wabudo

I did a 72 hour shift at work once. I was working on construction at that time and the project was late. We needed to finalize a certain area in order to have the project over 50% ready by the weekend. The law for value added tax was coming to effect then and if the project was under 50% finished the contractor would have to pay VAT for the whole project.

Anyway. The first 48 hour were a breeze, no problems. Just a normal sense of having stayed awake for a long time. We worked for about 3 hours at a time and then took a 20 to 30 minute break, had coffee and some sandwiches. After that the lack of sleep really kicked in. I remember that despite being cold, wet from the pouring rain (we were working outdoors) and trying to work I fell asleep while standing. I woke up the instant I lost balance, but I remember the feeling of falling asleep and then waking up to feeling of falling. I was not nice. I do not remember any breaks or having eaten during the last 24 hrs. Once we finished the task we had a three hour drive home and I was the designated driver. The drive was incredibly dangerous. I remember at one point looking at a long straing part of the road and thinking "I could take a nap and then handle the turn at the end". Once I think that I fell asleep and almost drove off the road. I woke up to the change of sound coming from the tires. It was a huge shock and really sent some adrenaline coursing through my veins. I stayed awake for the rest of the trip thanks to that. Once I got home I took a long shower and slept for 21 hrs straight.

You got it. The contractor avoided tens of thousands of dollars worth of value added tax because we managed to cross the 50% line. And we got paid handsomely too. If I recall correctly we got about two and a half weeks worth of pay for those three days.

They (my dad and our co-worker) took some beers as soon as we left the site. I had agreed to drive since I was in the best shape physically and mentally. Meaning the most alert at the time.

Did you get any official recognition in Finland? Congrats from Sauli or Juha Sipilä?