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April 24, 2002 - 7:27 p.m. Let me take that back: following the “Employee Rules and Policies” book is damn near impossible. Just writing about it is against the rules, for Crimean’s sake! Every so often, the State drops one of these rulebooks, with new and improved guidelines inside, and expects us to read it from cover to cover. Or, at least the have us sign a paper stating that we did. Then, whenever something comes up that falls under these rules, we can’t complain because we agreed to abide by them when we signed our John Hancock on the last page. Why is this rulebook a waste of time? Start with the first page. The whole book is broken down into chapters, which are subdivided into sections with titles that end up sounding like this: 1-15 subpart d: The aforementioned statute includes all but not inclusive of several others not mentioned in subpart b and c. I’m sorry, but I didn’t know that one of the conditions of my employment was the ability to understand legalese. One of many things that caught my eye today (yes, I tried to read the whole thing. I stuck to the things I thought pertained to me and skipped areas that were for airplane pilots and technical personnel) was on the first page. It read as the following: 1-4a:Persons employed by the State are prohibited from discussing or describing any and all actions taken in the course of their job with any outside source. If you read that the way I did, it is saying that you can’t even talk to your wife about how your day went. Any and all actions? That would be ANYTHING that happens during the day. I think they put this provision in to be able to punish people who go to the press and tell them about inside information. But, “any and all” means just that. “Outside source” means anyone not employed by the State, right? If that is the case, and if they can figure out who I am (tough to do, since this is written anonymously here at d-land), they could discipline me “up to and including discharge” for writing about ANYTHING that happens while I am on the clock. I can’t even write something like “My, the State sure did a fine job clearing all the snow today” because I am discussing it with outside sources. I better go back and make sure there are no entries with the real names of our employees in it. And remember: I work for the Highway Department for the State of North Dakota, and my headquarters is in the city of Mohall. The city of Mohall North Dakota is located along the Canadian and North Dakota border. This small town has much to offer, as it is a great place to shop, visit and to live. Anyway…….. Now, here is what I found funny about this rest of the above provision: the second part of it……. 1-4b:Persons employed by the department can and are required to discuss anything relating to and involving state business per requests from the State legislature, Governors office, State police, and any other branch of government, pursuant to their need to investigate or learn of such information Oh, I get it: I can’t tell my wife anything about my day, but if Shep the janitor from the central office wants to know about the wreck I cleaned up on Rt. 126, I have to tell him “anything relating to and involving” the accident. Now you know why I write about my job. You can’t make stuff up this stoopid, but someone sitting behind a desk can make it a requirement for employment. That’s enough from the policy manual for now. I will put more things from it in my 'journal’ as I find them. There ought to be material for several more days to come…. I’m back. Did you miss me? Well, of course not. You wouldn’t have known I had left if I didn’t write the last sentence. I rode with Mark, Travo’s dad, to the ballgame today. I wrote the stuff above at 2 p.m., which is when I am usually at work. In North Dakota. We drove a full 75 miles away for a game that we were sure was to be rained out. But we are also the type of Dads who don’t want to take the chance that we might miss our sons playing in a game, too. Travo was supposed to pitch today. I had already put in for 2 hours of p.b., so I tagged along with Mark to the city where the game was to be played. In South Dakota, just across the border from our home. In North Dakota. We drove through intermittent rain all the way there. Then, as we approached the town of our destination, the skies opened up. A complete, wallofwater downpour. No game, of course. So, we just turned around and headed back. That took about twice as long as the drive over. We went through periods of intense hail, torrential downpours, and anvil clouds sure to contain tornadic activity. We had to slow down to as slow as 15-mph part of the way. But, we made it back. It was a full 3 and one half hours after we left, but we made it. Oh yeah…the game will be made up on Monday. Joy. Lease and I are off Friday through Monday. If the weather holds out, that will mean watching games on Friday, Saturday (2), and Monday. Also, about 5 hours of driving to and from. I sure hope Codeman gets to play some. If not, I might just get a little surly….. Frost tonight (maybe). Freakin’ Spring weather……..
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Photos from a VERY CALM day at my favorite lake...plus- Happy Thanksgiving to you all ;)8:21 p.m. - Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007 One more from the newspaper photo shoot (my work, not the newspapers)10:08 p.m. - Friday, Nov. 16, 2007 Phots? i have far too many to waste your time....8:57 p.m. - Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007 The bikini tree? Plus- a (missed) photo-op...7:48 p.m. - Monday, Nov. 12, 2007 Some late photos from Halloween (I've been busy, you know?)6:19 p.m. - Monday, Nov. 05, 2007 Back to top
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