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

You see, I don't really care about overtime.  I don't really want to work 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, but I did that for a long, long time in the past and yes, I could eventually get used to it again - and the larger paychecks.

I came back to the yard today to find a - lot - of stuff to do.  It was already past 3 o'clock.  That's 9 hours already on the clock with more to do.  So, I get on the computer to see what's in there for tomorrow, then go discuss it with the salesman - he comes to our place a lot to get some work done - and about to go outside to start working on orders.

A contractor pulls into the yard.  This takes a while, not a huge order but enough to have to divert my time to  getting it done.  Back to work? Not quite.  Another contractor comes up to the now-locked front door.  I go and let him in.  Get done with him and then something else - I don't remember what - comes up.  I finally get to pulling the material off the truck and check all of the quantities and then print orders to pull for tomorrow morning.

So, this has been a typical day for a while now.

Rumors surfacing about sending drivers home after reaching 40 hours and bringing in temps (good luck with that - numerous reasons that wouldn't work out but too much to go into right now, almost my bedtime).  Management calling my manager to ask about why the OT hours.  On and on. I won't go into some of it considering this is the world wide web, needless to say if they want to cut our OT, they're going to have to bring in another worker into our store.

I was supposed to go to church tonight but getting home at just before 6 and the thing starting at 6:30? Nope.  I really wanted to go, but just not happening.  It's a bit after 8 and I am going to bed in a few minutes.

Company Christmas party on Saturday.  GM returned my email: I would prefer if you only brought 1 person with you.  That shot down having George and his girlfriend coming.  They're nice people, good conversationalists, they would have been fun to bring along.  It's his house, though.

Prince's haunches getting visibly worse.  I get sick at the thought of having to put him down.  He doesn't wince and is in no visible pain, but about the time that starts happening.....a trip to the vet will be in order.  He's not sick, like with cancer or something such as Coco had, he's just having trouble with his hind end and walking.  I am giving him glucosamine daily and am going to buy a bottle of the other stuff - the name of which escapes me right now - but that's about all you can do.  Unless a vet has some other ideas.  It's just a problem that large dogs can get.  Duke, on the other hand, a much larger dog, has no joint problems going at all.  I am also giving him the supplements.

I"m done.

G'nite.

ben

The operations manager finally forced the issue to allow a worker to come over to our branch yesterday and help get things in order.  The place was getting pretty chaotic.  We simply don't have the time for it.  That guy spent the entire day organizing things, putting stuff away and cleaning up.  It is, actually, a part of my job to do all of that.  No time for it.  Pulling orders and driving, that's what I do all day and "down-time" days are far and few between.  I am driving a very dirty truck - a thing I hate - but I don't have time to wash that, either and there are no truck wash outlets anywhere near our store's location and when I do go by one, well, that's all I have time to do: look over and wish I could stop and get it washed.

Oh well.  Company Christmas party on Saturday.  Not sure that I am going.  It's a very long drive and if I wanted to have a few drinks?  Not a happening event.  Driving home is the issue with that, even if I only have a few I am not comfortable driving and certainly not that far.  George - one of my tenants - and his girlfriend offered to drive me out there and enjoy the party with me.  The general manager said no.  Great.  People bring all kinds of people with them to these parties that do not work for the company and in many cases aren't even related to the person that brought them.

I'm leaning towards not going, but I won't really make that decision until Saturday.  If I feel like it, I will, if I don't, no biggies.

Switched insurance companies.  It was time to renew my insurance and a bigger payment. I decided to find out if I could find anything cheaper.  Yes, indeed, I did.  Up until 3 or 4 months ago, the rate had gone up to an all-time high of $249 per month. Then, out of the blue without my asking, they lowered the bill to $189 per month.  Then the renewal came and they informed me that my rate was going to go back up. Bunk.  My new rate is $152 per month. That's for 2 cars, full coverage on one of them and 2 drivers.  Caleb has done well to stay out of accidents and not get any tickets, though he was pulled over a while back for - what I don't know.  He got out of it, whatever it was.

Well, anyway, just a quick update.

Off to work.

G'day.

ben

I woke up this morning (Sunday) around 4:30am.  I didn't want to wake up that early, I just did.

