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Episode 1. I Don’t Want You To Be Happy
It was 10 p.m. and the moonlight was dazzling. Room 101, on the top floor of Hotel Waverick Seattle, was pitch black, and there was the faint sound of breathing.
Natalie Davidson opened her eyes, but the world before her was so muddled that she couldn't see clearly. Her body felt strange as if it had caught fire and she was burning alive. Someone seemed to be lying on top of her, pressing down, but no matter how much she struggled to push him away, he remained motionless.
Her mind was a mess and she couldn't think straight. She only vaguely remembered that the previous night she had welcomed her fiancé back from his travels abroad, and then because she was so happy and drunk, she had been brought to her stepsister's room to rest. She hadn’t expected to find this when she woke up.
"Who are yo–" Natalie's voice was cut off by a heavy gasp from the man, and his grip on her body got tighter and tighter. She didn't have the strength to push him away. "Let me go …"
She had never felt like this before. A wave of lust washed over her, and she could not help but respond to him. Her body was exceptionally hot and she frowned. Something wasn't right. The feeling of lust faded and she suddenly felt terrified, but she couldn't stop the man. As he pushed into her, she felt herself losing consciousness until finally she couldn't stay awake any longer and passed out.
Outside, the sky was dark. Around three in the morning, the cell phone on the bedside table vibrated violently. With a frown, the man woke up from his sleep. His gaze slid across the messy bedsheets and then over to Natalie, who was covered only by a thin blanket. His expression immediately darkened. He picked up the phone and slammed it down. The hostility in his eyes was clear. These people had actually dared to drug him. They must have gotten tired of living.
Steadily, he got up, threw back the covers, and went to take a shower in the bathroom. Afterward, without a trace of hesitation, he turned and left the room, as if the person on the bed was just an object he didn't need to pay attention to.
When Natalie woke up, it was morning.
The moment she opened her eyes, she felt pain. She had a splitting headache and her entire body was extremely sore as if it had been beaten. She sat motionless at the head of the bed. The events of the previous night flashed through her mind like a movie, making her tremble with despair. The man who had assaulted her was obviously not her fiancé, Nick. How could she have lost her virginity under such strange circumstances?
What should she do?
What on earth should she do?
She hurriedly picked up her clothes from the floor and put them on. She wanted to go home quickly and wash up; she couldn’t bear to stay in this room even a second longer. But the moment she opened the door, she saw Nick, who was standing outside with a shocked face, alongside her stepsister Sheryl and her father Tom, who both looked furious.
"Nick?"
Natalie didn't know how to explain and barely got a grip on her thoughts before she was slapped in the face by her father. The mess in the room had not been cleaned up and the evidence of what had happened there was obvious.
"Look at what you’ve done! You’ve cheated on your fiancé, you’ve embarrassed me, you’ve embarrassed the whole family! How could I have raised a daughter like you?"
Nick gripped Tom’s hand tightly and frowned as he looked at her face. "Natalie, how could you do this?"
"No, no." She shook her head with all her might, trying to clasp his hand, afraid that he would leave. “I was drunk last night. I only came back to the room to rest.” She suddenly looked at Sheryl, who was standing in front of her with wide eyes. “You did this, didn’t you? You were the one who brought me back to the hotel last night, to this room. Why did you do this to me?"
When Sheryl heard this, she looked wrong. "I don't understand what you're saying. I did no such thing."
"You didn't?" Natalie growled as her anger reached its peak. "Then how did I end up in someone else's room? Why would that man–"
"Enough!" Nick interrupted her with a loud shout as if he didn't want to hear any more. "You want to blame someone else for what you've done?" He looked at her coldly. "I only left for six months and you're already this desperate. Did you really have to climb into someone else's bed?!"
Natalie hugged her arm in panic as tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped onto the carpet. She couldn’t believe Nick was saying these things. They had been together for three years and were about to get married.
"Nick," she said in a low voice, practically begging as she looked at the resolute man in front of her. "Please believe me …"
"Don't say any more, just listening to you disgusts me." With a look of pure disdain, he turned around and strode off down the corridor. "The engagement’s off. I don't want to see you again."
His words were like a sharp knife stabbing straight into her heart. Despair slowly spread through her and was on the verge of spilling out. It was so painful that she could no longer breathe.
"Nick!"
She staggered after him, but her father grabbed her by the arm and shoved her to the floor.
“Natalie, you’re no longer part of this family. From this day on, you’re not my daughter!”
She was stunned. After they left, her head was in shambles; she didn't even know how she made it home, but by the time she did her belongings were already packed and left by the door. Tom had even booked a plane ticket for her, and he told her to pick up her stuff and leave the country immediately.
"Natalie, are you alright?"
