I LOVE MY JOB . .. . . .


If you don't laugh out loud after you read this you are in a coma! This is even funnier when you realize it's real! Next time you have a bad day at work think of this guy.

Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana . He performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs.

Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio station 103.2 on FM dial in Ft. Wayne , Indiana , who was sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won.

Hi Pamela,

Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not so bad after all .

Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job.
As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It's a wet suit. This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've used it several times with no complaints.

What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi.

Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit. Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't stick to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate.

When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my butt.
I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically.

Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, th e medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't poop for two days because my butt was swollen shut.

So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt.

Now repeat to yourself, 'I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.'

Now whenever you have a bad day, ask yourself, is this a jellyfish bad day?

May you NEVER have a jellyfish bad day!!!!!

In August 2002, I was certified as a private pilot by Evelyn Johnson, then 92 years old. I still remember her boarding the Cessna 172 with two pillows so that she could see over the dash. Unforgettable moment...

This lovely lady passed away Thursday at the age of 102 years young.

Below is an excerpt from the New York Times:

"In 2002, Mrs. Johnson, then 92, was the oldest flight instructor in the world, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. She continued teaching for three more years. Born just six years after the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903, she flew 5.5 million miles, equal to 23 trips to the moon.


(Her hours, as regulations require, include periods when students were at the controls, but she, as instructor, was in charge. This last happened in 2005.)

The record for hours flown is held by Ed Long, an Alabamian, who had racked up more than 64,000 hours — most of that under 200 feet as he surveyed power lines in a Piper Cub. Legend has it that one of Mr. Long’s last statements was “Don’t let that woman beat me.”

Had she been able to fly after she developed glaucoma and her leg was amputated after an auto accident in 2006, Mrs. Johnson might have done just that. As it was, she continued to manage a local airport beyond the age of 100.

She taught 5,000 student pilots before she stopped counting, and certified more than 9,000 for the Federal Aviation Administration. Nicknamed Mama Bird, she taught future pilots of jetliners and cargo planes, future airline executives and former Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee.

When it came time in Senator Baker’s flight test for him to deliberately stall the plane, he told Mrs. Johnson, “This airplane wasn’t made for stalls.”

“I told him that if we don’t do them he’d just have to get along without his private pilot’s license,” she recalled. “He did them.”

This was definitely an extraordinary woman. My thanks to Josh for bringing her story to my attention.

This is amazing!

Over the years I have learned that my faith will see me through especially at those times when I haven't a clue what to do or how to make it through the day. I have counted on the rainbows to follow. Saying thank you is part of my daily prayers. I begin everyday that way and end each day in gratitude. I find myself saying a thank you prayer when I pass an accident and realize if I hadn't been caught by the previous red lights that might have been me. Or when the nurse gets a vein in on stick. When I hear from family I am always grateful because I know lives are busy these days. I am taking the time to notice, to pay attention to the rainbows that are in my life.

"I most want to thank Maya Angelou for helping me to be brave. In my most fearful moments, she has been the one I relied on most, and called first.


Years ago I phoned her complaining about what I've now long forgotten. She shared these words, "Courage is the most important of all th...e virtues, without it, you can practice no other." It takes courage to be kind when others are not. It takes courage to be truthful when a lie might suffice. It takes courage to keep moving forward, when you'd rather quit. I've learned that courage, or opting for bravery, is feeling the fear and still doing what is necessary to overcome it. And in the very act of bravery you don't feel brave but just feel what is true and most real.

Ironically one of my most desolate moments, barely being able to speak in between sobs of despair, I called Maya looking for comfort and sympathy. Instead she sternly chided me, "STOP IT" she said. "Stop your crying right now and say THANK YOU!"

"Why would I say thank you for this?" I said. "Say thank you because you know God, and you know He put a rainbow in every cloud. The rainbow is coming. Say thank you even though you can't see it. It's already there."

So in the worst of times, I still remind myself of that great lesson and say "Thank you"…and then prepare to see the rainbow."

Recently, I saw a beautiful blue bird while at Seminole Park. I hadn't seen one here before and have now seen one twice. I love their bright blue colors and and seeing one makes me smile. Maybe that is why they have become synonymous with happiness. 


I also love Robins. You are exactly right, it is because they represent the coming of Spring.

For fun and entertainment, I enjoy the Pelican.  

Finally the fourth bird I enjoy watching is the Eagle. It is a symbol of our freedom and a grand bird of grace in flight.