I am going to have to find a way to come to terms with these long work weeks with weekends filled with activities if this is going to continue.  The problem is fatigue.  I was so tired at church this morning I could barely stay awake.

I know for a fact that tomorrow at work is a full day's worth of work.  There are 5 truckloads of pipe to be hauled plus everything else.

I felt like doing nothing today.  I got outside and watered plants and thought about putting up Christmas
lights, but quickly dismissed that idea.  Sunday - going to take it easy.

One of the elders of the church "chased" me down today when I was leaving church.  They are having a special ministry training seminar on Wednesday - teach people how to do altar ministry, he wanted to let me know that the church would like me to come to it.

I'm not opposed to it - but it's a weekday and I miss most of the small groups at this point because of late work days.  I have also been involved in a great deal of altar ministry in my lifetime, but I guess a refresher course wouldn't hurt since I've been out of it so long.  I explained to him my work situation and promised I would come if I wasn't held too long at work.

Church will, inevitably, begin to take up more and more of my time.  By choice, of course.  It won't supersede work of course, but it will supersede many other things if this path that I am on continues to go in the direction that it has been.

Well, it's time to go to sleep just before I start musing about the things of God and the wonder I have about where He will lead me to go and what to do with the rest of my life. Working a full time job may not be in that particular deck of cards.

G'nite.

ben

Unbeknownst to me, the Yerba Mensa had totally discarded the pot it was in and was free-growing along the side of the top of the pond.  Five feet long, an extensive root system simply growing in the water.  I knew that they could do that, I didn't know the thing had somehow removed itself out of the pot.

It was a simple matter, therefore, to lift the entire thing up and over the side of the pond and just let it hang there while I thoroughly sprayed it with ant and roach killer.  Near-invisible caterpillars became extremely visible while they were wiggling and croaking to death.  Good riddance. I waited for a while and then I started spraying the leaves and stems with fresh water.  Doused the entire top of it where any poison might get into the pond water from dripping down the leaves until I felt I had done enough of it - which was a good while.  I then let it drip dry for a bit longer and then - put it back into place.  I resprayed the entire system that is outside of the water with poison and below the top of the pond so that this will not be a reoccurring situation.

It will take time, but that plant will grow new leaves and eventually get rid of the eaten ones.  A month or two, I am guessing and it will start looking healthy again.  Very resilient plant, even with a large percentage of leaves eaten up,  it will send out new leaves and the ones that are eaten up? What little is left of them is still green.
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Long interlude.  Got the dog outside and started to go to town. She didn't like it.  Not my problem.  She stayed obediently in place for the most part while I shaved that long hair away.  I was informed this was a short to medium haired dog, this is definitely a LONG haired dog, only made short by shaving it regularly.  Well, I have an electric shaver now and I will be doing this once a month, I am guessing.    After spending nearly an hour trying to get all of that off of her, I then bathed her in oatmeal shampoo - she has a problem with dandruff but oatmeal shampoo deals with it quite well - and then took the scissors that came with the package and started cutting away at the hair the machine just wouldn't take off.

I am done with that for today.  There is still some hair left to go on her belly and legs, but for my first time ever attempting to do that, she looks pretty good.
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Long day.  Week.  Christmas will bring a 4 day vacation.  Umm, no, I forgot, I put in for an extra day or 2.  4 days off, though, without that.  2 weekend days and 2 paid days from the company and then if I get the other 1 or 2, well there you go.  I could use some time off before then - too much to do and too little time to do it - but I am not going to ask.  I need to save my vacation hours for some time off next summer.
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Randy's house is coming together. He's slowly getting the framing done and started installing windows.  However, there is MAJOR problem with that house: the foundation has a crack in it.  He filled it in with cement or something, but that does not repair a crack, just covers it up.  Whatever.  He also used 2 inch diameter pipe for the toilet. ?!!!  LOL!!! Ummmm, okay.  That's not going to work too well, is all I can say about that.

