Posts

Posted on

Presto vs. High DPI

Seeing as they are finally going to have bookmarks in Opera 25 for Android (currently in beta) I decided I should install Opera Classic on my new Nexus 7 so that I actually have bookmarks to import.

Let me mention that the (current model) Nexus 7 has a very high resolution. 1920×1200 or some such on a 7″ screen. Personally I figure once the dots are too small to make out individually it’s pretty well moot, but it had other features I wanted – like GPS and a good processor. However, Opera Classic (which uses the old Presto engine) doesn’t work well with high resolution displays.

Web pages look great, but the interface just doesn’t scale. The “O” menu is clearly an O, but is just a tiny square in the top corner for you to try to hit. The address bar? If I make a line of equals signs here that’s about how large it is.

===============

Okay, maybe a little bigger, but can you imagine trying to read the address between those two lines? Search field – same of course.

Good news is, Opera did automatically set the page zoom to 200%, so web pages do look normal. But trying to enable sync to get my old bookmarks on this device was quite a challenge. The fields and buttons in the dialog were the same size as the address field. It did work, everything synced properly, but I won’t be typing addresses into the address bar much. (I used a stylus because my fingers were too big to reliably hit the fields and buttons …)

Posted on

Not a drop to drink

Since apparently everyone has heard of it already, I suppose I should say something about the situation in Toledo this past weekend. First of all, they tell me it’s over already, and second I live about 40 miles away from the effected area. Still, I wouldn’t say it had no impact – far from that …

I work second shift, I didn’t get up until about 11 AM that day. My stepmother and stepsister were in the living room discussing it in some vague terms, so while I knew something was up with the water in Toledo I had no real idea what. I get to work at 1 PM and quickly find out there is no bottled water left in the store – and also the first customers I encounter are 3 separate people from Toledo trying to figure out how far they’ll have to drive to get some. One of them says Beaverdam (10 miles south) is also out … but Beaverdam is little more than a couple of truckstops – no major stores, and really just a small town (which is to say, they wouldn’t have much water in stock anyway). Lima is even bigger than we are and only a few miles further, they decide it’s worth a try.

Cindi (grocery supervisor of some sort – she’s not over me as she’s in “dry grocery” and I’m in fresh foods) tells me they requested 4 truckloads of water and that 2 have already showed up (and were obviously all gone already) but two more were still coming. She also tells me they initially ran out of water at 8 AM!

I know Marlene (the lady who hands out free samples and coupons) has relatives in the Toledo area, so I asked her about it. She indicated her mother got a call at 5:30 AM telling her not to drink the water, that even boiling it would not remove the problem – in fact, it would make it worse since you’d be concentrating the chemical. They also advised not to bathe small children in it. Her mother got a second call later from the Agency on Aging (the group charged with making sure older people are properly cared for) to make sure she got the warning. We briefly discuss water filters (I mention that those activated charcoal filters don’t remove everything – the only way to be really sure would be a reverse osmosis system) but of course we both have to get to work.

Over the course of the day, I manage to piece the story together. Toledo water comes from Lake Erie. Of course they treat it and filter it to keep out various bad stuff, but the system can’t handle too much toxin of the type produced by algae (similar to the type of algae that cause red tide). An algae “bloom” can kill all the fish in an area, and ironically the dead fish can deplete the oxygen in the water (ironic since algae produce oxygen, but not enough) … and the toxin can also make people sick, and even kill smaller animals if they drink enough of it.

Anyway, the third truck arrives at about 4:30. Apparently people in Toledo must have gotten there act together by then (with some help from the National Guard setting up a water purification system, and probably stores in Toledo doing the same thing we did) as that water lasts the rest of my shift – I gather the fourth truck showed up after I left.

Sunday wasn’t quite as bad … we did sell more water than usual, but we didn’t run out. I suppose it is worth noting that we didn’t get any of the gallon jugs of water in either day – only the multi-packs of those half-liter (16.9 ounce) plastic bottles. And I had Monday off – other than the news reports I can’t say what that was like.

On the one hand, we did get more business out of it than a typical weekend … they didn’t just buy water while they were in the store. But I’m still not sure how anyone can really handle water for 400,000 people for any length of time.

Posted on

Quick recovery

I wonder if there’s some sort of a record …

It’s a not uncommon scenario. You’re somewhere and you realize you lost your cell phone. Where could it be?

I was on the other end of that today – I found the cell phone. It was between the rack and the fluorescent bulb in front of the bacon display. Of course working for the store there was no question about keeping it – though it was a pretty nice phone. I don’t know models, but it said Motorola, had a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and indicated it was 4G (I wasn’t completely sure we had 4G service here, but apparently we do.)

