To quote the Guess Who song: "I got, got no time...", represents my latest sin of envy as I read the output of others in just general blogging, not to mention reading, studying, & writing projects that I see them able to engage in. I have small spurts of activity, but my job and other responsibilities get in the way of doing my favorite thing, that is, to just read and write and think.
I have been serving on the negotiating committee on the labor side for our new contract at the Port of Seattle, and the good news there is that quite possibly we may be close to a reasonable agreement (as reasonable as one can get in this economy). Those few who have read this blog and who have been praying for me, I urge to continue to intercede, since we now have to sell it to our members.
I have been placing much hope in finally getting an official education after I would retire at age 56, but there is still ongoing pressure from the contractors (NECA) to eliminate our early retirement. They keep giving us this line about how they don't want to lose their valuable experienced hands in the projected future shortage of electricians. I'm not buying it, though, because many of our members that are older and are getting job dispatches from the union hall tend to get "turned around" when they get to the job and the superintendent sees that they are older. And added to that indignity is the attitude that a worker (unless that one is a nephew or a good suck-up) is disposable. The final issue is that by eliminating the early retirement the probabilities go up that the electricians tend to die off sooner. So the contractors would rather their so-called valuable electricians die off than that they should have to keep paying for a pension that they agreed to under contract.
So I'm facing the reality that I shall likely live and die in the trade I'm working in without being able to have that more fulfilling life of writing and academia that I desire.
Oh well, at least I have a job. (That's just where the employers of this country want everyone to be--at the survival level.)
Hey didn't we supposedly eliminate slavery in this country?
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"I have learned that to be with those I like is enough"
— Walt Whitman
I have embarked upon my career to support my family and bank up enough cash to be able to go to school unencumbered and enjoy doing nothing but study for a season (6-8 years). And then I want to write about all that I have learned and share it with the world. But if you make bad choices when you are young, all you get is unending slavery.
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