mastercraftsman

When it rains, it pours. In the midst of wringing my mind programming today, during bouts where I wanted to scream and throw things, that little itch came up. I should be checking up on everyone. But I just HAD to get this right, even though I could have made the part by hand already, all these intersecting ellipses were the forte of robotics.
About that time I see this new guy had glued up painstakingly grain- matched African Mahogany panels, like forty of them, all staggered out of dimension. Calm down. I'm calculating the time lost and whether or not I can make deadlines, when all of a sudden another dumbass kid fires up the main dust collector with the bags loose. Picture a hundred horsepower vacuum cleaner, with eight bags 15' tall, exploding into a massive mushroom cloud of sawdust....
Everyone ran outside but me. SOMEONE had to go into the eye of the storm to shut it down. After the fallout settles a bit, I reach for one of the dozens of coiled hoses dangling above people's workbenches, and plug in a blowgun, to clean myself off. Nothing. Main air compressor is down. Half raging lunatic anger, half choking whimpering fall down and cry is the way I felt....
So later I'm on my hands and knees, dirty as shit, grease all over my hands and face, sawdust in my hair and down my shirt all the way into my fucking underwear, trying to fix the dehumidifier on the air compressor, when my boss walks up. He seems pretty calm. We were both in the military and he often remarks along those lines. "I was going to give you a heads up this time, about a customer..." There must have been some evil look on my face because he actually started looking at his feet. "But I see it's a bad time." "You got THAT right." "Well, a little chaos on the battlefield keeps everyone on their toes-" "Not gettin' a whole lot done right now. Maybe I should send them home early." I cut him off because I'd heard that speech before and didn't think I could take it again.
After I've showered and sat here venting it out, a voice comes back to haunt me. I once apprenticed to a guy who always said I should radiate positive energy or I could never create anything. Some of you may have heard me quote him in my early journal entries. So I was cocky, thinking I had surpassed the MASTER and then some, utilizing modern technology rather than the humble mallet and chisel.
It appears I still have much to learn....