Music: "Everything"-Maya (title of this blog taken from those lyrics)
12:45p
You get revenge, that's what you do.
My question for this weekend: Who do I have to kill to get what I want? Apparently, this weekend was 'kill-or-be-killed'.
I will say this again; I still need my own TV show.
I've told the story about how good of a machine I have at work. Last weekend, after somehow breaking the forks ( I nearly tipped over when going to lift a pallet), I took it to maintenance, and never saw it again. I was hoping it would be there when I came back this past Friday. Somehow, those grease balls over in shipping had gotten a hold of it. Okay, fine, I'll use one of these crappy machines until I can get it back. Maybe I'll get lucky.
The day itself was pretty busy, but production was great. I came back on Saturday morning, on a mission. Maybe if I find my machine, it will be a good day! I combed the entire shipping side, with no luck, but hey, at least I got my exercise. I made the long walk back to my dock, only to find someone had already taken the best machine (well, the best out of *that* bunch). Damn! If only I could lock those machines out when I get there, but from what I understand, you have to be clocked in first, and that's a risk I will not take.
Okay, so I had no luck, but yep, it's Saturday, still going to be a good d-..and what the fuck is Shante doing over here?? Everyone of us in our area looked at each other, and I could literally feel the morale dropping. More like jumping out of the window and committing suicide. She hasn't changed...her whole I-do-not-care-about-anyone attitude. Oh, crap. My day is going to hell already! I was more than happy to get away from her. The machine I'd picked up started giving me hell right off the bat; when I hit speed-mode, the machine would immediately back off. Fuck. Here we go again. Took it to maintenance and got the okay to go ahead and switch batteries (it wasn't fully dead yet). That solved the problem, and off I went, but I was 45 minutes down on production. It is possible to catch up, and that's exactly what I did. I hit my numbers easily. Cruising down D dock, I passed a shipping hauler (the one who drives very dangerously), and lo and behold, she was riding on my 122. Insult to injury. The one I'd picked up had to be literally shaken awake just to take off. You're killing me!
And at some point, later in the morning, I saw Hamilton ride by, he just appeared out of nowhere.
I could have kissed the man.
Now go back to where you belong, Shante! Go ruin someone else's life!
It ended up being a good day despite the morning excitement. I came home, and my aunt was back after spending the week in Beaumont. Her sister had dropped her off, but couldn't stay, and by the time I got home she had left. I was disappointed, but glad to have my aunt back home.
Yesterday was something else. I swear you can't make this stuff up!
I headed in for my last day. Got the crappy I-don't-want-to-go machine again. Was given A and B once again, along with Griselda. She's actually really cool. She's still learning, and I was more than happy to help her out with directions, etc. I didn't mess with A dock all day; another hauler for our third party was pretty much killing it. So B dock became my home, but I ended up floating all around. I hit D dock, taking easy hauls here and there, and when I got caught up, taking long hauls.
I was taking something to A dock, and was heading up the main isle, between the stacks and stacks of tier racks. An isle ahead of me, a flow hauler was coming across, driving forks first (in reverse). I blew my horn at him, as he was coming across right in front of me. He didn't stop, and I tried at the last second to swerve out of the way. His forks collided into mine, and had I not been holding on to the handlebar in the back, I'd for sure have gotten thrown off. It was a pretty good hit. I immediately stopped the machine, as I'd had the wind knocked out of me. The guy drove around right away and started asking was I okay over and over, apologizing. I told him I was okay, but obviously shaken up. He said maybe he shouldn't do that anymore. Duh! That's an illegal move, and the hit was his fault.
After that, I ran over and got some more tier racks, going back to D dock. My mind was in this shocked I-can't-believe-that-just-happened mode. I've never had anyone hit me before! There's been some close calls. And I was just talking to an unloader earlier that morning about how some of the idiots drive in the building, and how I have to watch for everyone. So glad I was paying attention, but it could have been much worse.