Well that's enough for now.  I have been cranking all day long and I am ready to take a break  - like for the rest of the day, lol.

ben

Saturday 12/1/2012

So, the wasps went away - where who knows - and now caterpillars have taken their place.
I was looking at my Yerba Mensa the other day and thinking how badly those wasps had ravaged that plant.

Well I was looking at it again just now thinking, wait a minute, something else MUST be going on here, the leaves on this plant are completely ravaged.  First thought: caterpillars.  Started looking underneath leaves and sure enough.

How do you get rid of them?  I can't spray poison on the plant, it will kill the fish.

I guess I'm going to have to take that giant plant that is entangled in everything (which was the intended effect) and try to get it out of the pond so I can thoroughly spray it with poison.  It's going to have to be out of the pond for several days to do that and then when I figure I've gotten all those nasty creatures, wash the whole plant with water and then put it back in.

One plant, right, how hard can that be?  This plant has grown all over the pond, down the sides and onto the ground.  It has shooters going all over place. It's a beautiful plant - or was until all those leaves got eaten up.

I can't put it off, those caterpillars are going to kill that plant if I leave it go too much longer.

57 hours, I believe it was, for the work week. Long week.  Plus 5 hours put in at church this morning doing the rummage sale.  The end of the sale was the hard part cause' had to take down all the tables, put them in a trailer and then put all the seats back into place plus fold up all the clothes and everything that wasn't sold and put it in the prayer room until they can figure out what they want to do with it - though I think they were talking about donating it to Goodwill.

Well, anyway. Trip to Walmart was in order.  I am not going to pay $60 or more everytime that dog's hair needs trimmed.  And trimmed it needs, badly. I went and got a pet trimmer for $29 and I bought 2 cans of ant and roach killer spray.  That should take care of caterpillars, too, I am guessing/hoping.  I have sprayed it on plants before and it didn't do anything to the plant, another good thing.

Umm, so, busy week, busy day already,  more to go.

Later.

ben

35-1/2 hours of work in 3 days.
I used to do this, daily, 6 days a week.   For years.
I hated it.  You have no time to live your life.
I don't mind doing it here and there, but when it gets into
the consecutive day type of thing - with things left undone -
the it starts to become an issue.

I ended up going out there and watering plants in the dark today.
Can't let it go too long.
I want to hang up Christmas lights out there as well.
I'm not sure WHEN that's going to happen. I was asked and
subsequently volunteered to work a 5 hour shift at church on
Saturday.

I'm not unhappy with work.  Work is a good thing.
But some things going on at work with individuals - well, anyway.
In some cases, arrogance. In at least one other case, not liking
the type of work they are doing and - not taking pride in their
work, subsequently.

I'm definitely expecting that at some point, things are going to come
to a head.  It's going to escalate to the point that the GM is going
to end up getting involved with this.  I only know that we are
going to hit at least the 400k mark this month.  I'm working my @$$
off, my manager is definitely working his @$$ off, we keep a great
attitude with our customers.

But, the situation with others in our company is at the intolerable point.
People with no clue attempting to tell us how to "expedite" our store and
make it more "efficient", notwithstanding the fact that they have NO input
as to HOW that is going to happen.  I can tell you the only way it's
going to happen: more personnel.

Without another set of hands to pull orders or drive a vehicle, not a
happening event.

Whatever the case, at 4:00 pm, I started petering out.  I had eaten 2
bananas and a very small sandwich early morning and nothing after that.
I didn't want to keep working and I flatly stated such.  Go get something
to eat then.

That's it.  Another day of non-stop grinding.  I DID go up to the mountains,
btw, in the midst of all of this.

To end this one, I need to find a woman.  Seriously.  This single junk has
going on long enough.

G'day.

ben

DO NOT ADD ANYTHING WITHOUT CONTACTING US FIRST!!

That was what I put in our truck routing system yesterday, after seeing that the salesmen had just kept dumping more and more deliveries and pickups in there to do.

Ridiculous.  I already informed 2 salesmen that there is no WAY I can do everything that has been put in there in one day.  Too much to do, too many orders to pull, too much driving.  It's not that I don't want to, it's just physically impossible.

What cracks me up is that some of these people will just put stuff in there without checking with us first and without looking at what they are adding to.  They just assume it will get done.

