A lot of people involved in banks, insurance companies, pharmacies, and a lot more naturally assume that because they work M-F 9-5 that everyone else does. Too many people have no clue whatsoever that there are actually people out there that don't work in offices.
Anyway, I sometimes explain that I do not have the ability to run down to the bank and get something taken care of or refill a prescription at a friendly, local neighborhood Rite Aid.
It sometimes gets me a deer in the headlights look or it's confused telephone equivilent when I say that. A lot of people think that everybody can run down to the bank or to a drug store. It's enough to drive a person nuttier than a cukoo clock factory at midnight.
Everyone always assumes I can take advantage of all of the good things shoreside, which I can't when I am at work.
The worst one I have had to deal with recently was the insurance company that pays my pharmacy bill. The pharmacy could only give me a 30 day 'script because the insurance company wouldn't let them. I called the insurance company and explained I was a seaman and would be out of town when the 30 day script would run out.
"Oh," she said cheerily. "You can just go to the nearest Rite Aid and refill it."
"The nearest Rite Aid will be 4500 miles away," I answered.
"But Rite Aids are everywhere," she replied.
"We don't have Rite Aids, Motel 6s, post offices or much of anything else in the middle of the ocean," I explained. I'm a merchant mariner, a sailor. I go away to sea."
"I don't understand," she said, confused.
"OK. You have a computer in front of you. Go to Google maps. Put in 'Atlantic Ocean'....You see the letter 'C' in 'Alantic?....That's where I will be when my prescription runs out."
"But what are you doing there?" she asked, greatly confused.
"I work there," I explained.
"But what could you possibly do there?" she asked.
"I man a ship. I deliver crude oil to east coast refineries to be made into gasoline and fuel oil. If I can't get a 90 day prescription then I can't go to work and if I can't go to work then no oil reaches the refineries. If no oil reaches the refineries they don't make gasoline or heating oil. If they don't make gas or heating oil you will have to walk home and freeze in the dark and it's all going to be your fault." I said. "Now you don't want to have to walk home and freeze in the dark, do you?"
"Uhh...well...no." she said.
"Well, if you give me a 90 day prescription then I will be able to go to work and you will be able to drive home to a nice, warm cheerily lit home," I said.
"Uhhh..." she stammered.
"Let me speak to your supervisor so we can get this ironed out," I said.
She did.
"Hello...What's the problem?"
"Your girl doesn't understand what a merchant mariner is," I said. "I'm trying to get a 90 day prescription so I can go back to work for a couple of months. There are no Rite Aids for refills in the middle of the ocean."
"Check with the pharmacy in ten minutes. I got this," he said.
"Presumably you record all of these calls?" I asked.
"We do," he replied.
"Please listen to the conversation I just had with that young girl. It should prove to be a useful training aid. Not everyone goes home at night after work." I said.
"I spent 4 years in the Navy," he said. "I understand."
Actually it's not just sailors that have minor headaches like this. There are quite a few people that either work odd hours or work away from home. There are truck drivers that don't see home for weeks at a time, construction workers that take camp jobs for months on end in remote areas. Doctors, nurses and policemen work 24/7.
When I grew up a neighbor was a consulting engineer that was gone for nine long months and the guy across the street did a lot of traveling for work.
Miliary service people generally deploy for a year at a time, unaccompanied by their families.
I wish people would open their eyes and realize simple things like the reason they can turn on a light to pee at 3 am is because engineers is up in a powerplant somewhere watching the grid and monitoring things carefully. There's also linemen and the like up at all hours either working or on standby.
There's a lot of other things, too. People have no idea how things get manufactured or moved. To them it's all magic.
The one that recently irked me was the kid that said that what happens overseas doesn't effect him as he stood before me in a Pakistani shirt, Chinese sneakers, Costa Rican pants and a Chinese hat. This took place while the Suez Canal was blocked recently.
A full ten percent of the world's shipping transits the canal. Ten percent! Because it was blocked a lot of ships rerouted and added 8000 miles to their trips. That's a lot of time, fuel and money! Someone has to pay for it and it's always the end used, the consumer.
At 25 knots that's nearly two weeks added to the transit. That means under perfect circumstances the ship is going to be two weeks late to it's next port and in that time perishibles can rot on the docks, schedules can be destroyed, shortages created and all sorts of global chaos. Tankers arriving at refineries two weeks late can cause fuel shortages with wide ranging effects. Talk about walk home and freeze in the dark!
Yet Suzie Homemaker will screech to high heavens that her Vietnamese farm raised talapia she wanted for dinner is two or three bucks a pound more. She will complain to her husband who will likely blame corporate greed when in fact the distributor has cut his profit margin to the bone just so as not to lose the entire talapia market when things return to normal.
But because the canal is in Egypt nobody pays it any mind.
It's not just shipping, either. Shipping is just a part of it. There just are so many people out there working alternative non 9-5 shifts and too many people are totally unaware of it.
There's just so much out there that we rely on that nobody gives any thought to.
It's grossly unfair for anyone to say that people should be aware of everything going on but it IS fair to expect someone to think about things when a subject comes up and at least try and logic it through ad be aware that there is a lot they don't think about and take for granted and at least try and learn a thing or two.
Hell, I just learned today that airline attendants hate opening Diet Coke because at 30,000 feet they have to be extra careful opening it to keep it from making a mess. As a result I'll switch to having a cup of coffee and make it a little easier on them.
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