Back at it

 Well, I'm back aboard the HQ. My first watch is a busy one, though we're presently waiting for a thunderstorm to pass before we head from the loading terminal to a ship waiting for us at anchor nearby. 

  My time home was just FULL. I'm not complaining, either. It was pretty much days of hard work interspersed with a lot of fun. I worked too much, ate too much, drank too much, got too much sun, swam too much... just all the too muches. 

   I bought a heavy gas powered pressure washer, which led to me discovering just how much deeper it cleans than the dinky electric one I had before, so while I expected that pressure washing the driveway, pool deck and the house itself was going to be a faster job, it actually took much longer than I expected, but the results were great. So that sucked up 3 full days. 

    I got some custom cabinet doors made to replace some in my kitchen that no longer fit after I installed a big stainless farm sink. Learning how to mill out for european hinges and get the alignment right was a giant pain in the butt but I got it right, thank God. 

 So, some befores and afters, now that it's all done. 

 Now I know why builders charge so damn much. Oof. 

    Not shown is that I also redid the laundry room, a guest bathroom, and the informal living room. Oh, and the dining room. 

 No before pictures, and it's not fully decorated yet, but my part other than furniture moving and paying-for, is done. 

 The downside of DIY'ing home things is that by the time you're done, you're just now getting better at doing them. 

 So yeah, all in all it was a satisfying time home. I'm really pleased with how the house looks, and if we didn't get to do all the going out and being social things, my brother came by a few times, we had a little party, met some new neighbors, and generally had good times. I'm gad in a way for a few weeks of 'freehab' aboard the HQ, w/ no booze, healthy eating, and a chance to exercise some muscles and rest my liver. 

 Back to work. 

Everything broke, but it's getting fixed

  Well I'm home and I'm running around like a cat trying to bury a turd under a marble floor. 

     Still, it's been good. A lot of little stuff is getting done. Home renovations are about all done. My kid has been in the yard flinging dirt and doing yeoman service getting shit done. It already looks so much better.  I pressure washed the driveway, pool decks, and the house itself but had to buy a new pressure washer as the old one broke. A pallet of sod had to get put in too, the front yard being bad enough to offend the HOA. The irrigation controller died. Pool vacuum is dying now. 

I gotta go back to work before anything else dies. This shit is getting expensive. 

 Still, it's been days of labor, and evenings of swimming and drinking w/the Mrs.  Good times. 

I'm tired, boss

 Workload's been pretty light. Seasonably slow, which has been good as we caught up on things on here, hosted the coast guard for our annual dog-and-pony show, etc. 

 I got ashore a few times. Got 5 mile walks in every time. 

 It's tonight and 2 more watches and I can go home. 

   The light workload undid some of the butthurt on my part given the musical chairs we're playing this month personnel-wise. 

 Really, all is well enough, just haint been in a writing mood. 

Blasphemy?

An odd thing. 

  Today we're loaded deep, alongside a really gaudily painted cruise ship. Graffiti-style hull murals for some tacky reason have become oh so de la mode for regular shore people. 

 This one today is particularly gaudy.

   Cruise ships generally don't have a good way for bunker vessels to moor alongside. There's never enough Panama Canal Chocks (recessed reinforced bitts in the hull to hang a hawser on, used also for Panama Canal transits, hence the name). 

  Today's ship was painted so eye-searingly chaotically, I couldn't see all the chocks at a distance, as some are painted over by the graffiti. 

      I had 2 inexperienced young deckands with me, both broccoli-headed Gen Z'ers. Nice kids, green. While I was talking with our two tugboats as we moved alongside, I was pretty frustrated about not being able to see the damn mooring points, and finally said something like 'Hey, we gotta get closer before I can figure out where to put her; this fuckin' paint is like Gay Camouflage.' 

 The tug captains laughed. The deckhands both got pie eyed, before studying their feet, visibly uncomfortable. 

      Now, my wife's gayest cousin is also the cousin I'm closest to. I really don't give a shit about what tickles anyone's pickle, but we have no sacred cows out here and everything is fair game for humor. 

 The kids will be fine. They're figuring it out. Maritime work isn't for the thin-skinned and this, along with not belching into the VHF microphone unless someone you like is talking, is all part of the process. 

Workflow

 My partner B came in on time by Wednesday and it was good to have him back on the HQ. The new guy was wearing thin. Not a bad guy at all, just... not a compatible personality and not a 'Can Do' guy workwise, which is what our people are on here. 

 Big E is home now for a few weeks, and it'll be my turn next month. 

