So, seriously? I couldn’t believe it when I heard about the new law so I immediately looked at several news sources, articles, and anything I could find over it. Sure enough, it was true. How, for the love of all that is holy, did this happen? I mean, I’ve always known that Abbott is a real piece of work, but this is absolutely ridiculous.
Really? The equivalent of bounty hunting? Not only does it just go through in our state but then it’s allowed to fly by our Supreme Court? What is going on in our country right now? How can anyone in their right mind say that allowing whistle blowing on women and suing not only them but anyone they think is involved something a sane group of people would come up with? Even if you have the procedure in another state where later term abortions are legal you can still be sued? Totally unacceptable.
Oh, and the real kick in the pants is the fact that the Supreme Court didn’t hear the full briefing or any arguments in court. Great job guys, you have just undermined more than fifty years of progression for women across our state. And then, as you could guess, caused a domino effect where other states are scrambling to get our constitutional rights banned.
Which begs the question, what next America? Critical thinking anyone? Hello?
Do you know who gets affected the most by these laws? Poor people and minorities. Just like everything else. Want revenge on someone and be able to walk away scot-free from your responsibilities of helping someone that you knowingly slept with and has every chance to get pregnant? No problem, once your ex or one-night-stand has to go to another state to get a medical procedure done, you can make a little side hustle out of exploiting a woman and taking her money. With no consequences. None.
Rape? Who cares.
Childcare? The woman or family’s problem.
Money? They should have a better job that pays more─ oh and find child care and live off of a single income without aid from the state or government.
You want to throw down rich, white conservative zealots? (because many conservatives are not this extreme) Ok, cool. By your own logic, let’s look at what should also go into place for this insane law to make it fair if you really are doing this for the health and safety of women in the state:
The state will provide free birth control to women ages 16 until menopause occurs so that no abortions are necessary. It can be sold over the counter or online and readily available with easy access, no excuses. The same will be offered for men who want to get vasectomies.
Once a paternity test has confirmed the child is his, the man involved, if he has not done so, should be sued for not providing half payment for said abortion before 6 weeks. This is court ordered and he is unable to defer payment. Failure to show up in court will result in a $10,000 dollar fine and up to 5 years in jail.
If a woman has decided to keep the child, the father must cover half of all expenses involved with necessary child care expenses. This includes primary and secondary schooling expenses.
A man has the right to wave parental responsibilities if he pays a one-time fee of $10,000 that can be paid within 3 years time. The man involved must sign a legal document waving his parental rights, and as previously stated a paternity test must be taken before paying the court-ordered fee. Failure to comply will result in a $10,000 fine and up to 5 years in jail.
If a woman or a couple finds out that she is pregnant and it is past the deadline but does not want the child or is unable to take care of the child, the state is held responsible to open adoption centers where children are provided what they need to survive and to receive a proper education.
If the father is unknown or in another state, and the woman does not wish to keep the child the state is held responsible to open adoption centers where children are provided what they need to survive and a proper education.
If it is found that a single parent is unable to financial support themselves and a child, the state is held responsible to assist the single parent until they are able to find a better paying job. This includes natal care after 6 weeks of pregnancy. To counter-act people throwing fits over having to ‘support lazy bums’ that, by the way the state has supported by implementing this ridiculous law, a parent will have a reasonable amount of time to get off of assistance, but they have to get off of assistance within the allotted time.
Parents of women that have to take on the burden of a child shall not be held financially responsible to pay for said child if the mother is 18 years or older. Except in the case of the woman’s father, or brother being the man responsible for the pregnancy. This includes natal care for the remaining of the pregnancy after the 6 weeks law takes effect.
Abortions after 6 weeks performed in another state will not result in fining, or allowing individuals involved to sue or be sued by the state of Texas.
Extreme conservatives by nature have no place in government. Any religion that removes personal freedom without consequences to anyone other than the pregnant woman is unconstitutional. This law is put in place to control women and our rights. It’s to control the poor and minorities and it is downright deplorable.