She was in a daze as she lowered her head to pick up her things. Sheryl walked down the steps at a leisurely pace. When Natalie ignored her, she didn't get angry. Instead, she laughed. "Do you really want to know how you ended up in that room? Let me tell you. You were right, I put you there. I did it because I want to marry Nick and I can't stand the thought of you being happy with him."
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Episode 2. Exile
Natalie raised her head and bit her lip. She was so angry that she couldn't utter a single word. Her whole body was trembling with fury. She couldn't understand why Sheryl would ruin her life like this.
"Hmm” Sheryl smiled, “So what if you’re angry?" Sheryl played with her curly hair and sneered. "Nick doesn't believe you. Your father doesn't believe you either. You can go abroad and live on your own."
Natalie was furious. "Why are you doing this to me? Why are you running my life? Why"
She rushed forward hysterically and wrapped her hands around Sheryl’s neck, but Sheryl didn't resist. She only blinked pitifully at her. "Sister, don't hurt me … Last night really wasn't my fault … What are you doing?"
Hearing the commotion, Tom rushed out, looking so angry that the veins on his neck stood out. He raised his hand and pushed Natalie to the ground. "Are you crazy? Are you trying to kill your sister?"
Natalie fell to the ice-cold sidewalk, where she remained. Unable to bear the pain any longer, she was on the verge of tears. She thought of her mother and her childhood, but no matter how hard she wished, she could never return to that time.
Rosemary, her stepmother, came up behind her. When she saw the marks on her daughter's neck, she was so angry – just like her husband – that she raised her hand and slapped Natalie.
"You uneducated brat! You're just the same as your mother! You might as well die!"
The more she slapped, the harder each slap became. Tom stood beside her, but he only seemed to be concerned about Sheryl's injuries. As the attack went on, Natalie’s vision grew blurry from the blows, but all she could feel was the coldness in her heart as if all warmth had left it.
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At that time, in his office at the Clair Group, Bryce was looking at his assistant with a malicious expression.
"What's going on?" His face was so gloomy that his gaze could bore holes through a person. "How is the investigation going?"
His assistant was sweating under his gaze, but he swallowed and told him the news. "It's Evan Wilson."
Bryce knew of Evan. A while ago, he had worked with the Clair Group on a project and had taken many kickbacks from it. Bryce didn't like his way of handling things, so he had sent his men to destroy the Wilson family. Right now, the Wilsons were on the verge of bankruptcy and collapse.
"Evan bribed the hotel's waiter and drugged you. He probably wanted to use this to …" The assistant's voice trailed off until he was no longer breathing.
The situation was clear now: Evan was behind all of this. Bryce had never thought that something would go wrong and that he would have to completely deviate from his original plan.
"I checked, Evan booked a room in the hotel last night." The assistant looked up at him hesitantly, then looked down again. "But you didn't use it …"
Bryce's expression suddenly changed and he asked in a low voice, "What do you mean?"
The assistant was confused. He could only look at his face and repeat hesitantly, "You didn't use the room yesterday."
If he didn't go into his room, then who was the woman who had been lying on his bed? In his mind, he saw broken images of her flushed cheeks and her body writhing beneath him, but what he remembered clearest were those cries of grief and heart-breaking pain. He suddenly remembered the crimson spots on the sheets that he had noticed before he left — the woman had been a virgin.
Bryce's brows knit together. He told his assistant in a deep voice, "Go check the identity of the woman who was in my room immediately."
He wanted to know where she had come from.
The assistant immediately hurried off to do as he had been told. But no matter how fast he moved, he wouldn’t be able to find any useful information. The hotel’s surveillance tapes had already been wiped by Sheryl. How could she possibly leave behind evidence that would show that she had set Natalie up? Naturally, she had had to cover her tracks. After doing this, she continued to pretend that she was innocent, and gloated as she watched Natalie get kicked out of her house in a sorry state.
Natalie didn't even stay a night before she was packed off and sent out of the country. She lugged her heavy luggage onto the plane. She had been exiled without knowing when she could return.
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Episode 3. You’re My Daddy
Five years later, Natalie stood in the first-class lounge at Heathrow Airport, staring at the two tickets in her hands, unable to focus. She had been in England for five years and in all that time she hadn't made even one phone call to her family. Her father treated her like she was dead and as if he couldn't care less about it. If it wasn't for Sheryl and Nick’s engagement, he might not even have remembered she existed.
Her heart had no attachment to the place she had been separated from for years. All her feelings had been erased on the day she was thrown out. She didn't want to go back and see the people who had hurt her, but she couldn't stand listening to her father's threats on the phone. If she did not do what he said, he would not let her grandmother live peacefully, he could even hurt her. Her grandmother was the closest person in the world to her. She had wanted to bring her to England to spend the rest of her life there, but she couldn't sway the old lady from her desire to be in the country where her husband and daughter had lived. Natalie had no choice but to leave her where she was. If it wasn't for her grandmother, she probably wouldn't go back for the rest of her life, but she couldn't afford to lose her to her father’s anger.