Anyway, I couldn’t leave my work cart on the sales floor while bringing the phone to the service desk, so I took my cart to one of the “Employees only” areas where it would be out of the way. Thinking about it, I decided someone would have to try to reach the owner, so I looked it over. Seeing a number identified as “My Wife <3” I decided she’d certainly be able to track him down, so I called it. I told her my first name and that I’d found her husband’s phone at the store and would be leaving it at Customer Service. I also asked what his name was so I could tell them who it belonged to. (I won’t say his full name here, but his first name was Michael.)

It probably takes 2-3 minutes to get to Customer Service from my area of the store – not like I was in any huge hurry. But as I walk up I see a guy there in a blue work uniform with a patch that says “Mike” on it, so I say “I gather this must be yours.” He’d probably gone there to look for it when his wife called on his work phone to say I was bringing it up. (Either that or he was in the checkout line when she did – no other way he would have gotten there first. But yes, he did say she’d called him on his work phone.)

Certainly fastest lost cell phone recovery I’ve heard of.

Posted on

Mondays

I’m beginning to think there may be something to this reputation Monday has after all …

Since I usually work weekends, Monday is not the first day of my week. For the store, Saturday is the first day of the weekly schedule, but if you go by days off I guess Friday is the first day of my work week (I tend to be off Wednesday and Thursday). So Monday is just another day – I suppose you could call it “My Thursday”.

But last week, I come to work and see all the coolers covered in plastic, then notice all the emergency lights beeping. I had arrived less than half an hour after the end of some sort of power outage – the regular lights were on, but the batteries on the emergency lights were depleted. Apparently the construction crew (they are widening the road that goes by the store) had knocked out the power, and it was somewhat over an hour before they got it back on. I get to help remove all the plastic, re-fill the meat wall (they’d pulled all the fresh meats and put them in the cooler to keep them cold), then we have to throw away all the lunchmeat because it got too warm. Most definitely not a fun day. We’ve had worse – that wind storm a year or so ago knocked out power for 3 days, or then there was the time the refrigeration unit broke down and nobody even noticed for about 8 hours (that time, we had to throw away ALL the refrigerated items … fortunately the freezer is a separate system). Fortunately the replacement truck – the one with all the lunchmeat to replace the stuff we lost – must have been on my day off; one headache I diidn’t have to deal with.

This week was another story – though actually, this one was scheduled. Tuesday is our annual inventory – not sure why they moved it up a month, it always used to be in July – so today was spent making sure everything was properly binned and counted. Believe me, counting stuff in the freezer (0F/-18C) is not much fun, but it’s easier if you’re dressed for it. You can’t show up dressed for that when it’s 83F/28C outside. Of course I get to do the ice cream freezer, which is -10F – but I do keep my thermal underwear in my locker just in case. Or maybe they know that, and that’s why it got assigned to me? Well, whatever … it has to be done, and I’m the frozen food guy, so you know they’d assign it to me anyway.

But thinking back, it occurs to me that really cold day earlier this year was also a Monday (see “The week that was”) … so maybe there’s something to this Monday stuff after all?

Posted on

Ultrabook

Question: How long does it take to install all “recommended” updates to a 2-year-old computer? Most obvious answer is 2 years, if you have a time machine.

We got our quarterly bonus last week. Normally I spend my bonuses on pistols, but didn’t see anything I wanted in my price range. So instead I found this Vizio Windows 7 Ultrabook on clearance in the store. The “ultrabook” was the PC world’s answer to the Macbook Air – powerful, light weight (well, somewhat) and thin, typically with a solid state disk and a metal case. (Hard to be really light with a metal case.) Looking at the inventory tags, this particular unit arrived in the store at the end of June in 2012 – two years ago. Original list price was $898, clearance was $440. Given that I tend to buy cheap computers, it is easily the fastest computer I own, has the most memory – though the 120 GB SSD is smaller than the hard drives of the other computers.

Of course, first thing it did was tell me Microsoft Security Essentials was 2 years out of date – imagine that. No interest in that anyway, I hooked it up to the network and downloaded a real security program. Then I tried to update Windows. Everything downloaded – eventually, took several hours – but when I rebooted it said it was unable to configure updates and was reverting. Tried that maybe a dozen times over the next several days, always the same result. Of course, I could always install an up-to-date OS (Mageia Linux) and be done with it, but I don’t give up that easily. Mind you, I don’t know where the Delorean is (or should that be “when”), so the other obvious answer is out. But I’ll try to work it out myself for a while before going for the alternative OS.

But for the record, this thing has a 14″ (diagonal) screen with a resolution of 1600×900 (not quite 1080p – 1920×1080 – but if you can’t see the individual dots then I don’t care), 1.8 GHz Intel Core i3-3217U processor (not completely sure what that means, but much faster than the Atom-based machines … seems to be quad core), 4 GB RAM, 7 hour battery life (claimed – not yet tested), 2 USB 3.0 ports. So I’ll keep it, even if I eventually switch it over to Linux.

