Rayder, I know what you mean about the funny hours ... my policeman son came by the house last night on one of his seemingly rare nights off ... he works 6 12 hour shifts one week and 4 12 hour shifts the next, then repeats the cycle ... in theory, this gets him 5 consecutive days off every other week, but he often gets asked to work on some of what should have been days off, which screws that up ...
His current assignment is in the county jail where there's a total population of about 4,000 prisoners ... he gets to tuck all the guys on his block into bed, put up with their middle of the night zaniness and demands and judge who really has to see the doctor and who's BSing him, then starting at about 4am, he's got to get about 300-400 guys up, what passes for washed, dressed, fed and onto the busses for their first thing in the morning court appearances ...