The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: graveyard shift

  • A Shout Out to Graveyard Shift Workers

    Thank you for your hard work and sacrifice.

  • The Art of Artificial Living

    For much of the past 13 years I’ve worked graveyard shifts. Have I gotten used to it? No. It’s an unnatural state, and I hate it. All sorts of studies have proven that people who work graveyard shifts have a whole host of health issues and a much higher divorce rate. I read somewhere that…

  • No More Fried Chicken for Breakfast and Other Self-Imposed Rules

    Since I work graveyard shift, I tend to eat very strange things for breakfast. I get off work at 8 am craving hamburgers, and after eating them, I go to bed for the day. Recently I found this fantastic 24 hour fried chicken place on my route home from work. The only problem is that…

  • Zzzzzzzzz….

    There’s nothing more luxurious, in my opinion, than a long nap on a rainy Saturday afternoon. I revel in turning off the phone, unhooking my bra, kicking off my shoes, putting on something made of flannel, and allowing the mattress to embrace me like a long lost lover. Pure bliss. Rain is hypnotic. Ocean waves…

  • Graveyard Shift Blues

    Staring at the ceiling at 2 in the afternoon—that was my first mistake. You should never remove the towel from your eyes, because that ruins the illusion that you’re trying to foist off on your body that it’s dark outside. I listen to the little yappy dog from next door and fantasize that he’d fit…

  • I am Officially Doomed

    After 12 years of working crazy shifts here on the drawbridge, often two or three different shifts in the space of a week, I’m now discovering that there is an official name for my constant state of mental fog, my messed up immune system, and my apparent inability to lose weight despite all efforts. It’s…

  • A Passing Relationship with the Great Scareball in the Sky

    Unless you’ve worked the graveyard shift like I have for the past 12 years, you are probably unaware that there is a whole other civilization out there, right under your nose. If you are even remotely cognizant of our existence, you probably think we make big money, but I’m here to tell you that most…

  • I’m Freezing My Patooties Off, People!

    Here I am, working graveyard shift on the drawbridge on the coldest night of the year so far. The tenderhouse is suspended 25 feet above the roadway and right in the center of the river for maximum wind chill. The floor is a steel plate with questionable insulation, so the cold radiates through my feet,…