Thursday, March 1, 2018

Rhymes with Part-Time

Man(!)  ...  it’s hard to break free of 'the system.' Just getting and maintaining a decent part-time job is not easy.  So it turns out that the dispatch office at my current gig and I were not using the phrase “part-time” in the same way. I’m a “lease driver,” basically like a temp; because I’m not guaranteed 40 hours a week, they call me “part-time.” Which would be OK, except in their minds, I am available to work as much as they need me to. I’ve been working 45 or 50 hours a week since Thanksgiving. It is a pretty lucrative gig for part-time, so I was hanging on, thinking that it would get back to part-time; my idea of part-time. I kept talking about wanting to get back to part-time, but they either didn’t understand or thought I was crazy. 

Finally, I got with the lease/temp company and re-asserted that I was only available three days a week. This created some confusion and consternation with my local dispatch. At first, I was told that part-time was not available. Nevertheless, I didn’t blink and eventually they decided that they’d rather have three days a week from a guy they know is reliable and capable, than five days from someone they don’t know. This was a big deal for me. Nineteen bucks an hour is a pretty good gig for a vagabond sailor. 

In the meantime, I did get a little bit of boatwork done in the last couple months. I’ve been part time a week and a half and the boatwork has accelerated. Here’s a quick review of the projects finished in December and January. 


Built Battery Boxes
And lids



















Wired batteries in new space
Grinding coffee with inverter


















Drilled a couple big holes
Installed seacocks



















Reinforced some shelves
Replaced a rotten shelf




















Installed solar ready vent
Practiced thermos cooking


















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