Let me see … SQRT(16002+9002) = 1835.76, divided by 14 = 131.125 DPI – okay, not actually as HD as my netbook (140 DPI), but viewed at a comfortable distance both are quite good,

Posted on

Superman

No, I don’t have a cape, can’t fly … can’t even leap tall buildings. Yet somehow I regularly have people ask me if I’m Superman.

Actually, I do have a list of things I do that most people wouldn’t even try that I refer to as my “Superman routine”. None of it all that hard – well, mostly – if you know what you’re doing. And I’m not a weight-lifter by any means, but I am stronger than you’d think from looking at me. Especially considering my age, but no one can tell that by looking at me either.

The latest example is typical. We have some plastic tables at work for clearance merchandise. Technically tables anyway – not something you’d eat off of or play cards on. The legs are just pieces of 3″ PVC tubing. But as the tables can have a lot of weight on them, sometimes the legs can get stuck pretty tight.

Back on Tuesday, Colleen brought half a dozen of these tables into the storage area – three were semicircles about 6 feet on the long side, the others were straight rectangles maybe 2.5 feet wide and 8 feet long. Being familiar with these tables generally, I figured she’d need a hand with the legs … so I put away my stuff I was working on and went over to help her. She said they were stuck pretty good, so I said something like “Well, let’s see” and then pulled one out. That’s when she accused me of being Superman – so I showed her how to do it.

Actually, it’s all pretty straightforward. Stand with your feet about a foot apart with the leg between them. Bend slightly at the knees and grip the leg with both hands. If it’s stuck real tight then rock it back and forth a little to break it loose, then pull straight up (by straightening your knees). She tried – worked like a charm. I think she ended up taking as many out as I did – and there weren’t any she tried to get out and had to ask me to help – but when we were done she still thought I must be really strong. (Come on girl – you just did half of them yourself, so what does that make you? Of course I didn’t say that …)

Okay, my co-worker Rochelle might not be able to do it – she is a real petite girl and just not as strong as Colleen or I. But it’s not so much strength as knowledge. Your legs are a lot stronger than your arms or back – using your knees to pull or lift works a lot better. Of course it helps immensely here that these tables are something you can actually stand on as well (you’re not going to break them).

Now I just need to convince people that I don’t have “x-ray vision”. Of course I don’t, but I’ll see the edge or corner of something behind or under something else and it does make people wonder …

Posted on

Bad strategy

I have an old (well, relatively) Nintendo DSi which I generally use to waste time. I’m not trying to beat a particular game – just do something on my free time to relieve boredom. (Honestly, I typically use my tablet the same way.) My favorite DS game is “Clubhouse Games”, a collection of fairly simple games like card games, checkers, etc.

I used to play their version of Hearts quite a bit. When playing against the computer, you have a choice of 3 levels of difficulty … but the rankings can be misleading. It is easier to beat on the “Hard” setting than on the “Normal” setting, due to a flaw in the strategy.

If you’re not familiar with Hearts, the object is either to take as few points as possible or to take everything of value. There are a total of 26 points per hand … if one player collects all 26 points he “shoots the moon” (though we called it “making control” when I was a kid) and all his opponents get 26 points. If no one “shoots the moon” then each player gets the number of points he took added to his score. So … you’d prefer to take zero points, as long as no one else gets all of them, or else to get all of them yourself.

And that’s where the flaw lies. The “hard” setting is very good at not taking points, but rather poor about making sure someone doesn’t take them all. Playing on the “Hard” setting, I “shoot the moon” so often that I always win. I had to switch back to the “Normal” setting just to have any challenge at all!

I recently decided to try out their game “Sevens”. This is based on the classical “Seven Up” card game, but with a couple of changes: all the 7s are played as soon as dealing has been completed, and you can pass any time you want – but if you pass more than 3 times, you forfeit the game. (Since I didn’t actually read the rules it took me a few rounds to find out they were passing when they could have played – but they do, and thus I’ve adopted the same technique when it benefits me.)

Once again, there are a few glaring errors in their “Hard” strategy. Or their “Easy” one, but you expect that. The biggest error is that they play their lower cards first. If you have one card left – a King – and one of the computer players has the Queen of that suit and the King of a different suit, they will play the Queen first allowing you to win. Very basic strategy error, I think any 8 year old would have learned to play the King first.

Okay, I get that if you’re writing a collection of games like that the strategies of the computer players won’t be all that good. There are dedicated Hearts games that can be quite challenging – but this isn’t a dedicated Hearts game. But I don’t expect them to be quite that bad! (Actually, the Sevens game is something of a challenge … since they do play low cards first, if you have any high cards you have to play in a way to force them to play their high cards. What would be the best strategy against human players will fail against the computer about 1/2 of the time because one of the computer players won’t have any Kings and you will. But that’s “dumb luck” and not a real strategy.)

