Sunday Song.

Last night I worked in electronics. My arm is in a sling and I needed a little help lifting a few things, but I had more fun at work than I have had in a long time. I have to use the sling until I can see the orthopedic doctor. With Monday being a holiday I may have to wait until Tuesday at the earliest.

Countdown Over Early.

Before I explain the title I will explain the picture. For the last three days I have been trying to post here on my blog, but was not able to sign in. I even changed my password, but to no avail. Today I managed to sign in by going through Internet Explorer instead of Firefox, which is my main web browser. Evidentally the problem is Firefox, but at least now I know what to do.

So why is the countdown over early? I found out a way to get out of frozen and dairy. All I had to do was tear a muscle in my arm. Last night when I went in at 10:00 P.M. the milk case was almost empty. There was no 2% or 1%, and about 5 gallons of whole milk. I immediately started filling the milk. I was almost done and was pulling a stack of milk closer to the shelf. A stack is 6 cases with 4 gallons in each case. The upper case slipped out of the lower cases and fell. My hand was caught in one of the cases and I felt something snap in my arm. I worked for another hour but my arm hurt so bad that I decided to get it checked out. (Incidentally, I had told a manager about it when it happened.) One of our assistant managers went to the hospital with me to get me registered, then she went back to the store. I was in the ER five and a half hours. I tore a muscle in my right arm and am now on light duty at work. I have to have a my arm in a sling and see a specialist, hopefully Monday. I am not sure what I will be doing at work tonight, but it will not involve frozen foods or dairy.

Mathmatical Genius.

I have proven before that basic math is not my strong suite. Here is another example of it. The countdown to my new job is now:


I know, I know, today should have been 5, however I based that on my work week, not the stores calendar week. That week starts on Saturday, so I will have 2 more days in the cold. The new schedule has been posted and under our names is printed our department. Mine has always read dairy, now it says sales. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is good.

In the post that I referenced to I mentioned that I am no longer naming my employer as a preventative measure. We were warned that what we said could be used against us. Any disagreements that I may have with their policies I do not air in public, but there is no need in taking any chances about something being misinterpreted. It was a topic of another post that I had. I ran across a story yesterday about a waitress being fired for making a disparaging remark about a customer on her Facebook page. Her complaint was she had to stay an hour after she was scheduled to go home, and the couple that caused that only tipped her $5. She called them a name and posted it. Her employers found out about it and she was unemployed. You have to be very careful about what you say on line. You never know who will read it.

Saturday I mentioned the death of Macho Man Randy Savage. If you are interested, here is a great article about his career.

Big Mac Mania.

Last week Don Gorske of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin ate his 25,000th Big Mac. How do we know that he has really ate that many? He has receipts to prove it. At one time he had all of the boxes that they came in, but a tornado in 1990 ruined that. Mr Gorske has obsessive-compulsive disorder so he keeps track of these things. He eats two a day. There are times that I might eat the same thing 3 days in a row, but then I need something else. For sheer perseverance, you have give him credit.


The days are slipping by nicely. Last night I learned the frozen foods/dairy manager has given her notice. She is staying with the company but going to a different store. Do I still want that job? No thank you, especially with the job that I will be getting.

Sunday Song.

I had a rough night at work last night, but I am in a good mood. Why?

Farewell Macho Man.

Macho Man Randy Savage died in a car crash yesterday. I am a wrestling fan and I enjoy the interviews as much, if not more, than the actual matches. Savage was one of the best at the promos. Rest in peace Macho Man.


On a lighter note:

The Countdown Begins.

Last July I decided that I needed to do something else at work. My age has started catching up with me and I needed to something easier than stocking frozen foods and dairy. I made the request and was told that by October that I would be moved. At that time the manager who had made me the promise went to first shift and I was left where I was at. I kept asking and was told that I was too good at what I do and I could not be spared. I was put in other places from time to time, but then I always was sent back to frozen and dairy.

In an effort to escape, I temporarily went out of my mind. Fortunately my sanity was restored and I went back to plodding along and pleading for a change. Last night I got my answer. In two weeks, 9 working days, I will be moving over to the electronics department. On most nights I will have less than a tenth of the freight that I deal with now. My main jobs will be customer service and answer the phones, both of which are usually very light. I do have experience with that department, I was the department manager when I worked for Kmart, although a lot has changed since I last worked the department. I will be learning about the new technology, which I enjoy doing. Incidentally, I am also getting a small raise. Does anybody know how to speed up time?

It's A Miracle.

A woman in New Hampshire was going through her mail last week when she came across a sympathy card. It was addressed to her husband and it was from his employer, expressing their condolences on the death of his wife. Quite a shock to learn you are dead that way, isn't it? Her husband had told his employer that his wife had cancer and he had been getting financial assistance from them, collecting around $7000. After a quick phone call from the lady, the man was arrested and charged with theft. Some people will do anything for money.

Change Of Plans.