I went to D dock, still shaken up. I dropped off the load, and pulled into an isle. I got off the machine and drank some water, trying to calm down. Thank God I was ahead for the hour on production. After a few minutes, I got going again, determined, but not about to let that incident ruin my day.
The rest of the day went smooth, save for my being exhausted after working so hard and everything that had happened up to this point. After my last break, I was given my list of freight to get rid of before going home. Griselda had gotten pulled over to C dock to help with the congestion, but B dock was getting just as bad, and every once in a while did I see other haulers come to pick stuff up, going back to their respective docks. So it was up to me to clear this dock. Around 5:30, I was on D dock when my battery died. So I took it over to maintenance. At this point, almost the entire building had left for the day, including all the other equipment operators. The receiving haulers were the only ones left running around. The guy that usually does batteries caught a total attitude with me when I came over, ordering me to go over to Shipping and get another PE. Um, it's 5:30, you still have equipment running around. His attitude was pretty much 'you're screwed, haha, i'm going home!'. Asshole.
So I drove over to orderfilling, and saw the PE's lined up. I saw 207 sitting there, one I'd used many times before. It had a full battery, and was very fast. I had already hit my daily numbers, but wasn't satisfied, and now I was 30 minutes behind. Its computer would not boot up, leaving me very frustrated, on top of dealing with the guy's attitude. This afternoon is going to hell! Another hauler saw me and asked what was wrong. He got upset and told me he would talk to Mario, agreeing with me that it wasn't right (and he later told me that he saw the battery changer leave 45 minutes after I had brought the PE by). Now what the hell he was doing for that amount of time he couldn't change a battery is beyond me.
Now here's the fun part. I was back on B dock, and I found some tier racks that were going over to the shipping side. I had a lightbulb moment. Everyone had left for the day, meaning that there were machines galore, and there would be a good chance that 122 would be among them. Very slowly I said to myself 'I'm gonna go check this out...' I picked up the tier racks, and went straight into the conventional isles (I rode a module). You're not really supposed to do that, and I haven't since the day I trained on the machine, making turns with stuff on your forks. I'm sure I got a few crazy looks from the other haulers. I figured since my load went this direction, anyway, might as well multi-task, right? B dock turned up nothing. I was nearly at the end of C dock, about ready to drop off the load, when I saw it. There, sitting in a module, hiding towards the back, was my 122. I ran over and checked the battery. 100%! I parked 207 and switched everything over. I took off, and I was home. I love the taste of redemption! Every bad or annoying thing that had happened this weekend, this totally made up for it. So yeah, have fun with that dead PE, shipping crew.
We didn't leave until 7, and I was so exhausted, but looking forward to going home and spending Mother's Day with my parents, aunt, sister and nephews. When I got in my car and called home, my sister told me she had to get the boys back home, and they had to leave. They'd already eaten and everything. They didn't wait for me. I couldn't help what time I got off, and I was so looking forward to it. I was angry. I didn't even get to see my relatives on Saturday night, and now I wasn't going to see my sister, either. I sat in my car at the warehouse a good 15 minutes, too upset to drive. The events of the day, plus exhaustion, plus now hearing this, and that did it. I had no desire of going home, anymore, but had nowhere else to go, plus I hated to hurt my mom's feelings by not going home.
About the time I pulled out of the lot, John texted me. I told him about what happened with my family. He told me he was heading back to Louisiana for work, tonight. After I got home and took a long bath, I gave my mom her gift, and called John. He decided to stop by on his way out of town. He isn't sure how long he'll be out there, but it was his last chance to see me, probably for a while. It was 1am, everyone had gone to bed, so John and I sat outside and talked. I love his stories; maybe he should get his own show, too. He couldn't stay long, as he had a long drive, and I'd been up nearly 24 hours. I could literally see my brain cells dying off. I was glad to see him, and we promised to hang out more when he comes back. That was a great end to such a weird weekend.
And now, I'm off to wreak havoc on the world. And catch up on sleep. Until next time...
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