Posted on

Voir Dire

Some years ago – back at the time of the Simpson trial – I overheard someone say “voir dire … isn’t that Latin for jury tampering?”

I have been around a while now, in that time I’ve received notices for jury duty about once every 10 years. Okay, perhaps a bit less – I forget if I’ve had 4 or 5, counting the one I just got. Of those 4-5, only one actually got to the point of me showing up in the court room. All the other times if there was actually a case involved the defendant plead or a deal was struck before I ever got there. But that one time …

It was maybe 18 years ago, I was living in El Paso, Texas at the time. First of all, you have to understand it’s not like what you see on TV – sort of. That is, each state is different. Maybe what they show on TV is correct for California or New York, but I’ve never seen a TV show that accurately presented what Texas was like. Some of the differences can be rather drastic … and in a sense, that’s why I had to show up in court that time.

You see, even there the defendant had decided to plead guilty. But in Texas it is the jury that decides the punishment (within the range set down by law) rather than the judge, there are none of these “If your client pleads guilty to x, I’ll agree to only y years” type deals because the lawyers would have to convince 12 jurors to agree. We were going to have to consider any mitigating circumstances (factors such as “It was his first offense,” “he is a responsible husband and father,” and whatever else) or aggravating circumstances (callous behavior, multiple previous arrests, whatever) … well, whichever people from the jury pool were selected as actual jurors.

But that’s about where things went off the tracks. They did tell us that it was a drunk driving case with a fatality, then both lawyers interviewed the prospective jurors trying to see who might be sympathetic to their side (without overtly asking of course). I guess neither side was happy with what they heard – they couldn’t find enough people in the pool to fill a jury (there are 12 jurors).

So even though I have been in court once as a prospective juror, I have never actually heard a case. I’m sort of hoping my average holds up – the week in question this time happens to include my birthday … I can think of much better things to be doing that day.

Posted on

The week that was …

Actually most people would call it “the week from h***” – That’s not how I talk, but I acknowledge it as what would be said. It is what it is.

Last week, the weather forecast was calling for roughly 8″ (20 cm) of snow on Sunday, followed by two days of high winds and near record (for this area) cold. Having lived through the Blizzard of ’78 and the actual record (December of 1983 … I walked to work that day; as a college student home for break my other means of transportation was a motorcycle. I put on my work clothes, sweat suit, and full leathers and walked – no big deal. Someone gave me a ride on the way home. I remember as -26F, but the weather site says I have it wrong – it was -16F. Whatever.)

Anyway … okay, noteworthy I guess. Not like anyone was going to be trapped in their house without power for a week, so not really a big deal. Not even like that last flood last month (Findlay is getting to be famous for those). But I guess some people thought it was a big deal …

I showed up for work (at Wal-Mart, but any retailer would have been the same) and the lot is packed. Not that I have much trouble parking – I always park half way across the lot to leave room for the customers, like we are supposed to – but roughly 3 times as many cars as you’d see at that time on a Saturday. (I work second shift – I start somewhere around Noon and go to 9 or 10 at night.) Likewise I see every single register is open (except for 14 which was broken). Not like Black Friday – only 2-5 people in any line, not going half way back through the clothes – but I had no illusions about what I was walking into. No fighting over the last (whatever), but pandemonium.

I work back in the refrigerated and frozen areas. First priority: milk and eggs. Chris (grocery manager) tells me they’ve already put in an emergency order of milk – the dairy requires 24 hours notice (don’t ask me how it can be an “emergency” with 24 hours notice) so with any luck we’d get a shipment Sunday … which is when what we had would run out, so that’s fine. My coworker Rochelle is handling the dairy at the moment (as best as can be anyway), so Chris wants me to stock pizza – even the vendor stuff we don’t normally touch.

Nestle (DiGiorno, Jack’s, Tombstone and California Pizza Kitchen brands) didn’t bring in a delivery that day – they had to make do with what they had in the bins. Schwan’s (Red Baron, Freschetta, Tony’s) has two carts of new freight … I get through the Nestle and one cart of the Schwan’s before I have to go fill the milk again (Rochelle had gone to lunch). She gets back just in time for us to fill the eggs – which takes about half of our remaining stock. Fill milk again – already! Take my first break when I can. Ten million other priorities – I get reassigned to Meats twice, they are looking for any more bottled water they can find … you get the idea. The bread retailer is moderately excited – she says it’s her first bread rush. (She handles some of the higher priced stuff – she won’t be hit too hard.) There’s no bologna on the shelves, the Lunchables are gone except for the Ham and Cheddar (don’t ask me … usually it’s a good seller). Need to find any bacon and sausage to get out there …

