Done. Over with. The entire rhythm has been knocked out of the day and I am officially saying 'Screw it. Start over.'
And I am. Screw this. I'm just going to chug a beer and go back to bed and when I wake up at about 10 I will start over.
Later.
I skipped the beer and went back to bed. It's now a little after ten and although I am a little disgusted I'll at least get some work done.
I really hate it when someone throws something at me and upsets the apple cart because everything gets screwed up and a lot of unnecessary work takes place.
It's always something stupid and petty that pops up and has to be dealt with. You may be repairing the roof and someone has an emergency situation like a burned out light bulb in the basement to deal with.
While it only generally takes a few minutes to tend to, it stalls the rhythm of the roof project and makes you feel like you are starting over when you get back to it. IF you get back to it because things like that compound. Either you break the glass from the base and have to get a screwdriver and needle nosed pliers and/or the "While you're here, how about if you..."s. set in and you don't get back to the roof for hours. An hour long job can wind up taking all day if you're lucky enough to finish it that day.
Actually I should not complain too much about that. I do have my wife trained never to say or do anything when I am running a machine like a table saw or chop box until I am done and the blade has stopped spinning.
I had a new port engineer once interrupt me while I was making a long precise cut with a skilsaw. I went off on him like an M-80.
He tried, with a remarkable lack of success, to defend himself with his position and found out he wasn't getting anywhere. He said, "I used to be a Marine." like it was going to make me kiss his ass.
I shot back, "not a very good one otherwise you'd still be in the Corps and be a Gunny or First Sergeant by now. What'dja get out as? A lance corporal?"
He sure didn't expect that one.
Then he handed me a list of stuff he wanted done immediately. I looked at the list and told him I'd tape it to the bottom of the list of things I already had to do and maybe-just maybe- if he was lucky-- the relief crew would get to it in about 3 or 4 weeks.
Needless to say I got a call from my vessel supervisor and when I said he interrupted me while I was making a long skilsaw rip he said, "Oh, he did, did he?"
I knew I'd never hear about it again and I didn't. I served my tour with no further visits and when I came back after my shore time I heard he was gone. No details.
One of my work habits I brought ashore with me is to do one thing at a time and do it well...especially when cargo is flowing.
One time a tug came alongside during a transfer and I tried to wave him off. Instead he had the deckhand catch his lines because I refused to. He announced he was there to give me fuel and he didn't have all day to wait while I loaded cargo.
I told him he wasn't supposed to come alongside but he said he was in a hurry and it was OK.
Quick fix. I shut down the cargo operation, closed the valves, took fuel and after the fueling was over, rechecked everything and resumed operations. It took close to 3 hours that I was shut down from cargo operations.
Later the customer wanted to know why there was a delay and called the office who called me. I told them to settle it with the tugboat. They had come along and acted like they got orders from them to shut down.
When they asked me why I couldn't do it while I was transferring I told them I didn't make the rules and to settle it with my port captain. He briefly called me and told me that the next time I should call him and that I had done the right thing by shutting down the transfer.
As for the tug skipper?
He never came alongside during a transfer again.
I don't 'multi task'. Period.
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