Hot Line school and hot weather. Tornados!!

Well the past month I went to hotline school and was in the class Underground installations. Which I do every day at work now. It was a lot of classes not a lot of work. But when we did do some work I was helping teach the class which was nice that I could be asked to help out. Now that I have some what of a knowlege of some of the stuff that we are doing. I had to share a room with someone that I do not care for but I got stuck:( I was not very happy about that. It made hotline school not much fun. We are getting to go on a family vacation in June I am very excited :) Not much is going on now. Just enjoying the heat we hit 95 degrees that is not much fun that is one of the things that I do not care for the heat around here.We have had some hail and some tornados nothing to terribly bad so far. It is that time of the year. The wind has blown non stop for aboput 6 weeks but it has calmed down today. I am really needing a vacation and time to get awayt from cell phones and work. It is just one of those things. I wish that I could just buy my Uncles cabin and stay up there year round and not have to worry about money bills or anything just enjoy life fish and hunt. I do need to stock up on more guns and ammo I do not have near enough with our stupid President.

My bosses!

Some of the things that have happened lately. I was in Denver a couple weeks ago and either ripped a filling out or broke a chunk of my tooth out and my boss Rick gave me crap about wanting to take the day off to get it fixed the next day. My appointment was at 11:00 am and he was mad because I was not able to go out to work with my foreman the next day because we travel all over and it would be to far to drive and come back to later. so I ended up canceling the appointment and just dealing with it. I was furious that he would give me crap about taking some time to get my teeth worked on. That just does not seem right. There are a few more things that he has done to just make my life hell. I try to get done the work I am asked to and try to give plenty of time in advance of when I need to take off. Crap I tell you that when I do want to take off I get crap about it. I have done nothing but bust my butt for this company. That is just the way that I was raised. Maybe I am replaceable but you would think that all the money that they put in us they would try to get you to stick around. My other boss came in one morning and asked me if I had anything to tell him. For the life of me I could not think of anything that I had done wrong so I told him no. Then he said do you have a ticket that you need to tell me about and I said not that I could think of. Thinking of a ticket I might have gotten in a company vehicle. He then said that it was a month ago and I started to think I did get a speeding ticket in my personal vehicle and I said I got a ticket then but it did not affect anything with work so I told him it was in a personal vehicle and he said that if it was at work or not I needed to let him know. That bad thing was is there are plenty of other guys who have never been asked that or put on the spot like me who have been here longer and they could not believe that.I have been called in or talked to various times about other things and I have just let them go and forgot them not even bringing this up and have forgotten what all has been brought up. This is something that I ignored because I thought nothing about until it had been done many times and old talks have been brought back to memory so I am writing this down more venting but to keep record of so that if it gets worse it can be taken care of. I have even went in and talked about things that I may need to improve on and what I would like to learn and it is sad that I have to talk about it before they come to me other than to complain about something that I have done wrong but really does not effect me at work. I am honest and work hard. I rarely complain about anything I go to work and so what is asked of me. But when I feel I am being singled out about things that others are doing and they never get called in about it, it really starts making one think. Hardly do I ever see them outside the office and they still have things to complain about. I never threw a stink about when one guy almost killed me literally and nothing was done about. They did not even call me in to ask my side of the story. That really torks me off. If it was someone else maybe they would have treated the situation differently I do not know. But if I were dead maybe there should have been something done about it. They always say at our safety meetings how we should be safe and take precautions but when something goes wrong and could end in death it was talked about briefly and nothing more was said. it is very frustrating that that would happen. I have held many jobs and if I or someone else was doing something wrong in those jobs we were let know of what we were doing wrong and it was either fixed or we were let go but at least we were all talked to not just me. Another thing that made me mad is that a year ago I hurt my back on a pole at hotline school and I did everything that I needed to do and if it was serious or not the only way that they said that I could get it checked out was to drive six hours back to akron to get it checked out . How was I to get home with as much pain as I was in. Plus they have this rule that if you get hurt and you are off of work for an injury that you have to go to a place called work steps and do all kinds of tests to make sure you are well enough to come back to work. Well I went to the doctor did not miss any work and they were going to tell me to leave just because the doctor said that there were a few restrictions that I had none affecting me to not do some kind of work. Well they let me work but I did not leave work for my injury and was fine but I still had to go to work steps even though I was told that I would not have to go because I did not miss work due to my injury. I jumped through the hoops and went back to work. But they did not even care about me only covering their own butts. except for all the many other things that they have done to single me out of the rest of the employees. I understand fully that there are things that as a company they must do to cover themselves but lets not get over board on singling out one person. I have made mistakes and so have others but to make me do things against their words seems like discrimination to me. It is so bad that many have quit due to all of the bull crap that is going on here. I am still here maybe because I am stupid but from now on I am going to keep record of this in my blog that way I have solid evidence of what is going on so that maybe this can be corrected. I do not know if it is because I did not grow up here or not, but any time that I am needed I go and am always ready and willing to help out. I think that they take advantage of this and so not put in their own minds of what I have done. They only look for the bad things in my mind and from what I hear from other people. This is not a new development for these two bosses. But one should not have to take this from and employer. If I were a female working here I guarantee that they would be more careful but in my mind everyone is equal in a workplace and everyone should follow the same rules and be treated equally. When i think of more I will be sure to write it down so that I have record and we will go from there.I have never once heard from a boss that I am doing good and to keep up the good work. It is like when I got my evaluation I was told meets expectations but on some of the things that I was exceeds expectations but was told by Rick that he did not put that in my evaluation because if I heard that I would slack off and not be as productive at the work that I was doing. That is wrong in my mind because if I was told that it would give me more incentive to work even harder.Sorry that I am boring you with my venting but like I said before I have to have record of this somewhere. Plus they say that I drive to fast and well I am told this by two others that have lead feet to and drive fast. I have slowed down and am more careful but it keeps being brought up. Which I think is not right either even though that was in the past. But rules are there for a reason and not for only a handful of people but for everyone that works at the company!!! That is enough for tonight but I will continue as more discrimination's present themselves. This was long but I had a lot on my mind and made time to finally take note of all the crap.

