I had no idea what to expect when both the operations manager and the general manager showed up today.  But, when we finally got into the position to where we could chat - there was still a lot going on when they showed up that needed to be dealt with - we were all in my manager's office and the pronouncement was made: we were the best Expressnet store in the entire country!  A 2 man crew bested a LOT of other stores and we got a huge plaque for the store in honor of it.

I mean, yes, I think that's a pretty cool honor in view of the fact of the amount of work we put in the last fiscal year.  We are also getting a little something out of it: an extra paid day off, compliments of our GM.

So, coolness.  Well, I got us into the subject of old equipment.  Not a fan of driving an old truck.  Well, we have an International and I completely despise International trucks for a myriad of reasons, the biggest being they are pieces of junk from the day they drive off the manufacturer's assembly floor.  Our truck is several YEARS past the replacement stage for our company.  We "own" the truck- meaning we haven't had to make payments on it in quite a while.  A good thing, but as trucks get older, more things start going wrong.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, the best thing that happened today was the operations manager, at the behest of the GM, got on one of the computers and ordered a brand new truck : )  It is a Freightliner, not and International.  I'll take a Freight Shaker over an Itisapieceofs**ternational any day of the week.

Excuse the French, please.  Thank you.  It is, really, though, a very prestigious award at least internally within the company so we can ride on that cloud for a while and place the plaque prominently on the wall somewhere where everyone can see it.

So, after leaving work today and going to the bank to deposit 30, worth of checks and cash (company money, not mine), I went out the door of Bank of America and across the street to Fresh and Easy.  Their sale on hams has had the restrictions taken off of it.  I was looking online today at their site and it showed that the $30 minimum purchase had been removed and the limit of 1 was also removed.  49 cents per pound.  You aren't going to find that kind of price on ham anywhere else.  I bought 5 of them.  Yes, I bought 5 of them.  You can't buy meat that cheap anymore.  I have a freezer, 4 of them fit in there easily and a couple more would also fit in there so - try to get 2 more before the sale goes off.

Basha's and Albertson's both have the Standing Rib Roast - it's not cheap meat but it's FAR more expensive in a restaurant and this is the only time of year that I even see prime rib roasts being sold at the supermarkets.  It's my once a year prime rib meal and I am doing that on Christmas unless I happen to be doing something else, which I don't foresee.  Stay at home, make a nice roast and fixin's, whatever tenants are around can have some and that's that.

3 more presents to buy and that's the end of it.  Not.  Lol, I want to actually show up with something for the family even though 3 of them will have or already have received their presents shipped to their homes.  So, nothing fancy stuff just something to hand to everyone type of present.  I don't even know what to buy in that department, I hope to find something.

That's it.  Time to go to bed.

ben

Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in attempting to get ornaments packaged, labeled and out in the mail. Amazingly, the post office wasn't overcrowded - that due to the fact that they had all stations manned and were whizzing through everyone in a very expedient manner. 

The general manager is coming over to our branch this afternoon. He rarely comes over and I would assume some sort of agenda as he is constantly busy with the tasks that occupy his position in the company.  What the reason is for that visit, we don't know.  But, as most days, plenty of work to do and who knows what time I will be back at the yard.  I would prefer to get off "early" again today as I did yesterday, 9-1/2 hours instead of 11 or 12, cause' I still have Christmas shopping to do and time is growing short.  3 days until the family party and I still have several presents yet to buy.

I read and listen to the news about politics - daily in fact - but I tend not to occupy myself in my thoughts with it as I simply believe they are all playing games.  I don't really think they care about the American public as much as they care about their titles, positions and clamoring to get media attention.  I have no idea what low this nation will have to reach before they really start to deal with the problems - I'm simply speaking about money and government waste and the deficit, not even touching the topic of the violence since I don't believe the government has the answers to that dilemma anyway.  Certainly the whole slew of them that are currently in there are worth as much as a speck of dust in my backyard. 

In fact, unless there is some sort of revolution, I don't think it's going to be dealt with at all until the hand is forced upon them.  By that time, it will be too late.  

Whatever.  I'll leave that in the hands of a capable God who isn't broke and can take care of my needs according to His riches in glory, that according to His word. 

