Random thoughts

Its been awhile since I posted on here and hope everyone is doing ok. I am very busy on this renovation project and I finally got some help out here. I have one of our foreman from Wilmington onsite now and he is a great help. He can do stuff and manage people along with communicate with the Hispanics. I don't speak Spanish and that has been a issue on this project with a couple trades. I am in Raleigh, NC and you may or may not know Border Patrol and ICE were in Charlotte last weekend and are now in the Raleigh area. They have scooped up lots of people. Jobsites are empty as most are afraid to come out of their house. There was a project up the road from us that 70 people were taken away. Its crazy right now. My project is down 50% manpower due to people not showing up. This is hurting our momentum but hopefully next week we can get back at it.
 
Happy Thanksgiving from Charleston, SC. Wife and I got here last night to our youngest daughter and son in laws house. We will celebrate Saturday as he has to work today and tomorrow. He is an aircraft mechanic and they work 24/7 365. Hope everyone enjoys time with family. Don’t take that time for granted.
 
The holiday season is always hard on me. Anxiety and depression always seem to sneak up on me every year. This year will be extra hard as I lost my mom last spring. Holidays are pretty tough sometimes when you're alone. I'll have dinner with my sisters family but I'm mostly spending quality time with my best friend Marley. She's helped me through some really tough times. We'll go out for a really good walk and then curl up by the fire and hide out for the rest of the day.
 
NoRest said:
The holiday season is always hard on me. Anxiety and depression always seem to sneak up on me every year. This year will be extra hard as I lost my mom last spring. Holidays are pretty tough sometimes when you're alone. I'll have dinner with my sisters family but I'm mostly spending quality time with my best friend Marley. She's helped me through some really tough times. We'll go out for a really good walk and then curl up by the fire and hide out for the rest of the day.
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I am sorry for your loss and understand. Taking walks with your best friend Marley and being around her is a great thing. Dogs are awesome and bring much comfort. Stay safe.
 
Finally made it home for the weekend. Got here last night. Lots to do but we will have fun. Going to take 2 100lb propane tanks to get filled for our gas fireplace, get a Christmas tree and probably at least put the lights on it. Wife has started talking about wanting an artificial tree but I’m not ready. We have always had a real tree as I did growing up. They are a lot of mess and with me always out of town all the work goes to her. So this will probably be the last year with real tree. That’s ok though. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
 
abraves said:
Finally made it home for the weekend. Got here last night. Lots to do but we will have fun. Going to take 2 100lb propane tanks to get filled for our gas fireplace, get a Christmas tree and probably at least put the lights on it. Wife has started talking about wanting an artificial tree but I’m not ready. We have always had a real tree as I did growing up. They are a lot of mess and with me always out of town all the work goes to her. So this will probably be the last year with real tree. That’s ok though. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
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Sounds good. Hope you guys enjoy the time together.
 
So, my birthday is on Christmas. As a kid it sucked. All my friends were always busy with holiday/family stuff so I never really was able to have any birthday party or celebration with friends. It seemed my birthday was always overshadowed by Christmas. I learned to dislike the holiday. All the excitement of a birthday and Christmas was lost. Those are both important times most kids look forward to. I feel I was somehow robbed of the joy of both. Now as a single adult I still don't enjoy the holiday season and dont celebrate Christmas. Ive never had a Christmas tree. Its a lonely and depressing time for me. I still usually spend my birthday alone as everyone is always busy doing Christmas stuff.
 
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So just was told today that I had to cancel my PTO for next week until Jan 2. Project is at a crucial point and we don't have anyone to watch over it. I told them I'm not irreplaceable and not even that good but was told when it slows down in January I can take a week off. This one won't slow until completion end of February. I did tell them when this one is complete I will disappear for couple weeks. I have a ton of small projects I need/want to do at home that I never have time. Was planning on doing some of those along with going to see our daughter in TX for Christmas. Needless to say wife is pretty bummed and disappointed however we aren't surprised. This is common in my industry and I try so hard to have my projects at a very good place coming into the Christmas holidays. My FORMER PM is no longer with the company so the Sr PM who was suppose to be watching over jr has lots of eyes on him and this project which puts lots of eyes on me which I can't stand. Our sector leader is now involved which he is fairly new to the company so has to prove himself has been heavily involved with an every morning Teams meeting to go over schedule and manpower. He is micro managing which I detest and I have let it go with exception of my look ahead schedule. I told him this is my schedule so I will run it how it works for me. You don't like it update your P6 schedule that yall suppose to be doing anyway. I'm just venting now so I'll quit. I'm just bummed that I won't be able to see our oldest daughter and husband for Christmas. I saw them in October so there is that. This will be our first Christmas without the kids.