"Mommy, Mommy."
Lost in her thoughts, she suddenly heard a lovely, gentle voice beside her. She looked down and saw a four-year-old boy lightly tugging at the corner of her jumper. He told her in a serious tone, "Stop daydreaming. The plane is about to take off."
Only then did she recover her wits. The anger in her eyes gradually softened as she smiled and picked up the child. "Alright then, let's go to the gate."
At the same time, on the other side of the first-class lounge, a tall man in a suit with two burly bodyguards standing behind him strode towards the gate with a cold expression.
Natalie had bought first-class tickets. In the past few years, she had suffered a lot from feeling rootless in a foreign country, and she had developed many issues. She had bad insomnia and headaches, and she was afraid of loud noises. The moment she got on the plane, she covered her eyes with a blanket to try to fall asleep, but first, she told Liam to be good and not run around.
Liam was her most precious treasure. He was very well behaved. He sat on his seat as he was told and played with the toy she had bought him, occasionally stealing glances at her.
Natalie put her head against the window. He soon noticed that she did not look well.
"Mommy." He leaned across and looked at her. Seeing that she was frowning, he asked worriedly, "Are you not feeling well?"
Natalie coughed twice due to an itch in her throat. With a hint of weakness in her voice, she answered, "I'm fine …" She looked at the child and forced a smile. "I'm just a little thirsty."
Without waiting for her to say anything, Liam jumped out of his seat and hurried off excitedly to get her some water. She didn't know who he took after. He was only four years old, but he was as sensible as a small adult, and he could even take care of her.
Liam came running back with a glass of water. As he reached their seats, he bumped into a man who had just stepped into the plane. The glass in his hand wobbled and the water spilled from it, wetting the man’s shoes and the legs of his pants.
Bryce lowered his head and looked at the water stains on his clothes. He frowned in displeasure. "What are you doing? Don't you know to watch where you're going?"
"I'm sorry." Liam held the cup and apologized repeatedly. But when he raised his head and looked at the man, he was immediately stunned, "I …"
Liam had once finally mustered the courage to ask his mother about his father. Natalie was taken aback and stood speechless for a moment before she randomly showed the young boy a picture of a handsome man and told him that this was him.
Looking at Bryce, Liam instantly somehow recalled the same picture, and realized that the two men resembled each other to almost a fault! Bryce was a well-built man, who possessed a muscular demeanor and suave gait. His pose and grace made the young boy quiver. The more he looked at Bryce, the more he felt that the man in front of him fit his image of his father from the picture. He stood quiet for two seconds, before hurling himself at Bryce’s long leg and then shouted, "Daddy!"
The two bodyguards behind Bryce were completely taken aback by the scene unfolding in front of them. They had been with Bryce for a long time, but this was the first time they’d seen someone act so affectionately with him, let alone someone so young.
Bryce's expression instantly turned ugly. He reached out his hand to push away the little arms that were wrapped around him and said coldly, "Don't randomly call people your father. I'm not your father."
He had known many women who had claimed to be pregnant with his child, but this was the first time he had ever seen such a clever and affectionate 'son'.
Liam stared at his face and answered with certainty, "You are my daddy. Why did you abandon me and Mommy?"
The more he spoke, the more wronged he felt. He pouted his small mouth and put on a pitiful expression. When the passengers beside them heard this, they immediately looked over in curiosity.
Natalie couldn’t sleep through the commotion. She opened her eyes and looked in the direction of the noise, only to find her son standing in the middle of the aisle, holding onto the leg of an unfamiliar man.
"Sorry, sorry." She quickly got up. Embarrassed, she reached out to take the child's hand. "He must have made a mistake. Liam, let go of him."
Her son had always been sensible and listened to her over anyone else, but today she didn't know what was going on. No matter how much she tried to persuade him, Liam continued to hold onto the leg of that strange man's pants. He bit his lips in frustration and refused to let go.
Bryce was a cold person, but when he looked at the child's pitiful expression, he felt a bit moved. He frowned and said to Natalie, "Why did you become a mother? If you couldn’t give him a complete family, it would have been better not to have him at all."
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Since iOS 17 and MacOS Sonoma are out, I decided to try and move to Reminders (in combination with Notes) for my work related tasks and notes.
Here on Reddit I saw quite a few people that are thinking about switching, so I decided to write down a list of some opinions and things I noticed.
Your situation might be different from mine, and there is a lot of stuff that I don't need in Reminders, so keep that in mind when reading this. Some of these features might actually be really useful for you.

