The Pussification of America, Part I

*WARNING*
*SEVERAL "F" BOMBS DROPPED IN THIS RANT. IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED BY THE "F" BOMB, PLEASE PISS OFF!*

Sometimes, hell, most times I really wonder if I'm the only sane person left on this planet. I feel I've gone to sleep one day and awakened into a strange new universe, where everything looks normal, but somehow it's changed.

When I was a kid, I rode my bike without a helmet... Walked to school in the snow... Drank water right from the garden hose... and at ten years old I was one huge bruise all the time from playing out side, climbing (and falling out of) trees. I wasn't coddled. I played Little League baseball and really sucked at it at first. They still kept score and the losers didn't get trophies at the end of the season. It did hurt our pride, but we learned to strive to be better for the next year.

In losing it helped us better ourselves, because failure is a good thing.

Did we feel like shit? Yes, of course we did. Did it bruise our egos? Fuck yeah. Were we scarred for life? Fuck no. We learned from our mistakes and we learned to get better.

Now the kids who play Little League in games where they don't keep score... And everyone gets a damn trophy at the end of the season?

What the fuck does that teach the kids today?

To be pussies.

And expect everything handed to them and never earn anything.

We now live in an Entitlement Society... Where everyone expects to get everything handed to them. Heaven forbid you actually have to work for it!

Like Today's Army. A few years ago the History Channel got on to the "Reality Show" bandwagon and had a show about US Army Basic Training. They followed five recruits through the first eight weeks of Basic Training... I thought the show showed promise until I started watching it...

And pissed myself laughing.

And then wondered if we could win any wars at all.

"Time Out" cards and Drill Sergeants being nice to the recruits as not to damage their fragile psyches...

What the FUCK, over?

You know what my Basic Training was like? Watch "Full Metal Jacket" sometime if you haven't already seen it.

THAT'S what my Basic was like.

We're a Nation of fucking pussies.

What the fuck are you going to do when the enemy is desperately trying to kill you?

"Oh mommy! Please give me a Time Out to give to the bad man over there with the AK-47! This is just to much and I need a break!"

Give ME a fucking break.

And God Forbid we even OFFEND the enemy! They're the one's who tried to kill you, killed thousands of innocent people on 9~11 but for Christ's Sake don't offend them!

God, how this shit infuriates me...

Handing everyone shit I used to have to earn doesn't make them better, it makes them weaker and beholden to someone. It enslaves them.

Failure is a good thing.

God knows I've failed at a lot of things in my life. The last two serious relationships I've had have been utter failures, marrying, divorcing and then almost marrying women with Borderline Personality Disorder...

Did it hurt me? Yes. Did I fail? Yes. Did I learn valuable lessons from both? Of course I did! Did I blame someone else? No, because I was partly to blame for both messes for getting into relationships with someone even after the RED FLAGS were flying high.

Did I learn from my mistakes? Of course I did. Will I do it again?

Fuck no.

On to how this shit I've been saying meshes into work... My job isn't brain surgery. For what we get paid, I have a pretty easy job. But there's so much bullshit to deal with, and I'm not talking management. I've never seen a bigger bunch of whiny fucking crybabies in my life.

I really wish I had a nickel for every time I've heard "Well, it was such and such job, and he didn't do it! Why do we have to do it?"

Here's the fucking answer:

IT wasn't done, and it needs to be fucking done. Regardless of who's fucking job it was to do it in the fucking first place, get off your lazy fucking ass and fucking do it.

I'm paid from the time I punch in until I punch out. Whether it was my job or someone else, if it needs to be done, If I'm asked by my supervisor to do it, I'm going to do it, happily I might ad, because I'm fucking lucky to have a job in the first place.

And another thing... I've seen far too many people working HARDER and spending more time at getting out of work and pawning it off to someone else than just doing what's EXPECTED of them in the first place...

Far too many people care about two things where I work:

Payday and quitting time.

Instead of doing their fucking job.

When I started out on the railroad a few years ago as a conductor, if my engineer told me there's a problem with the trains air line, I'd do what was expected of me... Get out of the locomotive and fucking walk the entire train to find the problem... When I have 70 cars and after 30 minutes my air gauge looks like this (above) I expect you do get off your ass and find out what the problem is, not make excuses and tell me it's a "Hand Brake" because it won't fucking cut it.

When my air gauge should look like this...

Maybe I'm wrong.

I'll just suppose it's something minor and it really doesn't matter. It's just 2,800 TONS of railroad rolling stock that I won't be able to stop in time to not hit that school bus stuck at a crossing.

Fuck them kids! Kill em' all, because you didn't want to walk the train.

It wouldn't be my fault anyway.

It was because my Psyche was damaged as a child in Little League when I didn't get a trophy and I didn't wear a helmet while riding my bike, I got a RED "F" on my 8th Grade report card, my parents didn't coddle me and my Drill Sargent yelled at me and called me a dumbass...

I can't believe I have to get angry over this shit...

More to come later... I'm just getting started!

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

No strike...

And a new contract...

The vote Monday was 294 to 26 in favor of the new contract here at my job. I was fearing the worst by last Friday as the last contract wasn't so great but I was pleasantly surprised at some of the stuff in the package. We didn't lose anything and gained a few things, like a yearly 6% bonus and a 2% COLA every year for the next three years. I was also surprised that our health plan's premiums were frozen for a year, but will go up in 2011... Like I said, I expected that because premiums are going up all over the country.