Hey, assholes, you have no right to use the term ‘pro-life’ you are anything but. Label yourselves like it is, ‘pro-birth’ because you don’t give a shit about that child after it is born. You don’t give a shit about women’s rights or what happens to them after a forced pregnancy occurs. You just don’t give a shit.
George Carlin says it best:
Something needs to be done, and it needs to happen now or there is no stopping whatever they have planned next to pin women under the state and men’s authority.
Because according to them, we are second class citizens and having sex before marriage should only be a luxury afforded to men. By that logic─ doesn’t that mean that men should only be allowed to have sex with men? I mean, no pregnancy occurs and women stay ‘pure’, right? Your move Texas law makers.
It’s Tuesday, I’m recovering from a previously long and exhausting workweek. The AC industry is no joke in Texas. Many families can barely afford to cover bills, let alone pay to have a service company come out.
The DIY industry has boomed over the last decade or so since the internet has been empowering homeowners with knowledge. Which is kind of great and horrible at the same time.
Since the beginning of the year, I have progressively watched the cost of A/C equipment go up by 5%-10% twice in the first quarter, and now they are saying it will go up again. As a business owner, you come to expect these sort of setbacks. People expect things to go up a bit, especially with the state of things recently. But try explaining to your regulars when the cost goes up by 25% – 40%
Refrigerant cost has more than doubled since last year, copper has gone up a whopping 200%, and steel a staggering 400%. Think that’s bad?
Shipping is far, far worse. Yes, we can all guess that because of COVID-19 things have progressed slower than usual but this is an entirely different beast. A shipping container from Asia, on average, last year was around $2k per container.
This year? That number has gone up to $20k as of late. An 800% increase.
Let’s just think about that for a second. 800% increase.
Even domestic shipping and freight have been steadily increasing every month since last year.
It’s a tough time for many business owners, it’s a tough time for customers, it’s just tough.
As you can imagine the unique industry I work in brings in some…characters to put it mildly. Imagine living in Texas during the pandemic, with a slew of under-educated, narcissistic mans-man sorts that consider themselves godly church-folk. Now add in just enough YouTube knowledge to make them dangerous and the ability to buy the parts online and buddy─ you’ve got yourself an insufferable man-child.
I’ll definitely take these guys any day over an engineer, however. I’ll explain that particular hell in another episode.
When you live in a place like Dallas, you know that your experience will be different depending on which part of the city, and neighboring cities you are in. If you are anywhere outside of Downtown proper or just outside of a metropolitan area, without a doubt you are dealing with apathetic, single-minded individuals that find this whole pandemic to be blown out of proportion. While, just like any sensationalist news, that does come with some truth, ffs have a brain.
I have signs posted everywhere. Before someone walks in, after they walk inside, all of our employees wear them. And yet, for ever 1 person wearing a mask, 3 do not wear one.
Look. I don’t like masks, I’m vaccinated, I constantly wash my hands make a real effort to not touch my face or dig up my butt crack at work and touch other things, and I keep my distance. But you know what, I wear a flipping mask. So why, in the nine hells, can someone not wear a mask for fifteen minutes or less?
Because, dear friends, I may live near the dessert but I’m drowning in a sea of idiots.
They all, literally, have the exact and I mean verbatim, word vomit. I’ve even heard such phrases as, “my wife is a nutritionist and we refuse to get vaccinated” as if she is at the pinnacle of medical discovery and working hard on the front lines with dying patients. “I’m vaccinated,” yeah, so am I and viruses mutate, next. “The flu has killed more than Covid-19″─ herpa derp─ “I’ve had it, it’s nothing─ berpadee derp herp─ “It’s a conspiracy against white men and it’s racist─ derpa herpadee snort snoot─ “Biden is going to be the ruin of this country─ deeherpa doo da─”
These are not made up conversations, yes, these people do exist. P.S. For anyone jumping on the Right v Left train and that can only identify with one side of the argument and mudslinging bullshit, please go over to the children’s table and learn something called critical thinking.
Biden, by the way, is not democratic. He is what the Republican party used to represent.
