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Yet another work update.
Got called by Target over the long weekend (Monday was a local holiday - BC Day). They had a couple jobs for me. One was monday night right here in Coquitlam, but working graveyard... given that my sleeping patterns have stabilized, and it takes a minor miracle for me to stay up past 1am now (or to not wake up at 7am) I had to pass.
The other job was working at a meat packing/distribution plant for Fletcher's Meats and related brands (like Grimm's Sausage) out in Port Kells. It was in a cooler, which also helped my choice significantly. I'm quite tolerant of the cold, and very susceptible to heat. Most people in the plant were wearing heavy mitts and winter jackets, or insulated coveralls (the regular workers) and had hoods up.
I was wearing my ususal short sleeve T-shirt, a light windbreaker jacket and thin uninsulated work gloves. I was toasty. Though my hands got quite cold at times. My body is cold tolerant, but my extremities are not. I have poor circulation, so my hands and feet get chilled easily, and turn quite icy to the touch in winter.
Anyhow... the work was pretty easy all told. Despite it being easy, it ended up being quite painful.
There was an automatic conveyer belt which had a scanner. It would scan the barcodes of passing boxes, and then automatically direct them down the correct chutes. We would collect the boxes at the bottom, check the routing label, and then take the boxes to the matching pallet, where we would stack them.
Pretty damn simple. The boxes themselves varied in size and weight. The lightest were about 2 and a half pounds. The heaviest were over 25. You'd scoop up 2-4 boxes (or just one in the case of the heavier ones) and walk it over to the pallet, and stack it. The majority of boxes were 4-6 pounds, and I'd only take 2-3 per trip. I know my limits, and I won't push them. Most of the regulars would take more than me, but that was expected.
A couple hours into work, I was in serious pain. Mainly lower back pain. I have a hereditary bad back. It's pretty strong and all that, but it will start hurting at the drop of a hat. It's not a problem, except that pain fucking sucks (except good pain, but you don't get good pain at work. Unless you have a very interesting job).
Taking boxes off the lane, you could find the matching pallet in about 5-10 steps (hence them coming down specific lanes, so they're close to where they stack). However, at least half the boxes fail to scan, and thus end up in the "reject lane" at the end of the line. Boxes that belong everywhere end up there. And thus walking those boxes to the pallets was more like 60-80 steps, not 5-10.
But yeah, mostly light boxes. Easy lifting, most of the time I could carry 2 in my left (significantly weaker) arm. So why was my back in so much pain after only 2 hours?
Bending. Yes, I know, lift from the knees, yadda ya. 2 problems with that plan.
1: My knees are weaker than my back
B: We were lifting from a conveyor, which was at waist level... so I have to bend over. Not far (just leaning over), but there was a LOT of bending like that. Just bend over about 20 degrees, grab the box, and up. 2-3 bends every 2 minutes. You try bending over that much that frequently and you'll see what I mean. I dosed myself up on painkillers at lunch (4 hours in) and they seemed to make a difference. Also, my back probably finally had enough time to warm up to the work (this kind of pain is common, but not for as long as that) and stop bitching. That 5 day extra long weekend I had made me soft!
At the end, there was some pallet wrapping, and then I was off. I arrived at work at 9am. I got off at 7:45pm. Minus 30 mins for lunch, I worked 10h15m. And after all of it... I'm not tired. Well, my body is tired. It's reacting slowly and the usual stuff. But my mind is wide awake, and my body still has a fair amount of energy in it. I'm just sore and achy. Very sore and achy (typing this is hurting in my upper right arm, for instance).
- - -
5 days of work now (a poor showing for 2 weeks, but it's better than zero). 5 different jobs (fish plant, festival setup, fish warehouse, housebuilding helper and now meat warehouse). But I'm increasingly coming to a realization. Against everything I always thought and believed... I enjoy this work. I slog it out for 6-10 hours doing heavy lifting and hard physical exertion. I get sore and tired and pushed to my limits. And I enjoy it. I come home feeling drained... and it's a good feeling. Maybe it's just the endorphins, but it feels good.
- - -
Met another temp from Target there. She came in later. She's an older woman named Rayana and we ended up getting chatty as I helped explain some basics to her and help her find the pallets (They weren't in any human-logical order, you had to memorize the locations) as she got lost a lot. When things got slow, we got chatty. She's a nice person, and interesting to talk to. She gave me a ride home, and once there we spent like nearly half an hour just sitting in the car talking and talking. I eventually asked her for her number... new friends are good things, and innocently said "I don't want to seem like I'm coming on to you." She laughed and said she was too old for me... she's more than twice my age. I matter-of-factly told her that she's not too old for me (which is true) and that I've made passes at older women than her (also true). She then went on to mention how, in short, she's basically a cougar (an older woman who dates much younger men), with past boyfriends being 15-25 years younger than her. Heh.
So yeah. Got her number, might give her a call some day soon, maybe go hang out or something. I need to get out of the house more, and not just for work.
- - -
Talked to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yuffers last night. Her life has stabilized significantly. She went and found herself an awesome boyfriend, who she really deserves. (I know you're reading this: YOU DO, SO SHUSH!). As usual, she's bad for me. It was 3am before I went to bed. She still has that knack of getting me lost in conversation, having hours pass in the blink of an eye. Must be more careful next time.
I may not be on tomorrow (wednesday) night. If I am, probably not till late. I'm going to be childminding tomorrow night AT Alexis's, so I may or may not be able to get online there. I shall be back on thursday (but I'll probably also be working thursday).
And now I shall finish dinner. That's all folks.
