What rush hour

Today I was thinking, "My job's not so bad." That's unusual due to the fact that I really like being home, but we all have to do what we have to do, right?

Today we had to go shopping, for food, due to the fact that our friends who work on the boat when we are off, didn't feel it was necessary to buy any food before we had a crew change. So we have spent the last week anchored in Long Island Sound, as we watched our food supplies slowly dwindle to a comedic low.

So today we had a chance to go to our warehouse, in Brooklyn NY, and jump in the company truck and go grocery shopping. $1800 dollars later, we all have smiles on our faces again. But while we were at the dock, waiting for the shoppers to get back, ( I don't do shopping) we could see the Bronx/Queens Expressway just a few blocks away, and I watch as there was bumper to bumper traffic all afternoon. I wondered, how can people put up with that commute everyday? It's no wonder there is such a thing as road rage. I was getting angry just looking at it.

It was then I thought, what a nice commute to work I have.

When my alarm goes off 15 minutes before I am due to go on watch, I get dressed, brush my teeth, and walk about 25 steps.......and I'm at work. Nice huh? No horn honking or delays because of fender benders for me. I'm out of bed and into the galley in a matter of minutes. I going to make a point to remind myself how easy my daily commute is.

On an unrelated note: I saw a few of my old crew members from Puerto Rico on the dock today. Victor, in particular, is a friend I haven't seen since 2002, though we would chat on the phone every New Years. We spent about an hour catching up, and then when we were saying goodbye, I found it perfectly natural to give my friend a big hug. Sort of had some of the guys wide eyed. They don't realize my family is a huge fan of the hug, it's just what we do.

I went to our company annual meeting when I was home, which is held in Louisiana, just a few miles from where Katrina unleashed her fury a few years back. Once again it was a total waste of 3 days, or as my buddy on this boat said the other day, "That was 3 days of my life I'll never get back."

It got weird for me when the owner of our company, who basically makes money working for oil companies, started telling us that he wasn't happy with Obama and that this "Green movement" is a bunch of BS. He was preaching like a TV Evangelist, wagging his finger and everything. He did everything but put his hand on my forehead and heal my aching knees. It was crazy. He gave some examples of what it would cost to run different solar appliances, numbers he obviously just made up for effect, and told us all how stupid it would be if we were to buy into this "Green B.S."

I wanted to stop him and inform him of my neighbor whose house is something like 75% solar, and he actually makes money from the electric company.

I wanted to stop him and say, "I worked for Barrack Obama's Campaign for Change" and I'm happy, for the most part, of what he's done so far.

But I didn't. See, our company is making cutbacks, laying off people and get rid of boats and I wanted to continue having my very short commute to work each day.

I kept my mouth shut.