Reflections on a full moon

I didn't post a work update yesterday because, frankly, it was more of the same.
A lot of hurry up and wait, as we needed our garbage bin changed before we could continue, and a dump truck as well.
Our bin was promised for "around 11 or 12". We got it at TWO. We never got the dump truck.
So yeah, another 7 hour work day with only 3.5 actual hours of work.

After that, we were DONE that job though. So I zip back to Target, dump my time sheet, and get my assignment for the next day (Friday).

Panasonic. Yeah, I had the chance to work there before, but did the carpenter helper thing instead. But that's what there was, so off I went.

It turned out to be a lot easier to get to than expected. It's within spitting distance of Hwy 99 and Steveston, which is where the bus drops me off, conveniently enough. Sure, a long commute, but an easy one without too much walking.

I get to Panasonic, get my Visitor badge, sign in and see a familiar name above mine on the register. Rayana :)
So I dump my stuff and head into the "Rework Area". Sure enough, there's Rayana. I zoom right in on her, and we form a team for the rest of the day. And we were the best damn workers in there, let me tell you. But that comes later.

The task of the day? Apparently one of the screwdrivers in the factory was mis-set, so it drove many screws into this one point on these microwaves that it cracked the plastic grilles they were securing. Can't ship those... no siree.
So our job is to cut open the boxes, do a visual inspection for cracks, and if the grill is cracked, replace it. Then repack the box and retape it shut. Finally, restack the now-fixed boxes into skids to be carted off.
Very straightforward. Until we finished all the units of that model. It turned out that those were the only ones we had replacement grilles in the plant for.

So for the rest of the day, we had to inspect the grilles, and if cracked, we tagged the box as cracked and put it into a separate skid.

It was all so very simple. Which makes you wonder why (apparently) at least half the temps in there (8 in total) simply could not do it correctly if their lives depended on it. The details are irrelevant, but suffice to say I had to spend about 15% of my time correcting the fuckups of the other temps. They were there ALL DAY and kept making the same mistakes. I stopped making them after 20 minutes.
On top of that, we had a chronic slacker who was very good at LOOKING busy. Bah!

The boxes surprised me. They had their weights clearly labelled on the boxes. The boxes weighed 60 pounds a piece, but I often lifted and carried them without much trouble. They didn't FEEL that heavy...

So yeah, Rayana and I were just zooming. All the other temps swarmed like termites and did slow shitty work. The floor supervisor noticed us and our performance several times. He asked all the temps to return on Monday, but seemed especially keen on having Rayana and I back. He also clocked us out as 5pm when we only left at 4:40pm. Half an hour's pay. A little perk, but it's the kind of thing we notice.

So yes, I will be back there on monday, and I'm honestly looking forward to it. It's a good place to work, it's not too hard, and the lunchroom is absolutely lovely. Plus we get a full hour lunch! (Unpaid, but still). I was told to expect this from Target... they said it was expected to continue for Monday and Tuesday at least.

Rayana invited me to her place after work for dinner as well. Twas nice.

Tonight was a full moon, as you may have known or surmised by the subject. And I was thinking about things.
Apparently Tina (from Sprott-Shaw) has been calling Target and keeping tabs on me... I'm not surprised in the least. Also, apparently, she's pleased with how I'm doing. I've been meaning to call her and say so, but it seems redundant now.

This was my first week working 4 days... every week before this I only worked 2 or 3 days. 1 day on Westwood Plateau, 2 days in the fire house, and finally one day at Panasonic. Even though the days were short (6, 7, 7.5 and 7.5 hours. Total of 28 hours instead of the 32 I'd get for 8 hour days) it's still a significant accomplishment.

Finally... it's been a month since I started this, and I'm still doing well. Another noteworthy milestone. My boots are broken in and comfy (I don't even bring my shoes with me to work anymore), and are really looking like beat up dirty work boots, instead of shiny pretty boots.

Yeah... it's been interesting so far.

Hanging with Rayana

So after work, I went back to Rayana's place with her. The plan was dinner and some cards with a friend of hers, Dale.

Dinner was garlic chicken, corn on the cob, fried cabbage and fresh french bread. Mmmmmmmmm.

Afterwards, we got out her absolutely BEAUTIFUL crib board - hand-crafted by a native artist. She's had it nearly 20 years.
So we play a game of crib, and it was fairly close, but Dale won in the end. Bah.

Then things got interesting. After crib, we started some S&M. I was beat several times.








Not like that, you raving pack of perverts!

S&M being the nickname for this simple but odddly fun card game called "Spite and Malice". The basic idea is to win the game and screw your neighbours. I won't bother going into the details of gameplay, but I lost 3 times.

After that, I got a ride to the skytrain and came home.

...

Yes, I admit it. The entire reason this is in it's own post instead of in the last one was to use the line "we started some S&M. I was beat several times." It was too good not to!