Redhat Training - Day V

PAH is a mean son-of-a-bitch.

I expected some surly personalities when signing up for this but I have never seen the kind of arbitrary rage that seems to be the hallmark of PAH's outbursts. The odd part is, he can be quite amiable and professional right up to the point where he goes 100%, out-of-control apeshit.

Allow me to step back to the beginning of the evening.

I arrived at 5:40 pm, just in time to get dinged by Chad for being late.

Me - "Hey, so, what has been checked out on the truck so far?"

Chad - "You'd know that if you were here on time."

Me - "I thought that, although you would like us to be here at 5:30, we didn't actually need to be here until 6:00pm, when the shifts change."

Chad - "Well, I guess it's possible that I may have... oh wait, shut up, be here at 5:30, never question me again."

So, the evening was off to a super start. I didn't mind so much being the object of Chad's dry invective, but I prefer it be someone else, that way I can laugh and point, all the while remaining cheerfully unscathed.

As I was checking out the truck, PAH pulled me aside explained that he was sorry that I had misunderstood (kind of a politician's apology with no admission of wrongdoing, but it was a start) the events of last week, but he was going to make sure we all understood this week. I gave him my standard answer: "Okay."

I try to be completely neutral in these situations, primarily because I don't want to become complicit in the dysfunction. I still thought that he was full of shit, but my thinking that was completely immaterial to the situation, therefore, my only recourse was neutrality. I cringe when I see people overcompensate by saying "Oh, it's fine, no biggie, no problem, barely remember it". They lose their footing in the conversation or argument because of their innate desire to reach closure and move on, but in effect it allows the wrongdoer to reevaluate if what he did was actually wrong. This type of compensatory behavior allows assholes to continue acting assholish with no repercussions.

The fact is, sometimes agreement and closure are not to be had. In this case, PAH made the effort, I acknowleded his words without agreeing to them - done.

After truck checkout PAH gathered us around, and explained what was going to happen: we were going on a fake call, he would yell out the address, and we would operate like it was a real fire. Fifteen minutes from the moment he called out to the time we had water running on the site. We succeeded. It wasn't flawless, but it happened and it was great to see everyone working together.

We then spent another hour or two just shooting water everywhere. It was complete and unadulterated fun. We learned ways to save our arms, to pull the attack hose individually, and to work as a team to advance the hose more efficiently. We were all geared up and it was exhausting and exhilarating (granted, had a fire been the target, it would have been even exhilerating-er).

We spent another hour cleaning up, washing hose and reracking the lines on the truck. That's when the deuce hit the sluice... so to speak.

It was closing in on 10 and nobody had eaten. We had been wearing between 40 and 80 lbs of gear for about 3 hours and everyone was famished. Chad - who is, I may have mentioned, not afraid to eat every now and again - was spoiling to get some vittles. Everybody else was waiting for Chad to get the food-getting process underway. PAH, unfortunately, had adjorned to the communications room to take a phone call. Chad tapped on the glass and indicated sustinence was needed right quick.

At this point I had moved over to the other end of the station to put my gear in the rack. As I was wrapping up, I heard the communications door open, followed by this:

PAH - "Get the FUCK out of here!!! I don't give a shit, close that fucking door!!! I will send you home, I don't give a FUCK!!!"

I had a pretty good idea of where this was headed, so I wrapped up and started towards my car. This is where I ran into Chad.

Chad was on the receiving end of PAH's tirade, and he was therefore heading out. I'm surprised he wasn't gone already. He was oddly calm and collected, not the good kind though. Nobody, least of all Chad, can be party to that type of explosion without being emotionally compromised. Chad was showing no affects, which meant to me that I should probably tread lightly.

Prior to last week, I'd seen these type of outbursts only a handful of times in my life, and the aftermath was never pretty. I was bound and determined not to be a casualty of this random anger. But, as Chad was leaving, we discussed my bike. (Chad was going to borrow my mtn bike for a ride that week, so I had brought it to the station). I didn't seem like the ideal time to make a bike transfer, but we agreed to anyway.

I took my bike off my car, put on the front tire, and pulled off a few quick bunny hops to demonstrate my stunning mtn biking prowess, as well as the baseline capabilities of the bike. The asshole who put the front wheel on my bike (me) had done so incorrectly, and it rolled off, mid-bunny hop. I then executed a perfect, pristine, textbook, shoulder-roll, onto pavement.

The four onlookers didn't care about my demonstration of the perfect shoulder-roll, all they cared about was the wreck itself, and how funny it was that a mtn biker would wreck in a parking lot. Clearly my impromptu safety lesson was lost on them.

It lightened up the evening a bit, however, and Chad seemed to haved cooled off a little. After deciding to leave the bike with me for the time being, we chatted a bit more and I took off for the evening. Chad did not follow. It occurred to me that he would likely go back in and try to sort it out with PAH. Chad was duty bound, and he was on duty. I guessed this was his version of coughing up some pride and laying it down at the alter of 'doing the right thing'.