There was a few other little things like the rewording of the Seniority Roster for the Railroad Department... That made me and several other people extremely happy as it won't allow a certain other dumbass to run around us on the Seniority Roster anymore, which he's tried to do several years in a row... Jobs are awarded by bid for the Harvest Season, and those with the highest seniority get the best jobs and this peckerhead, because he works a "Repair Season" job in another department in the summer, even though he started way after the few of us, he's tried to "Run Around" the Seniority Roster and jump in front of us in every Pre-Crop Bid we've had.

And it pissed us all off to no end...

Anyway, I'm in a much better mood. Now All I have to look forward to is 6 to 8 weeks more of work, some minor surgery I've been putting off, planning my vacation and having the entire summer off!

It's like I'm semi-retired!

I'll explain how I do that later on in the week...

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden
Logo pinched from IAM LL57 Website

Just a tad bit worried....

Contrary to my stoic persona, for the first time in a long, long time I'm just a tad bit worried right now.

In five days my labor union's contract with the company and railroad I work for will expire. No news yet from the Union on how the negotiations are proceeding... No news at all, good, bad or indifferent.

Now there's a real possibility of a strike...

I've been a member of several labor unions in the past, and while I've never been on strike, I've never crossed a picket line either.

I'm trying to keep a strong front of being a "No Worries" kind of guy at work, this does have me worried.

Those of you who've followed me for a time know how hard I've worked to get where I'm at, what I've sacrificed... My boyhood dream coming true after all these years...

I'm living my boyhood dream of being a railroad locomotive engineer. I make really good money doing it. But I'm also in an area where the local unemployment rate is almost 40% I'm damn lucky to have a job at all.

Like I said, I'm trying really hard to be positive about this, but today attached to my pay check was a little note from the management requesting the return of all our issued company equipment, parking passes and ID cards at the end of our shift on the 22nd of this month.

I don't want to strike.

There are a few concessions I'd like to see in the next contract, but I really don't want to lose my job.

The company is already training contractors (scabs) to do my job...

I've got about six months' salary saved in the bank...

I want to work though...

Ranger Tom is one nervous puppy right now.

We'll see in five days.

But I'll never, ever scab out like some with whom I work with will...

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

The Clewiston Cruds

About a week ago I began feeling really run-down... More so that usual after working four and a half months straight without a day off... Fever, chills, runny nose and body aches. Not the Flu, but just not feeling 100%. And my damn pesky work~ethic won't let me call in sick I soldiered on with feeling like shit. And in soldiering on, I've come home to do a double~shot of NyQuil and pass out into bed. Today is the first day I've really felt like my old self and have a little energy to write something...

And here's another fantastic Florida sunrise... As seen from my vantage point looking back to check my train out...

And of course you can't run the locomotives indefinitely, they need servicing. Here I am standing by the other morning waiting for the great locomotive shop crew to finish servicing the #406, a EMD GP38-2 diesel locomotive. Have I said recently I love my job?

Fill er' up and check the oil!

I'm glad I don't have to write that check out... Fill er' up means 2,500 gallons of diesel fuel and about 4 gallons of motor oil...

I will try to be better at posting stuff...

I'm just a tad bit tired lately...

Photos and rambling Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Moor trane pix!

Like I had said before, I've been busy lately... About two weeks ago another engineer asked me if I wouldn't mind swapping jobs. He'd take the yard engineer's position and I'd take over the road job's engine. As I had been the conductor on the road job since I started here in 2006 I felt comfortable handling the engine on the road, and I know the territory and cane loading elevators on the line. I won't go into the reasons... Needless to say, I'm no longer running the small 800 HP switching engine, I'm behind the controls of a 2,000 HP EMD GP-38-2.

And I get to see a lot better scenery out on the road. Pictured above is the view out my side of the locomotive this morning around 6:45 AM as we departed a cane loading elevator 11 miles from the mill.

It took some getting used to... I really do miss working with my other conductor, Jay, and my new conductor I'm now convinced is afflicted with narcolepsy... Nah, he wasn't really asleep. We were waiting for a few more loads to be kicked out at a cane loading elevator, and to be honest, there really isn't much else to do except kick back and relax while the harvesters load our rail cars.

But I get to run a big, powerful locomotive that will easily handle 60 to 70 loaded cane cars (1,800 to 2,100 tons) and won't rattle my fillings out of my teeth and heaters actually work on cold nights...

Here's a small look at my new "office"...

And as an aside, you guys now know how warped my mind is sometimes... Someone brought it a case of locally grown sweet potatoes last night for everyone to share and some sick fuck found this one...

It does look vaguely familiar...

Photos and rambling Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Again, I've been busy...

I know I've been lax in posting recently... It's been busy at the RT Homestead and at work... I do have a really good scathing rant on the Pussification of America brewing and will post it as soon as I have time...

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the ride on this train... The engineer on this train knows what he's doing and will give you all a pleasurable journey....

Where it ends nobody knows...

Half the fun is getting there. isn't it?

All aboard and I'll be back soon! The conductor will be along soon to stamp your tickets...

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden