How The Mighty Have Fallen

It would seem Stalker has been defrocked.  He has, at least according to plant gossip, had his pay cut and he's been put permanently on an assembly line.  

How the mighty have fallen!  2 Samuel 1:27

He used to be so arrogant, so cocky.  Now he's just another peon, like the rest of us.  I'm trying hard not to gloat.  Really, I am.  At first, we didn't believe it.  We didn't think his pal Brazing Boss would do that to him, but according to the guy he was working with today, it's true.  

Some people are saying it's because he stayed in quarantine for so long, but I don't think that's it.  I don't think it would be legal for them to demote him just because he used his FMLA.  What I think, and this is pure speculation on my part is, most of my coworkers have no idea how close our company came to going out of business during the pandemic lockdowns.  And I'm not talking the local plant.  I'm talking Lennox International.  It got really bad there for a while, and they were looking to cut expenses everywhere they could.  We lost all our bonuses, and all the salaried employees took a 12% pay cut.  Even the CEO of the company had his salary cut by 50%.  That's how serious it was.  

So, what I'm thinking -- and again, this is pure speculation on my part -- is when all this went down, The Big Man Up Front had to take a good hard look at our plant's budget.  I imagine one of the things he found he needed to do was to eliminate all the superfluous "buddy system" jobs.  Stalker's job was definitely one of those.  I mean, how many new brazers to they train in a year?  Ten maybe.  Twelve in a busy year.  Do they really need three brazing trainers for that?  Short answer, no.  They don't.  And word around the plant is that the way Stalker got the job in the first place was by cozying up to a person of significant influence who used to work up in the front office.  

Now, I don't know for sure if this is true, but what I hear is that Stalker used to go hang around Person Of Significant Influence's hunting club, and whenever POSI would kill a deer, Stalker would sidle up to him and say, "Hey, POSI.  Want me to skin that deer for you?"  Eventually, Stalker began asking him to get him on out at the plant, so POSI created a position out of thin air just for Stalker.  That part is just gossip, but I do know for a fact that POSI got Stalker his job in direct violation of company policy, because he didn't have a high school diploma or GED, which is required for full time employees.  He worked there for nearly two years before HR made him go back and get one.  Stalker told me that himself.  

So, now he's been moved to the assembly lines for good, from what I hear.  Today, he filled in on the test tank, where they check the units for leaks.  I told my coworker if they put him on the test tank permanently, boy will he write down a lot of leaks on us.  He is just that petty and spiteful.  I said I don't even care, just so long as I don't have to deal with him anymore.  

Let's move on to something more pleasant, shall we?  Heh, as if there were anything more pleasant than getting rid of my stalker...who told me once if they ever tried to put him on the line, he'd quit.  Well, we shall see.

It's been a while since I posted a sea chanty, hasn't it.  It's been so long, I bet you forgot all about them.  Or rather, you thought I forgot about them.  Nope.  

A few days ago, YouTube's autoplay feature brought me this little gem.  It's by a guy who does traditional and folk music with a sort of upbeat, techno-pop sound.  I know, I know....but it works.  It really does.  At least with this song.  Give it a listen. 

I'll bet you thought I'd given up my imaginary boyfriend, too, didn't you?  Nope, I just figured you'd gotten bored hearing about my imaginary adventures with him.  I only bring him up now to illustrate how much of a dork I am.  

And just how much of a dork am I?  Well, I'll tell you.  I'm so dorky that I imagined I took him fishing out on the bayou back home.  That's not the dorky part.  The dorky part is, in real life, I actually got onto the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department website to research non-resident fishing licenses.  You know, to make sure I was imagining that I imaginarily got him the right imaginary ...fishing license.  Because I didn't want to get him into imaginary trouble with the imaginary game wardens.  

Don't even ask.  I've long since given up trying to find an explanation for such things.  

And finally, there is an upside to going to work so late in the day.  You get to see sunrises like this one. 

It almost makes it worth it.  Not quite.

But almost.