sea room

Well, we had a chance to sit down and breathe here on Hawsepiper's Afloat Global HQ/ Home for Those Not Quite Exactly.

     By that I mean we had two consecutive days off. First time in 2015. And it was... awesome.

 After a long-ass period of just trying to keep my head up and my powder dry (and by that I mean not beating the ever loving shit out of anyone who looked at me crossways), this weekend was exactly what I needed. We got plenty of productive work done, don't get me wrong. I got to shake out some small projects I've been putting off for a while.

Freeing up a sticky bearing on our deck crane took just two hours, but it's two hours where my ass is riding the end of the crane like Slim Pickens on the A-bomb, only I'm swinging a hammer and dicking around with a socket set while getting an atomic wedgie from a safety harness. So that was something I neither enjoyed nor wanted an audience for, as I'm not a modest person, and have little shame, but also don't want to have to hear any shit for being spotted wearing industrial-strength S&M gear and asked if I'm waiting for the indian, cowboy and cop before starting the dance routine.

 The rest of the stuff was more routine- changing clogged grease points, stuff like that, the little shit that adds up.

       This year has been far and away the busiest I've had since I started bunkering. In many ways, that obviously makes me less productive in terms of keeping everything in balance- I'm getting the work done, but the HQ is getting worked harder, and maintenance becomes reactive, rather than proactive. More, I'm simply just burnt out, and don't care as much as I normally do, and that bothers me.

 So, in the past 2 days (well,  2 1/2) I've taken advantage of the shore access we have had and I've walked at least 10 miles a day out through NY, and seen some new neighborhoods. So, 30 miles in about 60 hours, which is pretty frigging good when you think about it that way.

 And, with just 60 hours of downtime, I'm feeling so much better, (legs are tired, feet are sore, head is clear, back is straight), the 'Q is up to date and ready to work, and in 4 hours we'll leave for a big-ass cargo that will suck up the next 36 hours handily. I'm actually ready to work.