81 thoughts on “April 29, 2016: Mid Shifts are the Worst”

  1. I worked shifts at the 3M factory in New Ulm one summer in the late 90s. I hated the 3-11pm shift the most because I could never sleep until 2am or later, and I'd sleep late and just have to sit tight until my shift.
    No one else was ever free before my shifts, and everyone was typically already wherever they were going by the time it was done (pre-cellular ages).
    Seemed like my whole day was sleep, wait for work, work, watch a few hours of TV until I was tired enough to fall asleep, repeat.

    1. Seemed like my whole day was sleep, wait for work, work, watch a few hours of TV until I was tired enough to fall asleep, repeat.

      When I worked at Unicel, my regular shift was 2pm to midnight. I know exactly what you mean. The biggest problem was I generally didn't tucker out until 5am or so. Two years of nocturnal living gave me a new perspective on the ol' 9 to 5.

      1. I worked the second shift at ADC in LeSueur for three summers, and really appreciated the return to a 'normal' schedule. We would punch out at midnight and head to Mankato to hit perkins for dinner before we were old enough to hit the bars. After we were 21 we would hit the bar for a beer, and then have our DD drive us to perkins for dinner. Routinely we'd be out til 4 am unwinding from a tedious day of making phone parts, and dreading the notion that we'd be returning to the doldrums the next afternoon.

    2. The radar labs at Hughes were 24/7 -- try working a third shift from 10PM to 6AM sometime. I found it easiest to get a couple 4ish hr naps in instead of a full 8ish hour sleep, and since any sleep was during daylight, sleep blinders were a necessity.

      1. I used to work for a medical software company that is currently trying to take over the Madison suburbs. I was in quality testing, so I normally just went in, did my work and went out. Occasionally they would make us go to a clinic or hospital to assist in a go-live. For my first one, I got switched onto the 1 pm to 9 pm shift at a clinic in Houston, and my second was an 8 pm to 8 am shift at a hospital in Chicago. It, combined with being nowhere near my degree, helped facilitate my desire to get the hell out as fast as possible.

      2. I've never minded second or third shifts, probably because I'm a night owl by nature. I had the 18-06 overnight watch in Iraq (the only person awake for that entire stretch on our FOB), which was fine until people started getting chippy about me sleeping in the middle of the day. It was at a point where I had just enough rank to do what was being asked, and not enough to tell anyone who thought I shouldn't be sleeping at 1100 to get twisted.

        Fine dining kitchen hours are basically an extended second shift – something like 3pm-1am. That's fine, but the double on Saturdays (lunch & dinner service) after working Friday night is rough. Especially if that was the monthly Friday night inventory (off at more like 3am). I don't even remember if we had a Sunday brunch anymore.

        1. The summer after high school, I got a temp job at a disc drive component manufacturing plant in town - worked 6 PM - 6 AM, 3 days on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off. Had a similar experience to AMR & nibs, but at least my room was in the basement with only an egress window to interrupt me. I saw my then girlfriend perhaps once every couple of weeks (lived in a different town) and many of my buddies were at boot camp for the Nat'l Guard - It was a lonely summer, but made a college education very compelling.

          As a FNG, work days and watch on my destroyer were all over the place, especially while underway. Work 0730 - 1600 followed by Mid-watch (or Balls to Four): 2345 - 0345.

          When I was running a shipboard security team, we tried both 8-on, 16-off and 12's ... neither seemed better than the other if you were stuck doing overnights, but I made sure to take the crappy watch supervisor shifts too, so as to reduce grumbling by those down (and up) the chain.

        2. I've never minded second or third shifts, probably because I'm a night owl by nature.

          If it was just me, I would agree with this. I'm way more inclined to enjoy staying up at night than I am to be waking early.

          It does completely destroy one's social life, though. Plus, I was in the process of getting married, moving into a new house, and kind of getting life set up. It's hard to do all of those things when you're on a completely opposite schedule from the rest of the world.

      3. When I had the 11-7 shift at 3M (it was rotating weeks, which also kept me from ever getting into a routine), I could fall asleep around 9am, wake around 3-4, and have an evening with friends and family before heading to the factory.

    3. In both my jobs between undergrad and law school (for about five years), I worked 3-11 almost exclusively. I was pretty sick of it by the time I finished.

    4. For a month before we moved to Buffalo, I would unload trucks at HyVee from 10PM-6AM, then sleep as best I could, and work 8AM-Noon the next day in dairy, then go home and sleep again to go back at 10. It was the most fucked up schedule, but I was trying to cram as many hours in a small frame as I could.