 We were pretty quick to settle into routine, which felt good. Today I finished loading us deep; tonight and tomorrow we'll be discharging and hopefully Sunday will be free. 

    As far as ship traffic goes, it's been seasonable. Home heating oil season in the northeast is winding down, and  April/May isn't usually unduly busy, so I can't see any impact from world events from my micro perspective, so you'd have to ask someone else for the macro. 

I pickled stuff

 Yesterday I was so free at work that I made marinated mushrooms and 2 jars of dill pickles.

      We're experiencing a lull in demand for bunker fuels here in NY harbor. There's plenty of traffic, don't get me wrong, but it's mostly ships with onboard exhaust gas scrubbers, so they can buy the cheaper shitty oil and burn it, whereas the HQ carries the good shit (Very Low Sulfur Heavy Fuel Oil) and also the best shit, Ultra Low Sulfur Fuel Oil, the hi-test, which is just retardedly expensive right now.  And diesel, which most ships use to fuel their generators in port. 

   Well, with the fill-in guy having figured out that I'm not a talker, and free time, yesterday after some morning logkeeping and my weekly environmental hazard inspection (looking for signs of leaks in pipelines and joints, cracks in welds, examining anything that has oil in it, and inventorying the spill cleanup lockers, deployable oil booms, etc etc...),  went for a 5 mile walk through Brooklyn, stopping to go to church-good for the body, good for the soul, and also got some groceries (bad for the wallet, holy shit), then returned to the HQ, where I made a big stir fry for lunch, smoking out the galley with my giant ass wok. After lunch I pulled out my spices, some herbs I bought, and a jug of vinegar and made marinated mushrooms and dill pickles. 

 I put too much flaked red pepper in the mushrooms. Just a pinch adds a subtle pepper taste, but a pinch and a half was too much, but too late. Gonna feel that. 

If you know, you know. 

 And today? The same, just moreso. Gonna walk again and maybe spend the afternoon in the generator house for spring cleaning. It's too hot in there in summer to work if I don't have to, so now's a good time. 

In which I quit my bitching (for a minute)

 Oof, what a week. For everyone else. Me? I'm doing fine. Oh, I was feeling put-upon earlier, but... perspective arrives and I need to be grateful when I looknat what others go through vs what I went through and cried about. 

      So, me first: the fill-in guy hasn't woken me up once to answer questions in the dark. He's not my cup of tea, personally, but that's no big deal. I'm sure now that he's a decent human being. He can load and discharge with direction and independently solve some basic problems. He maybe lacks initative, but appears to have been trained to not change anything as a visitor, to the point where he won't touch anything he does not have to,  but he's also not familiar with the layout here, as the HQ is a simple beast, if heavily modified. He works on a floating Swiss Army knife (capable of more things, but awkward and uncomfortable for the user).  

        So, for all my bitching, beyond that he talks too much, isn't looking to up his game and doesn't seem comfortable with companionable silence, it'll be fine. My first impression of him was brutally bad; but he seems ok. 

    Given that, I can't cry too loud because relative to what some others are going through, in my network, I've got it good, and I got reminded of that several times.  One of my friends out here, also one of my favorite tugboat captains to work with, and just 3-4 years older than me, had a stroke while in his room about 2 weeks ago. He's alive, and facing a long recovery I think. Insanely high stress life, not enough exercise, and carrying too much weight. Also the family breadwinner, so this won't help. 

 Blogfriend BCE lost his job and his estranged stepdaughter took her own life (in front of her mom, who was trying to help her) as a final eff you) on the same day, while I was bemoaning my lot in life a few days ago. Jesus, I gotta quit my bitchin. People have real problems and I'm getting all cunty about things not being perfectly ideal here in my self-chosen oasis of... well, this fuckin' place. 

 One of my brothers is partially disabled, with a severe back injury that limits his mobility, but he works full time at a job that physically pushes him to (and past) his limits regularly. 

My sister has early-onset rheumatoid arthritis, and a weird ass massive seizure last year that came out of nowhere, and may or may not have had a mini-stroke chaser, had to move back to Sodom Boston to live with her daughter. 

   I feel (and see) tragedy all around me, and I know everyone can look and see people worse off around them, but as things pile up on others, I see myself, and I am ashamed to not be more grateful. I know my time will come. I think I had better start reminding myself that I need to be more grateful and positive. 

   Also, today is Sunday, and while it's rainy and dark, we tied up in Brooklyn at a dock with shore access, around 2am, and are free for the day, maybe. If the rain holds off, I will go for a walk, maybe go to mass up at the church about a 30 min walk from this pier.  Feel like I might need it.