My ex-pastor who shunned me contacted me on Facebook yesterday asking if we could meet up for a coffee.  I almost declined, still not sure I am ready for that, though I did get the "load" of unforgiveness off my back a while back with that whole situation.  No sense in wrecking my life over other people's selfish actions.  But I accepted the offer though a firm date hasn't been made yet.

Well, almost time to leave for work.

G'day.

ben

I continue to watch all the gun-banning craze.  And now, the craze for people to go buy the same kind of gun that was used at the murder scene since - they are now talking of banning such weapons.  Knee-jerk reactions? I doubt it, it's being used as an excuse to say see, look what happens when Americans own guns, now let's get rid of them.

Whatever the case, the pics of the tiny faces and the stories behind their lives - and the funerals - are all coming out.

On another note: Christmas is almost here.  I have bought all of 2 presents so far, but I finally found out what 3 other people want and it will be easy to get those items.  Plus my mom's, which I couldn't find in a store so I finally ended up buying online yesterday and having shipped to her house hopefully getting there by Friday - so she can see her present before our family's get together at my oldest bro's house on Saturday.

So make that 3 presents I bought, sorta slipped my mind that I had bought mom's last night on line.

I finally got to see the Boeing plant yesterday.  I've passed by it countless times in my lifetime in living in Arizona, but just from the outside.  Just so happens they are replacing a bunch of underground valves which got me in there.  But, I didn't get to see the inside of the facilities, which is what would have really been fascinating to see.  Just a bunch of buildings and a lot of suits walking around.  That would be expected, of course, that place employs a lot of people.  Oh well.  I half-hoped to see my brother there, but only half, no reason for him to be walking outside, but you never know.

Well, I am just getting started on this entry and looked up at the clock: time to leave for work!

G'day

ben

Of course, here comes the gun control advocates saying we should all hand in all of our firearms because that will stop the kind of senseless shooting that occurred yesterday in an elementary school in Connecticut.

Good luck.  If there are 300 million guns in America, that means there is a large number of Americans that own guns for whatever purpose they own them. I would guess it makes up a majority, not a minority, but I haven't seen any analysis on that - yet.

There are so many arguments both pro and con gun ownership.  The shooter took his mother's 3 guns, apparently, to commit the horrific crime that occurred yesterday morning.  So, it was easy for him to obtain the guns without having to go through much of anything.  But the plain fact of the matter is, if guns are completely outlawed in the United States, no-one can own them at all, not even hunters, then who is going to have the guns besides law enforcement?  Of course, easily obtainable on the black market, just like any kind of drug you want.  Or any kind of merchandise you would like to buy.   It's an age-old argument, but there is truth to it: if guns are outlawed in America, then the only people that are going to have them are police and criminals.

You simply cannot tell me that a person that has ill-will such as the person that killed all those kids yesterday will not find SOME way to carry out his intentions. Look at the guy in China who injured 22 kids at a school.  He didn't even use a gun, he was using a knife. Are we also going to ban knives?  If you do that, then what? Ban  baseball bats?  Stones?  This person was set on carrying out his act of ill - evil - will and he had probably planned it in advance.  Planning in advance means determining how you are going to enact your crime and with what tools/weapons you are going to do it with.

There are so many studies out there, too much to read, much less comment here on.  If you want to ask me my real opinion on why so many of these horrific crimes are occurring much more frequently, I'll tell you this: a lack of spirituality in this nation; godlessness; a lack of "need" of a god; a small but frequently cited group of people that are atheists; a generation of kids being brought up to fend for themselves, to figure out morality on their own and come to their own conclusions about religion without any or much input from parents.  We're all victims and we should sit in pools of self-pity and stay that way long enough for the evil thoughts to come in, take root and expand over time to the breaking point of - what we saw occur yesterday.

Enough.

ben

I was busy with work this morning, but finally got into the truck to do a run for pickups, deliveries and get 4 new tires installed on the rear drive-axle on the tractor.  I turned on the radio and started hearing about an elementary school in Connecticut where a "man" had killed 18 children and 8 adults.  Shock.  I have been reading and watching the news on this all day long now as time permits.

