Almost the whole watch off

With just two days to go on this tour, I finally got a watch to myself. Most of one, anyhow., and even better, the annoying tasks that have to get done before my relief show up are all done too, so I got to have this time to myself. And really... to myself.  Partner B, who has Crohn's disease (now in remission) and hadn't taken a solid dump since the first Obama administration,  got hisself constipated, which is... well not humorous, but surprising... And painful apparently, as finally the floodgates opened and B went to bed as soon as his watch was over, on account of his backdoor looking like the cigarette lighter of a car when you hold it in for 5 minutes and don't let it pop back out. 

     So I have had the HQ to myself most of the night. We're at a lay berth, the real lay berth, where we go when we have more than a few hours between jobs, over by Brooklyn Bridge Park. 

    I'm not feeling sick, either. Oh, I'm a bit congested but I've improved greatly in the past 24 hours. It was nice to sit down to a meal tonight, and not have to eat it one handed while writing or typing with the other for once. All in all, things are better than they were a week ago for sure. And the prospect of going home is uplifting. 

 I got a call from a good friend, the first friend I made when I came to my present job, in fact. He's a rock solid dude, a damn fine tankerman too. He left my employer last year after almost 20 years here, after having been done brown by one of the shoreside staff, and his wife sadly being diagnosed with terminal cancer, and our insurance being fairly well shitty and cheap compared to Blue Cross/Blue Shield, which most other maritime companies offer, including the company he moved to, who are famously bad but pay OK and have great insurance which his wife needs...  anyhow, said friend got an offer he couldn't refuse from the highest-paying tug-and-barge company on the East Coast,  (who also have BC/BS).  So he's headed there for his last few years before retirement, which will also enable him to work shorter hitches and have more time and more money for his wife's care.  I'm really happy for him. And while I didn't need the temptation, he promised that he'd make me an offer to whoever recruited him, and fuck me that's tempting.  I don't like blind jumps, though. I don't want to go. Not yet, anyhow. It's not a good time to do laundry in public, but I appreciate the offer for a new job and a new company, but am hopeful that good things are coming.