GONE FISHIN'

My journeyman left this morning for the coast...for a long weekend of chasing redfish and coors light with tequila. My foreman left monday for a week
in Big Bend with the family. What posessed him to go to Big Bend in June is beyond me, but to each his own. If they don't all die from the heat stroke,
I'm sure they'll have fun. At least the pictures will be interesting.
But the long and the short of it is, me and my foremans apprentice were left high and dry...to sit at home for (me anyway) today and tomorrow,
and for my foremans apprentice, the whole fucking week.
Considering business has just picked up, this was bad timing on our journeyman/foremans part, but the trips were planned in advance, before the hour drought.
But we were both assigned to university electricians for the duration of the week, which allowed us to get our 40 hours.
This was a concerted effort between our foreman and the head of the university electricians shop to help us out hours wise,
and it was much appreciated by me and the other apprentice.
But...BUT...there's a big difference between university electricians and union electricians,
the former are generally derided as doofuses by the latter electricians ( did I get that right?)
The last time I worked with the electrician I was assigned to was almost a year ago...keep in mind I was a FNG (fuckin' new guy) back then and didn't know shit about electric work.
It was an awkward experience...with him trying to explain shit to me that I had no clue about.
But now a year later, I understood him and took to the task at hand with great success. I climbed the ladders without the hesitation of the past, and even straddled a fire sprinkler line to reach a junction box high above the suspended ceiling to pull in some wire. This was a different experience. I HAD a clue about what needed to be done and I did it. The straddling of the 4" sprinkler pipe elicited a survey of what I would fall into if the anchors gave way instead of abject terror. Plus, my journeyman of the day is pushing 300 lbs and was just too big to fit up there, after some discussion, we decided the anchors could handle my 200 ( ok, damn it...205 lbs ) so up I went. It was actually kind of cool.
It was then that I realized the only difference between union and non union electricians is orientation. What's your affiliation? Union electricians follow union folklore, university electricians follow the rules of working for a state agency. The differences in privilege are stark, but the craft remains the same. We are all just doing electric work, plain and simple.
And while I went into today with some trepidation, I'm happy to report it went quite well and I enjoyed working with my temporary journeyman and look forward to working with him tomorrow. He is not a doofus. He's a rat (just kidding)...he's a non union electrician with the same skills as a union electrician...just tainted by the fate of working for a state agency, which says nothing about skill, but speaks volumes about morale and self image.
This experience also triggered some long delayed introspection, which I entertained on my drive to pick up Ann...I was thinking about what I once was and what I have become since I left the social work field...well, actually I started with the pool company, but ended up way back when, when I thought I could change the world.
But I'll get into that shit later.
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OVERHEARD AT WORK TODAY....!

In the year plus I have been working for the university, I have never seen anyone abuse a squirrel. There are thousands of thoroughly humanized ones that interact with the students and staff. It's a generational thing for them...I remember when I was a kid and my dad was a student on the GI bill, I would go to class with him sometimes and we would always feed them. They were so cool to my 12 year old self, and hold a special place even today.
Anyway, I went down to the truck to get some parts today and observed this little fuckwad 19 or so year old asshole chasing a squirrel around yelling threats (!). At first, the squirrel hesitated...not really percieving the threat, but finally running up a tree to safety. It was at this point the little asshole saw me, giving him a fuck off and die look. He moved away from the tree. I spotted the offended squirrel in the tree and got his attention by making those clicking sounds my dad taught me so long ago. He was hesitant at first, but finally came down out of the tree and sat in front of me for a few minutes...I had no snacks to offer, so I talked soothingly and chirped and clicked at him as students walked by. He got right up on my boot and sniffed at it, then ambled off to the steps of the building behind me. We looked at each other again ( after I clicked and chirped at him again), but he moved on.
It was like he said "thanks for the reassurance, but you don't have any cheese crackers...see ya...I knew that guy was an asshole anyway, but thanks just the same WEIRDO"
I'd rather be that kind of weirdo than the one tormenting a squirrel...fucking punk.