One Bright Spot

Wow, I had no idea this joint’s been jumpin’ while I was indisposed.

Work continues to not be as profitable as it could be. I’m stuck in the same situation I was last year: I’m getting put into smaller assignments with fewer hours, while less experienced and less accurate people are getting put into larger assignments with more hours.

It’s meant to be a compliment to me that I can be trusted on these smaller assignments (less supervision, more customer interaction), and not just lumped into the pool of available bodies. The downside is that working these "premium" assignments doesn’t come with any "premium" pay. It’s the same hourly rate, regardless, and (usually) no compensation for mileage.

So found myself in a situation last week where I would have had to drive 80 miles for 2 hours of work, while others were driving 50 miles for 10 hours of work. (That situation was resolved, more or less, but not without a lot of unnecessary kvetching by all parties.)

I did almost end up with 40 hours last week - a fine accomplishment, if it wasn’t for the fact that there was a not-insignificant number of people who ended up with more overtime last week than I had for all of last year.

And they wonder why I’ve been in a less than pleasant mood when I’ve been calling the office lately? I can do without the "honor" of making less money.

On to more pleasant subjects. Like the arrival of my latest grail, who I had the great pleasure of opening up last night:


(Yes, I know, the desk is mess.)

Yep, the WEG Traditional Man o’ War re-issue, one of only 48. Isn’t he beautiful? I feel extremely lucky to have gotten him at all: I just happened to hop on the Internet at just the right time. Another minute or two more, and I doubt I would have even seen him at all.

It’s a little hard to tell from my photograph, but he’s definitely a darker and richer shade of red chestnut than I’ve seen on most Traditional Man o’ Wars. A lot of them tend toward the orange or even pink, but this shade is much closer to the one they’ve been using on more recent releases like the Foundation Stallion Toreo, but without the metallic undertones.

Another difference: most of the original releases also have a mane and tail that are either slightly darker, or slightly grayer, than the body color, but the WEG MOW’s mane and tail are almost exactly the same shade as the body. It wasn’t a problem unique to him; a lot of earlier Breyer Chestnuts tended to have significantly darker mane and tails, a consequence of the company’s early inability to distinguish between Bay and Chestnut (and later between Chestnut and Red Dun, with Yellow Mount.)

The most obvious difference is the head, with the extra shading and the masked facial marking. And there’s the tag, too.

I was amazed that I got the Man o’ War for the price that I did, especially since the mold’s fortunes seem to be on the upswing lately. He’ll probably be the only WEG re-issue I’ll be owning in the near future (and possibly) distant future, however; the prices people are asking for many of the other super-limited WEG re-issues are somewhere in the ridiculous level. ($500 for the Haflinger, that’s barely distinguishable from the SR Strikey? Girlfriend, please.)