April 7, 2006 - Dee Has Put In Her Resignation
Did it about two or three days ago actually. Her last day on the job is 04/18/06. It kind of sucks because I don't think she will find real happiness in this relationship, but obviously she is committed to trying, and I find myself only wishing her the best.
Meanwhile, her departing has left open at work a Team Leader position, and having gone about a year since the last internal job posting, tension for advancement has grown to the point of a fever pitch. At least 5 people, aside from this writer, are going up for it. That of course means that while all of the current hopefuls will try their damndess to get the job, only one will. I do not envy the decision makers here, as a lot of those going up for this are very well qualified. The leg up I have is that while all of the others have quota's to meet and are assets to the company, I am not. I have no quota's or thresholds and have been there since the day the doors opened. I had gone into the planning stages for a supervisory run last June and the vast majority of my co-workers supported me. Another guy from outside the company got it, but this job isn't being posted out of the building.
Anyhow, I think Tess and her National Guardsman boyfriend have already hit the skids. I say this because I over heard her telling a group of women around me that she just recently had a first date with another guy and made mention of 'going slower' this time around. I knew that the Guardsman guy was going to have to go away now and again, and I theorize that perhaps it was just too new to survive that. Of course, they may just have an open relationship and both might date other people.
This past Sunday (4/2) Jim and I almost had an accident in the General. We had taken her out on a very long drive (about 75 miles). At one point we got into a town and the speed limit was dropped to 40. I was cruising along and all of a sudden a green light about 30 feet away turned red. I had no intention of running a red light so I hit the brakes. Big mistake!
Old cars like the Charger are not like anti-lock brakes. Rather than pump the brakes so you do not lose traction, the Charger's drum brake set up locked up. First we started drifting towards the drivers side, I fought the wheel a little too well and than we corrected and went towards the passenger side, all the while going forward from the momentum. We stopped about 5 feet shy of the light, in our own lane, but in the end we had done a full 90 degree turn. Nobody was hurt, we hit nobody and the car was undamaged.
Jim was, understandably, pissed off and I quickly got into a parking lot. I checked the road for tire marks, but there were none. We checked to make sure everything was alright and to calm down and as I was getting ready to pull out a police cruiser pulled into the parking lot and slowed down to see what I was doing. I pulled out to the road and the officer went in right behind me. He motioned to me from his car and the lights went on.
Apparently he did not see what happened but someone had called it in, thinking that I was doing stunts like that on purpose. He checked out my license, registration and insurance and warned me that having a 'General Lee' stuck out like a sore thumb. In the end he could not give a ticket. He wanted to, I know it. He claimed it was because he was from a different county that the one he pulled me over in. That may have been part of it, but I also think that he couldn't because he didn't actually see what happened and I am most positive that if he could have gotten me on anything a local cop would have soon arrived.
So, void a few days off my life, I lost nothing. I may be watched now, but ever since I had that car I have been watched, so that does not scare me. The way Jim and I look at this is that it was a valuable learning experience. I know now what NOT to do with that car, and I also recognize that unlike the Buick I have to reevaluate just how much space I need to stop that thing. Better to learn like that than, say, on the interstate at 60 mph.
Well, bye for now.
Meanwhile, her departing has left open at work a Team Leader position, and having gone about a year since the last internal job posting, tension for advancement has grown to the point of a fever pitch. At least 5 people, aside from this writer, are going up for it. That of course means that while all of the current hopefuls will try their damndess to get the job, only one will. I do not envy the decision makers here, as a lot of those going up for this are very well qualified. The leg up I have is that while all of the others have quota's to meet and are assets to the company, I am not. I have no quota's or thresholds and have been there since the day the doors opened. I had gone into the planning stages for a supervisory run last June and the vast majority of my co-workers supported me. Another guy from outside the company got it, but this job isn't being posted out of the building.
Anyhow, I think Tess and her National Guardsman boyfriend have already hit the skids. I say this because I over heard her telling a group of women around me that she just recently had a first date with another guy and made mention of 'going slower' this time around. I knew that the Guardsman guy was going to have to go away now and again, and I theorize that perhaps it was just too new to survive that. Of course, they may just have an open relationship and both might date other people.
This past Sunday (4/2) Jim and I almost had an accident in the General. We had taken her out on a very long drive (about 75 miles). At one point we got into a town and the speed limit was dropped to 40. I was cruising along and all of a sudden a green light about 30 feet away turned red. I had no intention of running a red light so I hit the brakes. Big mistake!
Old cars like the Charger are not like anti-lock brakes. Rather than pump the brakes so you do not lose traction, the Charger's drum brake set up locked up. First we started drifting towards the drivers side, I fought the wheel a little too well and than we corrected and went towards the passenger side, all the while going forward from the momentum. We stopped about 5 feet shy of the light, in our own lane, but in the end we had done a full 90 degree turn. Nobody was hurt, we hit nobody and the car was undamaged.
Jim was, understandably, pissed off and I quickly got into a parking lot. I checked the road for tire marks, but there were none. We checked to make sure everything was alright and to calm down and as I was getting ready to pull out a police cruiser pulled into the parking lot and slowed down to see what I was doing. I pulled out to the road and the officer went in right behind me. He motioned to me from his car and the lights went on.
Apparently he did not see what happened but someone had called it in, thinking that I was doing stunts like that on purpose. He checked out my license, registration and insurance and warned me that having a 'General Lee' stuck out like a sore thumb. In the end he could not give a ticket. He wanted to, I know it. He claimed it was because he was from a different county that the one he pulled me over in. That may have been part of it, but I also think that he couldn't because he didn't actually see what happened and I am most positive that if he could have gotten me on anything a local cop would have soon arrived.
So, void a few days off my life, I lost nothing. I may be watched now, but ever since I had that car I have been watched, so that does not scare me. The way Jim and I look at this is that it was a valuable learning experience. I know now what NOT to do with that car, and I also recognize that unlike the Buick I have to reevaluate just how much space I need to stop that thing. Better to learn like that than, say, on the interstate at 60 mph.
Well, bye for now.
posted by Matthew Shine at 11:04 PM
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