More Dusting

We got a surprise dusting of snow last night. It’s not even noon but it’s gone already. My pond could use a good six to eight inch snowfall with a slow melt. Not likely to happen this year.

According to droughtmonitor.unl.edu my land is on the border between moderate and severe drought. Thanksgiving Day it wasn’t even abnormally dry. This is by going to make gardening hard this year.

Supply Chain Woes

Living in rural Kansas, we have not had as many empty shelves as the large cities.  All but the poorest have large pantries and have been drawing down their stocks when something they need is not available.  People are thinking ” Do I really need that?” when they see the price increases.  They are also deferring purchases hoping the much anticipated repeal of the 6.5% state sales tax on groceries arrives before the next round of price increases. 

At Wally World we have managed to get stuff on the shelves, but there may be only three or four options instead of a dozen. We can keep soda on the shelves, just not always the popular ones. Some items are here today, gone tomorrow, and might be back next week or even next month. We are drawing down stock in the back room more often than usual this time of thebasis.

We are getting one or two fewer trucks a week than normal because stuff is not getting to the warehouses on a regular basis. We also have a bunch of people out on WuFlu leave. If every level of distribution has the same problem with absenteeism we do, the supply chain will snap at some point, but there is still a little slack in the chain.

Bad Timing

Schools in every part of Kansas are going to remote learning this week, although not every school is. They are allowed five days thie year and most are choosing to go remote now to take advantage of Monday’s MLK holiday.

Some smaller districts have stopped playing games due to lack of players. Surprisingly, those that can are playing on. Long before there was a paid holiday honoring MLK, the third week in January was a basketball tournament week in Kansas. Why the schools that are remote learning are playing on should be checked out. Why our local media aren’t asking should also be checked out.

Layoff, Two Years Later

Two years ago today, I got laid off at work. Two years before that, the company sold our division. I was going to get an extra day of vacation that year and an extra week the next year. I lost that as a result of the sale along with all of my personal days, two holidays,, and most of my sick time. In October of 2018 night shift was eliminated, cutting my pay $30 a week.

Finally, 2019 looked to be my year. I would finally get the extra week of vacation I had anticipated for two years. I was also on the weekend inspection list, with an easy four hours of overtime pay roughly every month. The new managers were rumored to be in trouble and human resources coming out to our facility to talk to us about the managers. At break, we were told the managers were let go and HR wanted to talk to some of us. During lunch, we found out a lead person had been let go.

An hour before quitting time, I was called to the meeting room. They told me several positions were being eliminated, and mine was one of them. I was stunned. I had never been laid off in my four decade working career.. I asked about severance, and was told four weeks, plus my nine hours of vacation, plus I would be paid for the entire day. I went to the locker room, took off my uniform, took my mandatory shower, put my regular clothes on, and cleaned out my locker. While doing all that, three other people also got the ax.

I should have got unemployment, but the state denied it, citing my severance package. By the time I could file an appeal, the system went down because the WuFlu took out key staff and increased claims. My severance managed to buy a badly needed used vehicle. Two and a half months later, I got hired as a temp at Walmart and I am still there. At least I am there full time now.