cranky old dude

I work rotating shifts...two 12.5 hr. day shifts followed by two 12.5 hr. night shifts then three days off.

One would think that a lot of riding could be accomplished during those three days of rest. YOU WOULD BE THINKING WRONGLY! It has rained and been stormy on my days off for the past four weeks! Then just like clockwork, the next five days are warm, dry and Sunny. @#$#@#$!! I will commute in the rain, but recreational riding in the rain....no thanks!

Now, to further enhance my free time, my bride has been called away to another city for a few weeks. Whoa! No riding constraints at all, that is except for the three days of thunderstorms.

So here I am, alone, putzing around the house just fixing little odds and ends that I've been ignoring quite succesfully until now and dreaming of nice weather. (NO, don't even think of asking...you're gonna have to fix your own stuff) If it weren't for being able to slip in a few extra miles on my commutes home I wouldn't be getting any miles in at all!

Friday I go back to work so the rain should stop by then.

Sigh.

JanMM

Are you able to get in any riding on that day between day- and night-shifts? As we get more mature, we need less sleep, or so I've been told.

cranky old dude

No such luck. 39 years of working shifts has taken it's toll.

I find that this schedule, which switches us back and forth from days to nights and back to days....all in the span of five calandar days, every week....thoroughly fatigues me. I get insomnic on the day shift (I've discovered that a lot of us are) and end up sleeping through the 23 hr. break in the middle of the work week.

If I had any skills I'ld have been gone long ago, now I just dream about retirement.

Oh well! This weather pattern will shift sometime and life will be good.

doctor j

Our weatherman has been on a tear as well. I'm 176 miles behind my mileage last year at this time. Most of this deficit has been due to the wiles of the weatherman! For the past week, we've had some sun, but the winds have been around 20 mph sustained with gusts to 30 or so

Dan Burkhart 

I find it hard to understand, with our understanding these days of things like circadian rhythms and their impact on health ,productivity and workplace safety, why any employer requires this sort of shift structure. Are they just trying to keep things fair by abusing all their employees equally?

wrafl

I feel your pain Cranky. I have been unable to ride the last 3 days due to weather. It's been raining on and off in my part of the country. I can ride on cloudy skies but rain being unpredictable, I just have to abandon the idea. Weather is supposed to improve tomorrow and over the weekend and I wish I could get to ride.

Now on your work schedule, I don't think I can handle that. The last time I worked that kind of shift schedule, I was in the Navy, work 4 straight weeks and at the end of that, you get 4 days off, just enough to get some good sleep before you go back to dayshift for awhile.

NOS88

Don't blame the weatherman! It's not his (or her fault). Are you sure there's not some karma thing happening instead? What have you done (or not done) for which you are being punished, Cranky?

rck

Actually we sleep less-just more often.

gcottay

This is not good. We humans were not meant to stay in the caves once the snow is gone.

One fine spring and summer in beautiful Pittsburgh PA we enjoyed sixteen straight weeks of beautiful weather Monday through Friday with serious rain Saturday and Sunday. Week after bloody week. After the first few weeks screams echoed through the city each weekend morning. Plasterers feel being fixing deep scratches in the walls. Formerly happy couples began gleefully planning divorces and funerals. Weather forecasters fled.

Best wishes for sun next week.