Everyone does the best they can – some people are disappointed (especially about the bottled water). Scott (the Scwhan’s guy … normally he has someone else covering on weekends but the other guy called off) shows up and takes care of the rest of his stuff. Rochelle goes home at 5:30, same time as Ashley comes in … one of her favorite expressions is “That’s crazy,” first time she says it today I tell her crazy doesn’t even cover it. They put her to filling the eggs again (which won’t leave any in the back) while I finally get to take my meal break (we still refer to it as “lunch” even if it is 6 PM). Night manager Robert comes in at 7:30 and the day crew leave by 8 PM (they only schedule one manager and one assistant at nights … there’s 4-6 managers for different parts of the store during the day.) He gets a call saying the Frozen/Dairy delivery is at the door – false alarm. Guy probably was going to the other Wal-mart in town and dialed us instead. Waste of 15-20 minutes though Robert is always a pleasant fellow – I need to get back to the lunchmeats. Robert does mention though that it looks like we’ll have more sales in that one day than we did the entire weekend the previous year – no real surprise. Until at least my lunch they’d had every single register open, after that they started getting to the point where they don’t have enough people on hand to operate that many registers.

Sunday is my scheduled day off. It doesn’t start snowing until about 1 PM. For obvious reasons I didn’t do any shopping Saturday (lines too long, just wanted to go home – take your pick) so I did go to the store. Rochelle and Ashley are both there (they only seem to be there at the same time on Sundays … scheduling), the morning guy George is long gone of course. Uneventful really, except for the snow. Never did see an official total.

Hmm … I’ll have to complete the week later. If they allow editing (I didn’t see it earlier) then look for the rest here, otherwise watch for “Part 2”.

Ahh, there’s the Edit button  (top right “pencil” icon) … rather hard to see. Okay then, where was I …

Oh yes, Monday – Mom’s Birthday … even if I wasn’t working no way I could drive the 20 miles to go see her: the sheriff has declared a “Level 3 Emergency”, many of the roads outside of town are impassible due to blowing and drifting snow, and where either the winds or the plows did manage to clear the roads what’s left is a sheet of white ice. Oh, and at 11 AM (by the time I’m up and dressed – as I work a later shift I generally sleep late) it is -5F (-20C); with the winds they say it “feels like -35F”. As it is a Level 3 I call to check if the store is still open – yes, it is, but very short-handed. Of course I said I could make it.

Couldn’t figure out Dad’s snow blower, and way to much snow on the drive, so I put on my work coat, stuff my blizzard suit in the backpack in case I need it later (the temperature is still dropping) and set out. I do work in the freezer, it is always -10 there though not particularly windy and so my work coat is fine as long as I also cover my face. Remember what I said about the county roads being either impassible or sheets of ice? The city roads were not impassible – they were all plowed – but a set of skates might have helped. A passing motorist turned around after I was 3/4 of the way there and gave me a ride, though he admitted it almost wasn’t worth it by then. Turns out he was Nancy in Electronics’ son, a truck driver with no work that day as the warehouse he normally gets his loads from in Indianapolis was shut down.

Co-manager Jamie is very glad to see me of course. I ask her if there’s anyone else in my department here today and she says “No”, as expected. Not that there’s much to do in my department – our warehouse is shut down too, we didn’t get a Frozen/Dairy/Deli (the official name, or just FDD in the computer) Sunday at all. We did get both our “Emergency order” and regular milk delivery Monday (not on Sunday as requested … nothing to do about it now), whatever eggs we got Saturday night are all on the shelf already … in fact, I’m sure 99% of everything we got Saturday went straight out. So very little to do in my department other than keep the milk stocked.

Whoever filled the milk before I got there only filled the gallons of the store brand. There was almost no traffic that day (is that a surprise) and so the gallons didn’t really need restocking – but everything else was empty. No chocolate milk of any size or brand (well, okay, the Nesquik pints), no half gallons of the store brand, and none of the actual dairy branded products were on the shelf. But they did ship us everything – even down to the quarts of the dairy brand orange juice – so it all got filled. Been a while since I’ve seen the milk look that good. I notice the milk on the floor is all new date, meaning we had sold out of everything by Sunday as expected. Then I notice the milk in back actually has 2 dates for the 2%, so I move the skids around (with a pallet jack of course) to make sure the older date will sell first as required.

All that work brought me to time for my first break. In Ohio there is no such thing as a “smoker’s lounge” (state law, you have to literally go outside to smoke) so I head for the door, but just before I get there Erika is looking for me. Since Erika is the IMS/warehouse manager that means only one thing – she is planning to unload the “general merchandise” (aka GM, the non-food stuff) truck starting at 4 and would like me to help. I actually started out back there in the warehouse. Doesn’t usually do much good to argue with a manager anyway, but I do know what to do back there (more than I could say for anyone else she is going to ask) so it’s no great problem. Now, outside – that’s a bit of a problem. The temperature has dropped to -11F or so I’m told … I decide that I would be forgoing my smoke break that I would normally take as part of my lunch later. After break I have 40 minutes before Erika plans to get started, so I make sure the milk is full (5 minutes – I did say we had very little traffic that day) and go to the service desk for returns (not much – same reason of course).

