The Last for the Week

The week is almost over and I have to admit that I’m a little sad. On Monday, the boss will be back at her desk watching over our shoulders making sure we’re not wasting the state’s time and money by doing things that aren’t work related. She’ll come to my desk while I’m working and give me extra work to make sure I keep working. She’ll come to my desk when I’m not working and give me more work to do. She’ll find me at lunch and interrupt my reading to ask me how work is going. Lawyers and insurance adjusters and injured workers will all be back as well, creating an obnoxious buzz that gets into the air and just won’t drop until the door is locked at five.

If you haven’t guessed, I’ve enjoyed this week with out the public and without the judges and without the supervisor. I’ve been able to write a couple of letters that were much longer than what I usually write. I posted the comics that I’ve been making ever since I moved, including the one today (I finished it a little early this morning).

So, that’s it for this week. I’ll be back next week with who know what.

Oh, there is this:

He's Here!

Cole is now at home, out of his mommy and in her arms, right where he should be.

Read what Daddy Logic has to say and enjoy the pictures.

Sometimes, I Miss Working at 'Bucks.

This week, the judges are gone and so is the supervisor, so we don't expect a rough week. At this moment, no one who doesn't get paid to be here is here. I'm #2, the second person to go up to the counter when someone comes in for help, and I don't expect to have to get up too much to help.

So, I said to the ladies, "When the hoards come, we'll just beat them off with a stick." Then I realized what I said and started to snicker.

The ladies just looked at me and one said, "Okay." They went back to their work.

At 'Bucks, there would have been at least one other person snickering with me.

All the Comics

Everything since the last one that was posted.

Fixation

I’ve been fixating on this for over an hour. So, I’m hoping that if I put it down on paper (or bits of data, or ones and zeros, or whatever) that I’ll stop and actually be able to sleep tonight.

Yesterday morning, an injured worker (not necessarily injured now, but he was and that’s what we call all the people who come in who are trying to get money), without a lawyer, came in to schedule a walk-thru for this afternoon (we need at least 24 hours to set up a walk-thru). That, in itself, was odd because, as I’ve been told, 99% of the walk-thrus are scheduled by the defense. So, I go and speak with him, take his file and look his info up on the computer. There was no case for the date of injury on his form. That meant I had to create it, except he didn’t have any of the medical files which need to be there in advance. I told him, he called the lawyers for the defense. I spoke with the lawyers for the defense. They told me I was wrong. I told them I wasn’t. They asked if they could fax the 100+ pages of the meds. I said no, we can’t accept faxes from outside. They spoke with the injured worker again and convinced him to go home and let them fax the documents to him. He hung up and said he’d be back in the afternoon.

Around 3:15, he came back with the meds. A walk-thru can be scheduled for either 8:30 AM or 1:30 PM and needs to be scheduled 24 hours in advance. I went to the walk-thru judge’s secretary and asked her if it would be okay to set it up, she said it would. I had the injured worker fill out the walk-thru paper and said it’d be all set up for tomorrow. I went back to my desk, created a file, and gave it to the judge’s secretary.

Today, I got back from my lunch a little after two, since I didn’t start my lunch until a little after one, and my supervisor charged over to my desk before I was able to put my Tupperwarish stuff in my bag. She had the file I had created for the walk-thru in her hand and started to tell me things that the judge said that I didn’t understand. Finally, she told me what the judge wanted, which was a separate file for each DOI on the form. The problem was that five of the DOIs weren’t on the line that they should have been on, they were on the line where the injured body parts are supposed to be listed. After she got done frantically explaining the problem to me I asked her what I was supposed to do with the files when I finished, she said I was to hold on to them until tomorrow when the official address record would be printed out. Thirty minutes later, all the files were created and placed on my little thing where I put finished files waiting for OARs.

I took my last break at three, when it’s scheduled, even though I’d only been back for an hour, and got back at 3:15. One of the other OTs (that’s my title) told me that the judge had come and taken all the files I’d just created because they needed them right away. I said okay and finally started to work on the major filing that I offered to help one of the judge’s secretaries with. While filing, the judge who had me create the new files came out into the hall (I think he was taking a break from the people in the room) and told me that he doesn’t blame me for what happened.

“I don’t blame you,” he said.

And that’s where I get troubled. See, I don’t like the sentence “I don’t blame you.” I don’t like it because when you say it you’re at least saying that you considered blaming me for something. If you really don’t blame me, they why would you feel the need to say this damn sentence? You do blame me, don’t you? If you want to tell me that I screwed up, tell me I screwed up. I can handle it. I’m not fragile. In fact, if you were honest with me and just told me that I blew it, I wouldn’t be her obsessing about this stupid problem. Blame me. I don’t mind because that means I’ll ask you to teach me so I don’t screw up in the same way later. I learn just fine that way.

Okay, I feel a little better. Hopefully I’ll be able to forget about it this later and sleep will come peacefully and be restful.

George Carlin on New Orleans

Been sitting here with my ass in a wad, wanting to speak out about the bullshit going on in New Orleans. For the people of New Orleans... First I would like to say, Sorry for your loss. With that said, let's go through a few hurricane rules: (Unlike an earthquake, we know it's coming)

#1. A mandatory evacuation means just that...Get the hell out. Don't blame the government after they tell you to go. If they hadn't said anything, I can see the argument. They said get out... if you didn't, it's your fault, not theirs. (I don't want to hear it, even if you don't have a car, you can get out.)

