When It Rains, It Pours

Labor Day weekend has come and gone. With it, my birthday showed up. Saturday night, we did a family dinner out for my bday at one of our favorites, a place called the Black Bear Diner. My birthday, being Sunday, the Wife and boys went to church, and I went up to the pub to hang out for awhile. An hour or so after being there, I found out some movie company was there shooting some scenes for some mafia boss-type movie. No one well-known was going to be there, but supposedly the movie stars Nicholas Cage and Mila Kunis. I guess the scenes they were shooting that day were more about the bad guy and some bar scene. I watched a couple of them. One guy, I'm guessing the one in charge of extras, heard it was my birthday, and if I stayed long enough, he would get me in a scene "close to the action" as an extra, but it didn't work out. I waited for him to get me, but he never did. On their way out he sort of apologized, saying he hadn't realized til some of the regular guys were there, that I was a bit bigger than they, and would appear more intimidating than they were. Great.

Either way I still had a fun time. The Wife and I went to dinner at Black Angus, a little more expensive steak place for those that don't know of them. Good birthday. Monday, Reverend Mother came by with some cookies, leftover home made potato salad and some 'white girl' salsa Sis had made. And some cassette tapes she had at home she thought I could listen to in my truck, since I griped about the radio last time. Then the AC at the house went out.

Tuesday I got AC repair to the house, supposedly fixed it. Some board had some scorch marks on it but covered under warranty (yea!) but when the Wife got home last night, it still isn't working. She and the boys stayed over at the MIL's, I stayed home as I had to rise early and get to work. No idea when we can get the AC repair back here as they want access to the thermostat inside, but with our schedules, we may have to wait until the weekend.

This morning, already frustrated with some work issues from Monday, the AC not working, a night sleeping in warm house (it is 7am, and only 91 now, but was up 98 last night at like 9pm), I got up early and headed to my truck. There is a nice large puddle of coolant underneath. The garage my shop uses is in East Mesa, in other words, across the valley (about 35 miles one way) so no way am I able to drive it there with this issue. The garage doesn't open until 7:30 (it was about 6:20 at this point). I called my boss, gave him the heads up. He has the number for the owner of the garage, and within a few minutes, both of them calling me, we got a tow set up.

Tow company calls. They are based in East Mesa, and with morning rush hour, it will take them 1-2 hours to get here (which is about right - takes me about 50 minutes to go to the garage prior to morning rush when I take it in for maintenance. Then I am to ride with them to the garage to pick up a company loaner van (we keep a couple there for this situation with out tech fleet). That will be at least another hour. Then I can got to work (about 15 mins from the garage). I might make it in by 10:30, when I started the day planning to be there at 7:30. In the meantime, I get to sit here in this warm house, waiting for the tow, prattling on about how frustrated I am with all the problems happening to me right now.

At least I have cookies .... for breakfast.

Lunch on Thursday morning with Preacher Tom ... unless more bad stuff happens.

Thanks for reading my rant.

PeacE

More Than My Share

Work has been pretty tiring the past few days. Monday, one of the guys in my department came down with flu-like symptoms, and ended up leaving early. Tuesday and Wednesday he called out sick. Personally, I think he was faking it all. There are only three of us in the Parts Dept., and Mondays, this guy has to cover his position and hers. That's a normal thing, and has been since before I started there. Why should things be any different now? So Monday he wasn't feeling well, called the other gal (Monday is her day off) and asks her to come in since he supposedly is so sick he can't do everything (like he has the past Mondays for more than a year). Then he goes home early.

Tuesday it was time to take my truck into the shop for the routine oil change. The A/C had been making some noise, so I left the truck there for them to work on, and borrowed a loaner van (one of our older work vans). The plan was for Denny's for breakfast to kill time before work (I had at least a couple hours before needing to be there) but for some reason, I felt nudged that I shouldn't. Instead I stopped at a QT and had a couple sausage dogs. I arrive at work about two hours early and hear the one guys has called in sick, so I clocked in early, to help do his job. Makes for along day.

Wednesday morning, around 7 am (about 4 hours before my usual clock-in time) my boss calls me, asking me to come in early since the guy has called in sick again. Of course I said yes, never hurts to get bonus points, and headed in. Another long day. Granted a few hours of overtime is nice, plus the bonus points for going above and beyond the regular job duties. But I told my boss, in a joking manner, I was shutting off my phone last night so if the guy called in sick again, the could not reach me. He laughed, They haven't called me yet, so sitting here with fingers crossed ... though, I am sure if he does show up to work, he will be dragging heels pretending to still be "recovering".

So why am I so negative about this guy? He's been with the company several years .... he must be doing his job competently. I have only been there about a year and a half, and have knowingly caught him telling me stories about something he did on a "sick day". Yes, I know many of us have done similar - call in sick to do something else. So why do I care so much?

I don't know. I wouldn't say I care so much, but am a bit peeved at having to unexpectedly cover his position, on top of my own job. I know it happens .... but when I just have a strong feeling that he is faking it. Yeah, me doing his job so he can go party. Joy.

PeacE