Getting Ready to Paint/Belle Isle

Well, it turned out we didn't need the plywood and flooring Jon bought for the bathroom.  The flooring we have isn't pretty, but stick on tiles would solve the bits that are unsightly if we decide to do that.  So we returned stuff at Home Depot and got our $95 back.  Kind of...

I recently broke our giant bathroom mirror while trying to rehang it so I could, I don't know maybe remember to look at myself in the mornings before I go to work. I often don't even think about it and get halfway through the day realizing I have some ink or a giant zit or my hair is all sticky uppy all because there wasn't a mirror and therefore I forgot to be conscious of my appearance.  The antique mirror my dad got from somewhere isn't as large, but its a lot nicer.  It has a nice frame.  It just doesn't cover the layers of wall damage that happened after the original 50s tile was ripped out of the bathroom, probably sometime in the 70s, if the date on the back of the mirror I broke is any indication.

So....I had some leftover joint compound about, because I had to fix various holes in our walls when we moved in from, I don't know, old screws, or whatever.  And I decided I could "fix" the ugly wall damage by using the joint compound to rough up the plaster in the bathroom to look like old stucco.  Basically just camouflage it so its not as noticeable.    Then I ran out of joint compound. So we used our credit for joint compound, some spring green paint (that's going to be the bathroom color because the saturated purples I like just seemed too dark.) some floodlight bulbs because we've never replaced the ones that burnt out or were hit by a falling branch, and some florescent bulbs for the kitchen fixture because they won't light.  Florescent bulbs are twitchy and I optimistically believe its the bulbs, not the fixture because they TRY to light but just won't catch.  Those haven't worked in....I dunno, a year or more?

Yep, when someone in your house isn't working things like lightbulbs go by the wayside and you buy only the important things and then try to play catch up.

It's amazing the things you can do without when you must. I am quite the expert in this by now.

Fresh paint always makes me feel better.

Last thing I painted was our kitchen cabinets and the front room.  When we moved in all the way back in the summer of 2010.  I meant to paint the bathroom, the bunny room, our bed room and repaint the dining room the same exact shade it is only because I love it and it needs touched up.  Things fall to the side.  Don't get done.

I even bought some white paint for trim.  I need to do all the trim in the house, really, and some of the bedroom doors. Someone painted them with white primer and its chalky and seems to gather stains quite easily. Stains that won't wipe off.

Earlier in the day I made my fist trip to Belle Isle.

The Aquarium there had been closed until recently when a bunch of volunteers and people with donations made it possible for it to be open on Saturdays.  A lot of the tanks are still empty.  Lots of those empty tanks have been filled with art by various sponsors such as Michigan Glass and other types of artists...which is pretty fucking awesome.  The tanks that are occupied by fish have a range of species from tadpoles, to rare fish, to endangered fish, to ciclids, two salt water tanks, and the building is just wonderful architecture.

No one makes things like this anymore.

The Conservatory is next door.  It was designed by the same architect and is also very, very grand.  It has plants of various climates.  The outdoors is a huge formal garden that was barren because of the season but daffodil and tulip sprouts seemed to assure me that spring really is on its way.  Despite the cold lately.

I want to go back in nicer, warmer weather.

I miss my Rumu

I have Ruth-Withdrawal Syndrome.

Meaning, I need some sort of long, extended visit with RuMu.

New job is awesome for no boredom and such.

New job is not so awesome for girl time.

I have agreed to work a Sunday so that I won't have to drive in an extra day for a stupid store meeting, meaning I get a Wednesday off.  I need to bother the Ruth that day.

No more Piss on my Feet!

After three weeks of waking in the night having to pee and locating; in the dark, my peeing-down-the-floor drain shoes then half peeing on my feet anyway, shuffling back to bed mildly disgusted and hoping my next poo will be at work so I won't have chose between pooping on the floor drain and bagging the poo like I'd bag dog poo or lining the defunct toilet with one of those stupid plastic shopping bags they dole out at every retailer on the planet and pooping in that, I can actually flush away all the ick and not pee on my feet.

