Wednesday Thoughts

~ beetleypete

Reading things online, and looking at Twitter, I am suddenly reminded that it is Wednesday.

For everyone still working, at least those still able to work during lockdown, that middle day of the week has some significance. It still seems a long way to go until the weekend promises a break from toil, and the chance to do ‘weekend stuff’.

And it is two more days until that ‘Friday Feeling’ brings the promise of two days not having to get up early unless you want to.

I have to go back a very long time if I want to recall either of those feelings associated with days of the week. Almost forty-one years, to be precise. Because that was the last time I ever worked in a nine-to-five job. Friday evenings were either ‘eat out’ nights, or ‘go to see a film at the cinema’ nights. Something pleasant crammed in to the end of a working day, to get a head start on a weekend of enjoyment.

Saturday nights were ‘friends over for dinner’ nights, or ‘going to friends for dinner’ nights. Sundays were usually reserved for ‘visiting mum’, or ‘roast dinner with family’. By the time it got to four in the afternoon on a Sunday, I was already dreading having to go to work the next day. That feeling usually ruined the rest of what became a dull evening.

If we were really lucky, the whole weekend might be a ‘weekend away’. Friday and Saturday night staying in a hotel somewhere, the enjoyment only dampened by returning home in the usual heavy traffic on a Sunday in London.

Then I started to work in a job that involved shifts.

Weekends became a thing of the past. I was working three out of four of them, so they lost any significance. Then on the one when I wasn’t working, I slept away most of the first day after a night shift. Monday morning stopped being something to dread. I was either out of the house well before six, or sleeping in until getting up for a late shift that started at three in the afternoon.

No boring ‘midweek Wednesday’ feeling any longer. No ‘Friday feeling’ to excite me.

Just shifts.

Now my life could not be more different. The days of the week have no relevance to my life whatsoever. I might go shopping on a Monday, or I might not. I take Ollie out every day, whatever day that is. I don’t miss any ‘Friday feeling’, because every day might just as well be a Friday. Or a Sunday.

Or a Wednesday, for that matter.

64 thoughts on “Wednesday Thoughts”

  3. I’ve worked shift work in 24/7 style jobs – – I’ve worked Mon-Fri 8-5, weekends and holidays off – I’ve worked multiple jobs while running a side business…thus? My Sabbath where I recharge my soul happens off an on throughout the week – sometimes for a full day here and there – -My ‘friday/Saturday night feeling’ hits and that tells me I need a break and need to do something purely for the fun of it – – The only bad thing is I have to set alarms, calendar reminders, etc., in order to not drive others in the world crazy with my ‘total time displacement’ issues – – LOL

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  5. I spent quite a few years working different shifts—days, swing, graveyard—and also weekends and holidays. I even had a job once where my two days off weren’t consecutive. And I’ve had two jobs where I worked several weeks straight without a day off. But, of course, I’ve also had Monday-Friday jobs, so I know the Wednesday feeling, and the dread of having to return to work on Monday. As for now, I’m semi-retired, but I could use more work….

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  6. One of the things I like best about retirement is there are days where I have to remember what day of the week it is. I miss the organizations that I volunteer with as COVID has affected them, but otherwise, I have the freedom of not so many responsibilities.

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    1. I did a lot of voluntary work when I first moved here. I taught cycling safety to the kids at the local school, worked for the Fire and Rescue Service fitting smoke alarms in the homes of elderly and disabled people, and also worked one day a week as a guide at the restored windmill. But I gave it up when they kept asking for more and more time, treating me like an (unpaid) employee.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  7. now that i am back to a 9-5 job, weekends are special until Sunday afternoon. the upside is i work from home so i don’t have to rush in the morning. and because i don’t commute, my weekends start on Friday at 5pm. 🙂 🙂

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  8. You are well deserving of every night being a Friday or not. I know that feeling late on Sunday when you have to get ready for Monday. My work is very hard, never a 9 to 5, but I’m lucky that it is filled with children and good times.

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  9. Being in the Navy was all shift work. They changed the times, too. Sometimes 3 days on, 72 off. Sometimes 12 hour shifts 2 days on, 24 hours off. That was hard. I’ve worked most of my life in the food industry. No weekends or holidays for me. One of the major reasons I became a teacher was so I could enjoy the academic calendar. It’s the most civilized schedule I have known and makes up for those days when teenagers aren’t cooperative. The summers to travel! It’s made my life outstanding.

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    1. My first wife was a university teacher/lecturer. She had almost 17 weeks of every year as holiday, though she spent around two of those weeks grading papers. She was completely ‘relaxed’ in her job! 🙂 x

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  10. It’s strange that I feel a little guilty if I laze around Mon-Fri, but doing the same on Saturday or Sunday seems acceptable…

    I also remember working some night shifts with my roommate during University days and having a beer at 8 am on the porch after work while watching everyone else go to work. They must have thought we had problems.

