[BoilingOatRunner]

I guess I'm a bit surprised that more people didn't have something to say about this. I kinda figured a lot of people would have had experience in this line of work, but I suppose I'll offer my perspective.

Was looking for a job in the paper back in the mid 90's when I got laid off, saw a wanted ad for a job that was easy money and short hours, and well, long story short, I've been running boiling oats around in New City for about 9 years.

I'll tell you this. The first couple of months are pretty brutal. Until you figure out how to get a solid grip on the boiling oat bucket, you're going to burn yourself, a lot. And they don't tell you this up front, but you can't wear any protective gear on your hands or arms either. And whoever suggested that wagon thing, yeah, you'd think that would be a good idea, but this guy Bruce tried that one and the supervisors tasered him in the balls. No joke. They try to tell you the supervisors will cut you some slack, but that's just a bait and switch. If you slow down because you burned yourself, or you step more than 2 feet off the line, you're not going home without at least 2 or 3 lashes. And one day, well, I got a pretty bad cramp and slowed down for a few steps. Let's just say, having one of the supervisors knock you down from behind onto a hot bucket of boiling oats is not so great for your skin.

And forget about ever showing up drunk or wearing socks. My buddy Joey did that once. Great guy, he'd put in over 19 years of stellar boiling oat running and was one of the top points-leaders for making supervisor. His dog died one night and he went out and got wasted. He showed up pretty drunk around 4:30, and the supervisors caught on pretty quick. He couldn't keep up with me that day on the oat run, and all I know is that I heard a loud crashing sound from behind me after about half a mile. His funeral was a few days later. I still miss him.

But look, there's a lot of positives. I mean, I'm done working for the day almost every day by 4:45 AM, which leaves me time to go to the doctors for my daily skin grafts and physical therapy from all the third degree burns. And you can definitely play poker afterwards, like Assani suggested, but you'll probably need to get some voice recognition software since your hands might not work so good.

But hey, it's a great job. I'm always looking to get some more people recruited too, so I can make supervisor in 12 years.

Best of luck, Assani. Hope to see you out on the oat run soon!

-BoilingOatRunner