Life in Dark Water
Part 1
Setting the WayBack Machine.
Getting a call that change things.
I received a call from my Boss Kim R on a sunny Sunday around late March 2020 She said our plant is shutdown due to Covid and we'd get a callback when things reopened there. I expressed my thoughts to her as we spoke, saying I didn't think it's going to end quickly... I wished her and her children the best as life as we knew everything was shifting into areas not friendly nor nice. Explaining that 24 hour stores were now closing at 9-10 pm, Zoo's, Museums and Sporting events got smacked down. She didn't truly believe me, and that's okay as she is younger than me, perhaps not having my background of seeing things differently. Life often works that way.
To her credit I can say this about her: She rose through the ranks starting at young age, around high graduation. Her mom worked there and recently retired after some 20+ years of service. She did this in the company based on her ability to learn new things and skill and sincere desire to succeed in the only American Brass Musical Instrument company in the USA. I RESPECTED HER totally, though not always agreeing with her ideas I always gave them a shot. No harm in trying, I'd think.
Fact is: I was hired by her in 2015. I remember her saying to others in the department I would later be taken into: "Hey! This guy can read micrometers!" I just smiled...
I had many a boss stroll in and out of Final Assembly/Honing over a slim number of years. I liked most of the bosses I've had there.
She held a belief in an utterly flawed system of operations in American Companies: (If you do long productive hours, go into supervision based on skill and solid employment history, the Company would take of you as you did them.) Sadly, I stopped having a sense of Company/Corporate loyalty some 15-20 years ago as I saw it disintegrate into sheer Nothingness of Time spent based on Share-Holder desires and things getting twisted even in places not even on a stock market.
Ironically, she never got called back to work at Conn-Selmer.
Just after that Sunday phone call...
I told my wife I was now laid-off from work at Conn-Selmer and that I would apply for Unemployment benefits the next day.
My wife looked at me said she wasn't surprised as EVERYTHING was getting shut down. I thought The Schools, stores, restaurants, bars and, well, everything is clamped down into a holding/closer pattern not unlike early Paris under the occupation of the Nazi Party during WWII. I looked at her, told her I love her and it'll be what it is.
I told her I'd apply for unemployment tomorrow, the next day after being informed. Looking concerned, she managed a smile and we hugged each other. She asked me how long did I think this would last. (looking back I am not sure if she was asking about the lay-off duration or the Covid effect,) I told her that I thought this was going to last a long time though I wasn't sure why I felt this way. Yeah, I didn't know I'd be laid-off for 16 months and when going back there the 'Great Resignation' of 2021 would occur. NOTE: I will write about this movement down the road as I think it epic in people standing up and saying: STOP PAYING ME SHIT WAGES!
Next Day??? Applying for Ohio Unemployment:
Well, it took a great deal longer than anyone's conception of a 'next day' belief reality would occur. Day's turned into weeks trying to apply for Ohio Unemployment as their system kept crashing during the mid-application process.
I understood why this happened and explained to many I knew feeling frustrated as I was why Their Crashes occurred. I would say to them that their system was NOT created to have so many requests hitting them at one time. I remember it taking me some 4 weeks to fully get my application to go thru via the internet and repeatedly calling them on the phone...
Granted, I did learn this: IF You have a Smart Phone equipped with a headphone jack and a really good head-set..... If you are stuck on hold waiting for REP to help, go hands free and fly sims, play games and read news while waiting for human to say 'Hello'.
After about 4 weeks, my claim was accepted after speaking to a sweet kind phone rep from Akron, Ohio. In all honesty, she was wonderfully understanding to deal with. She was kind, empathetic and funny during our conversation as well as professional. ABBY212, YOU ROCKED IT!!!!
I'd get money.
I'd delve into gaming simulations, talking to people on the phone, and journey into waters I have swam in before, but vastly different in some regards. That being a love of faith and ironically IPA's. Yeah, I also did my share of 'hacking."
Hey, when you got a lot of knives and forks, you gotta cut into something? Right/
I tried volunteering for animal humane societies to clean cages/walk and feed animals but they were locked down too. I sincerely felt hurt by that....
Thank you for reading this. Thank you for your patience with me.
End of Part 1 (Life in Dark Water)
Part II will go into day-to-day events and how they played over time some 440 days of ever-adjusting life of an extrovert that became an introvert.
It will also hopefully show some beauty. My Smoke and Storm.
May this song bring happy memories to us older folk and an inspiration to those that never heard it before.