[Parallax]

Shame on you Jim, how could you even consider such a perverse thing?

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I had something similar go through my thoughts too.


Shame on me.

Sometimes you both scare me just a little.

[robtcorl]

Reminds me of the difference between stress and duress.
Stress is when someone has your ***** in a vise and threatens to tighten the vise.
Duress is when they start to tighten the vise.

[ccc_]

an old timer I worked with as a little baby grunt had one overarching requirement for workplace decorum...

NEVER EVER look like you are having a good time...EVER

a couple of you are in serious breach of that basic tenet

[Racer X 69]

an old timer I worked with as a little baby grunt had one overarching requirement for workplace decorum...

NEVER EVER look like you are having a good time...EVER

a couple of you are in serious breach of that basic tenet

I've encountered similar perspectives.

Also crossed paths with the ones who maintain that if you find something to do that you enjoy doing, you will never work a day in your life.

I chose that route, and can honestly say that for the last 46 years all but a handful of the positions I have held were doing things I liked to do. Looking back I have fond memories of work I have done, places I've been, and people I have gotten to know.

Been doing very well too, and will retire very comfortably in the next 4 years, 8 months, 2 weeks. Or sooner if I decide I don't like what I do anymore. After all, I think it is too late in the game to take up something new.

Did have to learn early on that it is better to let those you work with think you dislike your work as much as they do. A jealous coworker can be detrimental to one's success.

[ccc_]

the guy who said it died on the job (we called it retired in place)
it was actually his dream because it would cost the company an extra year's wage

I approached work from a different tack

I always hated the idea of going to work but I always had very enjoyable jobs

the first chance I had to retire I did and I've been broke ever since

frankly...I couldn't be happier
I was retired for thirteen years before social security kicked in

work always got in the way of play
it's so much better the other way around

[Rupert]

Sometimes you both scare me just a little.

Just a little fun...life is not all that serious when you realize you are going to die...die happy!

I approached work from a different tack

I always hated the idea of going to work but I always had very enjoyable jobs

the first chance I had to retire I did and I've been broke ever since

frankly...I couldn't be happier
I was retired for thirteen years before social security kicked in

work always got in the way of play
it's so much better the other way around

Nothing wrong there.....money is not everything, not even close. I've had a few jobs I didn't particularly like and many I did. Now in my old age, I would be thrilled to be able to work at any of them. I was fortunate for the last years of my working life to be self employed and have wonderful customers and a nice income that made even the hard parts tolerable. I looked forward to almost every day at work....but not the ones like this morning when it was 14F. On a day like this we would spend all day for several days repairing busted water lines.......not much fun in the blistering cold.

Regards!

Fluffing up in the bitter cold....

[ccc_]

i'm endlessly fascinated by folks take on the weather

I was going to school in Minneapolis
the guys from Duluth thought I came from the "banana belt"
the guys from North Dakota thought the Duluth guys were a bunch a whiners...on and on it goes

these were pretty much all guys who worked in warm buildings and played in the cold

one of the last cases of trouble I shot before I went inside involved a frost bar and frozen dirt..four feet of frost and two feet of hard pack in subzero temps and a "gopher" den at the bottom
the only good thing was the pit wasn't going to cave and at a certain point the spoil blocked the wind

a few years later a bunch same group were in dallas off and on for a few months
Texans in parkas and us in flannels
it was great

somebody else getting the crap

[Racer X 69]

Been so cold here the humming bird feeders have been frozen. I brought them in this morning to thaw them out.

Around 11 the dominant male crashed into the window to get my attention, then hovered around outside looking in at us, as to say, "Hey! Get those feeders back out here! NOW!".

So I put them back out.

Then the little meanie sat on the feeder and chased the other birds away until sunset.

Whatta guy.

[tim60]

an old timer I worked with as a little baby grunt had one overarching requirement for workplace decorum...

NEVER EVER look like you are having a good time...EVER

a couple of you are in serious breach of that basic tenet

Oh, and also to never stop looking like you are doing something, even if it is make work work to avoid instructions for the next real job.

---------- Post added 01-08-17 at 05:42 PM ----------

I've encountered similar perspectives.

Also crossed paths with the ones who maintain that if you find something to do that you enjoy doing, you will never work a day in your life.

I chose that route, and can honestly say that for the last 46 years all but a handful of the positions I have held were doing things I liked to do. Looking back I have fond memories of work I have done, places I've been, and people I have gotten to know.

Been doing very well too, and will retire very comfortably in the next 4 years, 8 months, 2 weeks. Or sooner if I decide I don't like what I do anymore. After all, I think it is too late in the game to take up something new.

Did have to learn early on that it is better to let those you work with think you dislike your work as much as they do. A jealous coworker can be detrimental to one's success.

Well, you could get a job in Toulouse with the other guys and you would have to do less of it, and you would get lots of time away from the office for touring. And they would pay you to be there.

