The Dark Path

[racecar]

...the rough and ready growl...I sure do like a good truck.

What were you listeninig to...Freebird?

What did you build?

[labelwench]

......laying precariously on the snow, half pinned by the 2x6 x 12 foot piece of lumber, she laughed and took time to admire the way the sun glinted off the large refracting crystals that were late spring snow.

Thinking of the personalities she had met on the T.O.E., she pondered which ones would be most useful in a situation like this. Racecar sounded like a capable sort, from the household she had to contend with, and she liked trucks. Bet she'd like to be in Tango the Tundra when she floored it for the first time! Her young male co-worker had been taken aback. Guys didn't think that women could drive. She laughed again.

Back to present circumstances. Graham would certainly help her regain her footing. She wondered if he was any good with a hammer. No math involved in this fencing, so no need for measuring and cutting. She wondered if Dave did dimensional lumber math? Austin and Tarina were energetic enough although presently preoccupied, and she really didn't know many of the others that well. From her position on the snow, the fence stretched away to infinity......Jenny maybe?

As she glanced through the fence to the other side, a solution revealed itself......

[Unreal Zelta]

Many people require multiple occupations just to scrape the bare minimum lifestyle. Our society accepts this, "there will always be rich and poor people," such social preconceptions along with "life is unfair, get use to it" and the like are undermining humanity. Social norms' ramifications and damages are of unimaginable scale, and is an underlying problem in any form of constitution including liberal democracy.

How free are we?

regards

Zelta

[labelwench]

.....I'd be more free if you'd get this piece of lumber off me and grab a hammer Zelta, LOL......


tbc tomorrow. Soon time to retire, night shift begins again.....

[Unreal Zelta]

Let there be light.

regards

Zelta

[racecar]

Racecar rushed to unpin lablewench and offer a helping hand.

although weak with words she has often been found to be handy with a hammer...just don't let her near the power tools (jk)

Flushed with the light of the day racecar hauled 3 more rails off the truck bed, swung round and almost hit Zelta in the back of the head...

While visions of soup and cake eaters danced in her head ...time to make the donuts.

[labelwench]

As she glanced through the fence to the other side, a solution revealed itself......

The reflecting light off the fence had settled and crusted the snow somewhat more on the inside of the fence, or so it appeared.

Righting herself, she checked out this theory by climbing over the fence and walking along the event horizon. Much better!

She broke a new trail to the truck, and with an image of Racecar in mind as her help-mate, they got the boards over to and slid through the existing rail fence.

Old rails and nails pulled or recessed, new boards spiked in place, (Look out, Zelta! Slow down Racecar, I'm not quite so quick after waiting out the winter, LOL....), she finished the task by applying a coating of dish detergent. The purpose being to discourage the horses from chewing on the boards, which they tended toward in the spring and fall because many woods contain natural analgesics.

Task completed, she surveyed the handiwork. A natural rail fence of twenty plus years service, repaired neatly with dimensional lumber. Years ago, the dissimilarity would have offended her. Now she regarded it as evolution. Cold cash for lumber replacing sweat equity with a chainsaw. Worked for her!

Back at the house, she raised a glass to Racecar and Zelta, "Many hands make light work."

The universe was an open source of power, no T.O.E. required.

[racecar]

Cheers! Cheers, mate(s).

Cheerio...

Racecar jumped in her groovy, old truck and drove off. Inside, the sound of the rumbling truck drifted away....

[labelwench]

The Dark Path exacts a toll. Never a smoker, Labelwench had found an ally in nicotine. She tested it's limits, and her own. "Take it or leave it", she decided, and indulged occasionally thereafter.

Saturdays were a night for allies. Her co-workers each had their own tasks, but were hers to command if needed, her appointed task having priority.

At first break, the sea of labels evident, she was offered a cigarette, which she accepted with a nod. Words were seldom needed, they all watched each others back.

She smoked slowly, allowing the nicotine to seduce her into a state of focused calm. From which she summoned her dark side, the ally who knew her like no other.

A longer stride, a sudden sharpness to each movement. It was time to kick some label butt....

[greenbug]

Wow have I got a lot to add to this chat! I have been working night shift for 10 years. Every one I have known to work night shift has talked about the ups and downs of working this shift.

Sleep. If you are single or with out kids its easy to get 8 hours of sleep a night, however some do not. On average I get 4-6 hours of sleep every day. The rest I get from sleep is mainly tied to r.e.m. Six hours of sleep is ideal amount of rest at my age. Over sleeping or sleeping out of a pattern will make one feel groggy, grouchy, tired, weak, and they become susceptible to sickness. You can take a drug, melitonen ~spelling~ to reset your biological clock so that a sleep cycle begins and this helps one fall asleep with out the side effects of sleeping aids. Also drinking milk works as it also has low levels of the drug in it. (I’m not sure if its classified as a drug, chemical, enzyme or what not).

Dreams. I only start dreaming after 3 hours and this is well known to me because if I don’t sleep at least 3 hours I can hardly function.

Attitude. The shift you are talking about in a persons demeanor or personality is dude to lack of people on night shift. When you only have a few people in a group its easier to explore conversations with out worry of offending too many people or even being overheard. So political correctness strays when people are no longer worried about offending others. With a grater range of topics and debate, not accepted by most, some one working thread shift may have different perspectives on people and personalities. With this perspective they treat others differently depending on how open other are with them.

Its easier to find your self on the night shift. With less businesses open late hours and no one awake to bother you, you have a lot of time on your own.

Relationships. No one understands how much sleep some one working the night shift needs. That is if they are not working it with you they will think you have slept enough after just a few hours of you sleeping. For me I choose to sleep hours that are inverse to day shift. So midnight is my afternoon. Its easy for me to adjust and keep my schedule to this as its more like normal. That and most people are more active and ready to go out and have fun after 4 p.m. waiting for me to sleep two more hours can be daunting to some. But having fun going out to eat, parties from 6p.m. till mid night is a lot like getting your day started first thing in the morning.

Government and businesses. Here in the u.s.a. hours are from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m. or 9 to 5. For me that is my time to go to sleep. Its hard to go out buy postage stamps, renew license, vote, shop, or other wise unless I stay up and ruin my sleeping habits. Again that makes for grogginess. So others don’t really take night shift into consideration as much as they should because its such a low percentage of people.