I am on vacation this week. I actually got two more days on it the hard way, I was sick. My plans for today were to go to Chattanooga to visit Lookout Mountain, then to stop at Chickamauga on the way home. The picture that you see is what the shy looked liked this morning. Needless to say, I am not going there today. The forecast for Wednesday looks better so I will hopefully do it then.

The original plans were to make this a Civil War vacation, but I have messed up all the way around. I thought that the re-enactment of the Battle Of Resaca was this past weekend, but it is the coming one. Wednesday I was going to the Kennesaw Battlefield, but that will be put off until next week. Thursday I will post some pictures from my trip.

In case you were not aware, Blogger had some issues last week. I tried to post a couple of times last week and could not log in. The system even totally rejected me and I had to change my Google account password to get my blogs back. Hopefully everything is fixed now.

Don't Drink And Drive, Unless....

We have just started carrying this item. If you read on the package you are instructed to put it in the freezer for twelve hours and then enjoy. According to the package it is perfect "for the home or on the go." Those words are also on the case the product comes in. Say what??? Who approved this copy? Talk about falling asleep behind the wheel. (Pun intended.) Hopefully their intention was you can take it to the park or sporting event and enjoy it there. They just should have made that clearer.

Exhaustion.

The last two weeks have been very rough. Two weeks ago today it started innocently. I was talking to my buddy in Illinois. He doesn't have a computer and during our conversations he will ask something and I'll look up the answer. While I was doing that I got the blue screen of terminally ill. It said if this is the first time you have seen this screen shut your computer down and restart it. After I ended our conversation I did that and got that screen again. I had not added any new programs, but I decided to reset my computer to the previous save point. I opened it in safe mode, set it for that point, restarted the computer, and was greeted by that wonderful blue screen again. After that failure, my only two options were try to get it fixed or buy a new computer. My inner Jack Benny said, try to get it fixed. I took it to a repairman and went to bed. Tuesday I called and was told that that they could fix it and it would cost me $75, but it wouldn't be ready until Wednesday. Fair enough. Wednesday I received a call and there was a problem, which was the computer could not be fixed. They had tried to save what I had on the computer, but could not. The hard drive had to be replaced. Once again, my inner Jack Benny took over. Replacing the hard drive was an additional $75, versus a new one that I had looked at for $400. Any guesses on what I did? A new hard drive meant totally starting over. The only thing that I regret losing was my personal pictures. I have a Photobucket account, but I hadn't uploaded them there. That won't happen again.

Getting my computer reset wasn't bad, in fact I enjoyed it. The last time I had a new computer She Who Left In The Middle Of The Night was the one who set everything up. It was fun figuring things out. Things were going fairly smoothly, then came Saturday night at work. The truck that came in was the largest that I have dealt with in five years of doing this. I was not told exactly how many pieces were on it, but they do give you a stocking time based on putting out so many cases in an hour. Again, they do not give us that figure, but I had 19 hours of stocking time. I was given 2 helpers. There were 10 pallets of merchandise to go through, a lot of which was multiple cases which go in the end doors, and all of that had to be sorted. With my helpers we got through every bit of it, but I was exhausted when I went home. I went to work Sunday night still exhausted. I made it through the night but I did not stock as fast as I usually do.

Monday nights I usually work in frozen foods, but our guy who works in dairy was sick so I worked there. The truck itself was not bad, but Monday is one of the nights we get milk delivered. My job is to check it in, but that is actually a boring job. I stand there while the milk driver pulls the pallets off the truck, I make sure that everything that is supposed to be there is, then the driver takes the milk into the cooler. The milk cooler is supposed to be ready for delivery, but 5 pallets from the previous nights truck was still there. That had to be stacked down. Each pallet has 9 stacks of milk, each stack with 6 crates, 24 gallons per stack. They have to be physically unloaded. Since I still wasn't at full strength, that wore me down even more. On my two days off I did not do anything.

This past week has been extremely busy and I don't feel like I am getting any rest. Fortunately I just have to work tonight, off Tuesday and Wednesday, work Thursday and Friday, then I have a five day vacation. I am so ready for that. When I get back I am going to push even harder to get out of frozen and dairy. I really am getting too old for the physical demands of the job. Right now I can still do the job, but if I don't slow down soon I won't be able to.

What Part Of No Don't You Understand.

Last week was a very bad week and this one is shaping up to be more of the same. I realize that for most of you the week is ending, but remember my weekend consists of Tuesday and Wednesday. I will give you details on Monday.

This post is about my neighbor. I don't know many of them because most are not here long enough to get to know. One however I do know and sometimes wish I didn't. She comes over to borrow things. For awhile it was my phone, and she keeps asking me to take her places. She doesn't drive. Last Monday morning she came over and asked me to take her grocery shopping. I was exhausted, the reason for that Monday, and I told her no. About an hour later she came over and offered me a DVD player to take her. Again I told her no, I had something to do and then I was going to bed. An hour after that she knocked on my door again. This time I didn't answer. She finally got the point. Some people just don't understand the word no.