Almost three years!!

Well in June I will hit the 3 year mark working as a lineman with YW. Very exciting. Do I feel I am ready to Journey out not sure about that yet. Well things are going pretty well. I have been on the underground crew again for a few months now. It is nice to have a change from building line. We are still doing construction but it is a different deal with underground. I enjoy working with my foreman and running all of the equipment. We have quite a few jobs lined up but we are running out of time before the farmers start planting and plowing their fields. Once they do that we are done so I hear. The kids are getting big and man the time is flying by so fast. We are still looking for another job but not as hard as before because I have almost decided to wait until I Journey out which will be in December or next June not sure yet. It is now starting to rain out here and rain means mud so we will see what we can do with all of that. One other thing that I have done new was hunting coyotes with grey hounds it was awesome. I think I will have to try and do it when I get my own house. Basically what you do is drive around in a truck with a box bolted down in the back. You drive around fields 25 to 35 mph and when you she a coyote you chase him down till you are about 40 feet or so from him then you pull a string and it is connected to a lever to let the dogs out and you let them out on him to take him down and then you walk up with a hammer and give him a wack in the head. Yea I know it is kinda cruel but it is a blast. The other day I was climbing a pole and I had a handline on my belt. I got up about 15 feet and came zooming down the pole. When my feet hit the ground I looked at the pole and looked at my foreman and he was holding the end of the handline. With a smile I said" Why in the hell did you pull me off the pole" I knew he did not because there was about 20 feet of slack in the rope. But that is just how good I get along with my foreman. We get along very well and it is good we can joke about things like that. Well burning a pole is no that bad either. You just hit the ground and go back up. It does get frustrating some times. I had one pole when we were building line that I fell the fist time from 15 feet then again at 10 feet and you wonder if the 3rd time is a charm. Usually it is usually it does not take three times. HA HA HA this work is awesome and I can't wait for another day of doing it.

3 weeks now!!