Edit to add:
Our general superintendent who is also one of the owning partners wasn't aware I had put in and been approved for time off. They told me that was my job to notify him so he could arrange for someone to cover my job while away. I told them never in my 30+ years of my career have I ever done that. I've been with this company for 10 years. In general I love this company and I love our general superintendent as I've know him for 20 years. He felt bad and I know he had some words with them when I got off the call.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas holiday.
 
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NoRest said:
The holiday season is always hard on me. Anxiety and depression always seem to sneak up on me every year. This year will be extra hard as I lost my mom last spring. Holidays are pretty tough sometimes when you're alone. I'll have dinner with my sisters family but I'm mostly spending quality time with my best friend Marley. She's helped me through some really tough times. We'll go out for a really good walk and then curl up by the fire and hide out for the rest of the day.
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You aren’t alone buddy.
 
Bummer about work A abraves and I get it. Sounds similar to my work. End of the year, construction deadlines turn to complete nonsense.

On a positive note, this has never happened to me before and I’m still not sure how to explain to wifey, but I have 2 Fiddlebacks showing up tomorrow. One from the bay has sat at the local post office for the past 3 days but tracking shows it’s finally moving. The other is coming straight from the forge!
 
abraves said:
So just was told today that I had to cancel my PTO for next week until Jan 2. Project is at a crucial point and we don't have anyone to watch over it. I told them I'm not irreplaceable and not even that good but was told when it slows down in January I can take a week off. This one won't slow until completion end of February. I did tell them when this one is complete I will disappear for couple weeks. I have a ton of small projects I need/want to do at home that I never have time. Was planning on doing some of those along with going to see our daughter in TX for Christmas. Needless to say wife is pretty bummed and disappointed however we aren't surprised. This is common in my industry and I try so hard to have my projects at a very good place coming into the Christmas holidays. My FORMER PM is no longer with the company so the Sr PM who was suppose to be watching over jr has lots of eyes on him and this project which puts lots of eyes on me which I can't stand. Our sector leader is now involved which he is fairly new to the company so has to prove himself has been heavily involved with an every morning Teams meeting to go over schedule and manpower. He is micro managing which I detest and I have let it go with exception of my look ahead schedule. I told him this is my schedule so I will run it how it works for me. You don't like it update your P6 schedule that yall suppose to be doing anyway. I'm just venting now so I'll quit. I'm just bummed that I won't be able to see our oldest daughter and husband for Christmas. I saw them in October so there is that. This will be our first Christmas without the kids.

Edit to add:
Our general superintendent who is also one of the owning partners wasn't aware I had put in and been approved for time off. They told me that was my job to notify him so he could arrange for someone to cover my job while away. I told them never in my 30+ years of my career have I ever done that. I've been with this company for 10 years. In general I love this company and I love our general superintendent as I've know him for 20 years. He felt bad and I know he had some words with them when I got off the call.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas holiday.
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I will be thinking about you during Christmas week as I am in a similar situation. I manage a 24/7 clinical team and the other three leaders all took vacation next week, so I’m the guy Tuesday-Sunday. It seems you have a good perspective and positive relationship with your kids in spite of the circumstances.
 
jmgruber said:
I will be thinking about you during Christmas week as I am in a similar situation. I manage a 24/7 clinical team and the other three leaders all took vacation next week, so I’m the guy Tuesday-Sunday. It seems you have a good perspective and positive relationship with your kids in spite of the circumstances.
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We do. Our youngest and her husband are going to be in FL for Christmas. He is an aircraft mechanic and he is working through Christmas and New Years. I’m just frustrated as I said I work so hard to make sure my schedule is good coming into the holidays and now I’m paying for someone else’s failure to do their job.

We are over it. I’m trying not to dwell on it.
 
abraves said:
We do. Our youngest and her husband are going to be in FL for Christmas. He is an aircraft mechanic and he is working through Christmas and New Years. I’m just frustrated as I said I work so hard to make sure my schedule is good coming into the holidays and now I’m paying for someone else’s failure to do their job.

We are over it. I’m trying not to dwell on it.
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You know what would help? A new knife.
 
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