December 15th 2018
Since we have been doing these journal entries spaced out I will give an update before getting into today specifically. In the last journal I was focused on loosing weight for a work insurance penalty threshold. Did I make the 35 BMI cut off…..well lets see. The first obstacle was the appointment jumped 2 weeks up on the calendar so I had a smaller window. My two workout partners were not able to help push me in the final lap either. They both got injured from us pushing too hard or better known as over training. I thought I was fine until I found out our home weight scale was actually off five pounds when compared to my wife’s doctor office. That meant I had to ramp up the intensity so I took it back to high school wrestling techniques. I layered my clothes, cut my calories to 900 a day, and went solely for cardio for a drop in muscle and water weight. Is that sustainable long term….no, but sacrifices had to be made to save a $1500 penalty. I went to the doctor visit and had to hit 258 pounds to avoid the penalty and I was 258.0 pounds so I did make it. After the visit I went and had some McDonalds, so that wasn’t the best food but I needed a reward after draining my body so much. Since then I have gained about five pounds back as I have not had my workout partners to push me but I have a new gym that I will be working out at starting next year and can get the next level of gains.
What else happened? Well I have been frustrated with working second shift and missing critical family time and insurance costs jumping. My wife had a patient come in and ask if she knew anyone who was a CNC Machine Operator because his company was short handed. I went in for an interview and they were very welcoming and interested. I actually received an offer for a pay raise to start out (when you deduct insurance costs to figure out the actual bring home pay). The only issue is the day I received my offer, my wife also received an offer. She has been through mergers and buyouts around half a dozen times in the last 15 years that she has been at the same physical location. This last buyout was the only time that she was adamant that she needed a change. We both prayed that an opening would present itself. GOD has been very gracious to us and our needs. She was offered a job with a $3/HR raise just to start out to go back to IU Health and be a Ball State University nurse. We had some serious conversations about my job and we agreed that both of us taking new jobs at the same time could cause us to be in a bad situation if any illness issues came up. Also this is the season for weather delays which means one of us would have to miss work during our probation time. So, the decision is that she moved to a new job and I am staying where I am for now for the best stability for our family.
My work has been making cuts to our benefits over the last few years. One was last year when they announced they were cutting our Christmas bonus, Summer bonus, and PIP (performance pay based on having a great quarter of sales/shipments). So this December rolls around and they offer us to work the weekends, which I’m offered every week but due to family time restrictions I turn it down. The caveat is that they are willing to pay an extra $100 for working the weekends. So they took thousands away from us but offered us a way to make a small portion of it back by sacrificing family time. Recently we had to replace our fridge and clothes washer, so I stepped up and gave up 2 weekends to make a small part of that money back. The thing that made it acceptable was knowing I sit on my vacation time throughout the year and take off the last week or two of every year to be with my daughter while she is on Christmas break.
What did I do today? Well I got off work at 2am and went to sleep around 5:30 am and woke up at 12:30pm. I went downstairs and watched some television for about thirty minutes with the family then went to work for eight hours on this Saturday for the overtime money and bonus. My family did some Christmas shopping while I was gone, so when I came home I watched the recorded UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) card from earlier in the day. After that I just relaxed and went to sleep hours after everyone else was in bed since my work schedule blocks my family interaction opportunity.
What does the future hold, well in January, I will begin working out at IU Health Hospital to get my cardio back where it needs to be. I would like to cut another 10 or 15 pounds by the end of summer so I have to be serious on that goal. Also in the spring I will take an interview with a machine shop that is about 3 minutes from my house so see if they can help me get a Machinists Journeyman Card. They do work for Boeing and NASA and routinely deal with exotic metals. It will be a harder job but one that I am willing to do in order to take that next step in growth as well as give me a first shift job again, which means time with my family. That will take four years for the certification but I have almost 10 years in this industry and no certification to show for it now.