Friday, March 24, 2017

Soggy Shoes

Well times got rough after I was laid off and I really didn't want to go back to work as a government contractor, freelance was slow and I need an immediate income. So I applied to this big box (more like a rectangle shaped) retail store, and was hired for seasonal work.

Well with my luck, it was a very HOT summer and my job was to water the plants, exciting huh? In my mind, I thought it wouldn't be a bad job. It would keep my sweaty ass cool but I didn't plan on the chilly spring mornings and having the cold water splash up on me. It seemed, I had to go to the bathroom, every 15 minutes. I also ended up with soggy shoes. I would always water the plants closest to me first and then reach in the back for the other plants. Doing this method, the front plants would drip onto my shoes and make my shoes soggy. It's so much fun to walk around the rest of the days with soggy shoes, that make that soggy noise and them lil bubbles form at the base of your shoe. After a while the soggy shoes become stinky shoes and they end up drying inside the garage.

This store is dog friendly and it's odd to me that it is because what if a person is afraid of dogs or is allergic to dogs? I wouldn't shop there if this was me or I'd be more reluctant in going there to shop. Now I have seen people come in with all sizes of dogs, pups to poodles, great danes, golden retrievers, boxers, pugs, bull dogs, and my favorite, boston terriers. I have also saw a woman come in with her big white poodle and the poodles toe nails were painted pink. I also saw a woman come in with her cat in one of those cat stroller and in a cat backpack. I even saw a woman driving, the store's motorized scooter and in the scooter's basket was a ferret. A little weird, huh?

I have met some really nice people, talked to the odd people, encountered rude people, and shook my head in disbelief with the people who had no common sense (and you can tell who they are after a while). I can't tell you how many times, the hose caused an issue with shopping carts and the attitudes I would get when they couldn't get past them. At first they smash the cart into the hose line. Back up a little and smash into it again, and then stand there like "what should I do now?" look on their face. I mean you have four options. One, you could go down another aisle, two, you could tilt the cart up and get the front wheels over it and do the same with the back, three, you can ram the hose with speed and force and four, you can pick the hose up and scoot under the hose to get by. I figured, this happened at least 3-4 times a day, people would get stuck at the hose line. I had one guy tell me, "if I didn't extend it that far, it wouldn't been an issue". It was only an issue because your 10 year old son had a hard time pushing the cart with 2 bags of 40 pounds of dirt, of course the hose line would be a problem and you let the boy struggle in getting it over the line. My other favorite moment was when a guy called me to the back of the garden because he "had a problem" with his flat bed cart. At this point in time, his cart was empty and he pointed to the hose line and said that the hose was in his way. I walked over to the cart and pushed it over the hose and walked away, saying nothing and biting my tongue. A few minutes later, he comes over to me again and said he needed help. I figured in lifting the bags since the cart was too heavy for him to push over the hose line but instead the cart had 3 bags of mulch and it was stopped in front of the hose. He says, "this is a problem, it's in my way again". I said as politely as I could, "then go around the other way, it won't be in your way" and I walked away again. But as I walked away, I heard his father say the same thing to him and also said to him in annoyed voice, you called him over for that!?

So I wear this non-breathable vest at work. To me, it's like wearing a sweater vest in the summer. I sweat a lot and in this vest it is the worst. So I still have people come up to me and ask, "do you work here?" Are you kidding me!?!?!? No, I always wearing vest when I go out shopping! The name of the store is on the vest & on the back of the vest. How about, "Hi, my name is Jim. How can I help you?" What do you think that's my pick-up-line? I mean come on, I can understand if you said, "do you work in this department?" But no, it was do you work here? Now in the past, I have shopped at Target and wore a red shirt, I had people come up to me and ask where something was or better yet, one time at Walmart, I was pushing, the cart with my son in it and this lady came up to me and asked if I worked there? Really!? I wasn't wearing a blue shirt or vest (I can't remember what they wear there) and I'm pushing my kid in a cart How can you confuse me with one of the workers? But a funny thing happened after she walked away, my son NP says to me, "Daddy, who was that man you were talking to?" I laughed and told him it was a woman.

So after the season ended, they offered me a part time job there and I took it. They saw I was a hard worker, did what needed to get done and I always went above and beyond of what they asked me and I was reliable. It's been a year now and since I'm freelancing again, I switched to working nights. So lately, I have been working 10 hour days, with two jobs and I either work the whole weekend (which sucks) or one day on the weekend. Needless to say, I'm too tired to ride my bicycle and the weather this winter hasn't been great. It has rained a lot and we only had 2 snowstorms. The trails are soggy and I don't want to destroy them by riding on them and the roads are littered with potholes, puddles and some left over snow. I haven't been to the gym, because I'm working plus, I have been lifting a lot of rock salt and wood pellets this winter and doing that is like constantly doing shoulders, back, legs and arms workouts.

In order to get back into shape, I plan on joining a new gym, get a trainer and get back into shape. I figured, if I got a trainer, that will motivate me and get me to be a regular again at the gym and the new gym is within biking distance. It seems like what I say, I'll do is always different then what I actually do, So we'll see.

Take care,
db