Today is Thursday...or at least I think it is. Honestly, at this point it hardly matters. When you're working 12-hour days with no letup, one day blends into the next. The only difference between Sunday and Thursday is that Sunday means less traffic between my hotel and the office I'm working in.
The only way I know it's Thursday is that I picked up the copy of USA Today outside my hotel room door and that's what the front page said. I'm going to keep the paper with me all day, because if today is like yesterday, I'll need a reminder by this afternoon.
I don't write much about my job, and that's by design. In this case, though, I think it might help to shed some light on my situation if I lift the curtain just a wee bit. I work as an adjustor for one of the top three auto insurance companies in the US. I'm on temporary duty in Cleveland with our National Catastrophe Response Team. With the severe weather- primarily hailstorms- that's hit several states (particularly in the Minneapolis- St. Paul area) I received an emailing ordering me to haul butt to Cleveland. The expectation was that I'd be in Cleveland within 24 hours...and so I was.
We work in three-week rotations, 20 days on and one off...and 11 1/2-hour days are the norm. Yeah, I'm exhausted...and still have two weeks to go in this rotation. The way things are looking, this probably won't be my only rotation this summer. I could be here in Cleveland again, or I could be on site at a CAT. With hurricane season upon us, I suppose there's even a chance I could find myself back in Texas. Who says irony is dead?
There's a better than 50-50 chance that I may not be seeing much of Portland this summer, and I may end up paying rent on an apartment I won't even be sleeping in. I suppose I could complain, but I volunteered for this duty. It's actually something of an honor; there are only a couple hundred of us spread around the country in a company that employs something like 26,000 people.
We could be working 24-hour days, and we still wouldn't be able to keep up. I could stay longer than three weeks, but I'm going to need a serious break by then. The only question is when I'll be called back. Mine is not to wonder why; mine is merely to hop on a plane when I'm asked to do so and go where I'm told to go. Hey, at least I'm not paying the freight.
I am looking forward to June 18th and my trip home to Portland, though...not that I'm counting the days until I leave or anything.... ;-)