Erika hasn’t actually set up for the truck yet, we need to move all the old freight and then set down empty skids for the new freight. I’m also thinking about where I’d do the most good – actually in the trailer (it isn’t heated after all … I’m dressed for that) or somewhere on the line. I decide anyone can be in the trailer “throwing the truck” – they can put on gloves and a jacket – and as the only one with backroom experience I’d be best on the line somewhere. Besides Erika seems to think she should be the one throwing. Besides her there is manager Owen (a big guy who might be compared to a bear in build – I’m sure he can handle the physical part), Lisa from Pets, Jamie, and a couple of others I forget now … actually a fair sized truck crew, other than the lack of experience. The idea is, as an item comes down the line it keeps getting pushed on until it reaches the person closest to that department who removes it and places it on the appropriate skid. As I know I’m the only one who knows how to do the few grocery items that do come on that truck properly, I volunteer for grocery (on the south side of the conveyor and farthest from the truck). Lisa volunteers for paper goods, health and beauty, and pharmacy (across from me); Owen is on my side with another person, Jamie and the remaining person are on Lisa’a side.

Great theory, but standard rules apply – any manager who is outside their area will be called away within 15 minutes, doesn’t matter how motivated they are to help you. Lisa was “a trooper”, but it quickly devolved to she and I handling 90% of the freight with the other two non-managers as “pushers” (keeping the freight moving down the line). Not that it lasted too long anyway – by 5:30 Erika said she couldn’t feel her hands any more. Work gloves aren’t meant for -12F but you can’t handle smaller items in heavy winter gloves. I’m told to make sure my milk is full (honestly I know that – at least every 2 hours I need to check my milk, standard policy) then go to “lunch”; Lisa (who came in same time I did) also is to go to lunch. During lunch I make sure Lisa is willing to give me a ride home … I did bring my blizzard suit, I could walk, but a ride would be better.

Oh, of course while the store was open all the little shops were not. The beauty salon: closed. The bank: closed. The optical center: closed. And even the Subway restaurant. I had to buy something frozen and then microwave it … umm, teryaki chicken, Lisa had an enchilada dinner.

Back from lunch, Owen asks me to relieve Jim who is handling the phones. He knows I’ve never done it, but says to tell Jim to tell me what to do, so I get an hour of “Are you guys open today” or “Can I speak to a manager?” (that is, someone else reporting that they won’t make it in to work today). Though to me the saddest one was the lady from the gas station asking if we were going to close – they are technically a separate company, but her manager said that as long as we were open she had to stay open. I don’t care what you say, I’m sure the heaters in those little booths are not meant for -15F and “feels like -50F”. (Oh, Jim is technically a “door greeter” – the guy who stands at the door and says “Welcome to Wal-mart” – but as short-handed as they were he’d been reassigned to the more pressing need.)

Jim gets back … it’s been another 2 hours and thus time to check my milk again. Still doesn’t take very long to fill it. I know of a dozen items I do have back in the freezer which for some reason the computer never picks (identifies as things needed on the shelf) and have little else to do, so the store brand and Birdseye vegetables get filled properly for a change as well as the Banquet chicken nugget dinner that had been empty for a week.

If you’ve been counting, other than all those half gallons and such initially the rest of the milk was less than one full skid (for the technically minded – one pallet or skid of milk will have 216 gallons on it), I personally had only “thrown” a skid and a half that day … but the person(s) who had actually filled the milk in the morning (probably Jamie or Owen or both) had left another 2-1/2 skids, so I decided to be “proper” and shrink-wrap all 4 skids of empty cases. However … normally you would take your wrapped skids outside, but that doesn’t work with either 2″+ of snow or 25mph+ winds, so they’d just stay in the cooler tonight. (I’ve explained it before, a wrapped skid might as well be a box kite. Unless you wanted to go pick them up from the neighboring freeway – or the neighboring county even – you can’t put them outside in that much wind.) Wouldn’t matter anyway – the real reason they want them out is so that third shift has room to work, and our warehouse was still shut down (if anyone from third shift actually showed up to work in the cooler to begin with), but I had enough time so they got wrapped just to be easier to handle. Robert was back (the night managers are on a 4 on/4 off rotation, it was still his turn) with Maureen as assistant. I said “Oh good – you’re not going to be all by yourself since Maureen is here, even if everyone else does call off.” I think he actually had 7 though – however, none of the cashiers. I’m told he and “Mo” had to take turns on the registers all night. The city had re-plowed the street properly while I was at work, so there was now a 2 foot wall at the end of the driveway.

