Left At The Helm

Since Sausage fell out yesterday, they told him to take today off and rest up. Since he was gone, we made fun of him in his absence. Nothing we wouldn't say to his face, you understand. Just good natured fun to cover up something that was kind of scary.

"Why did Sausage pass out?"

"He was talking so much he forgot to breathe!"

"Man, I'd like to have been there just to see what he looks like with his mouth closed."

That sort of thing. He'll get to hear all of it again when he comes back.

So in his place they gave me a new guy. I saw his name on the chrono and said "Who is this?" The Lt said "He's new. Seems all right."

He was so new in fact that today was his first day off OJT. The first time he was considered to be a regular staff. I said "Aw, heck." then sighed and said "Okey dokey."

Or something like that, anyway.

Sgt Uncle T just kept telling the new guy (who doesn't have a blog name yet) "Just listen to Rev and do whatever he tells you to. He knows what's going on." He said that like ten times during the night. It always startles me. Just like the first time I found myself out on the yard alone. Now I got the yard and a brand new officer to watch out for.

But he did me proud. He asked all the right questions and wasn't afraid to get out and walk around by himself and actually showed some initiative now and then. When he did something beyond what I had told him to do he always came back and asked if it was okay of if he'd done it right. I even had to leave him out on the yard by himself for a few minutes and run the nurses down to 10 house while Sgt Uncle T was up front. He didn't cry or scream or anything. I think he did better the first time alone on the yard than I did.

Man, I hope we get to keep this guy. He seems like one of the good ones. Of course I may be dead wrong, but tonight it seemed like we had hired somebody decent.

With my luck once we get him trained he'll want to transfer to some place closer to home or go to day shift or midnights. Not that they don't need good people too, I'm just greedy.

Luckily we had a calm uneventful evening. Chow went quick because it was something nasty and the yards didn't stay open too long as storm clouds were moving in and it got dark quick. And it didn't rain on us at all until the very end of shift. Even then it just misted a little.

A good night. I'm thankful for those.

Friday is All Is Ours Day. It's also Buddha Day. Those two seem at odds with each other, don't you think? If you took symbolic logic to it: All is ours. All is nothing. Ergo, nothing is ours. Makes a weird kind of sense to me!