FU

Nothing vulgar, it stands for follow up in my line of work. We use a lot of abbreviations and trainees often giggle when they encounter this one, for the obvious reason.

I got several wonderful emails congratulating me on my pending retirement. Sadly, it still feels like forever away. Five years is still 5 years!

One person asked, “do you ever feel like your frustration interferes with your ability to help people?“

The easy answer is no, but that isn’t exactly true. Do I ever worry that I’ll deny someone in need of service? No. It’s just not my nature. Even if the person is absolutely terrible on the phone, if I get enough to determine a real need, I’ll send someone no matter what. Even for combative callers, if I can at least get a location I can send someone. It won’t be “lights and sirens,” but someone will respond.

Has it affected my general tolerance? Yes. While I’m never deliberately rude or mean, I do get annoyed more often with difficult or combative callers. As long as I can recognize the difference between annoyance and neglect I’m ok. It’s when I can’t recognize the difference that I’m in trouble.

In some ways I’m less fazed by critical calls, as at this point “I’ve heard it all before.” I still find myself attentive and concerned though. I strive to be good at my job not just “meeting standard” and I’m proud of that.

Another key sign is I don’t carry my anger over from one call to the next. I can have a truly terrible call and be pleasant and agreeable on the next call. We are allowed to take a very short break to collect ourselves if needed but I just don’t carry it over. I almost laugh sometimes when I go from a truly nasty call to a pleasant one. Callers have actually clocked my tone of voice a few times in those instances. 😂

So yes and no would be my answer. In some ways yes and others no. It is my nature to be helpful and neither my job nor life in general has broken that yet.

Hope springs eternal…

Five

I’m five years away from retirement. It feels weird. It was 10 years up until last November, but after two decades of trying to get my classification corrected, we succeeded thru a ballot initiative. Prior to that we were considered miscellaneous clerks instead of public safety. For real, I save lives for a living but was considered a clerk.

I should clarify, I’ll take my pension in 5 years but I won’t have the age for social security. The city has a program called Prop F that allows retirees to work for the city on a limited capacity without violating your pension rules. I can work roughly 1000 hours a year which works out to about 2 days a week. I’d love that to be honest. I’ll end up doing that for an additional 2 years until I can take social security. [1]If it still exists.

Anyway, it feels surreal. My job has been my life for so long, it’s hard to imagine not doing it. Oh, make no mistake I’m more than ready, but it doesn’t feel real yet. I don’t have an exact plan yet but there are things I want to do. I’m probably the odd man out in that I don’t have big plans to travel the world. I’m sure I’ll do some traveling, but it’s never been a driving force for me. There are still a few bucket list items to visit though.

I’ll probably end up volunteering again. I volunteered a lot when I first moved to SF and I enjoyed it. I really miss working with animals. I could see spending a lot more time with the SFSPCA here.

Depending on the state of the world, economy, etc, we might end up in a different country. Nothing is concrete yet. We’ll be in SF at least until I’m 62, but after that it’s still up for grabs. It also depends on what type of job Shawn has at the time as well.

I’m definitely looking forward to it. I never dreamed of a “retirement” growing up as poor as I did, but looking forward to it now feels like a full circle in many ways. I built a life and a career from the remains of my old self. Even then I didn’t dare dream, but here we are bouncing around that last corner into the hike stretch.

References

References
↑1 If it still exists.

Seedy

I’ve been drifting off/on social media as of late. (Not FB)  I get so tickled at some of the antics I often see of the more adult nature. I had to share today.

I went down the rabbit hole the other day on IG. While I don’t post there anymore, I still scan thru from time to time. I tend to follow a lot of bodybuilders, fitness fanatics, etc. It should come as no surprise I end up with digital slop in my “suggestions.” Anyway, I start seeing these reels where guys are showing off their goods via reflections and shadows. Y’all, I lost my mind laughing. One, who does that? Two, how is it no one realizes most of the reflections are toys? People were falling all over themselves in the comments with thirst. It was hysterical.

Ya know how at times you know you should scroll on but can’t…. 😂 I wasted over an hour before snapping out of it.

I did go on a blocking spree, but there were so many I finally moved on to other things. I did manage to block about 30 or so of the worst offenders. I know they just create multiple accounts, but it still felt good to block them. Hehehe

People are so gullible these days. When you see the same shape over and over and the bend is always the same, you have to know that it’s fake.  Many of the more clear ones, you can even see the latex color. 😂

On Tiktok, you have a random assortment of guys trying to beat the filters with the X-ray filter, but for whatever reason it seems to be flooding IG these days.

I started down voting to help get it out of my suggestions, but I still will randomly have a few pop up. I’m curious if I’m the minority in seeing this kind of slop?

Wish

I really wish all those people have been right about their rapture.

Think about it, we’d be rid of all those horrible humans that do nothing but cause pain and misery every day with their bias and hate. Imagine a world where people actually cared about others and tried to uplift each other, regardless of their sex, skin color, sexual orientation, country of origin, job etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it wouldn’t be perfect because human beings are flawed, but it would be a hell of a lot better than what we’re dealing with now.

No & No

After my last rant, I had a long term reader, as he claimed, state he would no longer read my content because I was now part of “the [in]tolerant left.” He then demanded that if I posted his long-winded nonsensical rant he’d consider staying.

