Blood pressure up...

Thursday, September 7, 2017

I was standing in line at Subway’s, picking up lunch for the volunteer work crew that was building a run-in shed in one of the pastures at the farm when I received a text from the Equine Manager that the structure was in the wrong place.  My face went crimson and I thought for a moment that I might have a brain aneurism, but willed myself not to have one at least until I could get back to the farm and rip into someone. 

A certain someone on the farm feels like she doesn’t need to include the Facility Manager – that would be me - in discussions such as the location of a run-in shed.  Instead, she will share the information with someone else and let them, through a game of telephone, get the information to me and from me Justin so he can level and clear the area we were to build in the pasture.  I don’t like it, but farm management lets it happen and so I go along.  This time it would prove to be fatal.

I returned to the farm and told the work crew of six to hold up while I talked it over with the Equine Manager.  They had laid the foundation and built two walls, but the foundation was only sitting on top of the ground, as is the case with these structures so they can be moved at a later date by dragging them with a tractor.  Ours was 12’x22’  and made with very heavy 6” by 6” posts for the foundation.  The walls could come off and the foundation could be dragged, but I needed to be convinced of the necessity and had to vent.

“I’m here 40-plus hours a week.  If this shed needed to be in such a specific spot, why didn’t you come and get me and show ME so that I could have spray painted the ground!  And I cleared this spot almost two weeks ago.  Why wasn’t it confirmed as the correct space – as I’d asked – at some point BEFORE we started building.  I look like an idiot and I don’t like looking like an idiot!” I said.

She sheepishly explained that the spot got wet in the spring (I’ve never noticed that over the past several years) and that she’d told Lisa it needed to be over and back several feet to a spot that was slightly higher.  I knew it was all bullshit and a play to make others look bad, but I was having none of it and told her boss just that later.  In the meantime, we took the walls off and six men picked up and moved the foundation after removing the lag bolts that secured the two halves together.

Ahh well…such is life.  Retirement is on the horizon and based on my discussions with the COO, the nature of this totally avoidable SNAFU (situation normal – all f’d up) would be alleviated in the future.  I doubt it as the person involved, though reprimanded, remains determined to make miserable the lives of those with whom she comes into contact.

Because I had to work late – we were stopped when a violent thunderstorm rolled in around 6 p.m. – I was unable to hike with my loaded pack.  I did, however, run my kiester off throughout the day and ended up with over 25,000 steps.  Tomorrow will be different.  My son Jack will be home and I’ll see him.  I’ll do a hike or a run (it’s supposed to rain so no cycling) and keep the traction of my fitness routine moving forward.  That’s the plan, at least…
Bonus: 25,000 steps.