Are you a true fan?

What is a true fan? That is the question I’ve been wondering for a while as I attend Hershey Bears games. I know everyone has their own comfort level, and their own enthusiasm level, so we each react differently. I also know from time to time you get people there that aren’t really Bears fans, they are just Hockey fans, and are there because it’s the closest hockey. Then you have the ones that are only there because someone gave them tickets, and they aren’t’ even hockey fans. So this isn’t towards those categories.

I am writing this about those people, who say they are Bears fans, and go to a bunch of games, and show no emotion. Since I am a season ticket holder I tend to watch people at the games. I’ve notice a bunch of people, who are at a lot of games, who just show no emotion. When the Bears come onto the ice, they don’t clap, or if they do its only once. When the starting lineup is announced they don’t clap. And the worse part of all is when they score they don’t react.

Now not everyone has to jump up and cheer, and ring their cowbell, like I do, but they should at least react. If you just sit there and stare at the ice no one knows you are into the game, and with ice hockey the more the fans are into the game the better the game is.

So what is a true fan? I feel it’s someone who at least shows some emotion towards the game. Anyone can go out and buy a jersey and say they are a fan, does that make you a fan? No I don’t feel it does. I know people who can tell you a ton of facts about the Bears, and hockey, but are they true fans? I know with me I can totally hate something and still memorize the facts about it. So that doesn’t make you a fan. So what makes you a fan, I feel it’s the emotion you show towards the game. It’s the love of the game, it’s the excitement when the game is going good, and the disappointment when the game is going bad. So are you a true fan? If so, the next Bears game, or whatever your favorite sports team is, that you are at, stand up, clap, show your excitement for the game. Trust me the players do notice, and it motivates them…

Common Sense - 12-27-09

I haven't posted a common sense blog post in a while now, and thought it was time for another one. This is based on something I've noticed while at Hershey Bears games. And that is that people don't show the proper respect for our flag, national anthem, or country.

I’ve been watching people for a while now, and I’ve noticed that usually the same people are the ones that are the problem. You have the people who don’t have respect for our national anthem by talking during it. I know at Bears games between the last two lines of the anthem that people yell “Go Bears”, or “Let’s go Bears”, or something like that. That I am ok with. But the people who just stand there and continue their conversation during the anthem need to learn some respect.

The other thing that bothers me is the people who don’t take off their hats during the anthem. I was always taught that the proper etiquetteis to do so. I used to get strange looks from my coworkers when I used to work Bears games. When they would do the anthem, I would stop what I was doing, remove my hat, and show respect until the anthem was over. Then I would resume my duties. I just felt this was right.

As for the people who don’t show respect for the flag. I see a lot of that too during the Bears games. I was always taught that you should wait until the flag is off the ice to sit down. And I do feel that that is showing respect for the flag and its carrier. Usually at the beginning of the Bears games you will see the same people stand only long enough for the anthem, clap once or twice, and hit their seat. This just isn’t respectful.

Now I understand you have those fans who have trouble standing. Those I totally understand seeing sit down right away. But when you see these young people who are in perfect heath just sit down that is disrespectful. And like I’ve said before, with being a season ticket holder, I see it all the time. And it usually is the same people every time.

It is only common sense that if you don’t show respect for our country, and the symbols of our country, that others will see you have no respect. And common sense leads me to believe that if other countries see we don’t even have respect for our country then they won’t respect us, and why should they?

So what can we do? Show the respect our country and its symbols deserve. Stand up, remove your had, and stop talking during our anthem. Stay standing until the flag is off the ice, or field, or whatever the situation. When you are out, if you see a member of our armed services, show him or her some respect too. This will go a long way, and will show how we truly feel about our country. And maybe this will stop the attacks on our country and bring us together again….

Monday - 11-02-09, the first 4:30 day.

Since I didn't post anything all weekend I'll recap that a little quick. Saturday I had to work. I got to work to find that no one was there to unlock the key cabinet for me to get my keys. Paul called around for me, and was able to get the code to unlock them for me. But if they know I'm scheduled to come in at 9:00 then there should be a fulltime employee in at 9:00 as well. Then I got to my stand, and the safe wasn't unlocked. I called twice, and no one ever came to unlock it. So I used the money in the loan bag to start the day, and ran the whole day with only the ones that guests gave me. I told Jorge to use the money from the A bag to make the B bag loan. I saw in the log book that they did eventually unlock the safe for him.
Saturday night was a pretty good night. We went to a Bears game, and they won. Although we ran into someone we knew there who was acting really strange. We don't know if he was trying to impress the girl that was with him, or what was up. I guess if he's mad about something he'll get over it.
Sunday we didn't do too much. Cathy went to her mom's, I went to my parents', and to church. Church was ok, but kind of boring. Other then that and some cleaning we didn't do much Sunday.
This morning I E-mailed about taking my General Class Amateur Radio test on November 21st. I'm just waiting to hear back from that.
When I got to work the key cabinet was unlocked ,and Harry said the safe was open. I wasn't the least bit surprised to get here and find a mess. And I really don't feel like cleaning it up. I cleaned up what I had to, and set up the stand. Then I went to studying again for a little. I figured I could clean later in the afternoon before I closed.
Speaking of closing, and the title suggest, today is the first day of the winter season that ZooAmerica closes at 4:30. That means I close at 3:30, and will be home by 4:00 most days. I'm really kind of looking forward to that.
By 11:00 the zoo was pretty busy, and I had a small line. It was only three people, but it was a line. That was enough sales to keep me open most likely until 3:30 today.
By noon I was starting to do the cleaning that wasn't done from Sunday. I figured that if I started it by noon, and it took me 2 hours then it would be time to start precleaning for closing, and then I could go right into that. Keeping busy like that should make the time go faster while here.
Around 1:45 Denise came in the back door of the stand. She had a new lady with her, Tanya. She wanted to introduce her to me, and show her where things were in the stand if she needed them, and I wasn't here.
By 2:00 I had everything I wanted to get done done. SO now I just had to wait until 2:30 or 3:00 to start my final cleaning, and closing things down. If I could do things like I normally do I would be ready to go home at 3:30 when I close.
I was home by 4:00, and got a few things done before Cathy got home. She was working locally today, so she was home within 5 minutes after getting off of work. We didn’t really do too much the rest of the night. Basically just watching some TV, and me on the internet….

