Obama's Going To Give It To Us Anyway

For the past couple of weeks Starner has foregone his morning harangues, but he must have taken some stupid pills, because this week he's back with a vengeance. The ship came out of drydock on Monday. This is an important milestone in one of these major repair/overhaul evolutions, as it means the work to the underwater hull is now complete. Drydocking a ship is a very expensive proposition and the Navy gets upset if it doesn't happen on time. (In this case, it was some days late, but I'm not sure how that will pan out, because at least some of the delay was caused by the need for some unforeseen repairs to one of the struts that holds the starboard propulsion shaft.)

Anyhow, here is a representative quote from Starner's tirade this morning: "This ain't no joyride. The fun and games is over. We got a ship to get out. I don't know about you, but I like my job here. We gotta get this ship outta here. I been doin' this shit for 25 years, ever since I graduated high school." He was joined by Ronnie Wilson, who lectured us again on absenteeism, especially on weekends. Yesterday he told us that last weekend, of 39 people scheduled to work, only 20 showed up. They also told us that 10-hour days were now mandatory, but when I left at 4 pm (after 8 hours), they had marked 8 hours on my time card. Go figure.

One of those who did stay over today was Joe, ever willing to be the yes-man. At about 3:30 I ran into him standing around shooting the shit with a couple of contractors who've been helping him. Echoing Starner, I said in jest, "What are you all standing around bullshitting for? We've got a ship to get out." Joe answered something to the effect of "what else have we got to do, we're working till 6?" So I said, "You're just going to steal the taxpayers' money, huh?" "I do it every day," Joe replied. "Obama's going to give it to us anyway," one of the contractors put in.