Work update, 8-24-2019 edition

I finally fuckin' got hired on at Moisture Farm on August 6th. My original hire-on date was supposed to be July 29th, but it was pushed back because the person who used to teach the HAZMAT portion of the orientation quit, among other reasons, so they had to find someone else to teach it. I'm in the middle of transitioning from being paid weekly to being paid bi-weekly. I hate being paid bi-weekly. And I'm only getting paid fifty cents more an hour than I did as a temp.

I get health insurance, but it doesn't start until November 1st. I had a blood labs and follow up scheduled for September, but rescheduled them for November so I wouldn't have to go through the torture of paying entirely out of pocket. My medical insurance alone is about $72 every two weeks, which is damn near twice what I paid at Steel Johnson. I'm also getting dental and vision, as well as contributing to a Health Savings Account.

Despite suffering there as a temp for ten months, I still have to go through a 90-day probation period before I can use any vacation or personal time. And by the time my ninety days will be up, Peak will be in full swing, and I believe they usually have the entire month of November blacked out, meaning you can't use vacation time. I'm not sure yet if I can use Personal time during the Blackout period, but one thing I do know is that two of my favorite bands, Slayer and Ministry, are playing in Louisville on my birthday this year, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let Moisture Farm ruin this upcoming birthday like they ruined my last one, where I ended up missing out on getting to see The Psychedelic Furs again.

I actually do kind of like my job. What I don't like is:

• Getting out of bed to go to work,
• Working eight hours plus lunch a day,
• Working five days a week,
• The fucking heat, which it looks like I'll have to put up with for another month and a half.

I mean, if I must work eight hour days, then I'd rather just work three days a week. If I must work five days a week, then I'd rather work four to five, maybe six, hours a day. And actually make a living wage either way. A friend posted a meme recently that people over the age of 40 shouldn't have to work more than two or three days a week. Shit, life goes by faster than I can keep up with anymore, and I fully support that meme. If you don't like this, then you can eat my ass.

Peak will be here before I know it. I'm looking forward to the money, but not looking forward to having even less free time than I already do at forty hours a week or less.

Besides lack of time, I'm still having a hard time getting anything outside of work done due to burnout and depression. I've been meaning to call Centerstone for the past six months to get therapy and psychiatric help, not sure if I should bother since I'll have insurance soon. I've heard recently that a lot of depression is caused by inflammation, and that anti-inflammatory medicines have been shown to be effective in treating depression more than anti-depressants alone. I asked my doctor a few days ago about getting prescribed anti-inflammatory medicine for depression. She said she hadn't heard of this. I can't say I blame her for not prescribing some for me since these studies were pretty recent, and since she's more of a medical doctor and doesn't follow psychiatry. Plus, there probably aren't any that are indicated for treating depression yet.

I hate that I'm dependent on employment for barely-adequate health insurance. I can't tell you how many pickers I've seen come and go on third shift this week alone. These people start out at $2 less an hour than I did starting out, and I don't think I would have put up with that place as long as I did if I were on their pay level.