"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way."
Gilmour, Mason, Wright, and Waters were right, you know. Time is one commodity that we have both in abundance and short supply. Too much time to work, not enough time to play, time we will never have and time we wish we had back.
"Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun."
Is this a self-prophecy? After all, when we are young, we figure we'll always have time to do those things we want to do. But sooner or later, we realize that the lazy days of youth have been eclipsed by the hectic days of adulthood, where we put in too many hours at work, too few hours on the things we need to do for oursleves, and before you know it, pow, you wonder where it all went.
"So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death."
And this is where all that brings you. You've worked your entire life to achieve some goal, some mystical brass ring, when what you've really done is cheated yourself out of those little things that add special touches to your life. Why do we do this? I know at least in my career field that long shifts did not use to be the norm, but it seems they have become an accepted fact of life--you will work 12-hour days and you will work seven days a week until we tell you otherwise. It didn't used to be that way--I worked, right out of school, for a 24-hour Air Ambulance and Executive Charter company, and I can still look back and count the amount of overtime I worked there in hours--and this was over a seven year stay there. No, it was only recently--at this, my most recent career stop--where the clock and calendar didn't matter, getting things worked did. And while I am truly thankful for the opportunities I was afforded, I look back over the last five and a half years on all those things I missed because I was working long shifts. Some of them I missed because I was at work. Some of them, I missed because I was so spent after a long period of no breaks that I was too tired to do anything--so I sat on the couch and stared at the TV, which made me even more listless.
"Every year is getting shorter; never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say."
Why am I telling you this? Because as of last Thursday, the company I work for officially ended operations in our location. Why? Well, they see Chattanooga, Tennessee more viable than West Columbia, South Carolina. It is as simple as that. Am I upset? To a point, yes--I was one of the first employees at this location. I have shed blood, sweat, and tears here since June of 2010, and worked hard to build the customer base we have here. I have taken next to nothing, and tried to build an avionics shop from it. I have done more with less. We have completed major inspections with a team of five technicians in the same calendar span it would take any other team of ten. Why? We had to. You don't match downtimes with your competition, you're dead meat. On the other hand, I can't be too upset--the decision to move was made way above my pay grade. I don't know all the ins and outs of why one location was better than another. I'm not privvy to those upper management discussions that have the company convinced that they stand a better chance of survival in Chattanooga. So, they have to do what they have to do. But it doesn't make it hurt any less when you've been told you have two choices--move or have your employment terminated. In my current circumstances, moving is out of the question.
So, here I am, ready to start a new personal adventure. Stay tuned.
"Home
Home again
I like to be here
When I can
When I come home
Cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones
Beside the fire
Far away
Across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spell"
(Lyrics © T.R.O. INC.)
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Plans for the 2016 AMPS International Convention in April and the 2016 IPMS/USA National Convention in August are in high gear. Both events promise to be real barn-burners, so don't miss either one. I am gathering a super group of seminar hosts for the IPMS Convention, and my counterpart in AMPS is doing the same. I can't wait...
Thanks for reading. Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.
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