Playing the waiting game.

Music: Above and Beyond- "Liquid Love" (BEAUTIFUL song!)
12p

When I woke up this morning, a song came to me, complete with a beat and lyrics. That was my sign that it's going to be a nice couple of weeks. I needed this break, and after this weekend, I more than earned it. 

No day this 'work week' was as interesting, or as exhausting, as yesterday was. After everything from working with an injured arm, bad freight, waiting for this and that, breaking machines and the heat, I knew I had to make it that day. When I heard the words "D shipping," my heart and my spirits fell. Well, there went my week. I'm screwed. Oh, well. It was nice while it lasted. I got my gun and headed that direction, anticipating every door opening, and being as busy as it was the last couple of days (and with 40 trucks, what else would a hauler expect?). Upon getting to the dock, it was pitch black, silent. Not one door had opened. I started cautiously scanning the dock at the freight from the day before, and deciding I'd do whatever it took to make 220 for the day, no matter what. Thankfully, most of the freight went to the same dock. I started clearing out the short hauls, separating the long hauls for me to come back to later when I had time. That's where I spent the first two hours. Not one door ever opened, I didn't ever see a single hauler. It was quiet, and I was alone. I was happy. After clearing out the short hauls, and still not seeing any doors open up, I realized that I now had the freedom of 'floating' the docks, as I was technically not tied to any specific dock any longer. I decided I'd come back to the dock from time to time, and keep an ear out for pages for pallets. I oriented myself on C dock (where else?), grabbing what I could when it became available (kudos to QA for keeping up their pace), and watched my numbers go up and up. Now this is the way it should be everyday! 

I kept my eye on the shipping dock, and still no doors had opened. My manager actually did me a favor by putting me on that dock. Around lunch time, I had around 140. I came back, ready to go again and get ahead. But my battery decided that now would be a good time to die. Great. I'd just passed the damn station when I saw the stupid light blinking. So I made a U-turn and headed back. There was a long line, and the guy changing batteries wasn't the regular guy, and that slowed things way down. I was beyond frustrated. I was doing so good! I had another four hours of production before I hit my goal. And when it was all said and done and I finally got a battery, I was an hour behind. I waited a freaking hour. So when I was finally able to take off, I again shut my mind off and concentrated on nothing but production. I tore down the docks again, quickly finding short hauls, and finding two pallets with the same locations. I was shaking, I had so much adrenaline coursing through my veins. I managed somewhere around 30-35 hauls from that first hour alone. At break time, a friend informed me that he'd just tagged about 65 pallets of freight on my dock, but they weren't verified. I'd known about the 'live' unloads from earlier, but there were that many?? Before he told me that, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to pull the 220, and after watching people from different areas trickle out the door, heading home for the week, I just knew that my time was ticking down, and I felt depressed. I instead used that to drive me to do whatever it took to hit that goal. I needed this, and I knew I wasn't only doing it for myself. 

I hit C dock again, and I grabbed two pallets heading to D dock. I passed a QA who told me that there was someone on shipping verifying the live unloads. This could be just the break I needed. After dropping off my load, I turned onto the dock, and closed my eyes. On the opposite end of the dock sat an RR. Yes! And not one hauler in sight. You know what saved my ass? Pasta sauce. Yes, I said pasta sauce. 65 pallets of freaking pasta sauce. I went after them, starting with the rows furthest from the location first (if you work at the warehouse, I don't have to tell you where they went), not caring how many times I had to go back and forth, or how bored I got. Production, production, production. I wasn't counting anymore; I simply wrote them down and ran. Every once in a while, I'd catch another hauler taking a few, and I started to get mad, but they were simply back-hauling. They'd take a couple and head back to receiving. It took me a good hour and a half to clear them out, and thankfully the other haulers that were taking the pallets were keeping up with my system I'd set up (lining up four pallets together, leaving some space for the putaway driver, four pallets, space, and so on), and even setting them very neatly off to the side when the isle got full. I had eight pallets left on the dock. I was finally able to look at my tally. I had four trips left, equaling eight pallets. Eight pallets on the dock. i just made production for the day. I was so happy...after a good four weeks of not making my goad, I saw 220. I did my happy dance and took off. That little pesky hauler though came back and took two of my eight pallets. You son of a bitch. :P I went and scanned the last four pallets. You're going to have to pull these from my cold, dead hands. I dare you. But he never came back, figuring I had the rest. Ha! I wasn't worried, as I went back to receiving and grabbed my last two to make my numbers, and my hourly production on top of that. 

My manager had given me a list of the old freight, and most of them were long hauls, but I didn't care, you guys had my numbers, you can have whatever you want from me now. I took the first two on my list, and still had 30 minutes left of my hour. I ran back to shipping, grabbing one of those carts the orderfillers use. I think that was the first time I had one of those on my forks. My God, how the hell do they stand that noise? I'd have to wear some damn earplugs. I started grabbing trash cans off my dock, to get those out of the way. I was getting exhausted. I got my cans sorted and emptied, and ran and put them back, and dropped off that stupid cart on a module. I took the rest of the bad wood for the dock support guy, and when I hit C dock again, my mouth dropped. C dock had exploded something crazy. What did I miss? Plenty of production, and nearly every QA had come out of the woodwork and were now walking the docks. Holy crap look at all this freight! After taking my last two long hauls on my 10am list, I was done, and totally exhausted. My arm was getting very sore and uncomfortable, my feet were screaming, and I couldn't see straight, much less focus anymore. I had my numbers though. I'd just pulled in to grab a couple of pallets, running on fumes at this point, and really in no hurry, when our day was called. What a day, but I did what I needed to do, and hopefully that will be a good total for the week, as yesterday was my last day. 

Note to self: when you come home and start hallucinating that you're hearing a horn honk, and you turn to look down an aisle, but you find you're really looking down your hallway, and no PE in sight, it *might* be time to go to sleep. 

And now that I'm recharged and full of energy, I'm ready to enjoy this break. I needed it...bad. Until next time, and have a good holiday!