What kind of people work at night?

[Champane Flight]

Had chance...

I had several chances to go to control in B-ville. Have passed them by. I like going out in the boonies and seeing something different everyday. I did control for five years back in 85- 90, they moved the control center to B-ville back then. Didn't like the idea of being kooped up.

 

[Cowboy Medic]

I work on an ambulance that is a little understaffed, so it tends to be any time day or night. Either a regular scheduled 24 hour shift or an on-call basis. People don't like to hear "Please call back during normal business hours monday through friday 9 AM to 5 PM" when they call 911, seems like they all think it is some kind of an emergency Seriously though, I love my work There are very few jobs out there where every single day you can literally be the life and death difference. I tend to like the nights better than the days, especially if we are having to run lights and sirens. Seems like more and more people have their radios turned way up or are talking away on their cell phones. Not paying any attention to what is going on around them. Even had one lady the other day who was stopped at a red light and we came through running lights and sirens, we stopped and then proceeded through the intersection and she just came right on through with us. I wonder what her thinking is when she does that? sorry didn't mean to start ranting. Anyway, nights have my vote, simply because of the fewer people to have to work around in general.

 

[Adam]

Nights for the last 8 years

In to that bunch of hookers and thieves you should add cops. And if there were more of us, there'd be less of them!

I tend to agree with most that nights really are the most convenient. No management types, no safety Nazi's, no killjoy's. And best of all, the ability to control a problem or situation with a subordinate as you see fit, without having to say "Mother may I" and defending yourself to the office rangers, none of whom have to work with the little b@st@rd who didn't shave, polish his boots, and got mouthy because it's his fifth 14hr shift, and the heat in his dorm room is stuck at 110, so he can't sleep. Just one example. On the other hand, working nights is usually all or nothing. When the 911 line lights up, you can bet it's not grandma calling to say the electricity is out, or a 3-yr old playing with the telephone. But at least I (usually) don't have to deal with the petty neighborhood disputes. If you're somewhat friendly with a law enforcement officer, ask him or her someday what kind of calls they get on a pretty routine basis. I think the answers might surprise ya. Ain't nothin' better than complaints that "... My Whopper has mayonnaise on it and my wife ordered it plain, and officer, can you arrest them?" Make's the rest of the tour go by quick.



-Adam

 

[Shrimpy]

Hey Bill, being a good ol' Texan, you probably remember the bumper stickers about us oil patch guys... ... ..... The first went like this... . "Don't tell my parents I work in the Oilfield, They still think I am a piano player in a ***** house . This was followed shortly after the oil collapse of 81' and oil at under 10 dollars a barrel from a high of over 41. 00... ... ... Dear God, If you bless us with $25. 00 a barrel oil, we promise not to screw it up... . .



I'm like Gitch, Pipeline Control in Downtown Houston. Trying desperatly to get back out in the field... ... .

 

[therabbittree]

I drive nights delivering oil in a tractor trailer to and from tank farm to tank farm. The cold months suck. Never ever keep up on what they pull out during the day and work non stop, sucks. I normally work from 1-2 pm till 4-6am so its long hours and sleep then work argh. 4-6plus loads a night about 2 1/2-3 hours turn around time. I envy you guys with overtime or heck double time!!!! ha I get the shaft on this one i just get paid by the load . No matter when you work. I just got maried in october and my wife works days so i may see her for like 1 hr when i climb in bed about 4 am or so so this sucks for me and her... I'm looking for a regular day or even 2 shift job with a good rate and overtime. Or heck even the railroad . . never home but you make good $ . now I'm never home and I don't make any money for the hours I work.

So far my one days off is bad weather ie snow. . jack knifing or cars crashing / sliding around in front of you when your 102-107,000 lbs gross really sucks... ha been there done that... enough of my rant . i think a night shift would be cool if you were compenstated well and didn't have non stop work .

thanks

happy holidays

Deo

\x/ hillfolk!

 

[Champane Flight]

Hey

Hey , Shirmpy we have a Smartool report coming in on Monday. I am sure to have a couple of emergency digs next week in the snow. Are you sure you want back out here?

 

[apkole]

For 26 years I've plowed snow. We try real hard to limit our activity to a midnight to 6 am shift. This keeps us out of harms way of the stoopid drivers (2 am bar flys excepted). There are a couple of rules for our kind of work:



Rule # 1: Flasher side up - rubber side down (Don't laugh, we have had a couple of roll overs of our Bombadier SW48s, even after giving this warning to the drivers)



Rule # 2: Any street, any time, any speed, any direction. During a heavy night time snow event, traffic control devices of any kind become pretty much meaningless.



Andy

 

[gitchesum]

Re: Hey

Originally posted by Champane Flight

Hey , Shirmpy we have a Smartool report coming in on Monday. I am sure to have a couple of emergency digs next week in the snow. Are you sure you want back out here?

Don't forget to call your friendly neighborhood controller when you do the digging. We had a crew in SoCal potholing for 2 weeks before we knew anything about it.

 

[Champane Flight]

Always

I always remember to call control first, its after we finnish for the day that I have a hard time with. Last month I had about a mile and a half of line to lower up north and forgot to call after we shutdown for the night. One of our wise a$$ controlers called my house and asked if we were done for the day... . Anymore I just tell them up front "We will be digging until around five pm, and then call it a day, if I forget to call you we are done at five!". A full day with a shovel kind of makes you forget and just want to go home when you get my age.



Actually if they were vacuming the potholes, I believe it is Ok to not report to control. Even though we report, I believe that our maintenance manual states you don't have to. It might depend on line integrity at the spot of vacuming. I will have to check it out. We vacced every half mile of our Powder river for plate placement and would just tell control at the beginning of the day, tell them how many miles and stations we planned on doing for the day. At the end we would call finnished for the day.

 

[Bill Lins]

Originally posted by Shrimpy

Hey Bill, being a good ol' Texan, you probably remember the bumper stickers about us oil patch guys... ... ..... The first went like this... . "Don't tell my parents I work in the Oilfield, They still think I am a piano player in a ***** house

Sounds kinda like the reason a friend of mine gave for NOT buying a Dodge- "My sister's a hooker and my brother's in prison- I just couldn't tell Momma ALL her kids went bad!"