A few months ago it dawned on me what I am good at.

Oh sure there are many things I am good at such as, cooking, yard work, eating, laying around, gaining weight. But in my professional life I have been trying to figure out how I fit into things.

It seems I am very good as a Fixer.

A Fixer is someone who comes in to fix things…yeah, well, duh…

But that is what I do best.

In my career I have been placed in situations where I had to clean up someone’s mess. I am sure you can all identify with that and agree that is sucks. But the thing is, I seem to be good at it.

Here at the City I’ve had to do the same thing. When odd things come up that have possible political ramifications or the possibility of going south or have gone south…they tend to give them to me.

When a road fails and a Commissioner is upset and wants answers, they give it to me. It doesn’t matter what I’m actually working on at the time, they want me to fix it.

Last summer we got a nasty letter from EPD in regards to our City NPDES Permit. The letter threatened $50,000/day fines and all kinds of fun things. My boss gave it to me and the City Manager watched it very closely. It was tough. I had to go back over someone else’s mess and find ways to fix it. It took 6 months, but we got into compliance and I even got a pat on the back from the City Manager.

Now that we are in compliance with the permit, I still have to do the day-to-day stuff associated with it. But the thing is, I am not so good at the day-to-day stuff. Once I get it fixed, I am ready to move on to the next issue and hand off the fixed problem to someone else.

While I feel I’m a good engineer, I think I’m better at fixing things. Yeah, I can produce plans in a timely manner. I can come up with some good designs. But where I excel is when things have gone down the crapper.

One of the reasons I got this job with the City was because of a problem I fixed.

I was working in the private sector with an engineering firm who had a contract with the City to do a mapping and drainage project. I remember it going bad for several years and the City got more upset with each passing month. While I never worked on the project, I do remember hearing about it at staff meetings.

The President of the company got canned partly because of the way he handled, or should I say, didn’t handle this one project. It was not as simplistic as that, but it was close. Anyway, the powers that be assigned me to the project to get it completed. The first thing I did was meet with the guy with the City who I would one day work for. My only purpose was to make him happy. That is how I presented it to him. Cost was no problem, what was it going to take to make him happy?

I was able to figure out what was causing his displeasure and I was able to fix it. After I fixed the problem, he told me that he was taking back his statement about our firm never doing work for the City again.

Later that year, he called me and wanted me to come work for him. It has been one of my better career moves.

So, I am a Fixer. Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t do as well with day-to-day stuff. Maybe it is because I work best under pressure.

One of my favorite movies is Pulp Fiction (WunderWife just stopped reading this post…). No really, I love that movie.

Remember the part where Vincent (John Travolta) accidentally kills Marvin while they were driving down the road?

They had to get off the road and to a safe house pronto to figure out how to get brought in by their little mafia/gang. Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) calls the boss for help and the boss brings in The Wolf (Harvey Keitel).

I identify with The Wolf. Somehow it seems my career is a lot like his part in the movie. Well, without the excessive cursing, dead gangsters and tuxedo…but other than that, it’s just like it:

(heavily edited)

JULES: I don’t wanna hear about no m-f “ifs.” All I want to hear from your a** is: “you ain’t got no problems, Jules. I’m on the m-f. Go back in there, chill them n*****s out and wait for the cavalry, which should be comin’ directly.”

MARSELLUS: You ain’t got no problems, Jules. I’m on the m-f. Go back in there, chill them n*****s out and wait for The Wolf, who should be comin’ directly.

JULES: You sendin’ The Wolf?

MARSELLUS: Feel better m-f?

JULES: Sh*t Negro, that’s all you had to say.

I am the Wolf.

I think I am going to start introducing myself like this:

THE WOLF: I’m Winston Wolf, I solve problems.

JIMMIE: Good, we got one.

Mild Content Warning:

Yeah, so if you have not seen Pulp Fiction, you can get the gist of it from this 30 second clip of it reenacted by bunnies.

Eh, you’ve gotta be good at something.

Tomorrow is Monday.

I bet I get tossed at least one problem this week.

Any takers?