Yes, the toilet is fixed.

I can also mix hot and cold water in the kitchen, shower, washing machine, and bathroom sink. I have a main shut off that I wouldn't be terrified to turn off in an emergency and an outside spigot.  Such riches.

Of course I am in debt again..and by a lot.  But eh, no more toting buckets to wash dishes. And I could even turn the hot water heater back up so I can take a hot shower.  I had to turn it down a couple years back when the bathroom spigot quit working so we wouldn't scald to death.  There are many ways around every thing plumbing and I unfortunately got to know all of them pretty well. 

The guy was a licensed plumber, could have charged us more, and worked all week an hour or two at a time because we couldn't be home earlier in the day.  The faucets he installed aren't pretty. But what the hell, they fucking work.  I don't really give that much of a damn.  They'll be easier to replace now that he's done all the difficult work if we decide we hate them that much. Jon was fairly critical.  But I told him I didn't really give a crap so long as the kitchen faucet was tall enough to get big pots beneath and he did deliver on that.

We even ended up with $100 left of what we borrowed so we can pay that back really simply.

I met my "new" neighbors next door, or, well, the man.  His name is Martin. He saw Jon poking at his Jeep and assumed he knows a lot about cars. Hahahahahaha....anyway...I thought it was funny.  Jon just has to put oil in it constantly, and other such things. It's old.  Apparently his kid's Explorer is making weird noises or something and he wondered if it was going to die.  Jon just recommended a mechanic.  He seemed nice. They have so far kept to themselves after that annoying bit of time when they were insistent on turning about in our driveway, which I parked across once and they have thus far stopped doing it.  Also, can't hate on a guy with a big plow on the front of of his truck who, every time there was a decent amount of snow, plowed out the street before the city.

Kung Fu Grand Master Hi Lo Operator

I think I need some kind of new time management strategy.

At work, I'd like to delegate some of my responsibilities onto a co-worker. My responsibilities are triple normal capacity. My predecessor decided to just simply not print hang tags for items in the side lot or make those annoying 8 X 11 signs for nearly all outside items.   Therefore, I am already behind. ASM has been great about it, making some signs for me for the front lot while I tossed freight. 

I simply lack the time.

An example of my Friday:

4 am: wake up
4:30 am: leave house
4:55 am: pull into work, notice a semi truck lurking out back
4:55:30 am: wonder what evils lurk in that semi trailer
5 am: ASM arrives, walk into building, start pushing freight
7 am: start pushing totes
7:40 am: fill out the forklift inspection sheet
7:50 am: unlock night locks, use torch on one
8 am: truck driver approaches, hands me bill of lading
8:05: unload 5 pallets of horse bedding pellets
8:30 : check rain checks on  horse bedding and any freight items I may have missed, call customers
9 am: do negative on hands
9:01 (there weren't any, weird) start front lot signage of trailers, pallets, ect with the signs ASM so nicely printed
10 am: key out defectives
10: 15 am:  key out inventory adjustments
10:45 am:  check in Exide Batteries

11 am: lunch!!!!!

11:30 am: rotate and stock Exide Batteries, try to make them all fit on one pallet (fail, they sent too many)
12:30 pm:  check in UPS deliveries
1:00 pm: start backroom clean up, work 2 remaining dog/bird/cat small bag/box pallets
1:30 pm:  load out 20 bags of horse bedding that was on raincheck
1:40 pm: forklift runs out of propane
1:41 pm:  Princess' father comes to alert me that he's here to pick up the tractors he had out for repair
1:42 pm:  I alert him that I will be right with him as soon as I switch out the propane tank on my forklift
1:45 pm: I give him the paperwork for his tractors, send him to the registers
2:00pm: He still isn't through the register, so I enlist Jason to help load tractors into Princess' father's horse trailer so I can clock out on time.

Whew....I'm tired.

