If You Can't Hang With The Big Dogs

Sometimes at work you start out at one position but end up getting sent over to work somewhere else.

Today was one of those days.

First I was supposed to make the little electrical boxes that look like purple Legos. Before I took 10 steps toward that station the boss changed his mind. Go put together drains. I got that all set up, put together about 50, then the boss came over.

Another change of plan.

Go help this other lady put wire nuts in plastic jars & box them up to get ready to ship out.

Barely got started & another change of plan.

There were a couple of cases ready to ship out that were messed up. Some of our electrical devices are full of thick, gooey silicone. Some aren't. Whoever boxed up this order grabbed gooey tubes instead of empty tubes, so we had to pull out all the bags, open them up, pull out the wrong tubes & put in the right ones.

But to get the right ones I had to go through a big bin full of little tubes & slightly bigger tubes that were all mixed together. Apparently when you actually use these things, whatever they are, you're supposed to take a little tube & stick it inside a bigger tube, so the machine that makes the tubes just makes both sizes & dumps them all together.

So we fixed that all up & finally went back to putting wire nuts in plastic jars.

Except.

Another change of plans.

They must have had a big order for these black plastic pieces for irrigation systems, so they wanted to keep that machine running all night, no stops, no breaks. So after I took my breaks & lunch I was supposed to go work on that machine while the temp working there took his break, then when he got back I would go back to the wire nuts & plastic jars.

Good in theory.

It worked fine at first. I took my first break, then made some irrigation taps, then went back to the wire nuts. I went to lunch, then made some more irrigation taps, then stuffed more wire nuts in jars.

Everything went downhill after the last break. I went over & relieved the new dude. Started making the irrigation taps. Made more of the irrigation taps. Kept making them. The boss came over & looked at me funny.

Why was I still there putting together irrigation taps when I was supposed to go back over & stuff nuts in jars?

Cause new dude never came back. I checked the clock & he was about 10 minutes late. The boss went looking. I'm not sure where he found him, but he was asleep. I can't really blame him. I mean, it was his first day, and after all, it was midnight. Some people just aren't night owls.

So anyway, the boss sent him home. I don't know if it's a permanent situation or if he's going to be back tomorrow. All I know is I never did get back over to the wire nuts.

Which wasn't the worse thing that could have happened.

You see, there is one thing I don't like about work.

It's called FOX radio.

The lady I was helping always has the radio on, & it's always on FOX.

Now, understand. I'm a Democrat. Or at least Democratish. I have to admit I do believe I voted for Reagan.

Don't tell Mom.

But I think the lady at work must be a Republican, or a Teabagger. The crackpots on the radio would say something completely insane, like Obama enjoys eating juicy little white babies with a little thyme and cilantro, and she'd just nod along with them. And the guys on the radio get all worked up, ranting and raving, like fundamentalist preachers standing on street corners, warning everybody they're going straight to Hell if they don't stop their fornicating or idolatry or whatever bug crawled up that particular preacher's ass that particular day.

I just can't decide if they actually believe the crap they're saying, or if they're just trying to stir up ratings. I mean, they say things that are completely wrong. The deficit's out of control. No, actually it's going down pretty quickly considering how bad the economy was. Millions of people are losing their jobs. No, the job market is actually improving. Slowly, yes, but it is improving. Taxes are out of control. No, taxes aren't skyrocketing out of control. Bush passed a temporary tax break, but now we're right back tax-wise to Clinton levels. What's wrong with that? I think it should be higher, at least for the insanely rich. You have a gazillion dollars and some people can't buy enough food to feed their children. And you think that's right? Let those lazy people go out & get a job. Yeah, right. What job? The job you just outsourced to Bangladesh? Just so you can afford a larger yacht?

Isn't there a song about 'Eat the rich'?

With a little thyme and cilantro I bet they'd be delicious.