Tuesday – Dad decided to clear the driveway himself. Susan (my stepmom) was upset I wasn’t out there helping him – he didn’t tell me he’d be starting before I got up, what exactly was I supposed to do? Whatever – the driveway got cleared, I go out to shovel the snow out from under my tires so I won’t just be spinning my wheels. Slight problem – the door won’t stay shut. The latch is froze internally, I’ll have to hold the inside rail while driving to keep it shut. I debate walking to work again – it’s still bad, in fact still level 3, but not as bad as yesterday – but decide that it’ll probably thaw by the time I get there (if I let it idle long enough). Sure enough, it does. Of course it refreezes later <this is where I’d normally insert a :rolleyes: smiley if we had one>.

Store looks 100% better – there are twice as many workers, and twice as many customers :p Still no one else in my department. (In fairness Rochelle had been scheduled off – but lives 20+ miles away and couldn’t possibly have made it anyway. And Ashley is part time – probably wasn’t scheduled either. That only leaves George – who has a second job and I’m sure couldn’t get to either one – and my supervisor Kristi, and the “fresh zone manager” Tammy as people vaguely in my department. The small number of people in my department is why I fully expected to be the only one there.) Of course warehouse was still shut down – the only thing I could possibly stock in my department was milk. The frozen pizza was long gone, the eggs (what was left of them) ran out long before my lunch. We had gotten a “dry grocery” (anything that didn’t have to be kept refrigerated – not like keeping things cold was an issue today either) truck, so everybody was stocking grocery. Including door greeter Jim – well, for a few minutes. I was told he was working with me, but I was to stock my milk first (of course) … when I got back he was gone. I find him later and they’d reassigned him to Electronics. But since most of third shift had called off the previous night, everyone else was in grocery. By the end of the day, things were almost beginning to look normal – not counting pizza and eggs and such, as we still hadn’t gotten a Frozen/Dairy truck in 3 days now. Oh, third shift  … every single one who was scheduled … had been personally called and asked if they could come in 2 hours early. Not knowing this I was mildly surprised  when Aaron and the others started showing up, but I’m sure we needed all the help we could muster. Even Cynthia (third shift Dairy – nothing to do in our department of course).

I do my laundry overnight, though the second load (separate lights and darks) always ends up finishing after my bedtime (about 3 AM). I get up Wednesday and head to the basement to pick up my second load, but on the way there see Dad in the driveway on a step ladder trying to use a snow shovel to get the snow off the roof of the minivan! That strikes me as both inefficient and probably unsafe (depending on how hard he’s trying to throw his scoops of snow – the driveway itself is ice you know) so instead I quickly get dressed and ask him if he needs some help – then get my snow broom to sweep it off instead. Compared to the last two days it’s relatively pleasant – the wind has died down and the temperature is actually a positive number (in Fahrenheit anyway: 5F is still -15C or thereabouts). My door latch is also completely unstuck and now working normally. Though I managed to pick up my dad’s “cold” (more like walking pneumonia) so it’s not all good – but it’ll do for now. “Level 3” is gone, that’s the big one.

I normally eat only once a day, but with most things closed the last two days I decide I may need a good breakfast, so I head to Bob Evans’ (which serves breakfast all day) to have a “sunshine skillet” at a little after noon. I’m not scheduled to work until 2 PM – I want to have enough time to digest my meal before whatever it is we end up doing today. I go in a few minutes early and notice multiple people already stocking Frozen, Dairy and Meats – good, we got freight in finally. Bad news is, we were 3 days behind – we were going to be getting several days worth of freight just to catch up. Only half the eggs were there yet (the 18-count cartons, no dozens), the pizza was still empty … we had our work cut out for us.

Kristi (my supervisor) was handling the dairy, Fresh ZMS Tammy (Kristi’s boss) was handling the freezer, and Lisa from Meats (no relation to Lisa from Pets seen back on Monday) was obviously in charge of Meats – though with help from Tammy as needed. (The actual meat department supervisor, Patricia, had been on sick leave for the last 2 months. She had been scheduled to be back on Monday but obviously couldn’t make it then … she was back today, but was working in the freezer.) Rochelle was in the dairy and as expected I got put in the freezer.

Of course they always send us several “features” a week to stick into the end cases, I get assigned to that duty. Pull all the remaining Red Baron from the end door (which was decidedly skimpy by now) and put it in the “home” location, then fill the end case with whatever feature it was … hmm, Tyson chicken. I notice the Totino’s pizza is completely empty, so I ask Tammy if she’d like me to do that too – she says no, she’ll have manager Lisa (technically Tammy’s superior, but under the circumstances …) fill it. But you do recall what I said back on Monday about managers always getting called away – I was the one who ended up filling the Totino’s. At least (with Kristi and Rochelle both present) I didn’t even need to think about milk and eggs. On the other hand, the other 5 people working in the freezer were not people who did this normally – I had to advise them from time to time where things go. Example … Louie: If I were a cauliflower, where would I go? Me: Which brand? Louie: Great Value. Right here. (That one I did point out, it’s a slightly strange location. Normally I’d go with “Next to the {whatever} …”) Another of the trucks arrives an hour later. Everything that doesn’t fit on the salesfloor has to be properly binned (and logged into the computer) so people will be able to find it next week. Etc.

