“Hey. Can I borrow….?”
These are probably the words I dislike the most at work. I am not talking about “darn, I left “X” at home” or “rats! My “ZYZ modulator” just croaked without warning.” I am talking about basic crap you need to have to perform your job and to take care of a very basic emergency.
Let me give you an example: Every year at work, we must read and sign the rules & regulations applicable to our job. This is done over a period of several days, one or two regulations at the time as to make sure you understand what you are signing and even there is a brief discussion about it. One of the things we have to have with us at all times is a pen and notebook as we are either gathering info or keeping checklists or making entries at different locales at work. This is not a new thing. Just last week, the forms with the pen & paper regulation came up and one of my co-workers (somebody working there for quite sometime) asks me:
“Can I borrow your pen?”
Are you frigging serious?
When I started working at this place and trying not to be that “New guy is an asshole” I would lend some of my stuff with the naive idea that my coworkers were just not as into being prepared as I was. But soon I came to realize that I had become the efficient toolbox that they could draw stuff from and not having to spend money or worry about it. I flipped the switch and suddenly my stuff became my stuff if for nothing else that “I might need it and if I do, i want t with me.”
-Can I borrow your flashlight? You can if you pony up $5 for the batteries (or the alternative: You need to leave a $80 deposit with me. You break it, you buy it)
-May I have your multitool to fix my whactmacallit? Sorry dude, I left it at home (One jackass actually managed to break a Leatherman and even refused to pay for the shipping to the manufacturer.)
-I cut myself, do you have a band-aid? No, but I have duck-tape. Want some?
By now, nobody asks me for squat anymore. guess they somehow were able to figure out what a clue is. And I may even grant you that some of the equipment could have been issued by the company, but even then I would not depend on that just because the items would not be in my control for proper maintenance making them unreliable (If you need flashlights at work, you know what I am talking about. Somebody always forgets to order new batteries.)
And let’s not even go into the emergency training part. Other than dialing 911, my coworkers are useless on emergency stuff. I am willing to be that maybe two at most know CPR and probably none know how to treat a bleeder of any size. Immobilization is what happens to them at the sight of an injured person and if they can manage to do it without being caught, they will disappear rather than take charge or even assist in an emergency.
So be smart: learn, prepare yourself and don’t share your supplies. They have made the conscious decision to depend on the kindness and preparation of others (They pay taxes, you know?) and even if it is un-christian, not to help them, fuck ’em as you come first.
Being disappointed is a fact of life. Being disappointed in an emergency can cause death by stupidity. I plan of trying to stay alive.
To me borrowing one of my guns is like asking to borrow my wife or my child. It isn’t done period.
One day a neighbor of mine who at the time was an L.A. City Deputy Mayor and I were discussing earthquake and other disaster preparations, when out of the blue he mentioned to me that if he ever needed to borrow a gun he would come to me. I remarked, what do you mean? Well if I need to borrow a gun to protect myself or family after a disaster I know where to come to borrow one. I politely answered, Gee I can’t do that, your (political) Party made it illegal for me to lend you a firearm, I would be breaking the law. You should have seen the look on his face. He couldn’t believe his beloved Democratic Party would pass a law that would negatively affect him. I finished the conversation with advising him to go through the process, purchase his own firearms, and practice with them. I don’t think he took my advice.
at least he learned the lesson when lives were not at stake
I did sometime as a tech at a Ford dealership. All techs have a ton of money invested in tools and the boxes to hold them. My neighbor in the next stall was always borrowing some little tool. Specialty tools I can understand, but he was borrowing things that should be every techs basic load. Why doesn’t a tech have a 13 mm wrench? Some peoples kids.
Don’t loan if you can’t afford to lose it!
Boy I think I read this post before…
But I hear ya and agree completely. I hate being unprepared. Curse those boy scouts for starting to teach me self reliance at an early age…
Back when I used to smoke, I used to carry a pack of clove cigarettes specially for folks who tried to bum one too many. If you’ve never tried one, cloves are harsh as rasps compared to normal cigarettes: chunky-style smokes. Goober would try to bum one, I’d let him have a clove, he’d try to inhale and cough his lungs out… and never bum off of me again. Good times.