The sheer amount of idiocy would surprise many people. I’m not talking about normal people ignorance. I’ve had customers come in for a few years now, we got along great, had differences in opinions politically but nothing we couldn’t ever reach middle ground on. This has been such a weird last two years and really makes me sad. It’s like people have gone completely polar opposite on damn near everything happening. They just need a reason to take their anger out on everything, and everyone. I can’t believe the words leaving people’s mouths right now.
At this point, I have no sympathy for people raised a certain way. When you cannot see reason, you cannot be reasoned with. Therefore, yes, you are a danger to society.
The amount of times that I have heard, “well, I haven’t gotten it once and I’ve been fine, or, everyone in my family got it but me,” is embarrassingly high.
Yeah, no, you got it you just didn’t have symptoms. Congrats, you’re a super-spreader. Even if you didn’t get it, your family did and they spread it. And I’m sure if your dumbass didn’t get a shot, your family damn sure didn’t. Unless you have a teen or young adult with some sense in the house that got vaccinated. For those that seem to think this is a good thing that weeds out the population, while logically I get what you are saying, fuck right off you miserable asshole.
You want to know something? I’m about to get real savage. If you are too fucking stupid to not see people getting this, struggling with their lives, even some of your precious leaders getting it and dying or fighting for their lives, then I have zero sympathy for you. As a matter of fact, I think there should be a waiver that if you refuse to get a vaccine, you also wave your right to get treated in a hospital.
Just so there is no confusion, if you are waiting on a vaccination and on a waiting list─ you are just fine to be treated. For the assholes that try and get clever by being on a permanent waitlist, you can go ahead and get ready to spend a long time in prison. Let’s go ahead and leave the hospital beds open for people that are actually trying to help themselves and others. You got a strong opinion that you undoubtedly stand behind, you’re a big strong adult, you can take care of yourself. The only exception to this rule are children for obvious reasons.
But I digress.
I explained the earlier info to paint a picture of the type of customers we get daily. Today, I had a gentleman from Hong Kong impart top secret knowledge to me that the vaccines were poison, Japan can confirm apparently. 😐🙄
As frustrating as it all can be, at the end of the day it feels good being able to help families. Especially in times when it seems like we all desperately need it.
Anyway, these are my thoughts on a Tuesday. Have a great day lovelies. 💞
So, much to my protest, every second I’ve wanted to spend writing has been consumed by company time. Not that I am complaining, because busy is good─ it means I … Continue reading Summer time, best time… -_-
Hi, I’m a lady and I work on motors. Yeah boiiiiii
We all have them, right?
Tales of hardships at the work place as old as humans have flipping existed. Then there are the obvious challenges that most of us know we are working on as a society. Well, at least some of us are.
Some of us are self-absorbed or worse─ oblivious shits.
Fast forward to the industry that I work in. Think of it like an auto parts store combined with diagnostics (tech support), and a tire replacement/oil change all in one except we handle HVAC units. (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) We mostly handle residential customers and some contractors. (handy-men, remodelers, installers, etc.) The most common question I get in-store is how I got into the industry. I have worked in the tech industry for years, how things work have fascinated me forever! I once took apart a gaming console and controllers to see how it worked.
I was…in a lot of trouble for that one.
Mom be like
While I loved my job and what I did, the industry changed a lot. Contracted help was commonplace and then suddenly if you weren’t certified, if you didn’t take expensive courses and get more certifications, then you were replaced. As soon as I was made aware that after a certain date we weren’t able to move up in the industry unless we did all of these things─ you better believe my ass dove in and took every training course, learned about cloud based systems, DNS, Azure, anything I could to ensure my future there.
Then, six weeks later I’m in the running to move over to the other side, the one our team dreamed of. I was running a small team of my own at this point, doing weekly presentations, and trying my hardest to make an example of my performance so they could see that I practiced what I preached. I surprised myself with how into it I really was. I got my certs, and my in-house certs I needed to move over and work on the path to being a network engineer.
