Yup, still an Asshole. Still confused.

You know, it's funny how life works.

I hadn't intended on blogging this morning. I had forgotten all about the last blog and the promise to revisit the topic. I know, horrible, but it's me.

Anywho, I just happen to pop into 2o2p for a brief scan of the CoD: Black Ops opinions (even though I have the game already) when I decided to remind myself of my blog topics. Tada, here I am.

The ironic thing is that last night I had a contact that fit in perfectly with the previous blog. I can't mention names or be too specific obviously, even doofuses are deserving of their privacy. But, this couple so perterbed me that I had to reflect on it. This couple had an incident, nothing too serious mind you and they aren't "technically" bad people, they're just short sighted people who have no perspective. Their incident involved another person that they would ordinarily never know, near traffic collisions have a way of doing that. But lets just hypothetically construct this person as a much larger ex-military type. When I say much larger I mean MUCH larger, at least larger than the below average stature of the couple in question.

I'm not going to describe anything further, suffice it to say that the couple made a huge mountain out of a rather insignificant mole-hill and became less than polite with my department when they couldn't whine and bitch us into doing something that would be 1: outside of our lawful authority, 2: unconstitutional and 3: without merit because he hadn't really done anything unlawful. Well almost nothing. He had commited a traffic infraction that they wanted to make a federal case out of.

The point isn't the incident anyway, the point is that this couple have every reason to be happy. They seem to be at least financially secure and they appear to have their health as well as each other. That's more than a lot of people can say and it distresses me that they can't simply be happy with that. I'm upset NOT with the call for unreasonable service or their poor attitudes. I'm upset mostly with the fact that they are not grateful for their condition and just happy to be.

In contrast there was another poor sole we had to deal with. Not his finest hour either but I'm not categorizing him with them. He had every reason to NOT be happy, at least not immediately. Again, without going into too much detail this person got into trouble most likely because of an inability to cope with seperation. He's one of thousands of young men and older who have flocked to our area because it's one of few in recession soaked America that has viable employment where a good waige can be earned. At a cost, but it's available. Oilfield personnel in all of the connected professions deal with harsh conditions and non-traditional schedules coupled with very long hours. If you reinforce that potential stress with the inability to have your family (ie: support structure) with you, you increase the potential stress 10 fold.

I couldn't imagine not having my family with me. They are the only thing that keep me from being miserable. I need them as much if not more than they need me and I try very hard to make them happy. So, I have a lot of sympathy for the guys who moved hundreds of miles away from their wives and kids (or even parents, some of them are in their teens) and have nothing in their immediate lives except the strenuous labor of the oil patch. Even modern technology can't take all of the work out of it, it's still very dangerous.

Nope, this kid had been away too long and just had one too many beverages. All of it ended up in behavior he probably would have never exhibited. Hell, it could have gotten him killed but gratefully it didn't.

The point is on the one hand we have a couple with a lot to be thankful for trying very hard not to be and on the other a person with a lot of reasons to NOT be happy and no real tangible support network to help him. Oh sure, there are some assistance but not what he more than likely needs. What he probably needs is to have his family here so that he can do what I do, walk into my house, breathe the air my family makes sweeter and thank Christ with everything I have for it. What he'll get instead is hopefully some court ordered therapy but more than likely fines and some jail time.

Meanwhile, the short-sighted couple have done nothing to get into trouble for really and will suffer no tangible consequences for their inconsiderate behavior. I believe in Karma to a point and I know through experience that misery eventually finds those who seek it.

I really hope it eludes them.