Got called by Target over the long weekend (Monday was a local holiday - BC Day). They had a couple jobs for me. One was monday night right here in Coquitlam, but working graveyard... given that my sleeping patterns have stabilized, and it takes a minor miracle for me to stay up past 1am now (or to not wake up at 7am) I had to pass.
The other job was working at a meat packing/distribution plant for Fletcher's Meats and related brands (like Grimm's Sausage) out in Port Kells. It was in a cooler, which also helped my choice significantly. I'm quite tolerant of the cold, and very susceptible to heat. Most people in the plant were wearing heavy mitts and winter jackets, or insulated coveralls (the regular workers) and had hoods up.
I was wearing my ususal short sleeve T-shirt, a light windbreaker jacket and thin uninsulated work gloves. I was toasty. Though my hands got quite cold at times. My body is cold tolerant, but my extremities are not. I have poor circulation, so my hands and feet get chilled easily, and turn quite icy to the touch in winter.
Anyhow... the work was pretty easy all told. Despite it being easy, it ended up being quite painful.
There was an automatic conveyer belt which had a scanner. It would scan the barcodes of passing boxes, and then automatically direct them down the correct chutes. We would collect the boxes at the bottom, check the routing label, and then take the boxes to the matching pallet, where we would stack them.
Pretty damn simple. The boxes themselves varied in size and weight. The lightest were about 2 and a half pounds. The heaviest were over 25. You'd scoop up 2-4 boxes (or just one in the case of the heavier ones) and walk it over to the pallet, and stack it. The majority of boxes were 4-6 pounds, and I'd only take 2-3 per trip. I know my limits, and I won't push them. Most of the regulars would take more than me, but that was expected.
A couple hours into work, I was in serious pain. Mainly lower back pain. I have a hereditary bad back. It's pretty strong and all that, but it will start hurting at the drop of a hat. It's not a problem, except that pain fucking sucks (except good pain, but you don't get good pain at work. Unless you have a very interesting job).
Taking boxes off the lane, you could find the matching pallet in about 5-10 steps (hence them coming down specific lanes, so they're close to where they stack). However, at least half the boxes fail to scan, and thus end up in the "reject lane" at the end of the line. Boxes that belong everywhere end up there. And thus walking those boxes to the pallets was more like 60-80 steps, not 5-10.
But yeah, mostly light boxes. Easy lifting, most of the time I could carry 2 in my left (significantly weaker) arm. So why was my back in so much pain after only 2 hours?
Bending. Yes, I know, lift from the knees, yadda ya. 2 problems with that plan.
1: My knees are weaker than my back
B: We were lifting from a conveyor, which was at waist level... so I have to bend over. Not far (just leaning over), but there was a LOT of bending like that. Just bend over about 20 degrees, grab the box, and up. 2-3 bends every 2 minutes. You try bending over that much that frequently and you'll see what I mean. I dosed myself up on painkillers at lunch (4 hours in) and they seemed to make a difference. Also, my back probably finally had enough time to warm up to the work (this kind of pain is common, but not for as long as that) and stop bitching. That 5 day extra long weekend I had made me soft!
At the end, there was some pallet wrapping, and then I was off. I arrived at work at 9am. I got off at 7:45pm. Minus 30 mins for lunch, I worked 10h15m. And after all of it... I'm not tired. Well, my body is tired. It's reacting slowly and the usual stuff. But my mind is wide awake, and my body still has a fair amount of energy in it. I'm just sore and achy. Very sore and achy (typing this is hurting in my upper right arm, for instance).
- - -
5 days of work now (a poor showing for 2 weeks, but it's better than zero). 5 different jobs (fish plant, festival setup, fish warehouse, housebuilding helper and now meat warehouse). But I'm increasingly coming to a realization. Against everything I always thought and believed... I enjoy this work. I slog it out for 6-10 hours doing heavy lifting and hard physical exertion. I get sore and tired and pushed to my limits. And I enjoy it. I come home feeling drained... and it's a good feeling. Maybe it's just the endorphins, but it feels good.
- - -
Met another temp from Target there. She came in later. She's an older woman named Rayana and we ended up getting chatty as I helped explain some basics to her and help her find the pallets (They weren't in any human-logical order, you had to memorize the locations) as she got lost a lot. When things got slow, we got chatty. She's a nice person, and interesting to talk to. She gave me a ride home, and once there we spent like nearly half an hour just sitting in the car talking and talking. I eventually asked her for her number... new friends are good things, and innocently said "I don't want to seem like I'm coming on to you." She laughed and said she was too old for me... she's more than twice my age. I matter-of-factly told her that she's not too old for me (which is true) and that I've made passes at older women than her (also true). She then went on to mention how, in short, she's basically a cougar (an older woman who dates much younger men), with past boyfriends being 15-25 years younger than her. Heh.
So yeah. Got her number, might give her a call some day soon, maybe go hang out or something. I need to get out of the house more, and not just for work.
- - -
Talked to
yuffers last night. Her life has stabilized significantly. She went and found herself an awesome boyfriend, who she really deserves. (I know you're reading this: YOU DO, SO SHUSH!). As usual, she's bad for me. It was 3am before I went to bed. She still has that knack of getting me lost in conversation, having hours pass in the blink of an eye. Must be more careful next time.I may not be on tomorrow (wednesday) night. If I am, probably not till late. I'm going to be childminding tomorrow night AT Alexis's, so I may or may not be able to get online there. I shall be back on thursday (but I'll probably also be working thursday).
And now I shall finish dinner. That's all folks.