It's nice the days go in a snap, though, instead of relentless pacing around at the register.  Even though the fax machine and I don't get on, and the night lock/ monkey puzzle/chinese finger trap device and I don't get on...I am good unloading feed/wood pellets, lol.  The freight truck, well, its one hell of a challenge.  So is the loading the empty pallet truck.  Oh, the salt truck was fairly simple as well.  So its two trucks that I really don't want to see--ever...until I get better with the forklift and then I will consider myself a grand master.

Pee Down the Floor Drain and Bag Your Own Poo

Homeownership.  Most of the time, its pretty cool.  I can paint the walls absurd colors, rip up carpet, make holes in the walls with no landlord bringing me down. 

And, then, something really awful happens.  Like, say, the toilet is leaking.  Has been.  The bathroom floor is getting squishy.  We buy new flooring and new plywood.  We have two guys who have refurbished bathrooms before come over to teach us how--for free--no less..and then, while trying to disconnect the sink, one of the sink shut offs will not be shut off. 

The guys, reasonably, suggest we shut off the main valve to the house so we can continue gutting the bathroom to fix the floor and the toilet. 

Umm...that's a no-go.  Our main is scary looking. Like afraid to turn it scary.  Always has been. 

So the guys are like, well, whatever, let's just fix the leaky toilet then and worry about the floor later.

They drain the toilet and pull it out.  The seal is broken. Fine, expected that.  The housing it sits into is also broken, did not expect that.  There is no way to bolt a new housing to the floor because the floor is fucked...and no way to bolt the toilet to the floor because the floor is fucked.

There is no way to shut the water off to fix the floor, and we are back to the circle of suck.

They did try reseating the toilet with a new wax seal because, yep, it is our ONLY toilet.  This, of course, failed miserably, the toilet is no longer flush with the floor; there is an inch or an inch and a half gap between the toilet and the floor because it won't seat properly and also will still leak anyway. 

So, we no longer have a serviceable toilet.

Awesomesauce.

The only way to turn the water off is to have someone turn it off at the curb.  That someone has to be licensed and insured to do so because if that valve breaks, then we really are fucked. Badly. We won't have water, will serve prison time, and incur a huge bill besides. 

So I guess we have to investigate this during normal business hours, which, of course, we now both work.  I'm not even sure who to call.  A plumber? The city?  I really don't want to call the city because then they'll demand permits and inspections. I don't want to open that can of worms but will probably have no choice.  We do have an illegal pipe just so we can have a water supply.  Why its illegal, I have no idea, but the guy who rigged it, knew it was illegal.

So we are back to square one. Replumb. 

All because we wanted to do something seemingly simple. Fix a toilet and a floor.

Also, I am now peeing down the floor drain in the laundry room, and flushing the area with water because Jon is worried I'll be put on a sex offender list for peeing outside.  Living in the city sucks.

I even took dump over the floor drain, and picked it up like you would pick up after a dog, tied off a bag and such.

Why, oh, why aren't outhouses legal anymore?

I can just imagine someone asking if it is okay to use our bathroom.  Usually, I reply with an "of course, its over there" and point.  Now, I shall have to reply "No, but do feel free to pee down our floor drain.  If you have to do a number two, here's one of those little plastic baggies from the grocery store, please bag it and take it outside and give it a toss into the garbage can.  Thanks."

My life is sooooo glamorous.

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

Three days of training at the old 0316 with the very awesome and very competent Darlene and I was unleashed on my store to try to step up to the challenge of being a receiver.   Not that I knew how to check in a freight truck, let alone two....oh, no, that didn't stop me! 

First thing, I did the morning things.  It took seriously something like five minutes.  Except for using the torch on the night locks. That took much longer and is frowned upon, apparently, according to Dar, but everyone always uses the torch on the night locks. Perhaps corporate should spring for unfreezable night locks if they don't want us using torches?  Besides,  torches are fun and make blue flame. What's not to love?

Then I was instructed to straighten up my backroom while waiting for the DC trucks. Okay. Sigh. My predecessor apparently decided this was not part of her job even though it is part of the job.  I made it so store fixtures were fairly accessible and somewhat organized in case someone might need to set a planogram.

