After Night Shift
Nothing is ever the same.
Last night at the big paper factory was really busy and interesting for sure. At times, coming off night shift after 12 hours leaves me a little tired in the morning to do too much of anything but relax and have a coffee or beer with a quick breakfast before going to bed while the sun shines outside on an early spring morning. While I make pots for the spring show in two weeks, I feel anxiety when the Bunny Trail organizers advertise the countdown posts to their social media pages. I woke up an hour early to relax, right before my last night shift of nights into a Saturday morning of my two three-day weekends off we get each month.
All those mugs I had a fun time throwing in the Facebook live feed were trimmed, and texture patterns were put on them. I just need to put handles on them all. I had to dip them all in water to rehydrate them as I had miscalculated on how fast things would dry. When I trimmed them before work yesterday, they were still a little damp so I just flipped them all and left them out. After a check after work this morning, they were all dried out a little too much, so they are now under plastic. I hope to handle them after I get up after work tomorrow afternoon. That’s if I can get to sleep.
Some nights after we have a challenging time at work on the night shift, I might be too excited to simply come home and go to bed. So that means it will take some time to wind down and relax enough so I can get to sleep. I find that having a beer with my breakfast helps with that. At times, it might take more than one. It’s not something I do all the time, but it is cheaper than medication and tastes a little better. However, in the morning I need to go right to bed and have a little nap so I can wake up and attend the Jewish Zoom service. Rabbi John Ludeman says all I need to do is show up. They are all very kind, and I always learn something new about myself and others.
This post has turned into being about what happens after night shift at the big paper factory in the morning coming into a weekend. It is getting a little late, so I need to have dinner and get ready to drive in for another night of work doing the same things, just in a different order. Nothing is ever the same, and the problems we solve are all different, so I find that interesting and a little enjoyable at least. They do pay up a lot of money for what we do at the big paper factory.
If I were living yesterday a second time: I would have covered those mugs before leaving for work instead of miscalculating the drying time.
Things I am grateful for: Two three-day weekends each month. The fact that they pay well for what we do at the factory, which funds all the pottery work.
Days remaining if I live to 86: 12,767
What are you miscalculating about your time and energy that’s costing you later?
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I don't know if I ever mentioned this to you before, but my husband is a big paper factory retiree. So I relate a lot to what you say about the shift work, from the spouse perspective, of course. I honestly do not know how you accomplish all that you do!