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  11. I am a 8.30-5 Monday to Friday and I do love what I do. I sometimes have a couple of clients in the vending too but I enjoy it. The weekends are definitely down tools time, catching up on washing, making dinners I don’t have time to make during the week. Saturday nights tea is always a Chinese but Saturday is technically my lazy day lol. I’d love to have more time off to go and pursue some photography and drive to the not so local places but I often think that if I had more time off would I bother? lol. I think if I had less responsibilities at home it would happen more often (caring for my elderly diabetic dad who just about makes himself a sandwich and is regimental in his Mel times kinda puts any notion of driving somewhere not so local). I do envy you all and think one day that will be me but no yet. Another 14 years to go lol

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    1. I worked every day from the age of 17, until I was 60. 33 years of that work was in incredibly stressful emergency services jobs. I felt I had to go at 60, even though I had to wait for 5 years after that to get my state pension to add to my work pensions. I hope that you manage to enjoy your retirement, Siobhain, as you deserve it just as much as I did.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  12. Now that I’m teaching on Zoom I feel less of the dread of Monday’s, I teach in sweats, often barefoot, from my lounge chair! Zoom is not the best for students and that breaks my heart but I believe we’ll be back in the classroom soon! Nice thoughts Pete, C

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    1. I have never done a ‘Zoom’, or even a ‘Face Time’. I regard video calling as an intrusion on my privacy and peace. But I can see you have no choice, so glad it works for you, Cheryl.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  13. After working shifts for 48 years and now retired, I’m continually surprised just how many still work 9-5. Still seeing sunrise on midsummer day and not being awakened by a alarm clock at 6.00 on a winter’s morning, was more than compensation.

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      1. i’d like to think that my crew felt the same, we were all passionate about making good movies. And, I had an email today from my former partner who bought my video production company in 2008 when we left South Africa to say it is still going!

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  15. Weekends have become a time for us to avoid – avoid shopping, avoid going for a drive, avoiding anything where more people might cluster. I did my share of shift work. It did not bother me when I was young, but later in life it would not have been my choice. I like being oblivious to the counting of days – except I am definitely on the countdown to spring!

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    1. I worked 12-hour shifts almost up to the day I retired at 60. They became harder and harder to recover from, especially as I did five on a rota, so worked 60 hours before a day off. I don’t miss that at all, Maggie.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  16. During my last year in teaching I loved Wednesdays as I didn’t go into school on that day as I was on secondment for an education company and could work at home or visit other schools for meetings. I enjoyed that work far more than the teaching and happily continued to do it for another three years after leaving. Unfortunately it was only part-time and I didn’t make much money, but much better than being in an actual classroom.

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    1. Before I left school, I had intended to be a teacher. My first thought was to be a History teacher, but then my French teacher suggested I apply to study in Paris, and become an English teacher in France. That was my plan for a while, until I lost the plot and left school early. But from what I now know about teaching in the late 1970s, I think it was just as well I didn’t do that.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  18. Having worked a corporate workweek as well as an entrepreneurial “anything goes” one, I know what you mean, Pete. Here’s a story to give you an idea of TV life: my wife and a co-worker were filming a TV show in New Jersey – the filming went on and on…then her phone alarm went off – to wake her up for the next day’s filming! They ended up shooting for 26 hours straight, then drove into New York for manicures before going back to the set to begin the next day. True.

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  21. I was happy to jump off the wheel all them years ago, and whist I have the kids to give me a sense of what day it is, I can find myself struggling to know the date, even the month. We do always have a roast on a Sunday though, a tradition that is hard to leave behind and one that we are happy to pass onto the kids 🙂
    I distinctly remember weekends starting on a Thursday when I worked last 🙂

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    1. I still sometimes cook a Sunday roast, though we have it in the evening, not at lunchtime. But I broke that ‘tradition’ when we moved to Norfolk, so it might just as easily be something else to eat on a Sunday.
      Cheers mate, Pete.

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  22. I think I’ve probably said before that, even though I am effectively retired, I still like to retain the structure of the week/weekend pattern; also, I listen to the radio constantly during the day, so I always know it’s the weekend because the programmes are different! The only morning I don’t look forward to at the moment is Friday, when I get up early, in the dark and cold, because I want to get my weekly shop in before the supermarkets get busy and the queues are inevitably longer: getting there at around 08:00 means I can be in & out in about 10-15 minutes, which suits me very nicely, and once I’m back home, I can relax for the rest of the day, knowing the weekend is ahead! Cheers, Jon.

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    1. I avoid Friday/Saturday for supermarket shopping, as they are always the busiest days in the local town. But I am glad to hear that you still like to have some structure to your week, Jon. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  23. I know it’s Wednesday because it says so on my pill box.
    (Unless I forgot to take yesterdays…)
    All dietary supplements so far, but I like to keep hubby company when he’s taking his prescription poppers.

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  25. I worked shifts for a long time but I was a uni student too. Then I worked a regular job but had a second job often on the weekends. It seems I look forward to weekends but never really made the most of them. Keeping busy seems to help me. Best wishes Pete.

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  26. I stopped working in an office when I became a mother. Now 27 years later, I have Thursday being writing group afternoon, and every third Thursday evening too. And Friday is go see my mother day, at her place. And every single day might be get more writing done, whether poetry or prose. And starting next week Monday will be writer in residence at a particular Cafe time, in a town close to my home.

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