Shocking.  I don't get shocked about much of anything anymore, but this? .....is absolutely shocking.  How can anyone go into a school and just start killing kids?  I understand that this guy was out for blood in his family lines as the news has reported it, which is bad enough in itself, but why taking the lives of innocent children?  This situation must be world news by now.  I mean, in every language and every nation, the news must be reporting this everywhere.  The question is: why?  Why is all of this happening? You read about it more and more frequently where a man or men go into a college or some institution and just start mindlessly shooting people.  I just can't and won't ever understand this one.  Elementary school aged kids, shot down in school.

It was hard to concentrate on much of anything else today.  Just short of a 50 hour work week.  Paycheck today from the 2 previous weeks was quite large by my normal pay standards.  The week passed quickly, to be honest, the days just seemed to blaze by at work and when I'm off work, well, time REALLY flies by.  Weekends used to seem to "last" longer.  It's the same amount of time now as it was 25 years ago, but I have to say it seems like Friday gets here and 2 hours later I'm waking up for work on Monday.

It's an existence that I would like to do away with.  I don't mind working, but what I am doing has no eternal value to it.  I guess the line of work I am in gives you and I the ability to go to our faucets, turn them on and have water coming out and be able to go to the toilet, use it, flush it and know that it's being whisked away in giant pipes to a treatment facility, so perhaps some earthly good coming out of it, but that doesn't really cut it for me.  I have spent too much time working in the church and working on the mission field to have myself limited to just going to work 5 days a week and dreaming of the weekends to get here because the work load is so great, I don't feel like doing much of anything by the time I am done.

But, I do like getting paychecks.

Well I'm done.  It's Friday night, but I'm tired even though it's early and I have a lot to get done this weekend.

G'nite.

ben

Manager not at work today.
I show up and there's lots - too much - to do.
I get started on pulling what I call a "technical" load.  That's either one that has to have some thought in how to try to get all of it onto the truck or one that has a lot of "special" material that we don't stock and is sitting in various tag and hold areas.  This one was the latter.

The material was all over the place and I had to check each piece by numbers.  It was dark, hard to see anything and time consuming.  When the inside salesman showed up - taking the manager's place - he offered no assistance whatsoever. When you have a day ahead of you that is full of deliveries with orders that have not been pulled, that is not helpful at all.

I was pulling the material and kept getting interrupted phone calls, contractors and people asking questions.  I finally got the truck loaded and headed out - on down to Coolidge.  When I got there, I found out they had no equipment to unload the truck.  Hardly exciting.  2 sticks of pipe at 500 pounds a  piece; 3 valves at 250 pounds a piece and a much larger valve at almost 600 pounds.  Various fittings ranging from 75 pounds to 300 pounds and other, heavy material.

They wanted to unload it by hand.  When faced with taking an entire truck loaded with material back to the yard and having to unload it and then - reload it for future delivery? I'll take unloading by hand any day of the week if the contractor is down for it.  We got it all off of there, including that giant, heavy valve.  I simply pulled the truck next to and then straddled the trailer over a large pile of dirt and we dumped it off of it.

Back to the yard to find out that the next delivery was "supposed" to go out first. It really wasn't, but the salesman acted that way.  The contractor had been calling and calling him, where's the material.  Well, the inside salesman running the show today was supposed to pull the order - excepting the pipe - and have it ready.  He had pulled half of it and had told them that the load would be out there by 1:00 pm. It was 12:15 when I got started on it.  I informed him that 1:00 pm was a non-happening event.  He started to walk off and  I asked him if he could help out to get it done quicker.

Nope.  My manager will hear about this tomorrow.  When it comes to deliveries, they take precedence over everything.  That inside salesman should have dropped what he was doing and helped me get the rest of the order pulled. Instead, he went back inside and was doing his thing.  I understand he has a full workload already, but if they are going to send someone to run the shop when my manager is gone and that person is not going to help out, they need to find someone else to come out.

My manager will drop whatever he's doing to pull orders.  The only thing that really takes precedence is if a customer comes into the store.  I could have gotten a lot more done today if he had helped out instead of pushing a lot of it off until tomorrow.

