Today I got to do an “on-site.” The computer store at which I work sometimes sends a serviceman to troubleshoot and fix computers, set one up, or intall networking devices. The guy who does this asked me to join him because he was intalling network cable, and the one that normally helps him was out on an extended delivery.
When I was in college, I was an “assistant electrician” my freshman year. I changed light bulbs. I needed no electrical know-how, nor did I have any. As part of that job, I also helped the head electrician do technical work, like running conduit. Conduit is like a thin hollow pipe that you slide through walls so you can run wires through it. Installing network cable is a job much like running conduit (although we didn’t use conduit).
We were installing network cable in a hospital; they had ordered a new computer for the nurses’ station, and we had to install it on the network. I set up the computer while the other guy prepared to install the cable. Once I had the computer set up, I wanted to test everything, so I brought up a document and typed something to the effect of, “The employees of [this computer store] wish to sincerely thank the men and women in the health care profession who work diligently to insure our continued health.” I went off and left it. I came back about ten minutes later to grab the screwdriver I had left there, and saw someone had typed, “you are so full of crap” right underneath what I wrote. I chuckled, and all the ladies in the nurses’ station – who had been watching me out of the corners of their eyes – broke into giggles.
I felt very at home there. My mom is (was) a nurse, and all the ladies there were just like her – equal parts caring, humorous, and no-nonsense. They wore scrubs in a variety of colors – light blue, dark blue, orange – and they laughed a lot. But at the same time, I could pick up the (necessary) edge of steel that lies beneath the surface. A short sampling of something I overheard one of the nurses say to another, the speaker was a smart-looking African-American woman in blue scrubs:
“That’s why I had to leave Pediatrics, you know. The children. People come in, wearing a coat, and their kids are in t-shirts and barefoot. What are you doing, wearing a coat, when your kid isn’t? And you wonder why you have to keep bringing them in here, week after week. And one woman, she brought her kid in here; the kid was covered with BRUISES. I said, “Uh-uh. You just sit right there, lady, ‘cause you ain’t going anywhere.” And I went in and sat with the kid. That lady left with the PO-lice. And I told her, “You be glad this is my job. Because if it wasn’t, I’d take you outside and kick your [censored].”
It was fun to get out of the workshop in the back of the store for an afternoon, and to top it all off, a drug representative had catered a meal for the nurses that day, and they let us eat all we could of tacos and teriyaki chicken.
When I was in college, I was an “assistant electrician” my freshman year. I changed light bulbs. I needed no electrical know-how, nor did I have any. As part of that job, I also helped the head electrician do technical work, like running conduit. Conduit is like a thin hollow pipe that you slide through walls so you can run wires through it. Installing network cable is a job much like running conduit (although we didn’t use conduit).
We were installing network cable in a hospital; they had ordered a new computer for the nurses’ station, and we had to install it on the network. I set up the computer while the other guy prepared to install the cable. Once I had the computer set up, I wanted to test everything, so I brought up a document and typed something to the effect of, “The employees of [this computer store] wish to sincerely thank the men and women in the health care profession who work diligently to insure our continued health.” I went off and left it. I came back about ten minutes later to grab the screwdriver I had left there, and saw someone had typed, “you are so full of crap” right underneath what I wrote. I chuckled, and all the ladies in the nurses’ station – who had been watching me out of the corners of their eyes – broke into giggles.
I felt very at home there. My mom is (was) a nurse, and all the ladies there were just like her – equal parts caring, humorous, and no-nonsense. They wore scrubs in a variety of colors – light blue, dark blue, orange – and they laughed a lot. But at the same time, I could pick up the (necessary) edge of steel that lies beneath the surface. A short sampling of something I overheard one of the nurses say to another, the speaker was a smart-looking African-American woman in blue scrubs:
“That’s why I had to leave Pediatrics, you know. The children. People come in, wearing a coat, and their kids are in t-shirts and barefoot. What are you doing, wearing a coat, when your kid isn’t? And you wonder why you have to keep bringing them in here, week after week. And one woman, she brought her kid in here; the kid was covered with BRUISES. I said, “Uh-uh. You just sit right there, lady, ‘cause you ain’t going anywhere.” And I went in and sat with the kid. That lady left with the PO-lice. And I told her, “You be glad this is my job. Because if it wasn’t, I’d take you outside and kick your [censored].”
It was fun to get out of the workshop in the back of the store for an afternoon, and to top it all off, a drug representative had catered a meal for the nurses that day, and they let us eat all we could of tacos and teriyaki chicken.
posted by Mark at 1/30/2004 09:14:00 PM
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