TL;DR

Reminders, keeps improving (even if with just one update per year) but Things is still a much better task manager.
Apart from the workflow that Things “forces” you into, there are a lot of small or big issues in Reminders that you can’t always solve with a workaround.
And, even if you solve those, Things smooth UX and simple UI are still the best you can find in the App Store.

My setup

Here a screenshot of my setup. Please note that it's not Sonoma, since it's from my work device.
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The big things

• Projects: Since Lists in Reminders can’t be completed they shouldn’t be used as projects. My solution is to create a task (project) with subtasks (action items).A few problems with this:
  • Subtasks can’t have their own subtasks, which is quite limiting when handling large projects.
  • Smart Lists don’t have a way to filters parent tasks (I’m trying to add a Project tag to these items, but it’s a bit of manual work that I’d like to avoid).
  • Also, this makes the List Template feature, in my opinion, basically useless.
• Start Date and Deadline: While Reminders added a Remind earlier feature, this is not comparable with what Things offers.A task with a deadline, in Reminders, will still appear only on that day when the deadline is set.
• Tasks hierarchy: When adding a subtask to Today, for example, it’s impossible to navigate back from it to its parent task. This is extremely frustrating.

The small things

• Workflow: Things 3 is designed around the GTD workflow and, once you get used to it, it’s really difficult to move away from it. Sure, you can use work-arounds in Reminders, but it’s not going to be as smooth.Currently I do this:
  • For the Inbox, I created
  • For Someday items, I created a tag that I can quickly access from the sidebar
  • For Anytime items, I created a smart folder, which filters all items that are not tagged with Waiting and don’t have a date assigned to them.
  • For Next actions, I use the flag option (this is almost the same as in Things, where I would use a tag).
  • It's nice that you can also recreate Things shortcuts to Inbox, Today, etc. by pinning these items in the sidebar.
  • As mentioned before, you can’t mark a List as completed and, also, you can’t mark a task as Canceled.
• Quick Entry: While you can create a shortcut for this, it’s still not as good as with Things.
• Group Today by time: In Reminders, it’s possible to automatically split Today’s view in three sections (Morning, Afternoon, Evening). When I realised these automatically set a reminder for a specific time of day, I quickly disabled it.
• Badge Count: I strongly believe you should avoid being stressed by the apps you use, which is why I love Things feature of only show a badge count for items with a Deadline for today. In Reminders this is not possible.
• Editing an item: Even if Reminders offers recognition of dates and tags (still, not as good as Todoist), learning a few keyboard shortcuts in Things offers a lot more power to quickly edit your tasks.

