minimalism

Ok, 104 comments. That's enough birthday wishes. You all can stop now. I tried responding to them all, but I just can't. I don't know how the comment whores do it. I'd never be able to keep up if I got this many every day. Not to mention some people are on Friendster, My Space, and whatever else. This is my sole blogsite. My heart belongs to SG.

So, I might be getting an unexpected vacation from work. I made a boo boo last week and derailed a car. Now to the unexperienced this probably seems like a huge error, but it's fairly common on the railroad. Unfortunately it's become too common for the bosses, and although it's incredible rare for me to make a mistake of this nature they have to set examples here and there. I get to be the scapegoat this time I guess.

It's a load of bullshit really. I have two options; admit I made the mistake and take what the railroad calls a 'Time Out' where I pinky swear to never derail another car as long as we both shall live. The other choice is to go to an investigation and fight the charge. Ever heard the term 'being railroaded?' Well, this is where it comes from. It's an internal court system that decides whether or not the employee is guilty of some type of misconduct and dishes out a punishment. Let's face it they've made up their minds what punishment they are going to give me already.

Now if I elect the 'Time Out' I stay working with a more severe punishment the next time something bad happens. If I save the time out for what might be a larger scale incident, they give me some time off without pay. It's not really a punishment since I'll be getting paid from a small insurance policy that railroaders can buy in case this happens. That is called 'Out of service' insurance. Make a mistake and get taken out of service and still get paid. I think that's the choice I'm going to go for. Fuck 'em. I'm going to travel somewhere. Or at least fight the charge. Maybe I'll win.