Less than a month later (by the way, several others were in the same position as me) they announced that contract workers cannot move over to become network engineers. I spoke with the department head and asked how we could become one. Well, guess what─ I would have to quit my job and apply again in six months. I get the security thing in the tech field, but couldn’t it have all been avoided by me keeping the position that I earned? But that’s just it, it’s how that industry is run.
Let’s also not forget that just in the campus I worked in, female to male ratio was extremely low. Unless you worked on the social media team or tier one tech support. The social media side was flooded with ladies. I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to challenge myself and learn everything. After some thought, I decided to quit and pursue other things.
(I’m glossing over a few jobs here and there for the sake of the reader)
My boyfriend has worked in HVAC since he was in diapers. He had recently fired an employee and was running the business by himself. I’d be making even a little less a year, and knew nothing about the industry but it was something new and interesting to learn. I studied, listened and learned the inner workings of HVAC systems for the next two years (still on-going). It is a blast getting to problem solve and help people install parts on their units. Managing and running the front end can present challenges but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
The best part? Getting to put motors together in the store and watching people’s faces as we set them up to just plug back in to their unit. It is so satisfying on many levels to help people that just can’t afford to hire a technician or enjoy learning like myself. I get to troubleshoot over the phone and walk people through isolating the problem.
For the most part, many of the guys that walk in the store are grateful and courteous. Some are curious, not meaning to sound like an ass at my choice of work but say funny and sometimes awkward things. Those guys are awesome and make my day when I get to help them do it themselves.
Then there’s the type that just drive me up the wall. I get at least two to three phone calls a day that ask for a technician or to speak to a guy that can help them. I’m usually polite and explain that I can help them and to go ahead and tell me their issue. Some sound surprised but explain, others get quiet and slightly gruff, and then my absolute favorite─ the one’s that try to explain what they are talking about to me. I’m not talking about their issue alone. I’m talking about them stopping and asking, “you know, the condensing unit outside for an AC unit. It’s part of the air conditioning. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
My inner smart ass wants to say, “An AC unit? What is that?”
But I take a breath and start asking diagnostic questions. There’s a reason why I ask them. They get irritated when I ask if both of their units are coming on, indoor and outdoor. I usually get, “no, no, it’s my outdoor that I’m talking about, you know─ the one outside the house.”
I explain that I need to know if both are on so that I can see if you have a busted transformer, which controls both units. I need to know if the flipping thermostat is working. It’s an entire system working together, it doesn’t just magically send ac into your house and blow directly from outside…that is why it is called a condensing unit. It condenses, goes through a high pressure line to go from a liquid to a gas, blows over your evaporator coils and blown into your home from your indoor unit blower.
While I could bore you all to tears with the knowledge I know, the point is─ I have to explain myself constantly. Granted, no homeowner is going to know many things so I understand walking them through. I expect having to break it down in a way that someone could understand. But others become hostile and downright rude. There are two gentlemen that come in from time to time and refuse to talk to me. “I’d like to talk with the gentleman from last time,” to which I respond, “I’m afraid that he is busy right now, I can help you. What is the issue?” They both always respond, “I can wait until he is done.” While this is something I could understand if it were complicated issues or something only he knows about, but it often isn’t.
It is so frustrating having guys reach across the counter when I am testing motors, checking fan blades, and looking wires over. They grab lids and pull them as I am trying to gain leverage by pulling it toward myself and walk the fan blade off of the motor. Even worse, when I have 240 volts OF ELECTRICITY LIVE as I test the motor. If the motor shorts and they are holding it, that’s going to be a nasty jolt.
Every couple of minutes I get asked, “do you need help?” No. No I don’t and if I did, I would ask my co-worker because you have no idea what it is I need help with. I get told to ‘put some oil on it and it will be easier to get off.’ Yeah…you put oil on rust and then move that motor across years of rust. See what that does for you.
I was on the phone with a gentleman just last week that literally talked over me as I was asking him questions─ got angry when I asked him to text us a picture and when I only got one picture he kept repeating himself that he had sent four and that I could easily see the label of the motor. As I explained that we only received one photo and it was blurry, he again cut me off and told me that he sent four and that he could see it fine in his pictures. When he had told me earlier that he had a Carrier unit, I had asked him if he saw a part number that started with an H.