The extra things

• Same as with Things, you can drag and drop items to the Calendar app, which is great for time blocking.
• Headers in lists allows you to split areas in sections, which is missing in Things. But since I can’t split down projects (as they are tasks with subtasks) this is less useful than headers in projects as Things has.
• Smart Lists are a nice addition but for now I just recreated what we have in Things. I guess they would be essential if you try and fit both your personal and work related tasks in it, but I like to keep things separate.
• It’s nice to have a dedicated URL field that appears in the main view for you to quickly jump into things.
• Sharing something with Reminders automatically creates a link to that item (displayed with an the app’s icon in the reminder) which is nice.
• I try not to use Priorities since I don’t want to spend too much time thinking “Hey, is this a P1, or a P2?”. Sometimes I give a task a P1 if it’s extremely urgent but I think a flag would be enough (but I already use that for Next actions.
• Having used it only for a short time, I haven’t tried Kanban views yet, but I doubt I am going to use them much. It would be nice to use them when working on a big project but, since I don’t use Lists for that, it’s not going to be as useful.
• The new Groceries Smart List is a nice addition but it’s clearly not something worth moving over for.
• Same as for Things, Reminders doesn’t work with Focus modes, which looks like a missed opportunity.
• I don’t use Location based reminders, Shared lists, or Remind me when messaging a person, so I don’t have anything to share about those.

Heavy equipment operators are paving the way for construction projects. As a result, the demand for their skills is twice as high as for other types of work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that jobs for heavy machinery operators will grow by 10% between 2018 and 2028, which is twice the average rate compared to other jobs.

What Does Heavy Equipment Operators Do?

Many machines are needed to prepare structures, including felling trees, moving dirt and materials, and digging holes.
Operating Engineers use excavators with buckets, scoops, and shovels to move dirt and materials such as concrete pipes. It may be easy, but you need to know more than you think. Make sure the bucket is attached correctly and secured to the crane. Determining the maximum lifting weight of a crane is critical.
Paving and Surface Operators operate equipment that spreads concrete and asphalt on roads and car parks.
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Pile Driver Operators use machines with large hammers to install large concrete, wooden, or metal piles (beams) into the deep ground to support structures such as bridges and foundations.

Other Job Requirements

Heavy equipment operators must clean and maintain the equipment. They are always expected to handle basic equipment repairs. Operators must adhere to safety standards. A critical aspect of safety is the effective communication of ground personnel using manual or audible signals.
Operators are responsible for documenting and reporting equipment issues to the project manager. The same equipment from different manufacturers is the same, but not the same design. Therefore, heavy equipment operators should consult the manufacturer’s manual for the specific machine you are using to find out how you can handle important tasks such as emergency shutdown. In addition, the manuals provide instructions for essential tasks, such as determining the maximum lifting weight of the machine in various situations.
The technology has become more integrated into heavy equipment. For example, the operator can monitor the weight of the cargo in real-time from an onboard system such as the Cat Payload. Likewise, a worker checked the load on a computer screen in a cab. Another skill that a heavy technician must master today is the use of hardware and software.
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Work Environment

That’s not an excellent job at the table. You have to love the outdoors and be willing to work in any weather. Even if excessive rain or snow stops the construction project, it should not be suitable for the company to lose volunteers due to delays. To become a heavy machine operator, you need to get warm – and relaxed. Although most heavy machinery operators set a typical 40-hour week, the hours may be non-standard. It would help if you also prepare to work day and night, even on Sundays. Some employers may need over time. A pleasant advantage, however, is the extra salary.

Risks

Did we mention it’s not an excellent job in the office? Building areas are dangerous areas. As a heavy equipment operator, you hold people’s lives on earth in your hands. Knowing and understanding safety procedures is as important as knowing which handle to pull. Check your machine and surroundings before turning the key. If something goes wrong, a brave operator confronts the project manager and refuses to operate the machine.