Awareness?

I’ve got an issue with this trendy meme called “awareness”. What is it you think you’re accomplishing, exactly?

I’ve seen it all over the Internet. Change your profile picture to your favorite cartoon character to “raise awareness” of child abuse. Grow a mustache in “MOvember” to “raise awareness” of men’s prostate cancer. You know, stuff like that.

Awareness? I’m pretty sure we all know child abuse and prostate cancer exists.

So what was it again that your mustache accomplished? Has your mustache somehow cured prostate cancer? Has it magically empowered researchers with superpowers?

What about changing your profile picture on Facebook? Did that act of awesomeness save the world from child abusers? Did all the child abusers of the world see your profile picture of Yogi Bear on FaceBook and decide never to abuse children ever again?

“Hey man, I grew a mustache in November. I’m down with the cause. Where is your mustache? OMG you’re so insensitive. It’s jerks like you that allow prostate cancer to exist.”

Raising awareness doesn’t do jack shit. It exists solely to make people feel better about their lives, with very little to no effort on their part.

Whatever.

I miss Trinity

I started hunting about 10 years ago.

My first trip, and all trips afterwards, were to uncle Stanley’s cabin near Trinity (Clair Engles) Lake.

That property is a special place to me. It’s full of great memories. I have looked forward to going there every year since my first.

But then last year we didn’t make our annual October week-long trip. Nor did we go this year. That left me feeling a little out of balance.

Last year we went camping up by Mt Lassen, my old stomping grounds. We camped near Mineral and hunted the local area. And me, knowing the area very well, spent the good-weather days fly fishing my favorite streams. It was a good trip, although very cold at night, but I missed Trinity.

This year we went to Nevada. Six of us went, and we came back with 3 nice bucks. That kind of success is all too rare in California.

Jimmy’s parents in Rye Patch were extrememly generous. Our accomodations were very comfortable. I am very thankful for the opportunity.

Nevada hunting is much different from California hunting. In California, we hunt in heavily forested areas, and our shots at deer are very rarely more than 100 yards. In Nevada, there are no trees, and we can see deer a mile (literally) away. Our shots at deer were at the limits of our abilities. The high desert was a once in a lifetime hunt.

I enjoyed my trip to Nevada, but I REALLy missed Trinity.

Two years in a row without a trip to Trinity? I never want to do that again.

No more graveyard

I started a new shift this month. I’m finally off graveyard and back to swing. But that’s not the best part–I’m working 4 ten-hour shifts per week.

I’ve been trying to get to a place where I can work a 4×10 schedule for a good six years now. Finally! Needless to say, I love my new shift.

I have Thursday, Friday, and Sunday off. It kinda sucks to have split days, but it’s still a helluva lot better than working 5 days a week.

It doesn’t bother me that my day is longer and I have less free time when I get home. To me, it’s a very small sacrifice to make in order to get that extra DAY free.

My typical day starts at 9am when the alarm goes off. I like to try to wake up as early as I can. This gives me four hours to get ready for work, as I have to be at my desk at 1pm. I hate to be rushed, and I hate to be late, so I like having plenty of time to do my business.

Getting up earlier than I need to also makes it easier to wake up early on my days off. If I’m used to waking up at 9 every morning, it’s not impossible for me to get up at 7 if I want to get an even earlier start on my day.

Swing is the perfect shift to avoid traffic, which I despise. I lived in the Los Angeles area for 10 years. Stop and go traffic daily, seemingly round-the-clock. That was absolute misery. So now I’m on swing shift and I have no traffic at all going to work or coming home.

I work my ten hours, with a 30 minute lunch, and I’m off at 11:30pm. It takes me about 50 minutes to drive the 50 miles back to Manteca (in no traffic!). Everything is closed after midnight, so I don’t go anywhere else–I just go home.

I make and eat dinner, then I have 45 minutes to play a game or read, then I go to bed at around 2am. Seven hours later the alarm goes off and I do it all over again.

I don’t ever want to go back to working a 5×8 shift, regardless of the working hours or the days off.