      1. Sounds like the schedule I had when I worked third shift in a factory at the tail end of high school.

    5. I've worked swing and night shifts and much prefer night shifts. I can sleep whenever as needed, but it was the worst not seeing friends and family. That was the one thing I really didn't like about working on the sports desk of newspapers. And of course, with newspapers being 7 days a week and sports being on weekends, it was rare to get a weekend off. My wife is a teacher, so we learned to make quality time for each other when we could. She would often come by my work and have dinner with me. This is why I really enjoy working from home now and making my own schedule.

    6. I have never, evah, had regular scheduled shifts. I am 25 years into a mixture of 6am-5pm, 10am-9pm and 3pm-1am shifts. I have absolutely no idea what regular, scheduled, sleep is. It is a benefit when you have a family and a spouse who works a regular schedule. That is, if you write the schedule and can schedule your work around your other responsibilities. However, I yearn to experience a set schedule someday.

  2. Spooky (and Scot), the local professional wrestlers are having one of their events at First Avenue in Saturday June 18. I got my ticket, but wanted to share in case anyone else wants to attend the hilarity.

    1. I might do that.

      Tonight is "Wrestling Night" at Target Field, where every fan gets a luchador mask and Larry Hennig, Jim Brunzell and two others I can't think of right now will be signing autographs and meeting people. I can't believe I have to miss it because I couldn't find someone to take my shift.

    2. I remember I had free tickets to that once, so I took the then girlfriend. I was 21, but she wasn't, and despite 10 year olds being admitted with their parents, they wouldn't let her in.

    1. I remember going to get ours at the county courthouse where Mrs. Hayes grew up. Oddly, it's one of my favorite memories of our wedding week.

      Congrats!

      1. Thanks, CH. I'm not sure how this is going to end up in the memory bank. We are just sorta cramming it in because we need it before next weekend when we meet with the officiant and it takes 5 days and we forgot.

      1. I had to unpack that one, but thanks. She'll be changing from FW to PR, the Permanent Roommate.

    3. Woot. I remember when we picked ours up The Cattle Women of ND (or something like that) gave us a bunch of recipes in the folder. Which I found hilarious.

      1. Y'all will be shocked to learn that the waiting area to get a marriage license in New Orleans was a gong show.

        1. *GASP* Jeeves, my fainting couch.

          I cannot imagine that I have the patience for that.

        2. Met-tree ain't New Orleans, brah. But gong show is the right reference. I would have also accepted jerry springer.

          1. True, true. The Met-tree St. Patrick's Day parade puts New Orleans's to shame.

      2. My sister-in-law got married in Salt Lake City, and at that time (I want to say 2004 or so?) they gave the brides a pamphlet about how to be a good wife (obedience to husband, cooking, etc.) Unfortunately by 2011 they had discontinued that process, so my wife didn't get the pamphlet and I am forced to live in the 21st century.

    5. Awesome!

      I don't even remember getting our marriage license (done by mail or something? I dunno). I was in Jacksonville for all of the planning, so, I did almost none of the planning. Small backyard ceremony by a county judge, with dinner and reception at The Local in Mpls and a North Shore cabin honeymoon = fairly low key planning.

      The only employee who reports to me brought his engagement ring into work today to show us. Women in the office heard he was picking it up last night and enthusiastically requested he bring it in.

      1. I don't even remember getting our marriage license

        Neither do I, and I don't think we did it by mail.

        Btw, congrats, Mags!

      1. We went with the guy who did a photoshoot for the rugby club, but thanks for your recommendation.

    7. We had drive from Cedar Rapids to Albert Lea to get our marriage license since we were getting married in Brainerd but living in Iowa.
      Congrats, sir!

    8. Nice!

      Our license was done online, and we were officially married at the courthouse two days later. Married in the morning, then went to work for the day.

      We had a party and "ceremony" six months later, as planned, but figured out we were a couple grand better off not waiting those few months for tax reasons, so figured if it's coming anyway, why not go ahead and do it.

      1. Thanks!

        A rare date night in the city. A friend surprised me with tickets (he and I have had a crush on Max Frost for awhile now), forcing the issue. Two weeks ago my sister just happened to ask if our kids would be interested in doing something that particular night. The stars aligned.

  5. Don't believe I've seen this shared here:

    FiveThirtyEight compiled a complete history of MLB, with each franchise's "relative strength" after each game. If you like interactive infographics, check it out. I'd love to see this expanded to include the old PCL and Triple-A leagues, and NPB.

    1. It's interesting to see that the 2002-2010 teams were essentially as good as the '87-'92 period, but without the 2 WS titles, those aughts teams won't be remembered the same way.

      1. I really would've loved to watch the 96-win Twins take on the 83-win Cardinals in the '06 World Series.

          1. I remembered the offense being pretty bad in that series (7 runs in 3 games), but Radke did have a short start in there, too. Bonser did fine (2 runs in 6 innings).

            1. This is amazing: Despite posting an 88 OPS+ on the year, Jason Kendall was the second-most valuable player on the '06 A's behind Barry Zito.

