The Gentle Hollow

My sprouts are growing… the leaves on the trees swivel and float in the breeze.

The gentle hollow, home to fledglings, 20+ bird species, countless squirrels, and other rodents, plus the occasional raccoon, coyote, or white-tailed deer.

I have had some bad news this week.

The worst one can in my job occupation – aside from a fatality or successful suicide attempt.

This morning I received some good news – the best of times, the worst of times… that is now.

Tomorrow I start back at bus, with 6 hours of re-training before they send me out to do work. After which I will do bus each day as an on-call operator for at least one to two weeks… (Hopefully not more, but worst case scenario – until my surgery, and possibly beyond.)

After that, I am hoping and praying (fingers crossed!) that my ATU representative will pull through with contract verbiage changes that will allow myself (and possibly others) to return to rail if desired (dependent on certain conditions).

It is a good thing, but I do not know how well it can be carried through… will it actually help me? will my coming back actually hurt all operators as a greater whole? Will anyone actually know or understand what happened? will anybody care?

Though for a limited audience and limited reach, I ask… where is the movement? where is it going? how is it affecting me? or anyone else? what is the change in verbiage?