The Dreaded Day Job

Christa asked about my day job…well, today it kicked my you-know-what.

When I started blogging back in March, I vowed not to steal from my “real” writing time to create these silly posts. Which means, er, I use “work” time to do it. Usually, I start in the morning, add things over the course of the day, and post just before I blast out of my office. Today...well, the best plaid plans and all that.

I work full time for a company my dad started 54 years ago. He’s retired now, leaving my brother and I to run things. We make environmental test chambers which is another way of saying we make “boxes” that are anywhere from 1-1/2 cubic feet to room-size for testing stuff that needs to be subjected to specific conditions before it’s sent off into the real world.

Picture the Canadian postal system’s mail being delivered to the hinterlands where the weather’s pretty nasty. Wanna make sure the glue on the postage stamp stays stuck in 30 below, right? Ah, test it in a Bemco chamber!

Now, picture the Mars rover deploying those funny-looking balloon thingies to slow its decent to the surface. Wanna make sure the mechanism that fires said balloon thingies works in whatever the hell that atmosphere is like, right? You get the gist.

Anyway, that’s what we do. We simulate environments. Temperature, altitude, humidity, salt/fog, vacuum…blah, blah, blah. It’s not particularly high-tech and it sure ain’t interesting (so now you know why I started writing). (If you just have to know more--insert hysterical laughter here--visit our website, but be forewarned: it hasn’t been updated in ages.) Bemco Inc.

The question is, would I get more writing in if I didn’t work a day job? I don’t think so. There’s only so many minutes and hours I can sit in front of the computer with that famous vein open, trying to get the words to leak out.

I’m also lucky that for the most part, my job is pretty stress-free so I still have a little creative juice left over when I get home. (A vendor I happened to be on the phone with today asked to speak to my boss. “Speaking,” I said sweetly.) But if I had hungry little mouths to feed (eek) or (cough) a husband to attend to, I’d probably never write a word.

That said, one thing I know for sure. If you truly wanna write, you’ll find the time. I’m on a zillion loops with women (both published and unpublished) proving it everyday. They crack me up with stories of hauling their alphasmarts to soccer games, doctors’ appointments, and ballet lessons. They inspire me by rising before their families, just to squeeze in some writing in the morning. They amaze me by juggling jobs, families, illnesses and tragedies while continuing to pursue their dream..

Sometimes I feel like such a slacker.