So I spent 8 hours at work in the breakfast bar. Then someone decided that she had to leave at 1 so then I housekept... as I said in the last post. Then I decided to drive home. We've been having snow, an inch an hour, all day with wind gusts up to about 30 miles an hour. No problem.
Stopped at the dollar store for new slippers since my fuzzy lined slippers went missing and found a space heater to replace the one that is going bad. When I came out the car was covered... again. I only spent about 15 minutes in the store. At this point I thought about going back to work and begging Colleen to let me stay, even if I had to pay for it. But then I thought better than to make a nuisance of myself. So I got out on the road. And a guy who turned left out of the no left turn lane cut me off in almost zero visibility. And it was zero for the next several miles. So I stopped and got gas. As I am on approach to the gas station the dj on the oldies station makes this smart ass comment. "Wow, it's snowing so hard we may need rudolph to get home." Granted, this was a bad day, the snow on a horizontal and like I said... zero visibility.
So a gas truck gets stuck on the hill just above the gas station, the hill I have to go up to get home without getting stuck myself. It then took 45 minutes to drive the last four miles home. My road was mostly closed and the driveway was impassable. But then that is the way that the winter works around here. So I called Colleen. She said Iwas crazy to have driven home. So I turned around and came back. The coming back was a problem.
The bayside drive was worse than anything I had seen today. I slid down the big hill almost sideways. And then along the bay, the only place that had any visibility was where our defunct zoo is. Couldn't drive more than 20 miles an hour, which didn't stop the guys in the SUV's, who fishtailed around every corner and starting from every stop. By the time I got to work, I was wet, tired and had been on hte road for two one half hours and only driven 16 miles.
Rudolph best keep his big bright nose to himself. And the dj's need to find other pop culture references. If rudy can't see his way to flying my crate home he best not bother with the lead light.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
geekfiles: collective words
A grouping of whales is a POD. A gathering of crows is a MURDER. So what do you call the group of diners that shows up at your food bar all at once? A DESCENSION. As in locusts descending upon a field of golden wheat that has been sitting there minding its own business. Don't even make the argument that the business of a field of wheat IS feeding the flocks... it won't fly with me at the moment.
Yes, today's word was inspired by the inundation of semi rabid teenage hockey boys powering up for their 12:00 game. This was my first day in the breakfast bar by myself. But wait, you say, aren't you a housekeeper? Why yes, yes, I am. But we had someone quit and the new hire quit before she ever got a time card because a better job waits for her downstate. So, since I have some food service experience, I spent two days training and then was alone today.
We knew that there would be three hockey teams here today. I knew there would be a deluge at some point. But what I forgot about deluges in the year since I last did food service was the speed at which things go south. Unlike a prepare as they order setting, in which I have worked there is no portion control so there is no control over how fast you have to restock items. One person can effectively decimate the bacon tray. 30 pieces of bacon gone faster than Nero can light a match. And even though it is pre-cooked it still takes a long time to warm through to a crispness that most people will like.
So on the up side, the first person in today really liked the bacon. Yea me! But still, I never really got caught up until ten minutes to closing.
So, in my frustration, the only thing to do was make up a new word. DESCENSION. Unlike the next word, DISSENTION, which is what happens to the rank an file workers who are left to cleran up after the slackers. Which is what I am off to do now. Someone decided she had to leave at 1pm without finishing her rooms. So, yes... I am a housekeeper too.
Yes, today's word was inspired by the inundation of semi rabid teenage hockey boys powering up for their 12:00 game. This was my first day in the breakfast bar by myself. But wait, you say, aren't you a housekeeper? Why yes, yes, I am. But we had someone quit and the new hire quit before she ever got a time card because a better job waits for her downstate. So, since I have some food service experience, I spent two days training and then was alone today.
We knew that there would be three hockey teams here today. I knew there would be a deluge at some point. But what I forgot about deluges in the year since I last did food service was the speed at which things go south. Unlike a prepare as they order setting, in which I have worked there is no portion control so there is no control over how fast you have to restock items. One person can effectively decimate the bacon tray. 30 pieces of bacon gone faster than Nero can light a match. And even though it is pre-cooked it still takes a long time to warm through to a crispness that most people will like.
So on the up side, the first person in today really liked the bacon. Yea me! But still, I never really got caught up until ten minutes to closing.
So, in my frustration, the only thing to do was make up a new word. DESCENSION. Unlike the next word, DISSENTION, which is what happens to the rank an file workers who are left to cleran up after the slackers. Which is what I am off to do now. Someone decided she had to leave at 1pm without finishing her rooms. So, yes... I am a housekeeper too.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
And the good times here just never end
Well, I came into work at 5:30 on my day off and it is now 2:35. I am going home to die myself a nice shade of corpse bride white so I can resurrect myself for another similar day tomorrow... and Friday... and Saturday... and Sunday... Monday I can come in at 9. Whoo hoo!
