Switching Off

Rarely am I happy to be back at work after taking time off. Escaping from the factory is usually something to look forward to. Something that always seems to go by way too fast leaving me dreading that first morning returning to the job. Today was an exception. I couldn’t wait to bury myself deep in the instrument line and forget about my bogus Yosemite sojourn with Autumn.

Dragging myself through the hallways of building 2 towards my department early in the morning, the Bossman caught sight of me. Crossing from a perimeter walkway on the edge of our floor I made a left at a junction and walked forward with a slight limp. As we were about to pass each other in a main thoroughfare between RF Sources and the Spectrum Analyzer group the Bossman started chuckling. He noticed I was hurtin’. Probably because I had a stagger to my footsteps and I was slouching heavily.

“What happened to you?” He asked.

I told him in as few words as possible that my girlfriend is nuts. We had to be doing constant bullshit during the camping trip. My verdict: it was lame and I ain’t doing it again. The Bossman smiled and said, “Sounds like you didn’t get a chance to switch off.”

I sure as hell didn’t.

After I parked my gear at my workbench and slumped into my chair I realized how nice it was to be back. Ah, the peace and quiet of high performance electronic test and measurement equipment. Cooling fans on dozens of test racks nearby quietly hummed making me sleepy. I was going to take it easy, kick it and milk it. That’s what I should have been doing on vacation. Pretty sad I have to come back to work to take a break from things. What an ironic joke. I was planning on taking a long lunch break. Surf the web some, maybe I’d even work on a box or two. Maybe.

One of the technicians I work with, a guy named Keir, always goes out on camping trips. The thought popped into my mind I should ask him how his outdoorsman adventures are planned. Getting up from my chair I lazily cruised past the reverse flow test area and plunked myself down in a vacant seat across from Keir’s tech bench. When I got his attention, he laughed at the sight of me and asked how Yosemite was. “It was stupid, dude. Never got a moment to relax. I’m beat to shit.” I told Keir about Autumn and Jamie being total freaks every day, mentioned everything that happened in detail. When I was finished Keir laughed some more and shook his head. I asked him how he usually runs his camping gigs.

“We only plan one activity a day. Doesn’t matter if it’s one hike, or one mountain bike ride or whatever. Then we hang out at the campsite drinking, cooking food, and chillin’.”

That’s what I thought camping was supposed to be all about. Like I figured, I was with the wrong people.

~ by factorypeasant on May 16, 2007.