  1. Bless your heart.
  2. No. We are not going to play linguistic gymnastics to sell a narrative that is blatantly false. Trying to say I’m intolerant of people who are intolerant is pure nonsense. It’s a pathetic attempt to justify the actions of “your side” by trying to argue everyone does the same thing.
  3. No. I don’t owe you any screen time here. This is my space. What I share (or not) is purely up to me. Had you made any cogent responses instead of regurgitating propaganda, I might have posted or shared it. Name calling, victim blaming, and racism is not something “we can agree to disagree on”, sweetie.

The liberals, as you put it, don’t always get points for doing the right thing. We can agree on that, but to infer they are the same as the so-called right is disingenuous at best. I’m curious if you have the same opinion now that it has been revealed the shooter was another radical extremist from the right? Hmmm?

Saying I’m part of the elite gays was pretty funny though. I did get a good chuckle out of that. I’m not exactly sure how or where you pulled that out of your ass, but points for humor. I won’t dignify the rest of your hateful comments with a response.

As for you leaving, bye Felisha. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Redrum

I’m sure you’ve heard about the death of CK. [1]I won’t give any ad clicks by saying his full name here.  I got a surprising number of emails asking my opinion on his death. My opinion doesn’t really matter, but I clearly have some thoughts.

CK built a career of hatred in the name of christian (white) nationalism. He was openly and proudly racist, homophobic, xenophobic, and misogynist. He said black people were subhuman and steal everything they get from whites. He proclaimed gays were worthy of death and actively supported allowing men to openly attack trans women. He laughed at the idea of immigrants being eaten by alligators.

To say he was not a good human being is putting it mildly. He was a human devoid of any humanity.

It’s ironic his very last words were shrugging off mass shootings as gang violence. [2]More code switching for race baiting  He had previously proudly proclaimed, after yet another school shooting where innocent children died, that “some deaths were necessary to support our 2nd amendment rights.” One could say he died for that belief.

And yet, I’m expected to have empathy? The same empathy he denounced as not real and weak. No, I won’t mourn for a man who profited off spreading hatred. I won’t waste a 2nd thought on a “christian” that shrugged off the murder of children.

It’s a shame I don’t believe in Hell. If I did, I might find some comfort in knowing he would at least pay for all the harm he caused in life. No, he’s just dead and we’re left with the aftermath.

*

Let me be clear, calling out the cruelty of his life is not the same as celebrating his death. Murder is not ok. I don’t support murder. If they find his killer, he should face the judiciary process. But don’t ask me to mourn the loss of such a person. You are entitled to feel however you wish. Your feelings over my lack of empathy is just that…yours.

If you haven’t seen the video, it was brutal. He died just the way he lived, horribly.

References

References
↑1 I won’t give any ad clicks by saying his full name here.
↑2 More code switching for race baiting

Death

Today is the 20th anniversary of the death of my coworker / classmate / friend Francine Wriley. Sadly, she committed suicide.

Francine took her own life after leaving SF Dispatch. She moved with a close friend to Austin, but struggled with life in Texas. She was a fellow Alphabet Mafia member and spent most of her life in the Bay area.

We were friends, but not overly close. She had a rough life but had a heart of gold under her rough exterior. We were just starting to get closer when she decided to leave SF. Why will always be a mystery to me. I have my opinions but it’s not really relevant.

She had planned to come back to SF. She could have even come back to work without losing any seniority. However, in a moment of isolation she ended her life. There was nothing I could have done because I didn’t even know at the time she was struggling.

I try to remember her every year. I always wonder what dispatch would be like if she had come back. I wish she had. I miss her.

*

Take a moment to check on those you care for from time to time. Life is precious.

T-Mo No

So after 25 years, I switched from T-Mobile to Verizon. Actually, when I first signed up for T-Mobile it was still Voicestream, for you folks that are old enough to remember that.

I used to be a staunch proponent of little scrappy T-Mobile. It was always a little behind the times cell carrier, but they were also very reliable and the customer service was exceptional. The cell service wasn’t great but it was still decent. I really liked the identity of the company and since my service was dependable at the very least I stuck with it. I’ve had the same cell phone number almost since that same time frame.

After several mergers and when the previous CEO left, it became pretty obvious they weren’t interested in carrying on with the “uncarrier” approach that made them so lovable. But at the end of the day my service was still pretty stable. It wasn’t always the best, but it was consistent.

The final straw came late last year when they removed my work discount and raised my rates on a plan that was supposed to never get an increase. They’re currently facing multiple lawsuits on that front but I could care less. With nothing left to distinguish them from the other carriers, I figured if I’m now stuck paying the same rates, I should at least have better cell service.

I waited until I upgraded my pixel 9 to the pixel 10. If you follow here with any regularity you know I have great pretty much every year because Google gives a fat discount on the new phone trading in the old one. I end up paying a fraction of the cost to get the new phone.

Jump to today where we decided to go down to the store instead of trying to do it over the phone. We were just a little apprehensive of losing our cell phone number, since we both had them for such a long period of time. We wanted to make sure there were no problems.

Everything went smoothly until I got to my Pixel watch.  There was a snafu which led to two and a half hours of the in-store tech working on it with customer support to get it fixed. After escalating two tiers it was discovered to be a weird administrative error that totally screwed everything up. Once the tier 3 tech guy discovered it, it all fell into place. And while this is not a glowing first impression, the tech in the store stuck with it. She made sure it got fixed and never once acted upset or irritated. She even went to bat for me for two separate discounts after all the trouble.

I’m certainly not under any delusion Verizon is any better company than T-Mobile. Frankly they’re both greedy corporations, but at least now I have better service for the same price.