              In fact, only four A's regulars posted an OPS+ above 90 that season. Only two Twins "regulars" (Lew Ford, RonDL) posted an OPS+ below 90. Neither Lew or RonDL accumulated more than 355 PA.

              1. Ah, Frank Thomas. I remember going to a game fairly late in the season (this one) and watching him blast a home run maybe a half dozen rows directly in front of where I was sitting.

                My dad said going into that playoff series that they should walk him every plate appearance (he did use the words "clog up the bases"). That seemed silly, but he REALLY raked in that series.

                1. One of my best friends tells me that she was flying back to New Orleans from LA when her flight was delayed. She'd had a shitty trip, and was pretty upset with the delayed flight. So, naturally, she headed to the bar to have a glass of wine. She sat down next to a handsome gent and he struck up a conversation about the wine she'd ordered. They chat about wine for a bit, and he suggests she have a glass of some ridiculously expensive wine. He orders the glass for her, pays for it, and then they talk about the complexities of flavors and bouquet, blah blah blah. She finally asks him what he does for a living, and he tells her that he retired from slugging for a living. Turns out Frank Thomas knows a thing or two about wine.

                    2. He used to kill us on a regular basis, but he did it with some class.

                      Yeah, I was super jealous when my friend told me that story. I always feared the big hurt just like I feared the gentleman masher. Totes respect those dudes.

            2. As one in attendance for both home games, yes, it was atrocious. They abandoned the patience that had made them so successful and adopted a swing-at-everything approach that predictably bombed.

      2. And even then they weren't that good. Comparing them to the Evil Empire and they were worse throughout the season. 2006 is the exception but the A's were almost as good.

        1. If by "that good" you mean deserving a WS every 3 years or so, sure. But the Twins were really good for that stretch and I think ultimately it will be underrated due to the struggles they had in the playoffs.

          1. I was basing it on where their ELO line was during the season. It was rarely above the midpoint from the best and average teams. This is a bit muddled because of the comparison with NL teams that don't matter until the World Series, but it seemed that every postseason year they weren't all that close to the top.

            Were they as good as the '87-'92 stretch? Yes they were. They were not in the upper echelon however and they had the misfortune of consistently matching against one of those teams each year in the first round and didn't get lucky.

            1. I think ubes is right to question what we're measuring as "good." The '87-'92 teams were "good" enough to be competitive in a larger division with fewer playoff spots. The '01-'10 teams were "good" enough to make the playoffs six times in ten seasons (plus that lost Game 163 in 2008). In that stretch the Twins spent more $ per win than their playoff opponents exactly once, by about $32,000/win more than the A's. During that time the Yankees routinely blew the Twins out of the water in the playoffs, but they were extremely inefficient with their spending to get there. (The '04 Yankmes spent over 3x as much per win as the '04 Twins. The Yankmes spent more than 2x$/win every other time they met the Twins in the playoffs, including 2.5x$/win in 2009.) That's the kind of thing that can make a difference in a short series. Were the '01-'10 Twins one or two players short of being no-qualifiers "great" teams? Quite possibly.

              It's too bad b-ref & BP lack payroll data for the '87-'92 teams. I'd be curious to see how they compared with '01-'10 on a $ per win basis. I'd also be interested to see if the spread between the Twins and their divisional & playoff opponents during that period. I'd bet it was significantly more equitable.

  6. Trey had his best game of the season last night. He led off the fifth inning with a single that started a five-run inning for his Astros. This happened just after the other team had got a two-out, two-run homer to take the lead in the previous half inning. Trey's hit really gave his team a lift. He eventually scored the winning run on a bases-loaded walk. He got to bat a second time in the same inning and grounded into a forceout at home. It was the first time he put the ball in play twice in the same game. The Astros won 8-4 against the same team that gave them their first loss the day before.

  7. I haven't mentioned beer lately, but DeStihl's "Here Gose Nothing" wild sour gose is something completely different.
    So incredibly sour, but also with complex and subtle flavors that still show up and a really nice finish (because of the sea salt?).

    It reminds me of Mexican suckers (coated in hot pepper and salt crystals): I can't drink only it, but I don't want to drink other beers.
    Unlike Mexican suckers, not cheap.

    1. I really want to try that, but yeah, it's a bit cost prohibitive for something that isn't at least 3% higher in abv.

      1. I think it's under $10 for a 4-pack, so not much different than Surly (smaller cans tho) and hey that's way cheaper than anything good at the bar.

    1. I remember when we dreamed of having Berrios and Meyer in the rotation together. I'm not going to get too excited about Meyer since he struggled so much last year and has just 3 starts this year in AAA, but if he can throw 3 pitches for strikes, he could be really good.

    1. Sheesh, socal. Make an effort!

      Maybe "Balfour walks away" or "Balfour declares retirement"?

Comments are closed.