if x+y=c, then the square root of the hypoteneuse must be equal to or greater than the sum of the odometer at noon

i just drove back from a two day charter to keene, new hampshire. a nice little idyll in the mountains amidst the fall colours and the tranquil little towns of northern massachusetts, southern new hampshire and vermont. but my head is ringing for all of the wrong reasons and it wasn't the peal of the simple white church bells in the middle of these little new england towns. rather that as i had expected and now truly know, bus driving for a living is insane enough, but the details within our contracts with management, ie. the little details in which the devil hides and the owners and the lawyers lurk, where every aspect of our tenure with the company lie, from how to dress, how to shave, colour of socks to the most esoteric details that i had to figure out today. as a driver on a charter, you are entitled to a meal allowance from the advance given you in case any unforeseen event should arise, such as a blown tire or the need to refule, motels, etc... but figuring this out takes the moral and spiritual blankness and stubbornness of a bartleby. in short, the nearsightedness of lawyers, who i am sure enough, (having been in the privy of many a union rep), hash things out to minutae. sort of like dividing a half and then dividing it again, ad infinitum, until all you can see is nothing, but the lawyer is sure to say, there it is, in black and white in front of you, can't you see it?!? but, i can't. it took bill and i and a conference call to figure out what i have to claim for a meal allowance... 21.50 and i am still surprised that it isn't 21.49 or 21.48 because i came back twelve minutes before the cock crowed the bells at six. thats the sort of logic that is at work here.
but it can work in your favour as bill reminded me that i am entitled to a little known and arcane right to book off twelve hours if i come back from a multiday charter, effectively putting me to the bottom of the board and probably a few more hours off on a sunday morning than i am accustomed to. but i am still afraid that i will never solve the riddles contained within our contract. it feels as if years went by in unions and managements hands continually going back and forth making small and smaller concessions until you have our mile determined payrate calculated to the thousandth of a cent. don't get me wrong, i am all for the union and know that through our reps, we withstand being screwed and it takes all types. one is a man who i think was pushed into the job and took it on, feeling a need to fulfill his german attention to detail, one is an (almost...?) fanatical crusader for us. i've heard him speak and he loves a cause, but hey, that's what the union is for and one is just truly a nice man, wouldn't hurt a fly, except if it landed on the heads of one of the company lawyers, then i think that he would consider a sledgehammer as a flyswatter. but i am still confused about our 70 odd page contract and i fear that i may never figure out how protection pay is allotted. it seems that i am always on it at $8.86 per hour, but there is also some clause in there about being paid only after the first twelve and one third minutes if its the first day of february or the new moon, but "in the event of a blue moon, the operator shall receive the full rate of protection pay up to/ and/ or including the last three(3) and four-fifths(4/5) of his or her lifetime that is spent sitting on his or her rump in an uncomfortable chair (to be specified as a black chair and as "the chair" from hereon...) at the terminal in the driver's room wondering when it will all ever end" endquote. but i'm kidding... sort of...