Whatever the case, it's time to go to bed.

ben

Christmas party.
Pretty serious conversations for being a Christmas party, is what I can say about that.

I don't want to get the guy fired.  He - the dude I have been having issues with - came up to me, put out his hand and we started to talk.

He was very serious.  I mean, too serious, where was this going?  We got into the issues we've had, the attitudes, all of it and then he dropped the bombshell: If anything happens between us again, management has threatened to fire him. I just want the s*** to stop.  I have to talk to this guy on the phone frequently, we have to get along for as much communication that we have with each other.  Many times a day, I have to call various salesmen and inside salesmen to get information or ask questions about an order that is incomplete or whatever.

I spoke my mind, blunt and to the point.  When I call you, you have attitude all over your voice. You act like you are completely disinterested.  We went back and forth -civilly of course - and we came to an agreement at the end of all of it.  I really don't want to see the guy lose his job, he would have a tough time finding another one in this economy and having had been fired.  He's got a newborn  - or near newborn, wife, all that good stuff.

That conversation went on for quite a while.

Then, another conversation started with an outside salesman. Just a clearing of that air on that instance, but it was good to get it all out.

Then yet another conversation.  A counter salesman comes up and tells me how some of his customers tell him that I should be moved up in the company.  Are you serious?  First I've heard of that.  He then goes on to tell me how they take notice of my busting my ass every time I have to go to the main branch - which is quite frequently - picking up material for orders.

Well whatever.  So I'm talking with the operations manager's wife.  She's a complete opposite of him.. I mean north and south poles difference.  She doesn't want anything to do with the company, she was offered a job and flatly rejected the offer, lol.  The took my hand, put her arm around me and took me inside the house, right in front of her husband!! Yikes!!! I was very uncomfortable with that scene, of which her husband followed us in maybe a minute later.

Okay.  Awesome food. Barbeque everything and delicious.

Whatta week.  Manager having issues with associates and I as well.
My situation with the inside salesman has been dealt with.  At least, as far as management goes it has been.
After my manager wrote out - whatever he wrote - to the inside salesman manager, well, both he and the operations manager showed up at our shop this morning.

I wasn't there.  Out on the road.  In fact, out on the road for 11 hours today.

The information that came my way when I finally got back to the shop though, was interesting.  "We know that when Ben gets upset, it's because it's for the good of the company". In other words, it was a compliment, even though they pretty much made it clear on both sides - the inside salesman and I - that there would be no more talking to anyone outside the company about internal affairs.  Well, issues, I should say, with other individuals within the company who seem to have a calling - to do something else in life, cause' what they are doing now?  Ain't workin'.

Meanwhile, we are potentially going to get a part-time person to help out at our branch.  We are always asked if we need more help, we always say yes and it is always put on a backburner somewhere.  All well and good - I don't really care at this point, I will just work the unbelievable hours and whatever.  But, things that need to get don't - won't.  It consumes a large amount of time just doing pickups for deliveries.  That's because the companies we buy from are spread out all over the place.  Not to mention the fact that some of those places are not exactly in a big hurry and at least one place will tell us a time when we can pick it up - and more-often-than-not, it isn't ready.  Such as yesterday at that place, I waited for almost 2 hours.

It also doesn't help when our customers - contractors - have issues getting the truck unloaded.  This morning?  I just ended up unloading all 86 sticks of pipe by hand.  The bantering was getting ridiculous, the workout was good.  Later on, I was at a jobsite waiting to get 5 megalugs unloaded.  About 1,000 pounds, I couldn't unload those things by hand.  Not without risking dropping them and having them break.  After calling the contractor several times, I finally called the inside salesman on the account and informed him that I would be leaving and we can bring this stuff back on Monday, since they don't seem too interested in unloading it today.

The contractor - this dude is the site superintendent. He is above almost everyone else out there.  He told me repeatedly he was going to call whoever and get them to unload the truck.  Either he didn't call them - or more likely - they just didn't listen.  After calling my company's salesman for that account and asking about leaving - and that salesman getting instantly pissed "They told me they needed those things today" and telling me he would call me right back - that got the ball rolling.  A few minutes after that phone call and a pickup truck came flying up to their yard, a man got out, walked over to a group of workers and started getting nasty with them. It became obvious that he HAD, indeed, called them and that they had ignored his request to get the truck unloaded.

