Closet Extremist

Brain Dump

So… I’ve been feeling a little stressed out here lately. The beginning was running back and forth to Kentucky every day for work (Did that for more than a month), and it’s been piling up ever since. Went right into another install job that had a few issues. It wound up pushing me into working overtime, when all I wanted to do was just take it easy, and do it right, and get it complete. Didn’t happen. Now, I’ve started on another job, and it’s a doozy.
This one is a “roped hydraulic” (the pistons push sheaves that carry ropes that support the car. Essentially it’s a traction machine that uses hydraulic pressure to move the car, instead of a drive sheave moved by an electric motor.). This thing is very unforgiving. No to mention that the installer that was on the job before me had some defective laser’s and therefore put the first half of the rails in four inches to the rear. They’re welded in, so I’ve gotta cut them out with an oxy-acetylene torch. The best part is that this building is already occupied by an upscale general store that takes up the first three floors. My elevator serves the top three floors (loft apartments) and at the street level outside. What this amounts to is that instead of a five-foot pit (standard)…I have a twenty-two foot pit. I have to build the conveyance so that if the building ever changes hands, it will be possible for the elevator to serve the lower floors. This amounts to everything that gets done in the hoistway, has to be done off of a ladder… with a long-ass drop underneath us.

At any rate, all the stress from work has been spilling over into my home life. Over the last three months or so, the little annoyances that exist in every household have been absolutely driving me “Nuckin’ Futs”. For instance: My roommates have a nasty habit of leaving their laundry in the washer and dryer. For years now, I’ve been trying to deal with the fact that in order to do one load of my laundry, I have to complete the two loads that were already there (that incidentally aren’t my clothes). On Sunday afternoon (the one before Halloween) I asked if the washer and dryer could be cleared. As usual, there were already two loads in place, so I waited patiently for Jenny to clear out what she had. In the meantime, Steven came home and since the washer was currently clear, he started a load. Fast forward one day, and I checked the washer to find… clothes already there. I guess I’ll do it the next evening. Fast forward again…and as soon as I got home I checked the washer…same story. Well, I got my uniforms and a bunch of skivvies together, and announced that I was leaving. This was Halloween, so they all assumed that I was going to a party or something. Needless to say, I was headed to a fucking Laundromat. When I got back to the house with my clean clothes, I was asked if I “had a good time?” to which I replied “Yeah, I had a great time at the Laundromat!” and kinda stormed off in a huff.

Steven and Jenny have been having some relationship issues that they’re working through, and my “being bitchy” has not helped things at all. Tension is not something that I need to be adding around here, but lately, it’s all I’ve got.

This morning, I was thinking about something that has plagued me for most of my life: I spend too much time inside my own head. I generally don’t communicate well with the people around me, as I don’t trust most folks until I get to know them…hell, even after I get to know them. I also have a trait that makes me attempt to not be a bother to others, so I don’t talk much about what’s bothering me with others. So…my imagination is free to be as pessimistic as it is natural for me to be, and I slide down into depression. There is only one cure for this, and it is distraction. Luckily there is Guitar Hero II. I bought this game at around two this afternoon, and I’ve played through the entire game already. It was a wonderful time to be had…actually not thinking, just reacting. Nice.

So…off to work in the morning.