That Nor’easter, she gonna blow!
The fall in Boston finally got fed up with all this beautiful… ness! And just like that, it’s winter.
We got the 3 coats of epoxy on the toe-rails, we got ’em sanded and we got that thick coat of “Bristol Beige” on ’em, and then that Nor’easter blew…
It kicked up to 50 knots and damn near tore our finger pier off. The starboard side holding-bolt on the finger pier broke off thus causing the finger to drop about a foot, knocking our fender out of the way causing the pier to slam in to our newly rebuilt toe-rail on the port side… The sound was unmistakeable.
Later that day, I’m at my wage-slave gig, I get a call from the marina telling us they’d moved our boat to the T-head by the bridge in front of the big hotel.
Ok… Safe there for now, we go rollicking for our 18th anniversary!
When I get back to work on Monday I discover they have finally fixed the leak in my work office that has been drizzling ooze, Whole Foods Market Juice if you will, on my desk, head and paperwork for the last four months.
They fixed it! Hooray! When I go to move my work computer back into the office the STL (corporate speak for store team leader) informs me that they are, from that moment on, going to reallocate my office to “other store needs”.
I wrote a letter to my regional coordinator (RC) telling him that I just got my job under control and the STL, without notice, turns around and makes my job harder by taking away my work space. I told him that my new work space was a ergonomic train-wreck and that this really was the last straw, I told him that I didn’t think I could work for an STL that could even think about this kind of thing before our busy season. And then I asked him to relocate me to another store. The RC forwarded my email on to my STL.
I was fired 45 minutes later.
Well, they asked me to resign and I laughed and walked out of the office.
I blew a whistle on a manager and my regional representative took it back to that manager.
Of course I (James) feel shit on, but I hated all forms of capitalism long before I started working for a publicly traded grocery store chain, I knew they’d fuck me somehow that’s just the nature of that animal. They never, even for a second, made me believe they were anything else but a bullshit wage slave factory, just like all the rest, but, they’re rhetoric is definitely speaking to people much like myself.
I have to admit I rather enjoyed indulging in that company’s Pseudo-“Green Message” hashtag…
Recycle, buy local, “values matter”… It’s all bullshit. The only things that matter are the egos of the store leadership and that money, oooh that money!
fuck’em… I’m over it.
We did get to move the boat away from the falling-apart marina to another marina, one that is quite a bit more expensive but feels a lot better in so many ways.
Boston Yacht Haven…
So yeah, I got fired but we didn’t waste anytime!
We got a second coat of paint and the repairs done on the toe-rails the day after I got the boot so now we’re almost ready to sail to Nantucket for the winter!
What!?
All this and so much more, in the next chapter of…
Around the World in 80 Years!
Aloha James,
Once again you have delivered a true insight into the world of corporatism. I deal with this shit on a daily basis. And still it amazes me at how spine-less and cocksuckerish some can be. My apologies to the good cocksuckers out there. But my feeling is that business would go much further without their drama and pissy-fits. Anyway, fuck’em James,you deserve better. This month I learned of some new computer hacking shit. Our system became ransomed by a wicked worm virus. Yep, everything encrypted,until you pay for the code to unencrypt it. The good part is the company geek squad was ready. They came with new P.C.’s ,input our shit from backup files and chucked the old ones. My boss was on me like stink on shit. What did you do??? What this and what that. Still waiting for the I.T. guy’s to answer those questions. But the automatic response was some fault of a minimum wage dude. Not that the system wasn’t protected from these viruses. My life will go on with or without them. We are both lucky men, that we still have an able brain and a good woman to come home to . We have to remember to keep those things safe, at all times. Well nuff from me. Be safe and stay warm, my friend. I’ll raise a glass to you next time and as always,Aloha,Tom
sounds like what they did to you is illegal,check with labor law if there wrong – make them hire you back with lost wages. that will really pissem off then take your time to quit.
Tom,
You are so right! I have to admit, even though I chose a shit job at the Dippy Mart so that when it did go tits-up I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it, I have indeed lost sleep! Because I have pride in the work I do. For the people that actually worked in that environment I have nothing but props and respect, it was the people that are hired to lord over the working people that disgusted me, but they always do.
Oh dude, that computer hack sucks! That sounds more like a “Red Dawn” style attack on your person! If I were you I’d grab a Super Soaker and go on out to Waikiki and drench the first commie you hear talking about the stock market in Russian!
Don,
As much as I’d love to hear those assholes apologize and grovel, the reality is, I really couldn’t give a shit!
I know/They knew/We knew that I had become moral poison and they got rid of me before I could take the whole department with me.
Like I said, fuck them, they don’t deserve any more of my attention.
What an asshat backwards passive aggressive way to remove a troublemaker. Shame on them. I agree 100% with your assessment, James. Whether consciously or not, they regarded you as a moral contaminant that had to be destroyed.
I got fired from a job that way once. It was fair to fire me, I sucked at that work. I argue the job was more or less undoable, but that’s a moot point. My beef is that instead of just saying “this is the wrong job for you, we have to let you go” they cancelled my holiday vacation leave the week before Christmas. My family has frail elderly people and delightable tiny people, that time is precious. Um, no.
I asked “was this intended to make me quit?” and my supervisor admitted that yes, it was calculated. I asked them to fire me so I could get on unemployment.
Instead of cheerfully wintering on Nantucket, though, I sat in the couch and got high for 6 months. Watched a fuckton of nature documentaries. I did learn to bake bread, that was good.
Anyway, cheers to your plan and your attitude. Fuck those small-souled minions of the Capitalist Beast.
Nice to see you guys still at it!! I have a lot of reading to catch up on. Easier now I have you link again on my new blog. Merry HanaChristmasQnza!
Zen! (I love writing that with a!),
It’s good to see you back!!
Riding a bike, doing the wage-slave, selling marine hardware-hey’ it could be worse, thing myself…
I hope we all enjoy another trip around the sun!