Aye, I just don't seem to have the stamina I used to.... I guess I should be looking for Bob and the packs of Enzyte or some such... But, seriously, yesterday was a long work day. I finished up the most important (from my perspective) part of the work by about 7pm, but then kept going, and going, and going like the Energizer bunny trying to get some other work done. Work that other folks would consider equally as important, if not more important, than the work I was doing initially. Work on the same system. A system that seems to want to not cooperate with me in getting things done. Argh.
I remember the 'good old days' of my youth. 20 years+ ago. Back when I was slavin' away for lower wages compared to now. When I was working for hourly wages for the printer I spent my first 7+ years working for. We used to get overtime that was time-and-a-half after the 7.5 hours that comprised our normal work day. 4 hours after that we'd bump up to double-time pay and remain that way until 24 hours total was clocked. After that we had to reset back to straight time for the next 7.5 hours, and repeat the process. Work on Saturdays paid time-and-a-half for the first 4 hours, then double time after. Work on Sundays paid double-time all day. Holidays got us 7.5 hours of straight time for free, and paid double-time on top of that if we had to work.
When I first started for that company I was making 65% of the craftsman scale as an 'electronic compositor' (aka keyboard operator, page make-up person, desktop publishing specialist, computer operator). I would get raises every 6 months that would move me closer to scale and once a year the scale would increase to account for cost-of-living adjustments. After about 3-and-a-half years I topped out at scale and then was left waiting a year for the next cost-of-living adjustment to kick in.
Anyway, thanks to screwed up customers and demands for a lot of work on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to get 'jobs' (customer work) ready for the presses to run all day on Sunday, and/or all day and all night on Monday so that finished products could be delivered on Tuesday through Thursday, we would work lots and lots of overtime. I worked many, many days where I put in 14 - 16 hours without even thinking. Of course I also consumed thousands (literally) of cans of coke. Or at least thousands of ounces of coke from cans. I think I used to go through about 6 - 8 12oz. cans of coke in a day. Plus McD's Quarterpounders with Cheese (plain, hot and fresh off the grills). And McD's fries, hot and salty, back before the American Heart Association ruined the joy for everyone. Back when McD's cooked in beef tallow. Yummmy stuff.
But, I digress again... the point being for all of this is that it wasn't unheard of for me to work 70 hours in a week without feeling it at all. Or at least without feeling it until the weekend when I'd recuperate a bit and rest up for the next week. Most evening hours, later some mid-night shifts, and finally daytime shifts for a while. Days of arriving at work at 8 - 9am and staying until 11:30pm - 1am time frames.
Now a days, as I'm feeling the middle-aged spread (and showing it too), I just don't have the energy that I used to. Working 12 hours hits me hard. I feel mentally and physically drained. Where or where did my youth go?