23-1/2 hours in 2 days.  I'm looking at another long day today unless something changes.  We have been informed that our branch does not warrant a 3rd person.  Great, we are just going to work lots of OT and then perhaps the message will get across.  Or not.  I love OT - up to a point.  At some point, you cross over to another tax bracket or status and then you see more taxes being taken out to the point that  all those extra hours don't add up to a hill of beans.

Oh, wait a minute, I think beans are expensive nowadays, that old saying might not mean that much anymore, could actually be contradictory from it's intended meaning, lol.

Time to get on the road and get to the daily grind.

G'day.

ben

I bought a salad this morning - fat free dressing of course - with an apple and sugar-free white peach tea.
That was around 8 am.  9 hours later, still grinding away but now in the yard, pulling orders and doing all that it entails to get a truck loaded including loading the truck - I ran out of energy.

"Go get something to eat then!".  I was ready to go HOME.  I had a frozen dinner in the refrigerator, heated that up, wolfed it down and went back to work.  An hour later - the truck was loaded, it was all done, only a  few things left to do in the morning. After THAT, then there's MUCH more.  I am supposed to do a couple of other deliveries and then go up into the mines up in the mountains.

Well whatever.  I just do what I can get done.  I work at a very efficient, brisk pace.  Today I slowed down after 11 straight hours of it.

Did I say it's 15 minutes til' my bedtime?

G'nite.
ben

What happens when you are informed by a manager that your work is not up too part and that you need to "step it up" some in terms of productivity?
My manager wasn't too happy when I returned to the yard yesterday - which was at around 6:00 pm, btw.  I was grinding all day long, one place to the next to the next.
Apparently, we need to "find" ways to expedite the process.
All two of  us, that is, running a branch that did 4 and a half million in sales last year.  That includes shipping; receiving; pulling orders; palletizing and wrapping those orders; loading the truck and delivering those orders.  It includes all the elements one could possibly conceive that go into running a store.

All 2 of us did that.

The numbers, fortunately, are on our side.  Not just the 4 and a half million, which is an impressive number by itself.

But also some other numbers that the company uses to measure a branch's efficiency.  I don't know what numbers they use to come to such a conclusion, but an outside salesman informed us yesterday that our numbers are "kicking ass" over all the other branches.  This includes much larger branches with 4, 5 and more personnel that are doing LESS in sales than we are.  We are informed that the numbers at our branch to do not warrant a 3rd worker, yet when compared to every other branch that is within our region, well, the numbers tell a  completely different story.

That outside salesman is on our side, btw.  He SEES what we go through on a day to day basis, it's not like we have to "act" like we're busy, we ARE busy.  Another outside salesman attests to the same thing.

Yet, some higher level managers still think we are sitting around, jacking off, having women over and drinking kegs of beer while watch porn when on the clock.

Okay, a bit of an exaggeration and possibly offensive in nature, but the whole situation is beginning to piss me off.  Mouthy, heady, arrogant people walking around spouting off things coming from lips that are completely and totally clueless.

And then......................

Another story.  Apparently, I am "not going to like" having satellite installed in my truck.  I wasn't there for the conversation - on the road of course at the time - but my manager had to ask: WHY do you think he won't like it?  Do you think he's just goofing off all day long?  What is the point of satellite in a company that hasn't used it and doesn't need it?  Obvious: to monitor it's drivers.  What are we doing all day long?  Screw the satellite, if they think I'm some sort of sloucher - which I can guarantee you 100% I am not - let them install a CAMERA on the dash of the truck.

I dunno.  When a person's work is unappreciated, then what do you do next?

G'day.

ben

4 day holiday comes to a close and back to the grind.
Tomorrow will be very busy, if I recall our truck routing system correctly when last seen on Wednesday.
Manager will be back from Chicago.
Ummmm, I'm going to bed early tonight is all I can say about that.

I dodged a bullet on Wednesday, btw.  I don't remember if I wrote about it, but it's - maybe the third time this year that I came upon a "commercial vehicle inspection station" - portable/mobile, they put them up wherever they can find space to pull over lots of trucks.  I was like, wow.  It's getting near the end of November, I made it this far without running into one and here we go.

