Christmas… the thime of the year we should feel some love, we should be happy and maybe we should spread our happiness, especially in our family. In germany christmas is a time wehre you have 2 additional free days, when you don´t work in jobs that are needed over christmas, like taxi drivers, bus drivers, train drivers, in health system or as police officer and so on. I think you know what jobs i am talking about.
I am also working in such a job, i am working in the chemical industry. We work 24/7 in several shifts cause it would take too long to stop chemical processes and to restart them. It would cost too much money and also is not without danger, when you start and stop hughe chemical production plants. So it´s needed to work all aorund the year. The payment is good, especially on days like christmas. This year christman eve, the 24.12. was a saturday. Oh forgive me, it´s been last year, i forget that we already have 2023. The bonus for working these days we get at 25.th and 26.th. Cause the 25.th is a sunday we work 12 hours on a sunday and 8 hours on the monday. That means i will be paid for 20 hours in these 2 days and get a bonus for additional 30 hours, without any taxes on it, in these 2 days. So i get payed for working 2 days with 50 hours, 30 of them without any taxes… everybody would do this… don´t lie, thats why we do this job, it´s working for 2 days and getting payed for nearly one and a half week. For me it´s about 600 Dollar more just for this two days and both days we had nothing to do, so i was able to watch some tv shows, play a bit genshin impact, talk to my co workers and had some fun. So theres really no chance i would stay at home these days, but then there is christmas…
It´s a tradition that we meet with the family on 24.th for dinner. It´s ok and we really enjoy this, but this year it´s a bit different! those 3 days i had early shift, that means i need to wake up at 3:30 in the morning to get to work. Thats hard, cause when i need to stand up this early in the morning at fridays you need to know that the wednsesday before i came home at 6:30 in the morning. Just think a second about this… you come home at 6:30 in the morning, lay down to sleep, the thursday you need to go to bed as early as possible cause the day after is already friday where you need to get out of the bed at 03:30. You can imagine that this does not really work well. There maybe people out there that can handle this, but early shift is my personal horror.
Normally these 3 early shift days are just sleeping and maybe, but just maybe the next tuesday, when i had mondays and tuesdays time to sleep till 11 o clock in the morning, i am a bit more fit and destressed, so i am no longer tired the complete day.
The money is the important part that forced me to go to work, yes i could have passed this days i have enough free time left from overtime but who would be that dumb, it was really easy earned money.
This year we were not able to make the christmas dinner at our home. My sister in law forced the whole family to come to her house cause they made dog puppies. Yes they made them, they own well trained hunting dogs with papers that will bring a lot of money when sold and their wedding last year was really expensive so i think they needed the money.
Now you can imagine that it´s a bit hard when need to go to work at 24.12. without one second of sleep and when you come home you just have time to shower, get some fresh clothes, drink your fifth energy drink for the day and then need to drive about 60 miles for the dinner.
My wife also knows that it would be verry hard so i was promised that we we sill stay there just for an hour or two, so i thought it would be around 18 o clock when we start driving home again, so that i could be able to get some sleep for the 12 hour shift the next day.
But you really know, when this had happened i wouldn´t write this post, but when i am obvious it nearly happend that i really wouldn´t be able to write this post! It was 18:30 at 24.12. when i startet nagging that i wanted to drive home. I always hear “yes in a minute…” or “…just give me some more time..” so it was around 22:30 when we started driving home. I was really angry about this but i also doesn´t want to drive home alone, i was to anxious that i would have an accident cause i fell to sleep at the steering wheel, but i also knewed that it would get harder and harder with every minute.
Now just imagine for a moment, you know that tomorrow you need to work 12 hours and you are awake for about 30 hours, and need to drive around 60 miles till you get home… nice isn´t it? And yes it was really nice… i found myself on the opposing driving lae a couple of times, i couldn´t keep my eyes open when any car cames from the front, i was driving a complete unknown route, i had never driven before, its verry dark, cause you are out on the land and than suddenly in a roundabout there is a yellow sportscar. It shoots with at least 50 or 60 miles per hour in this hughe roundabout and i didn´t see it. Just the moment my wife realizes the situation and screamed i woke up and hit the brake with all power. It had been millimeters to death. This yellow sports car would have hit the side of our small mercedes class a and it would have been a direct hit on me. I know that i would have no chance to survive this accident if it really happend.
OK for the rest of the way, about 45 miles, i was really awake. My heart was beating like a drum and just imagine what not happend this night… yes i am alive, so i didn´t die, but i got no sleep again, and the next day there were 12 hours of work before me… yeah…
I asked you yesterday if i am to sensitive when i think about my wife is just starting to ruin my business just cause she is jealous abour a fucking dinnertable thats wort a couple of thousand dollars, that my brother in law practicly paid not one cent for, just for the carpenter that finally made the cutting and now also this… she knewed that it would be dangerous driving to her sister at christmas cause i had not on hour of sleep for a couple of days and now we could really be happy that we survived the way home, just cause i was too tired, but i was promised to end the evening 4 hours earlier, not in the middle of the night.
Now i ask again, when you hear this story, do you think this is fair? Do you think i am to sensitive or am i just dumb that i want to make a happy christmas for my wife, that btw… also didn´t had any present for me this Christmas. I know it´s dumb cause it´s my money she buys the presents but i will write another post about christmas and what it is in my eyes… just let us stay here at my actually nearest death experience of all time…