You see, I told the salesman that I had a LOT of other things left to get done in the day, that I had been sitting there for 40 minutes and if they can't get to unloading the truck, fine, we'll bring it back on Monday.  I like OT, but I am also cognizant of our company's need to keep costs down and keep it's current head-count intact.  Well, whatever works.

Company party tomorrow afternoon with the 3rd annual Corn hole competition.  I'm pretty good at it.  If I'm coupled with a person that is also pretty good at it, good chance to win. Last year the pot was over $200 to the winners.  I won't be driving out there.  I am going to my manager's apartment to get a ride.  It's probably 60 miles from his place to the manager's house (Phoenix metro area: VERY spread out).  I absolutely LOVE just riding in a car and not having to worry about driving.  I just ignore the road completely.  I can't hardly EVER do that.  I have to focus on traffic all day long in the semi and let me tell you, driving that thing in city traffic takes a great deal of concentration.

I think the next time my son and I go on a trip somewhere, I'm a gonna make him do at least some of the driving.

It's late.

Tit For Tat

Today, I had enough.
A certain inside salesman's BS.
He cannot do his job, to start off with.
His mistakes are daily and numerous.
They range from minor to extreme.
It's gone on so long, there is some talk
of having a "discussion" with him about it.

Whatever the case, he complained about me
to the operations manager, the general manager
and the inside sales manager.  I was at a plant
attempting to pick up material and he had - messed
up on something again.  I looked at the paperwork
and made a comment about this particular person
always messing up.

Well, it got to that plant's manager - who is married
to this inside salesman - who then complained to the
whole world about it.

I probably should not have said that about him, but -
the man needs to find a new profession, IMO and
several other people's IMO's as well.

Let's get to the history.  He called me a fu**ing idiot
a few years ago about a delivery I had made up on the
Indian Reservation because I had not left any lube for
the pipe.  Well, the standing policy at the time was
to not give lube for less-than-lift quantities - an amount
of pipe that does not equal an entire lift's worth - unless
asked.  At the time, I had gone over the entire order
with the foreman up there.  He saw that there was no
lube but said nothing about it.  He complained to this
guy who became livid with anger and shouted the
aforementioned statement about me.  I was following
policy.

Fast forward to last week. I don't care at this point
how much lube they want, the policy was changed
and that's fine with me.  I was at a jobsite and had left
far more lube than was necessary only because I knew
this contractor would make a fuss if I didn't.

This contractor - a man I get along with very well, btw -
called the inside salesman and said there was only one
quart of lube with the pipe.  This inside salesman makes some very
negative statements about me, gets off the phone and
then calls my manager, who inadvertently had the conversation
on speaker-phone.  He made some very disparaging
remarks about me because I had not left enough lube.

He didn't bother to ask if I had left enough, he just
assumed a contractor had gone through pallets worth
of material.  I had, of course, left
AMPLE amounts of lube.  Hypocrite.  I got into an instant
message with him - and that didn't go very well.

But, now that he has opened Pandora's Box, he can
get the same measure with which he has meted.  I have
had enough of people in my company that are just plain
wimps. Some petty thing happens and they are complaining
to management.

So, I got back to the yard and told my manager that I wanted
to file a formal complaint and that I would be going through
the chain-of-command - which means through him.  I am NOT
going to have a person sitting there complaining about me to
every level of management in the company at the local level after
he has done the EXACT same thing to me and not have him pay
the same consequences.

I informed George that I couldn't have him along with his girlfriend.
That coming from the GM.  Oh well. Today, my manager said he
decided he was going to go and that I could go with him to the party.
I would have to drive to his place to get the ride.  Okay.  I get to
take a ride clear to the GM's house without  - having to actually
drive the vehicle there or back.  Woo-hoooooo!

Off to bed.  Have to be at work at 5:00 am.  Yikes!! But it will
be Friday : )

ben