#2. If there is an emergency, stock up on water and non-perishables. If you didn't do this, it's not the Government's fault you're starving.

#2a. If you run out of food and water, find a store that has some. (Remember, shoes, TV's, DVD's and CD's are not edible. Leave them alone.)

#2b. If the local store has been looted of food or water, leave your neighbor's TV and stereo alone. (See #2a) They worked hard to get their stuff. Just because they were smart enough to leave during a mandatory evacuation, doesn't give you the right to take their stuff...it's theirs, not yours.

#3. If someone comes in to help you, don't shoot at them and then complain no one is helping you. I'm not getting shot to help save some dumb ass who didn't leave when told to do so.

#4. If you are in your house that is completely under water, your belongings are probably too far gone for anyone to want them. If someone does want them, let them have them and hopefully they'll die in the filth. Just leave! (It's New Orleans, find a voodoo warrior and put a curse on them)

#5. My tax money should not pay to rebuild a 2 million dollar house, a sports stadium or a floating casino. Also, my tax money shouldn't go to rebuild a city that is under sea level. You wouldn't build your house on quicksand would you? You want to live below sea-level, do your country some good and join the Navy.

#6. Regardless of what the Poverty Pimps Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton want you to believe, The US Government didn't create the hurricane as a way to eradicate the black people of New Orleans; (Neither did Russia as a way to destroy America). The US Government didn't cause global warming that caused the hurricane (We've been coming out of an ice age for over a million years).

#7. The government isn't responsible for giving you anything. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave, but you gotta work for what you want. McDonalds and Wal-Mart are always hiring, get a damn job and stop spooning off the people who are actually working for a living.

President Kennedy said it best..."Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Thank you for allowing me to rant.

Strange Dream

My in-box is empty. My boss is away at lunch. The other co-workers have decided it's okay to waste this time. So, I'm wasting it too.

I had this strange dream last night. I was being forced to live in a judge's house. (I don't know if it's one of the judges here or not. The judge was only referred to as The Judge.) I had all my boxes in my room, which my parent's cats (past and present) had chosen for me by curling up together on the bed. Some kid came in and started to sing that Hillary Duff song that came out with the Lizzie McGuire Movie (I think it's called "So Yesterday") and he wouldn't shut up. So I grabbed his arm and pulled him out onto this huge bridge (sort of like the Bay Bridge, that long but more narrow like for only six or seven people standing side by side) and threatened to push him off if he didn't stop singing the song. He wouldn't stop and I couldn't push. The Sprite, one of my parent's cats, ran across the bridge, leaped and knocked the kid over the edge and into the bay below then trotted home. I stared at her and woke up.

Strange, huh?

I don't know what else to say right now. So, I'm gonna munch on some Cheez-Its and read my book.

Day Off

I had Columbus Day off. Isn't that weird? A day celebrating the man who brought Europe's version of slavery to a new continent just so he could get rich. I know he's my hero.

On another note, not that anyone's asked, I am keeping up with my comics. I have five for the last five weeks that I haven't posted them sitting on my hard drive. Why haven't I posted them, because a few stolen minutes of time to post this isn't quite enough to do the comics.

Halfey Birthday Mom

I wanted to say that to her today

And I wanted to let you all know that I will not be getting regular internet until next month. I know that I’ve written that it’ll be this month, but it can’t be. I have to be sure of the money situation before I can get some real internet connection. See, I just got my PG&E bill this month and on it was a $120 deposit. A deposit for what, I don’t know. Since the power was on in my apartment before I got there I guess it’s not the line into the apartment building from the pole, now is it. Well, that disappearing money made me squinch up inside, deciding to wait on internet unsquinched me.

So, from now until I get connected at my place, I’ll try to write two or three things each week. Maybe long ones the night before then dumped online at work or maybe short ones here at work in a stolen few minutes. (Which is what this one here is.)

Daily

I have a few minutes before I go off and learn what an applicant has to go through when they file their papers here. Because of this class, or whatever, I’m going to miss my usual break, at 10 AM today, so I took it upon myself to take my break early and do a little blogging.

The oddest thing about this job, for me at least, is that it has the same routine every single day. I get up at the same time (or nine minutes later if I hit the snooze) every day. I eat and shower and leave at the same time each morning. I get to work and turn on my computer within the same three minutes each day. I turn on my computer and start my working at 8 AM. 10 AM I have a fifteen minute break. 1 PM I have lunch for an hour. 3 PM I have another fifteen minute break. 5 PM I shut down Windows and leave for the day.

I haven’t had this much structure in my life since I was in high school. Five days a week I do the same thing over and over again.

Even the work is repetitive. Same kind of forms and papers come in. I decide which ones require me to open a new case, which ones I need to pull files for, and which ones I just drop into the file. After I decide which ones require which, I pull the files I need. After that, I put the information on line and start new cases. Some papers just get dropped into the files that line our walls. Some get rubber banded to existing files and dropped into judges’ mail boxes. The rest I pull empty files for and set the new file up; I can’t complete the new ones until the next morning because an address record needs to be printed out and for some reason that happens over night.

I don’t really like this much structure.

Hope you’re all well.

I’m trying for that regular internet connection, but I need to see how much I’m already spending each month before I spend even more.