He had said no. So now, after twenty minutes of talking with this guy, he magically sees a part number starting with H and gives it to me. I cross the part number without a problem and explain the price and availability to him. It all could have been avoided if he would have just listened to me the first time and gotten the model number off the back of the unit instead of taking blurry photos of his motor. It literally allows me to login to their website, look up the correct part, and any supersedes or kits he may need to install his new motor.
I had one homeowner tell me his technician told him to get a motor that was the wrong rpm and physical size. When I asked the homeowner if he knew the capacitor size, or had the model number he said no and he would call the technician so I could talk to him. The phone rings, the guy answers. I proceed to ask him if he knew what capacitor the motor and compressor took, he states over the phone, angrily, “no, no, no, you are not listening, it is the capacitor the one for the outside unit. He needs a 1/4 horsepower motor, 1075 rpm, that is all he needs.” I calmly start explaining that I needed to know what the old motor took because it could blow out his new motor if it was wrong. Not even to the end of my sentence he cuts me off again, “no─ you are not listening to what I am saying. It is the one for the outside─” I cut him off, very irritated at this point. “No, you are not listening. I know what a condensing unit is, I know what a capacitor is, I know that he needs a motor. I need to know what the old motor took so I know if he needs a new capacitor. I need to know what his label says on his motor, and I need his model number. So take a picture of that and send it to me. I will not sell you a motor until you do that.”
The homeowner immediately starts to apologize (very sweet guy, and caught in the middle of an awkward situation.) and tells the man he will go get a picture and send it to me.
The next day, I get the model number, get him the correct motor and he is on his way to comfort again. He mentions that he got a new tech to help him after realizing the other guy didn’t know what he was doing.
It isn’t the questioning that gets to me. The guys at the office are questioned too. There will always be a jerk that won’t listen no matter your gender. (don’t even get me started on engineers and youtube ‘experts’) But it is unacceptable that I have to not only repeat myself, not only take several moments of my time to help diagnose or troubleshoot, but watch as one of my male co-workers get asked the same questions and once they are answered by them the guy goes, “oh, ok I see that makes sense. Man, you are really smart I appreciate it.”
Most of the time I can brush it off. But there are days that it really hurts when I put motors together, or answer questions and if one of the guys behind the counter talk to them, they thank the guy, take the motor and walk out.
They will tell me the wrong thing when I ask questions or omit things they have done. I repeatedly ask and enforce my questions to follow up and make sure what they are telling me is correct. Often people don’t check voltage correctly, or don’t realize the steps you need to take to diagnose an issue.
I shit you not, they will tell me something and then when the guys walk over they will tell them something else. The guys would give me shit over this and tell me I just misunderstood or the homeowner didn’t understand the question. Until they caught a couple of guys doing it.
I’ve learned when and how to speak firmly─ if you don’t speak with confidence, or you backpedal people sense that. And they 100% will try and test you. I had a guy throwing around a bunch of jargon he heard on youtube and asked me muddled questions that made zero sense. When this happens, I’ve learned to ask them to explain what they have done. People tend to gloss over the important details and offer that ‘they already reset the power, they already checked voltage, they already jumped such and such wires together.’ I have to get them to go back to the original issue and explain what voltage they got, where they checked the voltage, etc.
I know when to pick my battles. If a man is having nothing to do with what I say, or is not listening I do one of two things─ go and get one of the guys from the back (usually when it is something I am unclear over) or I politely ask them to leave the store. They have no business treating me that way, or anyone for that matter.
While it can be tough, I enjoy the challenge to learn more and study how things work. It’s a daily battle but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Running a business is a challenge within itself let alone a business that is considered a ‘man’s man’ job. I plan on taking it one day at a time and shake them haters off.
I’ve been at the lowest emotional point of my life the past several months. I can’t find the will to do anything but work, sleep, breathe. It’s been rough.
