Posts by Jonah

I am Berck's wife. I must use whichever journaling software he chooses. And like it.

Fire!


by Jonah

Well, something exciting finally happened at work today. And I wasn’t even clocked in yet.

We had a bunch of stuff that we listed on E-Bay last Wednesday because they were having a ten cent listing special. So, of course, all the auctions ended last night. We grossed over $200, which is better than we expected. Anyway, Berck had a pile of packages ready to go out in the mail this morning, so I took them, since he’s got to be at the flight school for flight instructing ground school early all week. I’m always anally worried about being late to work, so I left an extra 20 minutes early to stop by the post office.

That put me getting to work 20 minutes early. Oh, well. I have a book I read during breaks, so I got myself a cup of coffee and started reading.

Just then the fire alarm went off. Our fire alarm is so loud and obnoxious that it MAKES you want to leave the building as soon as possible. So I put my book away in my locker, grabbed my coffee, and headed out the door with all the corporate people fleeing the terrible sound. Out in the parking lot, I heard sirens and saw two firetrucks heading around the corner toward our building’s entrance. Wow, that was fast. And that proves this is not a drill.

The warehouse people came out next. It takes them longer to make their way outside because they have to walk so far. The rest of my moving crew started showing up. One of them was text messaging someone down at the Hobby Lobby end of the warehouse where the firetrucks had ended up. She reported that there actually was real fire. Later we heard that a transformer blew in or near Hobby Lobby’s accounting department. The whole warehouse was going to be without power for the rest of the day.

So Barry sent us all home with instructions to call his answering machine to find out if we’re coming in tomorrow. We’re all supposed to come in at 7 a.m. and pull all day. He told the moving crew not to come in at all.

So I get the day off. Yay! Of course, this may mean I’m going to have to work Saturday.

This is my team leader’s last day before leaving on vacation for a week, and she was supposed to go over with me all my responsibilities while she’s gone. But she told me how to get to a computer document where she wrote up detailed instructions for me. I already know it all anyway, but that’s okay. I had to drive her home because her husband was supposed to swap cars with her, and she didn’t have the keys. (She wasn’t going to need them till that night.) She lives just around the corner from the warehouse.

I’m “helping” Berck pack up E-Bay stuff to ship today. He’s trying to get as much stuff done as he can before his lesson this afternoon. We’ve got to go to Sam’s and get padded envelopes to mail out all the political buttons we sold.

Anyone want an “America Needs Nixon” pinback button?

Actual Fact: Which Western European country has the lowest population growth in terms of births-per-person? The Vatican.

Posted in Nonclassified Nonsense | 2 Comments

Moving…Stuff


by Jonah

Well, Bishop wants to know how work is going. So here goes…

Every day I rack my brain for something interesting to tell my husband about my day. And his usual response is, “That’s the most boring thing I’ve ever heard.”

The most interesting thing that happened this week was moving big rows of warehouse scaffolding-like shelves together. These are metal racks 16 feet high and half the warehouse-width long. They’re big. We wanted to move two of them together to make three narrow aisles into two wide aisles. How do you do this? Well, you take 2×4’s and put them under the cross pieces, then put pallet jacks under the 2×4’s. I think we had about seven pallet jacks going. Then everyone pushes, and the whole thing moves. Sorta. We also try not to scrape up the floor (it’s concrete but painted smooth so carts and stuff will glide along nicely). I still don’t believe the scheme worked. Then the warehouse people come and drill bolts into the concrete to anchor the shelving in place…so it won’t go wandering off, I guess.

There are three of us fulltime people who shepherd a bunch of college students hired for the summer. Apparently, we’re going to move everything, not just the stuff that has to empty out of the aisles on one side and into the aisles at the other end. And we have to move stuff when the pullers aren’t pulling. So we build shelves in the morning, then when the pullers are through with the section we need, we start moving things. But we can only move for so long because new tags have to be printed and stuck onto the product in the new location…otherwise the pullers won’t know where to go to get their stuff the next day. And in the case of the actual shelves we moved, we had to move stuff off of them to a temporary location, take all the particle board off them, put the particle board back on, and move everything back.

Anyway, flying in circles has got to be a lot more interesting than reading about this. In any case, work is going well. It’s getting hot, but at least I’m not timed like I was pulling.

Posted in Warehouse Blues | 2 Comments

(Shave and Haircut) x 2


by Jonah

I had my second six-month evaluation yesterday. We’re scored on a range from 0 to 4, with 2 being “Satisfactory.” Last time I had all 3’s with one 2 in Knowledge and one 4 for Attendance. This time I had more 2’s (in things having to do with speed, efficiency, and judgment, since I’ve been shifted around to doing new things several times before I can get used to them rapidly) and a whole lot of 4’s (in things like consideration, cooperation, and teamwork). I also moved up a notch in Knowledge.

So, anyway, I got another 50 cent raise, which brings my hourly wage to $9.

Actual Fact:

In 1893 a priest named Casimir Zeglen invented the first usable bulletproof vest made from 1/16th inch steel plate sewn into layers of tightly woven silk. But he didn’t have much financial success with the vest. At one point, he contacted President William McKinley’s secretary, who scheduled an appointment to demonstrate the vest in a month. But only two weeks later, McKinley was shot in the chest twice.

Posted in Warehouse Blues | No Comments

Is Watching


by Jonah

We’re in Nashville visiting Berck’s dad.

He sent us to the store this afternoon for lemons and lettuce. As we waited for the lady ahead of us in the checkout lane to finish writing her check, I weighed the options of paying by credit card or by cash. We try to conserve cash because we don’t have much of it. But paying a $2 tab with plastic seems a little silly.

To add some complication to the matter, signs had been placarded along the line reading, “For your protection, all credit and check transactions must be accompanied by ID. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.” That settled it. I didn’t feel at all bad about using a credit card for a couple of bucks worth of groceries. I could just say I was sorry for any inconvenience to them.

“Paper or plastic!” shouted the mentally challenged girl bagging. I made Berck decide. He picked paper.

I got my credit card and my driver’s license out of my wallet, placing my license on the counter for the cashier to see and swiping my credit card through the lane card reader. We went through the entire process of punching buttons and such, until I was sure I was through with the credit card and ready to put it back in my wallet. The cashier still hadn’t asked to see my ID. Well, maybe they just talk tough, I thought, but I didn’t put the card back in my wallet. Finally, the cashier handed me my receipt to sign. “Write your driver’s license number below the signature,” she said.

Berck, who can’t read, went ballistic. “What?! DRIVER’S LICENSE NUMBER?? What is…” But then he noticed that I was copying down my number (minus the OK that really should have gone in front of it to do any good). “Well, I guess I can’t stop you from giving them anything…” The cashier didn’t even glance at what I’d written on my receipt.

The mentally challenged girl bagging broke in, “It’s for your protection!”

“Then we don’t owe a penny!” Berck exclaimed, “The card company is liable for any amount!”

“It’s in case your card is stolen!” the bagging girl insisted.

I didn’t want Berck arguing with her, so I cut his protests off and said, “So you’ll know where to mail it if someone steals it?”

“No, it’s so no one can use your card!” she insisted.

I picked up the paper bag and turned to leave. “But how do you know I wrote down the right number?”

The poor thing looked completely stumped. But she was probably the only person in the store giving the idea any thought.

I suppose if I shopped at the store regulary I would just draw a quick scribble on the receipt. No, no inconvenience at all.

Posted in Nonclassified Nonsense | No Comments