---------- Post added 01-08-17 at 05:58 PM ----------

English people think Australia is hot and desirable. But I find, there is rarely a day here that feels colder than the typical winter day in Adelaide (the numbers are lower in England but not the feel) AND there is never weather hot enough to use the heat stored in the pavement to cook food. Those days are not fun either. Go outside and feel like you are getting burned up straight away. The hot days in Adelaide often feel hotter that the June/July days I have been in Las Vegas (or is that Loss Vague-us?), including more burning in the direct sun. (Both places take only a short time to go red.)

[ccc_]

Been so cold here the humming bird feeders have been frozen. I brought them in this morning to thaw them out.

Around 11 the dominant male crashed into the window to get my attention, then hovered around outside looking in at us, as to say, "Hey! Get those feeders back out here! NOW!".

So I put them back out.

Then the little meanie sat on the feeder and chased the other birds away until sunset.

Whatta guy.

two of the most food-aggressive bird species I've ever watched are hummingbirds and mourning doves

it is amazing that they learn where the chow comes from
we had a young blue jay pecking at the window this autumn
a very insistent bird

do they make immersion heaters for nectar feeders?

[BigMackCam]

English people think Australia is hot and desirable. But I find, there is rarely a day here that feels colder than the typical winter day in Adelaide (the numbers are lower in England but not the feel) AND there is never weather hot enough to use the heat stored in the pavement to cook food. Those days are not fun either. Go outside and feel like you are getting burned up straight away.

That's interesting, Tim. I'm born and bred in the slightly-cooler North East of England, and I've never had a problem with the climate here, but I wouldn't say no to living somewhere warmer - just not *too* hot - and with less rain. From various holidays over the years, my favourite climate is coastal Mediterranean... I've been to Greece, Cyprus and Turkey in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, and always found the weather to be anything between idyllic and, at worst, bearable. It can still get very hot in the middle of Summer, but rarely to the point of frying eggs on the paving

[Rupert]

Feels like a heatwave this morning compared to yesterday morning...instead of 14F it is 22F......Otis says this is due to the two big tractor tires he burned at 3am .

Cold is cold, and anything below 60F is cold.....even 60F is barely tolerable unless you have on a full set of thermals and a heavy jacket.

I need to get out and feed the animals, but for the past 20 minutes I have been enjoying watching a squirrel out my windows trying to break the ice in the water bowls. They are so funny and so determined. You can see their anger build as they work and work, jump up and down with their tiny bodies trying to bust through, nibbling at the ice like a madman as their frustration builds.

His latest effort was to climb up the tree and jump down on the ice to crack it open....Yep, it failed too and sent him into another fit of anger.....
I'll go out and get him some water...otherwise he will stay there all day if necessary, squirrels are not quitters...which is why there is no such thing as a "squirrel proof" bird feeder.




Regarding "looking busy".......The worst case I have ever seen was when I worked at the nuclear plant they built near here in the mid 70s. I was hired as a journeyman carpenter, though there was very little "carpenter work" at the site. My friend that hired me put me in that slot because it was the only one open that paid well. I should have been a pipe fitter, but there was no opening. I was definitely qualified for the carpenter position, over qualified in fact, but it is not what I wanted.

The plant was a total wreck full of inexperienced people and most of the jobs were like mine...obtained by favoritism and not qualifications. My foreman couldn't read blueprints.....and once resulted in a concrete pour 80 feet up in the reactor core that was at the wrong elevation and had to be jackhammered out and redone.......took two weeks to get it out at great expense. Yep...he kept his job. There were often long delays waiting for the next stage of work and our crew would be sent off in all directions to "look busy". Maybe just walking around the plant at a fast pace like we were going someplace important.

The worst thing was when the foreman pointed me to a stack of 1" A/A plywood, beautiful stuff, seven feet tall and told me to cut up every sheet into one foot squares. It took most of a day. I had no idea why...it was normally used for floor decking at the upper levels in the reactor core work areas. My shift ended and when I came in the next day all those plywood squares were in a dumpster. I asked him why??? He said "it kept you busy all day, didn't it?"

The plant had a 4 billion $$ cost overrun that consumers paid. In the buried trash pit there....which was huge...there were unimaginable amounts of stainless piping of all sizes and copper too. If you could own the trash pit you would be a multi-millionaire.

Taken to extremes, "looking busy" gets very costly, and the consumers almost always ends up paying for it.

Regards!

[robtcorl]

A friend/co-worker of mine called it "make busy work" and nothing makes a day last longer.

A 6 lb Boston pork butt just went on the smoker, pulled pork for dinner.
It's currently 12° F out, but no wind, so it doesn't feel too bad.
Still, I'm ready for spring.

[Parallax]

Feels like a heatwave this morning compared to yesterday morning...instead of 14F it is 22F......
Regards!

It's currently 12° F out, but no wind, so it doesn't feel too bad.

Damn. Our 24 degrees seems warm and toasty, now.

[BigMackCam]

Damn. Our 24 degrees seems warm and toasty, now.

A balmy 6.9°C / 44.5°F here in the dull, drizzly North East of England... particularly mild. Starting to wonder if we're going to get a "real" winter this year...