“Damn! I haven’t posted in a week.” It’s really interesting how when you become used to doing something on a regular, or semi-regular, basis, and then don’t do it, you feel a bit weird. That’s my experience, anyway. The flip side to that is, ignoring the feeling will result on eventually stopping altogether.
This week has been a challenge. This was the week our transition crew began to trickle in. The first to show up would be my two new bosses, J— and D—. J— is the department head and D— is my direct boss who answers directly to J—. They would intermingle with our current bosses and be brought up to speed on the scope of the operation. My current bosses would end their contract yesterday, July 9th. Next Friday would see two more of our crew leave as two replacements come in. I will be one of the last to leave to help closeout the transition phase.
During this past week, we began consolidating our gear down from two trucks to one and tying up loose ends, except things took an unsuspected turn.
“Oooh you’re in trouble,” I heard over the radio from one of my colleagues, in response to my current main boss calling to speak with me in person.
“What’s up, Chief?” I asked as I approached the boss.
“So, ah, C— has covid and has been sent home,” my boss responded. “So, you’re going to cover down, close out the week and run point with the transition, making sure all our stuff is ready to move to the next job.”
[The Chief is my current department head. C— answers to him and we answer to C—]
“Wait, what? You’re kidding me, Chief,” I responded. “Oh damn! This couldn’t happen at an absolute time.”
“I know, buddy. It is what it is,” he replied.
“Cool! I gotchu, Chief,” I responded, as we fist bumped and I walked away.
“Holy crap this is crazy. It’s not supposed to happen this week. How am I going to pull this off with limited info?“
And, so, the week carried on. I had to make sure all of our gear from the various locations was brought back to us and loaded. I also had to reconcile all the rentals for the job and make sure that was squared away. I had to liaison with my new boss and explain the operation and procedures; get him up to speed if you will. All of this was just fraction of what I had to accomplish by last night, when we would see our truck for the last time.
“Hey, D—, how can I help you?” Is how I answered the phone, when I saw the new boss’s number come up.
“You want the good news or bad news first?” he responded.
“Start with the bad, so I can end with good news,” I replied.
“Okay, so the bad news is I have covid. The good news is you’re going to continue to be the boss and report directly to J—, until next Wednesday,” he said.
“What in the hell is going on? First I’m covering C—[my original first boss] and now D—[my new boss] is asking me to cover him and report directly to our new department head.”
Yeah, so much weird juju happened this week that really defies explanation. And today, well, let’s just say we worked really late yesterday. I got in at 5am this morning, went straight to bed, and was up at 830am and out the door by 9am on my way to the yard to finalize the truck before it leaves to the next job.
This week definitely wasn’t supposed to turn out the way it did. Oh, did I mention we shut production down for a couple of hours each day because of lightning storms. Yeah, that didn’t help.
So, excuse me for not reporting or even going fishing this week, but I think I’m just going to sit here and relax.
