Rock Bottom

I have 6 years until retirement. I had thought these years would be good. After all... we are in the end of our term and we get to work from home sometimes, but that isn't the way it is going.

About every 3 years or so.. we get a lot of work. Sometimes they are small sets.. sometimes large. The large ones are every 10 years or so. My last large one was in 2013. And I fully expected not to have another one. Ever. But I am having another large one and it is the largest I have ever dealt with. I can't believe how bad it has already been and it hasn't even happened yet.

To make it worse we are expecting snow the day before. That is a disaster for two reasons, I will have to go in, and shovelling snow is going to exhaust me the day before a long hard day of work.

I have a helper but she has been MIA. This is a friend but she isn't acting like one and I know I am probably going to snap soon. Her parents are old and her dad went into the hospital for heart failure. And she uses it as an excuse for not going to work. But I called the other day and she was sleeping. She says she has flu. I am at my witz end with the number of people who always have the flu lately. I never ever get sick because I take Vitamin D. I tell people about Vitamin D, they don't take it. IMHO, they want to be sick. I also want to mention she has 5 or 6 brothers or sisters. I pressed her yesterday if she would be available for this work thing and she insists yes. But I have a feeling she is going to not be. When my parents were ill in the hospital I had to go in.

This should be just something I deal with but I was disgusted yesterday to take a call with a manager where he IMHO, basically, threatened me. There is a trouble maker, manager, who wants to be "informed" in case she has to step in. And my manager kept suggesting that he doesn't want to give her any ammo to suggest he screwed up. So now, I guess I am expected to keep her informed? I was about to do that... when I thought - NO WAY. She has got a nerve. It is my event.

This whole thing is so stressful I now worry about my BP. I worked from home yesterday and it was 150/84 by the end of the day.

I have all these people claiming they are going to help me but they never do. We have meetings and I say can you get this or that... and 4 hours later... it might get done.

If I make it through this one I think it might be the last one forever but who knows.