Don't get me wrong, I volunteered to do this because no one else can do this without big training and because I like helping people. I'm single and as much as I may have resented the assumptions past employers have made about my automatic availability in times of faux crises, this is a real crisis and I like the people enough to say "What the heck, why not." The problem is that I found muscles shoveling that heavy crap in my driveway that housekeeping for these last 7 months didn't reveal. And I am not really having a lot of luck in the getting sleep department. And it is Winter. For ten years I have worked at a job that I could, in essence, hibernate for the rest of the day. It is a stretch for me. And while I can appreciate the kind of character building this is accomplishing in my life... I am reminded of why exactly the pioneering life in America's mid and wild Western Frontiers was so excruciatingly solitary, even among a small community of settlers. There is too much friggin' work to do when you are boiling water for washing, cooking, and cleaning; hauling wood (thank G'd it's already chopped!) and trying to cook a meal in one friggin' pan. I am so tired from working here all day, I don't want to boil water for tea much less anything else. And socialize? NOT BLOODY FRIGGIN' LIKELY!!!
Rant over? Sure, why not. It's not like I have a lot of energy for anything else. I am not even certain that I have the energy for meeting Verta today... or driving home... or even undressing for bed... but I can not sleep in my work clothes.
Don't get me wrong, I volunteered to do this because no one else can do this without big training and because I like helping people. I'm single and as much as I may have resented the assumptions past employers have made about my automatic availability in times of faux crises, this is a real crisis and I like the people enough to say "What the heck, why not." The problem is that I found muscles shoveling that heavy crap in my driveway that housekeeping for these last 7 months didn't reveal. And I am not really having a lot of luck in the getting sleep department. And it is Winter. For ten years I have worked at a job that I could, in essence, hibernate for the rest of the day. It is a stretch for me. And while I can appreciate the kind of character building this is accomplishing in my life... I am reminded of why exactly the pioneering life in America's mid and wild Western Frontiers was so excruciatingly solitary, even among a small community of settlers. There is too much friggin' work to do when you are boiling water for washing, cooking, and cleaning; hauling wood (thank G'd it's already chopped!) and trying to cook a meal in one friggin' pan. I am so tired from working here all day, I don't want to boil water for tea much less anything else. And socialize? NOT BLOODY FRIGGIN' LIKELY!!!
Rant over? Sure, why not. It's not like I have a lot of energy for anything else. I am not even certain that I have the energy for meeting Verta today... or driving home... or even undressing for bed... but I can not sleep in my work clothes.
Snowbound and down
I know it is December in Michigan. I know I need snow tires. But what happened to the impecable sense of cosmic timing that used to wait until I was prepared before wreaking havoc with my life?
I spent Sunday at the hotel so that I could get into work for Monday morning. Good call on my part as when I got onto my road the plow had only made one pass... down the middle of the road... kinda. The front of my driveway had only about 9 inches of snow. So I did what any insane former paper carrier would do... I floored it... kinda. You know, for as much as almost a plow-width of space would allow. What I found upon entering my driveway was the the former mud whole had not frozen and i promptly sunk into what can only be termed "quicksnow". Beyond the quicksnow lay a 330 foot alley of 2-3 foot deep snow.
I shoveled around my car. I shoveled under part of my car. I used my scraper handle to work out the compacted snow up under the axel... all to no avail. I called the tow truck. Smart boy thought he could push me out. Wrong. Then smart boy tried the tow line. Wrong. So then he winched me. As fun as that could have been it wasn't. Remember that single bladed swath? As soon as my car hit that it slid sideways into the snowbanks.
So then I found a plow guy. He came at 2. I was still stuck in the little space I had shoveled out. When we got my car out of the way it was only 30 bucks to plow. So I'm not snowbound. But still down.
I spent Sunday at the hotel so that I could get into work for Monday morning. Good call on my part as when I got onto my road the plow had only made one pass... down the middle of the road... kinda. The front of my driveway had only about 9 inches of snow. So I did what any insane former paper carrier would do... I floored it... kinda. You know, for as much as almost a plow-width of space would allow. What I found upon entering my driveway was the the former mud whole had not frozen and i promptly sunk into what can only be termed "quicksnow". Beyond the quicksnow lay a 330 foot alley of 2-3 foot deep snow.
I shoveled around my car. I shoveled under part of my car. I used my scraper handle to work out the compacted snow up under the axel... all to no avail. I called the tow truck. Smart boy thought he could push me out. Wrong. Then smart boy tried the tow line. Wrong. So then he winched me. As fun as that could have been it wasn't. Remember that single bladed swath? As soon as my car hit that it slid sideways into the snowbanks.
So then I found a plow guy. He came at 2. I was still stuck in the little space I had shoveled out. When we got my car out of the way it was only 30 bucks to plow. So I'm not snowbound. But still down.
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