Winter Is Coming [telecom]
From
Bill Horne@21:1/5 to
All on Sun Oct 17 14:56:27 2021
I knew a CO Tech back in the day: a guy named Lenny I admired and
respected, who took a bid to "I&R", which was the Instalation and
Repair department that handled new phone installs and repair work on
existing lines, and equipment such as PBX sites.
I saw him, one day, shooting the breeze with another CO guy, and I
askd him if he was thinking of coming back in from the cold: one of
those jibes that union men trade with each other when they're
wondering how the other half lives.
He told me that I needed to involve myself in a sexual act, and that
he would never even think about giving up the freedom he enjoyed by
being an "outside" man. I thought about that for a few seconds, and
told him that I might try it myself.
He smiled, and said something I've always remembered: "Bill, I love
working with the stuff in your office: every time I have to borrow a
T-Bird or an impulse box, I always come here, 'cause I know everything
in your closet is good to go. It's really nice to have a place where
everything always works. You're a good 'Inside' man."
I was surprised. It seemed obvious to me that everything had to work:
it was part of my job to make sure that it was so. If test equipment
failed a readiness test, I would send it out to the repair depot. I
even sent one of the battery-powered units off to a battery company
which promised to repair anything damaged by leaking batteries: they
took a month or two, but they /did/ repair it.
Anyway, the subject turned to overtime, and when I asked Lenny if he was
going to take the vacation time he was owed, or agree to accept the
extra pay instead, he told me that he couldn't take any time off,
since his foreman had everyone assigned to "Winter Work," which he told
me was work the "Outside" guys did every Fall in preparation for
winter. There was quite a list: not only checking seals on vault doors,
but also laying in emergency food and fuel at various sites where the
crews could shelter if their trucks broke down or got snowed in.
We said goodbye, after we agreed that I would do best staying
"inside," and he got back in his truck to do battle with Boston
traffic. It was about 1988: a year later, I had accepted a job as a
computer programmer, and I don't remember ever seeing Lenny again.
I remember that "long ago and far away" conversation now, since I just
got back from seeing a surgeon about the injuries to my wrist: his
"second opinion" boils down to a prediction that I'll probably need to
learn to write with my other hand, and that my left wrist will wind up
locked in a fixed position, even though he said I'd still be able to
type.
I've got some "Winter Work" to do: I'll need mechanical aids to open
cans and jars and bottles with a single hand, and shoveling snow will
be out of the question, so I'll have to make a list of supplies to lay
in: Kerosene, dry goods, medicines, batteries, books to read, and
traditional winter clothes such as Long Johns and watch caps. I'll
need a few smaller fuel cans to divide my emergency fuel into:
containers small and light enough to pour from with one hand. Plus, of
course, time for practice runs.
It's quite a list, and if there are gaps in the Digest during the next
few months, it's because I'm doing Winter Work.
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)