Oh gawd ... I hate Fridays ...

Read on to see what I'm rambling about ...

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One of the reasons I don't get involved with people is that I have what I call the "Godzilla Temper": it burns hot and fast for a good while and then leaves a path of destruction in the wake ...

You don't believe me? Let me explain ... and make a believer out of you.

Yesterday morning, I had driven the Goliath, my pick up truck, to work because I sent the bike to the shop to have the first tune up. According to the guy (I think I said this in the Bike Journal a while back), they needed two break in tune ups ... one at about twenty hours of biking and the next one at about fifty. Now, I have ridden on the bike for about fifty hours already ... oopse ... but I really do like it.

So, the bike is in the shop, awaiting its turn on the rack, and I'm driving the Goliath ... ok, you are with me so far.

I had to go to Hardeeville at 7:30 am to deliver some stuff so we can get other things moving by the start of next week ... no problem there. I slept in a bit and got to work around 6 am, so I was good and rested, got my oatmeal for the morning with my orange juice, and was even medicated ... or at least, so I thought.

We already had problems at work ... the old engineering copier, the one I had rebuilt after it was torn up by neglect and misuse, needed a little TLC, not a swift kick, mind ... and I got that working. One of our depressed women came in and said her mind about this and that ... you have to be able to tune this one out ... she's miserable period and I don't wish to turn this into a commentary on her. After dealing with the children, I managed to get the package ... which was not ready to go ... because the guy putting it together left for the night and left his secretary to deal with it with another one of our "infamous" women of the office. Because of this, I didn't leave at 7:30 am to help me get back before the children started fighting again ...

I could feel the headache starting ...

The trip was nice and uneventful ... no phone calls, no whining or bitching, no noise ... just me and my morning show and my coffee. Got the package delivered to a thankful pair of engineers and administrators ... or someone like either ... and off I went to return to Savannah. It's only an hour trip ... gotten to the point I can do it rather easily.

Getting back, I had to do the mail call ... a normal thing in the morning ... and off I went. Mail was annoying ... the package I was expecting ... and have been expecting since May 20th was still not here and that meant I was going to have to deal with the seller on Amazon, "Hook, Line, and Sinker" ... though I thought I mean call this troublesome trio "Crook, Anchor, and Stinker".

Still the morning wasn't anything I couldn't handle ...

... And then it happened.

The natives, happy to be going at 11:30 am, started their runs of throwing things at me left and right, thinking I had all this time to deal with it and nothing else happening. My tasks because as such:

1- Storage boxes to goto Storage (natch).
Seven Boxes, four of which weighed in at about forty pounds, two that weighed in at about twenty, and one that might have weighed in at ten or so ... five brown bags of plans ... not much weight, but bulky as hell.

2- Pulling Computers out of a visiting boss's car, told to me my the secretary up front who was frantic about getting it done ... a spaz, I think the term is called. Not like I'm normal though ... one desk top CPU and one that was a super CPU ... normal weighed about twenty pounds ... the other about twenty tons.

3- Ice for the freezer ... again, the office pigs had gone through four bags within four days ... St Pete on a Pogo Stick ... and I was sick of dealing with the refrigerator. See last Friday's Journal ...

4- Delivery to Tybee Island ... this was the one which started the misery off. One boss told me that he'd love this to go ASAP. I said fine ... I would leave around noon to get this one taken care of. Another boss got involved and it got slowed down a bit ... normal ... and then the original boss, seeing me starting to look exhausted from the first three tasks ... which had to be done back-to-back to keep the natives appeased ... said that if it wasn't ready, it would go on Monday, no sweat ... then the God Boss spoke: "IT WILL GO TODAY!!" We both looked at each other and went back to work.

5- Banking. A lot. 'Nuff said.

Now, while all of this was happening, I had to deal with a few questions: when is the copier in my crypt going to be fixed, why don't you use the elevator, are you going to toss everything out of the frig again, when are you going on deliveries (multiple times to which I said, "Read the e-mail."), and even one ... doesn't that hurt?

Look ... you poke me and I get annoyed, you use a stick on me, I get mad, and then you use a cattle prod, and I get enraged. I was at this point mad ...

Getting the ice and doing the computers were the two easiest things I could do ... and they got done fast. Though I wondered why this visiting boss didn't at least bring the smaller of the two CPUs up stairs ... and then I remembered who I was thinking of. Ice was stored and computers were safe, so I started on the boxes. No one helped, no one offered to help, and everyone had their smart assed comments ... the first five minutes was cute ... even one of the bosses got me laughing about being a glutton for exercise by using the stairs and not the elevator ...

Let me pause here a second ... for those of you who are still reading ... the firm doesn't have an elevator. See, the firm was built back in the sixties when the ordinance for having a elevator in a building over one story tall was not in effect ... the CEO knew this was coming and had the building built fast and there for we slipped through the crack. Now, we cannot have the building expanded on because we would have to comply with this ordinance ... you see, my friends, an elevator costs about $140K to put in and then it's about $20K a level or so beyond two floors ... and then it's about $5K to $20K a year to maintain in many cases; the safety inspection must be done every year as well ... and things change. This is the other reason we don't have an elevator in the building.