I was shown the wheel chocks, the truck seal, and how the dock works.  Then I unloaded a few pallets that were all shifted with things fallen off of them and constant moving the forks closer and further apart because apparently, they are loaded all willy-nilly, unlike a feed truck in which the pallets are all pointing the correct direction.  I was really slow at this. Mostly due to the fact that I was concerned my drive wheels could, I don't know, drive OVER the railing on the side of the dock if I wasn't careful.  I calmed myself by thinking, well, if the Princess could do it, then I shall learn to do it BETTER.  I was really really slow. Luckily, Scott was there, and is quick with the hi lo, so I organized pallets while he unloaded the rest of the full truck and then the halfy truck that was waiting for us to unload the first.

I was disappointed upon discovering that the Princess had carefully removed all the snacky-cakes from the snacky-cake drawer of the filing cabinet.  I was going to send them to the break room for consumption by all if she'd left any.

John helped me check in the DC trucks.  He had no idea what to do with what paperwork, so there are things I have to ask the ASM tomorrow when she works.  I could have called Darlene, but, I didn't want to bother her because she was wrestling with her own trucks. 

Then I had to count the pallets so corporate knows how much time to allot us per pallet, per tote and such because they are tools.

And then the mad sorting began.  I had all the pallets and totes sorted in five hours. Apparently that is pretty damn good for a truck and a half because John was surprised when I said, um, hey, I'm done. I need to do end of day paperwork and then I'm out.

There were presents in my locker.  Really.  Like a book and some tiny little koosh balls.  I assume Lorien stuffed them in there because no one else I asked knew anything about it. I hope it was a Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead, Which Old Witch, the Wicked Witch, celebratory kind of present.

I think I need to make notes on the paperwork end.  I just can't remember any of it.  The doing part is fine, the hard work part is fine...its the anal, number cruncher bit that I lack.

I also get to help put away all the freight I sorted tomorrow at 5 am and find rain checks I didn't manage to find, and call customers and anything else I didn't remember to do or know how to do today.

The good part is, there really isn't any time to get bored and my day is just gone and over before I know it. Awesome.  Also, with Princess Witchy gone, there seems to be less stress in the work environment and everyone is really happy for me. Nice. Very nice. I like when people are genuinely happy about something that affects me positively. 

Also, the nice truck driver said I looked 25.  Yippee!!!  Ten years younger is always a good way to look.

I am a Shipping/Receiving Department

I am starting a new job but at the same workplace.

The benefits:

No more asking co-workers to dial my extension so I can ask to pee.

Less chance of being cornered and forced to listen to long tales of  "How My Ex Wife Screwed Me Over" from customers.

No more asking constantly, "May I have your phone number, zip code, and would you like to donate a dollar to 4 H or FFA?"

No more bothering about leaving the customer side of the store immaculate before going home.

A drawer in the file cabinet all to myself.  My predecessor stored cookies in there.

When I am thirsty, I can easily get myself some water.

I will get to be outside more.

I will see my husband for more than one hour a day due to my schedule changing to mornings.

No more working weekends.

My co-workers are all genuinely happy for me (except, perhaps, the team lead who is worried about who is filling my shoes with him at store close. Yes, it does matter who is on deck.) and I am not a sneaking bitch like my predecessor so I shall get plenty of help if I but ask.

I am happy to have been given the opportunity.  I needed change, even with the stress it brings. A challenge is always welcome.

Today of is my last day of exclusive sales and customer service. I will still do it, but on a much lesser degree.

A raise.

The downside:

Traffic. It will be heavier than I am used to.

Getting the forklift stuck in snow.

The new store manager starts Feb. 25 and will be working at 7 am with me. I haven't met him before.

I only get three days training before my first day, a truck day.

Still lots of heavy lifting. I'll stay strong, anyway.

Talking to truck drivers who barely seem to speak English and aren't allowed to unload the trucks so they stare at you while you do it.

I will still smell of tires.

Miles of paperwork.