Things That Are Bothering You, Got You All Hibbeldy-Jibbeldy, or just downright pissed, RIGHT NOW!

[Biscotti]

Cruise ship bartender may be fun! That would be a very different work tempo. You aren't really dealing with the same things, at all.

The thing is, I actually don't want to work in a shore-side capacity at all within the industry. The headaches are numerous, and overall, I'm tired of the overarching culture.

I work in a very-specific industry subset. My work has been more defense-related than commercial. So I'm hoping I can land a good management role within the defense industry.

I check a lot of boxes, so we will see what comes of it. I figure if I can deal with problems at sea, I can deal with problems on land. I definitely need a better work-life balance.

Sometimes I do 120+ days working 12-14 hours a day. You don't exactly pop out of that mindset once you're home. It's like a strange sort of depression that lingers for a few weeks--you're someone at sea, but that importance falls away when home.

My mental sense of time also becomes distorted. I've sailed 250 days straight once, looking back it feels like nothing. Everything is the same, with no personal markers or significant days to differentiate time.

 

[Biscotti]

Your job too, is never guaranteed. You can work with a company for 10+ years and then just not get called back. You are laid off once you depart the vessel, so there is not really any employment protection or right to rehire.

You also eventually become so niche that lateral movement is difficult and upward movement to a different company extremely rare. You can sail master with one company, and then have to start as a 2nd officer with another company and work back to your rank.

This caveat seems very different from most other industries.

Going to sea has built me up, but I do feel it is time to take the skillet and move forward. I don't want to get trapped out here.

 

[mhip]

My mental sense of time also becomes distorted. I've sailed 250 days straight once

My boss, who's also one of my best friends, ( I knew him years before I worked for the company ), was a merchant marine in his younger days.
He told me one famous story of when he got called up to the bridge to steer, drive??
And he was on a full acid trip at the time...

 

[Biscotti]

Steering is more of a grunt-work task. Though more-specialized vessels, mates will drive during critical operations (such is the case with me).

Gone are those wild days, which is probably for the best. But EVERYTHING is regulated and managed. There is a log for everything.

I handle crewing, pay, mountains of paperwork, cargo, safety ****, port papers, customs, manage inventories and engineer plans. There's always training.

Most of the day is spent in an office, beating your head against a keyboard. I honestly enjoyed sailing more without a license versus with one. Painting **** and driving cranes was in many ways more satisfying.

There's very little sense of adventure. I rarely leave the ship in port. There's always more work alongside than underway, plus most ports aren't close to city centers anymore. There's a few places we call where it's easy to walk to something, but that's rare and will get only rarer.

 

[Omega Male]

@greekgeek

 

[greekgeek]

@greekgeek

I really wanted to laugh but somehow, hearing that actually made my brain hurt a little. A furled eyebrow smile is best I can do.

Coincidentally my wife had some spare fresh dill a couple days ago and so we unexpectedly whipped up fresh tzatziki for the first time. Turned out great. At risk of having to turn in my Greek card, I can confirm that adding some of that freshly toasted Nan bread (from Costco, natch) was a clutch move. Paired with it even better than many a pita.

 

[imatlas]

My brother in law was in a cycling accident >2 months ago and has been in a coma since then. No idea what happened, a good samaritan called 911 but left no info.

He's breathing on his own, so they are getting ready to transfer him to a skilled nursing facility in a few days. It really doesn't look good for much further recovery unfortunately.

Life is short and we are fragile things.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

^that's rough, me and my friends used to be big on downhill mountain biking when we were younger, and one of my friends took a really bad fall, spine fractured in several places, face looked like raw hamburger, etc.

He's fine now but it was a fluke that he's not paralyzed from the waist down.

 

[brokencycle]

My brother in law was in a cycling accident >2 months ago and has been in a coma since then. No idea what happened, a good samaritan called 911 but left no info.

He's breathing on his own, so they are getting ready to transfer him to a skilled nursing facility in a few days. It really doesn't look good for much further recovery unfortunately.

Life is short and we are fragile things.

I'm sorry to hear that. That's rough.

 

[sugarbutch]

My brother in law was in a cycling accident >2 months ago and has been in a coma since then. No idea what happened, a good samaritan called 911 but left no info.

He's breathing on his own, so they are getting ready to transfer him to a skilled nursing facility in a few days. It really doesn't look good for much further recovery unfortunately.

Life is short and we are fragile things.

That's terrible.

 

[patrick_b]

My brother in law was in a cycling accident >2 months ago and has been in a coma since then. No idea what happened, a good samaritan called 911 but left no info.

He's breathing on his own, so they are getting ready to transfer him to a skilled nursing facility in a few days. It really doesn't look good for much further recovery unfortunately.

Life is short and we are fragile things.

So sorry to hear that. As a cyclist, that’s one my biggest fears. A kid I grew up riding with got hit by a car in our 20’s and recovered physically but was never the same again. What seemed like a relatively minor head injury 25 years ago changed his life significantly.

 

[ericgereghty]

My brother in law was in a cycling accident >2 months ago and has been in a coma since then. No idea what happened, a good samaritan called 911 but left no info.

He's breathing on his own, so they are getting ready to transfer him to a skilled nursing facility in a few days. It really doesn't look good for much further recovery unfortunately.

Life is short and we are fragile things.

Jesus Weezus, man. That's gutting. So sorry.

 

[greekgeek]

My brother in law was in a cycling accident >2 months ago and has been in a coma since then. No idea what happened, a good samaritan called 911 but left no info.

He's breathing on his own, so they are getting ready to transfer him to a skilled nursing facility in a few days. It really doesn't look good for much further recovery unfortunately.

Life is short and we are fragile things.

That is awful, I hope he can bounce back somehow. Sorry, man.

 

[jbarwick]

Articles should include more pictures than they do. For instance, I subscribe to a newsletter and it was mentioning the launch of a new ship to help build offshore wind farms that was absolutely massive. Who doesn't want to see an absolutely large ship? Well I click into the article and no picture but it does give me dimensions which are meaningless to me. Give me the pictures!

 

[Ambulance Chaser]

Every year around this time I am reminded that the SALT deduction is capped at $10,000 and I get very, very angry. Republicans never met a tax that they didn't want to cut, so it was not about preserving government revenue. It was about giving high-tax blue states (and cities in my case) a big middle finger.