So, I had to carry all of this down by hand ... using the dolly would have torn my back and made me insane with pain. Though after the first load, I was pretty close ...

Going over to off-load the first car load of stuff to storage, I assumed I knew which storage unit to deal with and started to try and unlock this one. Rusted and unresponsive ... the lock I mean ... I went back to the firm and got my tools ... a chain saw, some plastique, some asprine, and a rubber chicken. The lock still didn't respond ... no, I'm kidding ... I went back for a pair of pliers to turn the key and some WD40, the redneck fixall of everything. It didn't work ... the key snapped off in the lock ... so I went to the office of the storage and talked to this little freaked out college girl and discovered they had a pair of bolt cutters, but no one to cut locks off. Grumbling and walking in the heat back to the storage unit, I proceeded to try and cut the lock off ... ten minutes of this and no help got me to return the bolt gutters and really getting pissed. Back at the office and almost in tears I was so mad, I called the locksmith and asked about cutting the lock off. I figured it was rusted solid and unusable, so off it comes ... well ... God does have a sense of humor and a way to make one humble really fast ... I discovered to my horror that this was NOT my storage unit for the firm ... calling the locksmith back, I placed them on hold and raced back over to the storage place and checked things out ... mine was down to the left by three numbers and I had screwed up someone else's lock. Pissed and in tears, I sucked it up and went to make things right ... I offered to have the locks cut off and replaced at my expense ... $60 for the whole thing. The guy who owned it was nice enough and even thanked me for being so honor bound and all of that and the girl at the office just thought it was so sweet of me to do this ...

... And now with Tokyo in flames, I started back for the ocean, humbled, pissed, tired, and frustrated. Smiling on the sidelines was Megalon and he's just rung the bell for round two ...

I get back to the firm and the secretary ... remember the Hardeeville delivery? ... she got handed something that needed to go out by the time I left ten sets of plans which were 22 sheets thick ... now, that's too simple; Megalon had to add a twist ... the last two pages had to be turned around. And the whole assignment was already printed, so there was no going back and the secretary was not going to rescan these pages. So ... I was stuck with it.

I about quit my job. I was tired and hungry, my head hurt, and I was so angry at this point I just couldn't see straight. This little beleaguered secretary ... who is slower than Christmas and weaker than a kitten ... begged me not to because then she would have to deal with this. I bitched some more and then picked up the first set to fix ...

Half an hour later and my back killing me from being bent over a small table, I was done and still not happy. She said that all she had to do was a transmittal and she wasn't ready yet ... someone shoot me. I said "Fine" and left the office for the bank ...

This was the one thing that absolutely needed to be done ... and I wanted to have gotten this done around 11 am. By 12:30 pm, the others were here, cashing paychecks and making a line ... and no air conditioning ... and I started to reek from all of the sweat ... there was a gentle tapping on my shoulder and one of my sweeter bosses was standing there, smiling. She was on her way to make her own deposit for the firm ... and I suggested that she give that to me so she could go back to the firm. "No reason for the both of us to be here." She thanked me and asked if there was something she could do for me ... I asked her to tell the beleaguered secretary I would be back ... see, the spaz at the front of the office never listens ... she nodded and off she went.

The banking took about half an hour once I got up to the front which was about fifteen minutes of waiting. There was paperwork to be done with the deposit ... and I was warned about this ... ok. Fine. Done, it was off to the office.

Tired, I lumbered up the stairs ... yes, I am big enough to lumber ... and there was my Boss who asked for the Big Mac Sandwich last friday or so ... I cringed thinking he would do so again ... he didn't.

Preparing for the deliveries, I gathered up everything and headed for the door ... it was almost 2 pm and I had not eaten yet. Not a good sign. Made it to Tybee Island and then worked my way towards Garden City and then Pooler ... the thought of all of the chaos wrought by my temper made me think that I needed an extra day off ... Monday ... so I could get my head back on right. I had let the office win and it cost me badly in time, money, and physical strength ... also, quitting would be stupid.

When I got back, I asked for Monday off and the nice sweet lady said "Sure ... you look like you need it." That was that ... I even ran into another boss who I had snarled at and much of the time, he ignores me anyways. He did ask me how things were after getting a heartfelt apology ... and I told him. He asked me why I was paying for it since we all make mistakes. I said that I was not going to sweep this under the rug so easily. I did the damage and, like I had bitched about last week with the refrigerator, I was going to accept responsibility for it and clean up the mess. He nodded and understood ... I think he was impressed.

I left to go home ... tired and drained ... and with one last delivery to do. King Kong had thrown me a banana and I gave him the finger. I wasn't a performing chump ... but I did the last delivery and went home to the depths of Tokyo Bay.

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Thanks to all of you who have been encouraging me to work hard and get this year going really good.

Also, a reminder ... I have a studio mail box if you want to write to me: (Doubtful, but you never know. )

Memory Awake Studio
PO Box 13143
Savannah, Georgia 31416