Hello Hivers the weekend is here even though it doesn't feel like it for me. I will rant, complain, and talk about my weekend. Not going to be a complete downer as I will make due with what time I will have to myself.
Friday
Well I'll first talk about my day at work and the results that most of us look forward to. Upfront if you don't know one of my primary duties is loading and unloading aircraft. So for most of the week everyone at my work knew we were going to have a crazy work weekend. A schedule was set up on Wednesday but than Friday came. Throughout Friday our weekend overtime schedule was modified a handful of times. Most of the day was slow we just were monitoring one of three inbound aircraft coming in.
At lunch time I ate a packed lunch I brought in. After I finished I paid some bills and balanced my checking account. Hey it's Friday and this one is pay day. The day we all look forward too. The balance looks nice intially but how quickly it shrinks right?
Walking out the door everything seemed set. Before heading home I decided to get a haircut. Hey this might be the one thing I get to do on my own time this weekend. It was needed, hair was touching my ears and the beard was getting a bit thick. Glad I did this I don't think there would have been time to do this later this weekend.
I am the lucky individual who is in call for the shop this weekend. I'm responsible to check/track on 3 different aircraft coming into us and keep everyone informed on them so they know when to come into work. The bad thing is the first arrival is dependent on the second arrival. The first aircraft has cargo that needs to be resupplied, processed and loaded onto the second aircraft.
The initial aircraft was suppose to come in at midnight. I began tracking it at 1900 when it was suppose to depart it's origin. Long story short I checked on a flight tracker and made few calls from that time until about 2230. The aircraft has maintenance issues and is now scheduled to come in later Saturday. I went to bed around 2300.
Saturday
I rarely get much more than 5 hours of sleep each day. I got up around 0400 and made coffee. Hey I got a rather large coffee cup and I had two cups. Hey I'm going to need some caffeine to jump start the day. So I sipped intially than gulped while watching the news. Unfortunately there is something else I'm dealing with this weekend.
I'm following my countries government funding resolution, aka Government Shutdown. It affects me because I am a government employee. I hope later on in this article to give a good update on this. The deadline is Saturday at midnight. It means several things for me. Will I be furloughed where I either sit at home or go into work and not get paid. I may or not work overtime Sunday because of it. The only good thing is there are laws now that guarantee we will get back pay. This wasn't the case the last time one affected me.
I have to complain a bit, I'll try not to rant too much 😊 I just don't get how our government can't pass a budget when it's the same deadline every year. The thing that really gets me is our President, Senate and Congress are exempt from their pay being froze. I bet if thier pay was froze they would pass the budget well in advance. I hate how all parties use the deadline for their own political leverage. Jeez the average citizen who works for the government is the one suffering the most. Of course both parties points this out trying to get the other to meet their demands. What I think, if you can't figure it out and come together on a budget than they should have there pay frozen. A government shut down should affect all to include politicians. Aren't all politicians basically the same in regards for wanting thier policies and agendas in their favor? It makes you wonder are they in it for the people or themselves. As Forrest Gump said,"That's all I got to say about that."
So at 0900 I went into work to discuss what to do with my boss and meet with others. I arrived work at about 0830 and called the origin station. I found out the aircraft is still broke and it needs parts that need to be shipped in. So there no chance the cargo will be coming in today at least on that aircraft.
Well the meeting was quick we can't do anything with out knowing when the cargo comes in. My weekend took a big change. I found out if the shut down happens I can't work overtime on Sunday. I had to hand over the cellular standby phone I was caring to one of my military coworkers. So if the shut down happens I go from working 3 aircraft to none. The crew will be short handed because there are 3 of us civilians. I'm not complaining but I was in a sense looking forward to it. So instead of some cargo and aircraft I went to a car show believe it or not was being held in parking lot right next to my work.
First car I will share with you is 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle SS convertible. Very clean car and I seen the owner(mom)drive it in with two kids. I wonder if she forgot to take the car seat out, lol.
Here we have a 1964 Chevrolet Impala SS. This car has some bling. The gold leaf is beautiful on the roof and is pin striped with it in a lot of different areas. I'm not a big fan of low riders but this car was cool. The trunk is loaded with hydraulic pumps to lift and lower the suspension. There's 6 batteries back there just for that.
It may look long and boat like but this 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird has the power to get up and scoot. The 440 6 pack engine is a good show of Mopar power. You don't see many Superbirds around they just didn't make many.
Here we have a 1973 MG model B MKII. I believe this was the only foreign car in the show. You ever see something and it reminds you of another Hive user? Well this one did and the user is @millycf1976. She posted looking at some classic cars about a week ago. I never expected to see this car on this side of the pond, it was cool seeing it for real.
Well I took a lot of photos but I didn't take several photos of every car. These are some I just took single shots of. The first is 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge (the year maybe off). This car is a classic and once upon a time a friend owned 1969 Pontiac GTO (not a Judge). A super cool car that was fun to cruise and drive. For about a year it spent time in my mother's garage. Next is 1966 Ford Thunderbird. Than we have a 1970 Chevrolet C-10 pick up. I know this one well as I have 2 1972 C-10 pickups. One is a part truck for the other. I hope to restore it one day.
Well the rest of the day I relaxed and watched some football. I had hoped to take a nap but that didn't materialize. In the evening I decided to do a camp fire. Sitting by the fire and watching and feeding it can really be relaxing. After that I checked on the government shutdown and was relieved they passed a 45 day resolution extension. Thank goodness I don't have to put Plan B into motion. Now I'm on the hook to work today but much is uncertain. Only thing set is coming in just after midnight to work the what was suppose to be the third aircraft. Still waiting instruction to work the first two and process some cargo.
Sunday
Happy Hive Power Up Day! Well I'd love to share some more of my work related activities but that wont happen until after HPUD. Time to share with you my HPUD activities. Without further ado let's get to it.
Today I have powered up 80 Hive to bring my hive total to just over 1500 HP. This is my eighth consecutive HPUD!! As far as producing articles this month I was very light. I just had many things going on that took me away from publishing. I have decided to power up two users this month. I don't know them and both have very recently published their first articles on the block :) Hoping this small help will motivate them to write some more.
I'm also proud that I was able to power up every day for the second straight month. I also helped two friends by sending reminders to them to power up when I seen they had not. I'm more proud of that achievement as I have someone to share the achievement with. I may have someone new I will help get that achievement next month.
Well thank you for reading up to this far. This article was a three day piece of work. What looked like an all work weekend turned out not to be such. Plus some worries were washed away with a temporarily budget being approved.
Take care, be safe, and enjoy the day!!