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Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2002 - 7:50 p.m. Something really odd happened at the close of work today. Doughnut (our regional engineer) called for a meeting in the break room over the intercom. Since he rarely stops by at the storage, that in itself was a little strange. But things became even more odd once we took our seats. He started calling guys off by their names, and as they answered him he started handing out boxes containing stainless steel coffee mugs. At least that is what he gave the first 6 or so people whose names he spoke. The next couple of guys were handed a small Maglight� flashlight. While he was doing this, people were asking him what was going on. He told us to just wait, and everything would be explained. By this time, everybody who has worked at the NDDOT for at least a few years had been handed something. Everybody but Beavis and myself, that is. When he finally spoke my name, he reached into the box he was getting the goodies from and handed me a large Maglight�. Beavis ended up getting a nice Leatherman pocket tool (worth about $40, if I had to guess). My first thought was �Has Doughnut just found out he has terminal cancer, and because of this decided to give us all something to remind us of him when he�s gone?� No, I really did think that. But I did wonder what was up. It turns out that these gifts were from the State, and were rewards for going at least 5 years without an accident at work. It didn�t have to be the last 5 or more years, just 5 consecutive years while employed by NDDOT. The coffee cups were for 5, the small Maglight� was for 10, my larger Maglight� was for 15 or more, and the pocket tool was for 25+ years. My accident-free period was from 1985 to the present date. Almost 18 years without an accident is something I�m proud of, and I hope to continue it until I retire. Can�t control what the other motorist do, but I do what I can to keep out of trouble myself�. I�m still trying to figure out the nice gifts, though. Is this a goodbye gift from our disgraced governor, as the door hits his ass on the way out of office? Did he have a large campaign contributor who was a hardware wholesaler? It�s a mystery�.. If you did the math, you know that a couple of years are missing there in my 20 years of employment. Yeah, sure you did. Wanna know why I don�t have a perfect record? In the summer of 1984, I fucked up one time. I had just earned the right to operate a trim tractor. You didn�t get to run a piece of equipment back then until you had put in your time doing the shit �jobs first. In my case , it was driving the mowing crew cab. For the entire summer before, that was about my only job. I spent all day setting up mowing signs, trimming around signposts, and hauling water to the guys running the tractors. As a reward, the boss at the time gave me a chance to run a lowly trim tractor. It was better than driving the crew cab all day, but not by much. Anyway�..one morning, after I finished filling my tractor with diesel fuel, I had my fuck up:- I pulled away from the crew cab too sharply, and my back mower caught the hubcap on the front wheel, denting it. I also put a small scratch in the front fender. No big deal, right? In this case, the lead worker thought it was. He took the crew cab to a couple of body shops, got estimates on the damage, and then picked the highest one to get the damage repaired. The hubcap cost $45 to replace, and they charged us another $50 to sand and repaint the scratch. Total cost of repair? Less than $100. The man who was the boss back then loved to go �by the book�, so I was given a �Oral Written Warning!�. What�s that? According to our union, it�s the lowest form of discipline you can give an employee for breaking any rule. Since I bumped the truck, I broke a rule. Since it was under $100, all they could give me was an O.W.W. I just know that it killed my boss when he couldn�t get a repair bill that topped $100. Then , he could have given my an official �Write Up!���. It don�t take much to entertain me, does it? (go on- click it!)
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