Suck It Up, Drive On!

Well, it is Wednesday, and I still feel crappy, but the big doc at Medical was able to make a diagnosis ("You're phlegm is thick and green? Congratulations, it is gone from viral to bacterial."), so they put me on what they call a "Z-Pack" and it is supposed to kick the stuffing out of whatever I have. In the meantime, I went to work on Monday, and not a moment too soon, as we got crushed (more buried than usual), and they put me in another room, so as not to contaminate the rest of the crew (my boss even printed up a quarantine sign and put it on the door - how nice!). We worked long into the night, but I am happy to say that I was able to contribute and shoulder my share of the load (we got out of there sooner, because everybody was there - the lesson to be learned? We lose one person, and the show gets tougher for everybody else, so we all have to gut it out and perform). Right now I am coughing non-stop (hacking up gobs of the aforementioned green phlegm), but at least I don't feel like I am going to hurl every five seconds. Our boss is leaving this weekend - his tour is up, and he gets to be released - our new OIC arrived, and we have been working with him this week. No big impressions yet - we are all waiting for the turn over (nobody wants to step on the out-going boss's shoes). I imagine that there will be a lot of getting-to-know-you moments in the near-future, but right now everybody is just smiling and nodding and not saying much. I am glad that I came here - I'm glad that I did this job (even though it has been a total grind - and I mean that in every sense of the word), but I am getting totally burned out, and I cannot wait to finish this and get home. My buddy and I have put maximum effort into this job - but it is the kind of job that chews everyone up, and spits them out. We actually had a person from the rear tell us to our face that they love having us here to do this job because they can work us to death, without having to give us a break (evidently, if we were State-side, or further Forward, there would be buffers to limit the work load, but evidently that is not the case here). Awesome! There is nothing to look forward to except getting out of here - so, from now until November we just get up, work, eat, sleep, repeat. HooAh!