I have been on the underground crew now for 3 weeks. It is a lot of hard work but it is so different compared to over head. Yes, We still climb because the overhead usually carries the voltage running to a pivot or other place. I really enjoy working with brad. He and I like the same things and we laugh all day long it is a kick in the pants working with him. Most of the guys at work give brad a hard time because he is a neat freak. It is good because everything he does is very meticulous. He like washes his hands a lot and he can be in the dirt all day and come home with no dirt in him what so ever. I am completely the opposite. I work in the dirt and an dirty as all get out when I come home from work. Maybe it is because I spend a lot of time in the trench??? Well Things are good I wish they could leave things this way for a very long time. They say that it will be but who knows. My old foreman really loves me running the digger truck but he talks so much crap behind my back to the other bosses and I had no clue until I sat down and talked to one of them and asked where I was at in the company. Well things are good can't complain to much I still have a job and am still getting raises even though Obama has trashed the economy and the US period!!!!!

A change

Finally Harold Jefferson quit and they moved the crews around. I got put on the underground crew with Brad. It is really nice to have a change. I have been wanting a change for quite sometime. But nothing was happening. I had asked my bosses for a change so that I could become a Journeyman lineman and actually have some experience doing something other than building line. Well, that day finally came and I am on the crew as long as there are jobs for us. I am really liking it and well, I had done it for abut 2 months before just because there was a spot to fill. I got taken off just as soon as the guy got back from recuperating from his neck surgery. I would love to have some more time on the hot line crew and do some more trouble shooting but well I guess that will have to happen else where. I am currently looking for a new job either in the valley or in Idaho but right now jobs are pretty scarce. it is just a good thing that I have a job and that I am able to still get raises. We are expecting a new baby on January the 12Th. I am very excited for that. It is another little boy. One thing I forgot to tell is that I went into Rod Dunkers office the other night and had a little chat with him about my situation. Rod is the Operations manager which is the boss just below the boss of the whole company. Any way, I expressed to him that I really needed a change and that I wanted to get more experience doing other things in our line of work. Also that is there were any room to improve in areas I would like to know. There is some criticism that just needs to be told because if not there is no way I can improve unless I know. My boos let me know areas that I could improve on and said I was doing a really good job as far as work and help was concerned. I do love my job I just am the type of person that hates to stop learning. So I guess we will see what happens and what will go on in the next few months. Hopefully I might be able to get my Journeyman's and get a job else where. I hate to move again but if I am not happy with everything there is no since in sticking around.

Finally moving up in the world>

Well a couple of days ago I got to go and finally do some hot work. Yes, it was a little intimidating. I loved it though because you always have to think about what you are doign and where you are at at all times. Me and the Journeyman lineman went up and cought all 4 wires in a tree that has brackets that hold the wires so you can move them away from the pole after you have them untied so that you can set another pole. Well we got up and were moving out of the way of the new pole and the wires that were in the basket slid and came pretty close to our heads. I heard something and my first instinct was to duck down in the bucket. It was a good move. Although they were not to close to our heads they still came pretty close. It was crazy and man did it get my heart racing. I loved every minute of it. My middle name is danger. I guess this is why I decided to take this job. Yea, the money is good but it is also exciting to do new and more dangerous things. I guess I am an adreniline junkie.

I am really bad at writing.

It has been a while since I have written. I found out that I am going to be a daddy again. we are very excited. Except for the fact that I am trying to find a new job and get out of this hot weather. My foreman took pitty on me today and said it was to hot to climb so we called a guy with his bucket truck to help. That was very nive. He is about to retire and I think he wants to get back to being the area man full time not just at night and on weekends. We had a pole break thursday night and went out and fixed it. We were out for like 4 hours because it was a long way away from Akron. Then Friday I worked only half day so I could help candi with the kids for her first appointment. Well at 5pm I got a call and we had six poles go down in a bad wind. We were out for another 6 hours on it. Man I would say show me the money but as soon as I see it it is gone. Oh well at least I am making decent money to pay all of my school loans and other bils.