Lunch is relatively late – 7 PM. Lisa had been planning to do my evaluation just before lunch, but changes her mind – she’d rather I use the extra time after lunch to do the meat department’s “throw aways” – damaged or expired product that can not be sold … everything has to be properly logged though. I remind her I don’t actually have the necessary clearances for that (I always have to have someone else log in when I have to do throw aways), she says she’ll give me the option while I’m on lunch. I get back – it looks like I have the option but it doesn’t work. Lisa’s already left, night manager Samantha tries also but then just logs in herself. Mind you, I did also have to fill milk before I left (Kristi and Rochelle had left earlier), so I only got 1/3 of the throw aways done. (And Kristi had done the dairy version of “throw aways” before she left, since I obviously would not be doing that …) And oh … speaking of milk, that had arrived at the same time I did originally – 2 PM. We normally receive milk Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 7 AM but they were somewhat late today – but they were there. No sign of Nestle’s, Schwan’s, Lays snacks, any of the bread vendors … but we were starting to look better.

Thursday … nothing memorable at home really, except I heard a bad word in the weather forecast … rain. Yes, it was actually supposed to be warm enough by Saturday to rain and not freeze. But this is Findlay, Ohio – any time (except during a dry spell) that someone says “rain” everyone hears the word “flood” whispered in the back of their mind. Throw in a word like “melting snow” and that’s not a whisper any more. However, it’s not a panic sort of thing – more fatalism. It happens too often, it will happen again even though the latest was only a month or two ago. It’s not “if” but “when” … but you can’t do anything about it either way.

At work, two more of the late trucks have already delivered – we’re still working on the last of those. The last of the late trucks shows up just before “lunch”, but there will still be the official Thursday truck at about 9 PM. And before I go home there’s the little matter of the freezer’s throw aways. Manager Lisa asks if I’m willing to stay an extra hour to keep working on freezer freight.

But anyway … Friday. My other day off this week, and I was glad to have it. The store should mostly be caught up and thus nominal – except that Nestle doesn’t deliver until Saturday. Their loss, I’m sure Schwans will be more than happy to have the extra customers. I go visit Mom once a week, obviously this week it was Friday. And as I didn’t get to see her for her birthday, I buy dinner. I guess that – and the fact it doesn’t rain enough to flood – counts as a happy ending.

(Of course I’ll address the comments already posted in the comments section. Oh … and this missive is really in a way about our store and town – I haven’t mentioned anything about my moderator duties at My Opera which I still did in my free time and so on.)

Posted on

Christmas Carols?

There are any number of so-called Christmas carols, some of which are related to Christmas in an at best tenuous fashion …

What’s Frosty the Snowman have to do with Christmas? Not counting the cartoon made about that song of course – in the cartoon Frosty goes to the North Pole to stay with Santa so that he won’t melt … but that’s not in the song. So other than the obvious reference to snow, nothing to tie it to Christmas as such – and as our antipodean friend tt92 mentioned, you won’t see much snow in Australia this time of year. Jingle Bells? Again, snow, even a sleigh … but this sleigh is pulled by a horse. My brother tells me it should actually be in March or April – that doesn’t sound like Christmas to me. Sleigh Ride? Depends … some versions mention a Christmas party, others say birthday party. Presuming the latter is the original, then all you have is a sleigh and snow again.

Then there’s my personal favorite … what does a song from The Sound of Music have to do with Christmas? Sure, My Favorite Things mentions presents, but if you’ve ever seen the movie it takes place during a thunderstorm – Maria is trying to help one of the kids who is scared by the thunder to feel better by singing to them. No relation to Christmas at all.

And of course, any song that does mention Christmas or New Year’s automatically becomes “seasonal”, even if it’s a song about a suicidal veteran who killed himself on Christmas Eve. Yes, I do like “Something to Believe In”, but I wish they wouldn’t overplay it in December and then never play it the rest of the year.

And somehow they also like “Baby It’s Cold Outside” in the month before Christmas, and no other times. Cute song, with a mention of snow and of course cold … but December is not the coldest month of the year (and especially not in Australia again), so what’s the tie in to Christmas? Winter Wonderland? Let It Snow? No Christmas or Santa in either one.

Of course, being in retail I’ve heard Christmas music for the last 5 weeks now non-stop … even so there are some songs I could listen to year ’round, and some I could live without. So don’t imagine I’m just “Bah, humbugging” the whole thing. Of course, maybe it’s silly to expect things to make sense …