entry with a weight update. 2 weeks of silence and now a novel. For those of you that haven’t given up on me - I thank you and have missed your thoughts and blogs. A week ago on Saturday I had broken the 200 threshold weighing-in at 197lbs. But I’m guessing I’m currently sitting at 202 or so. I have been a little naughty this week. See you soon.

Later, Ash out…