Í usually go to South Coffeyville after work Sunday mornings to get breakfast and to read the out of town Sunday papers, since there is no longer a local Sunday paper. When I went to the rack at 8am, there was no Kansas City Star. I thought they pulled out of the area after reading the latest census numbers. When I got ready to leave the Woodshed at 8:30, the Star was on the rack.
Idiots
Who was the moron who decided the game between Independence CC and Fort Scott CC at 11am? And why? It can’t be ESPN.
Power outage
Got into work last night and found out power to our refrigeration units went down. Instead of stocking shelves, we spent most of the night emptying the refrigerator and putting away what we could in the lockers in the backroom.
After lunch we put the stuff back in the fridges. Between the little stocking we did and getting about half of the stuff back in the fridges, the shelves looked awful empty this morning. The merchandise was there, it just wasn’t on the shelf. Hopefully the day crew got us caught up for the night.
Disappearing Fans
Over the last five years attendance is way down at local high school and college sporting events in the area. Attendance appears to have dropped 30-40%. The 11% drop in population over the last decade does not account for that large a drop. School attendance figures will be released in a week, but enrollment shoukd not drop that much. I wonder what people are doing around here on weekend nights.
Wasted day
Forgot about the yard work, but got rid of some junk in the house. Call it a draw.
Working on the weekend
Friday is here just in time for some long overdue house and yard work. Temperatures are close to ideal and the days only grow shorter from here.
9/11 plus 20
A lot of people are thinking about what happened and what they were doing 20 years ago today, so I thought I would add my two cents.
I was at work at a bottled water company in Phoenix. As a QC tech my job was to test the water every hour. Any spare time I had was spent setting the next line up.
Just when I thought I could go to the bathroom, a spring water tanker shows up with a sample to be tested before he could unload. The driver says an airplane hit a skyscraper in New York. I think he is kidding, but because he has a radio in his truck and we have none in the plant, I can’t call him out on it.
An hour or so later the second spring tanker arrives and the second driver says both World Trade Center buildings have been hit and one has fallen down. I am thinking “that’s kind of interesting, but I need to test this water so you can unload and I can get the next line started, tested and maybe GO TO THE BATHROOM.”
An hour later, just as the first line is shutting down and I can get a break, the final load of spring water arrives and the driver is yelling about the Pentagon on fire and towelheads. I test the water and hear an announcement for all plant employees to go to the breakroom immediately.
After finally going to the bathroom, we notice a television in the breakroom. Not only is there a television, but it tuned to a local news broadcast.
Then the branch manager and plant manager told us what happened. They announced new security measures taking effect immediately and others taking effect later. Some of these were aleady planned but would not have been announced on a normal day. Security was lax because the plant was built in the early 60s before zoning. Except for the school bus yard next door, the rest of the neighborhood was residential. Most of the houses were built in the 80s and 90s. The residents would have freaked if we had the new security measures in place before 9/11.
After work I went straight home and my house was eerily quiet. My house was directly west of Sky Harbor Airport. With no planes overhead, you could hear people whispering in the lot next door. You could also hear loud conversations a block or two away. It stayed that way until Friday evening, which was a good thing because I had paid for a red eye flight due to leave Friday night. I had one of the nicer flights I ever had.
Going Postal?
Our fearless leader has decided to make employees of large businesses get vaccinated but specifically exempts the US Postal Service. People over 40 remember the rash of shootings by Postal Service employees. It got to the point that the term “going postal” was used when workplace violence happened. I wonder if fearless leader feared another round of going postal.
Two Steps Forward…
…one step back. Unofficial word is Wallyworld gave a bunch of employees, including me a dollar an hour raise. Also unofficially, they took away our profit sharing bonus. For 40 hour a week employees like me, the profit sharing was about half of the $520 in raise each quarter.
Our manager hasn’t said anything about the pay raise this week. She hasn’t said much of anything at all about anything.
Fall Gardening
With the nighttime temperatures finally cooling down, I can start planting greens for the fall garden. The beans and peas I planted last week are starting to germinate. If we don’t get an early frost, I will have a short window to harvest them.
Footyfried 