Well it turns out they were just putting up the signs.  They hadn't finished putting them up at the intersection and quite honestly?  Who KNOWS where they were going to do the inspections.  I have no legal obligation to follow signs that - aren't there.  So, since they hadn't finished posting them? I continued right one, thanks.

But, it's another place now that I know where they may potentially do them, mark that in the "don't go this route" shelf in my mind.  I intentionally take alternate routes to avoid such areas, especially a couple of places where they have these portable inspection stations put up frequently.  I could name the roads - but why bother? Just in case.................

Fry's Food Stores/Shopping

I did end up going out today.
First to Home Depot.  I didn't find anything there that I was looking for so - just left.  Across the street to the AutoZone to have them plug in their computer and maybe find out why the Service Engine Soon light is on.  They determined "most likely" the cause is a bad fuel cap.  Oh.  I had,  a couple of times, a warning light come up stating that the gas cap was loose, even though it wasn't.  So, I spent the $10 and hope that will take care of the problem.  The car is running fine.

Over to Whitfill's Nursery.  Looking for the ground covering plants that the cats have destroyed to some degree - still plenty out there, but there is now a barren spot where their defecating and urinating has completely destroyed it.  They are no longer doing that there, for reasons I have no explanation for, so I am going to try replanting.

They did not have the fresh-cut Christmas trees, yet, but they did have some amazing looking live trees.  As in almost 8 feet tall live trees that looked very nice.  I didn't get one, but I am considering it.  A very good price for a tree that large and after Christmas is done, just plant it somewhere.  Maybe out front and have a permanent Christmas tree out there, lol.

Over to Fry's food stores.  I got a roast and vegetables.  In checkout, the price came up wrong.  It was not showing the sale price of 89 cents for the cut carrots, it came out to $1.69, the regular price.  Well, their policy: scanning error is free up to $5, over $5 they give you a $5 gift card.  I did not get the item for free and the lady had a bagger go check the price.  We're talking 80 cents here, not 10 dollars.  I was a bit put off by them checking the price, which, when he came back, said yes, there IS a sign there that says the sale price of 89 cents.

Well, now I have to go to the Customer Service desk to get this taken care of.  There are 7 people in line.  No way am I going to wait that long for an error on their part - the customer service desk takes forever just to get up to it.  So, I had the assistant manager paged (I prefer the GM, but not there today).  Not my regular store, either.  Individual never showed up after  2 pages in a couple of minute's time.  No call to say why he isn't coming, nothing.  Finally, she says she's going to page him again. Don't bother, I am not going to wait another second for this individual.

Instead, I simply called the store.  Yup, I headed to my car and called the store from the number on the receipt.  The man finally got on as I was driving home, actually.  He gave his excuse - which I didn't find to be a valid one (if he isn't available but knew he was being paged, why not just call up and tell them that?) - Mr. Torrence was his name.  Oh, he states, I would have taken care of this situation.  Really? Do you think I have all day long to wait for something like this, or perhaps should have to wait 20 minutes in a line at the customer service desk?  He had no reply to that.

I just informed him I would be calling corporate headquarters on Monday and yes, I would be asking for a gift card to be sent to my home.  Again.  Not the first time.  I did wish him a nice day and then ended the call.

Is it worth it?  At least one person I know that reads my blog would say no and then proceed to tell me about myself. Yes, it is worth it. First, to get the lady that had an 80 cent error on the ticket "retrained".  For that low amount of money, they just let you have it.  My "story" about it being on sale was verified, but my interaction with Fry's Food Stores in the past has been for something where the discrepancy is that low, just give it to the customer.  Follow your own GM's guidelines. Second, because I didn't get the store's policy of getting the item free for incorrect scanning.

I usually come out well ahead in such things when the store acts in such a way to cause' far more problems than 80 cents is worth.

Whatever, that's long since over, I will have a 5 or 10 minute conversation on the phone with Fry's headquarters on Monday and then we'll see what happens.  Meanwhile? I have plants to put in the ground and need to decide on that tree.  I don't know how long they are going to have those nice, full looking trees around before people come and zap them up.

G'day.

ben