Ever notice how your world shrinks when things get insanely busy? Tonight is my first break in a few days- literally. I have a 2-page single-spaced list of stuff I need to get done yesterday, but after the frenetic insanity of the last few days, in which we get a moribund barge out of the shipyard and ready to work, while also trying to move in to the quarters of said barge, which were inhabited by either a troop of chimps or one gross (pun intended) of homeless lepers, dripping everywhere.
In getting this tub shipshape, we also triple-loaded cargo on arrival in New York, which, to my non-mariner friends, means we stuffed the thing with three different parcels of oil for three different customers. With much cursing and head-scratching, because the crane system is a custom one-off that combines Flintstone-era technology with ultra-sensitive hydraulics that punish the heavy-handed (me) by flinging anything you lift all over hell's half-acre, causing me to clench fabric where fabric should not be clenched.
As predicted by the guy who oversaw the conversion work in the shipyard, mechanically, HAWSEPIPER's new floating global HQ/house of horrors is an upgrade from my last one. The living quarters are smaller, sadly, and nowhere near as homey as my last, but that's something we can work on.
Anyhow, tonight I realized that I'm overdoing it. I have lived on bagels and peanut butter sandwiches for the past 4 days, and enough's enough. I'm cooking tonight. Real food, just Brazilian staples- rice, feijao (a bean dish) and chicken w/ vegetables. I am not yet used to our new galley, so my rice is gummy and my chicken dry, but I don't care. It's better than bagels and pb&j's.
No end in sight with the workload, but my feets are so blistered that I have to put them up tonight, so whatever gets done will be limited to paperwork.
I'm tired, but responding well to the challenge. I like the fact that we have a chance to raise the standard here in NY with a presentable operation and a comfortable environment aboard.
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2 comments:
"Flintstone era technology." Ha! I can just envision a barge with a dinosaur on it being used to move things.
Block and tackle- wooden blocks w/ galvie pulleys and pig iron (I think) hooks. Idiot-proof, pretty much, which is good for me.
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