Thursday - 10-29-09, feeling a little rested.

I seemed to get a good night's sleep last night, and am feeling a little rested this morning. Although I am also feeling a little guilty too this morning.
Since we put Daisy back out she's really been hanging around outside, and really kissing up to us. She keeps coming right up to us, and rubbing our legs, and meowing with this sad look. IF we knew she would start using the litter box we would let her back in.
Then you have Rebel. Since we put her out the other night for crying all night we haven't seen her. Someone is eating the food we have out, so we assume that Daisy and Rebel are coming up when we aren't around, but Rebel isn't meeting us at the door in the morning like she usually does.
I got into work, and got the stand set up in no time. I then got a sale before I was officially open. Barb sent one of the security guards down to buy her a large icee. So that could cause me to have to stay open all day, but I would have to wait and see.
I got my second sale, and first real customer, around 11:45. At this point the zoo was kind of busy. Since no one else was coming up to buy though, I decided to take my lunch. While I was eating Sophia came in. She said they were just here to take some pictures, and she thought she would check on me while she was here. It was her Kevin O’Brian, and two other people I didn't' recognize. I'm not sure where they went off too.
I don't know if I put this in yesterday, and I'm too lazy right now to go back and look, but anyway, I got an update on Sally. She is still out of the exhibit, and in the med building recovering from her illness. They aren’t' sure what she has, and did send blood work out to get checked.
I also found out today that they are working on redoing the bear exhibit again. They are repainting some parts of it, and they have an idea to totally redo the pond in it. I'm not sure what it will look like when it’s done.
At about 12:30 Barb called down. She wanted to know how much the pizzas were. So I knew that was a hint that she wanted to buy one for her lunch. She said she would send Pat down to get it. He showed up about 10 minutes later for the two pizzas and fries. So that put me up to three sales, so that meant that I would almost definitely not close early.
I'm half way through the book again studying for my general class amateur radio test. This time through I'm averaging about a 90% over all. I'm hoping I can keep the percentage up around that same area. If I can I'll probably look into scheduling the test for next month. I know there is a location giving it on the third Saturday in November. So maybe I'll shoot for that day.
Around 1:30 I got a family that came up. Their order was the largest order for the day. It also was enough that I knew there would be no way I would close early. That was ok though, the day seemed to be going really quickly.
Since I didn't go up home last Sunday, we decided we would go up tonight to drop off the candy for the kids for trick-or-treating. I didn't know if Cathy intended to stay until the kids got there or not, but she thought that's what I wanted to do, so we did. It was really kind of a nightmare. They were all hyper from the candy, and until we left I had a killer headache. I couldn't wait to just get home, and go to bed...

Wednesday - 10-28-09, I need sleep.

I didn't get hardly any sleep again last night. Rebel was crying again all night. We tried being nice to her to get her to sleep, I tried being mean to her to get her to sleep. Finally around 12:30 we put her back outside. When I got up this morning I saw the food out there was eaten, but there was no sign of her. I don't know if she really wants to be out, or what it is.
I got to work today to see they are having another one of the "Fulltime employee meetings". They have them every few months. They are all the same from what I was told. It’s just Hershey's way to tell everyone how much money they truly lost.
I set up the stand, but didn't really make anything. I don't want to have a ton of food to throw away. I just had this feeling that I'm going to be dead all day since it was raining.
I was shocked to see warehouse show up with my stock by 9:30. They almost never get there that early on the off season. So I had all the stock away before 10:00. Whoever did the ordering on Sunday didn't do a good job at all. I got in tons of things I didn't need, and didn't get half of the stuff I did need. So I had to go around quick and do up a new order for the weekend.
Harry must have read my mind today. I was literally walking to the phone to call him about closing early when it rang. It was Harry. He asked if I had any sales yet today, and I told him no, so he said he was going to call up to admissions to see about closing me early today. He called me back about a minute later and told me to close at 1:30.
Closing at 1:30 got me home by 2:00. I was able to watch the Glenn Beck show I DVRed last night. Then I got some general cleaning done that I knew Cathy would want me to do while she was at her class.
I went over to get our standing order at Fabio & Joes. When I got back Cathy was already home, which was a surprise. Usually I get over there, and back before she gets home. After dinner she left for the last night of her class, and I watched TV while dozing off.
I watched my normal Wednesday shows of NCIS on USA until 7, then Mythbusters from 7-9, and ghost hunters from 9-10, then if we don't head to bed its Destination Truth from 10-11. But tonight we're heading to bed....

Tuesday - 10-27-09, What a wakeup call.

Today started out really bad. First of all I didn't get hardly any sleep last night. It seemed like every few minutes one of the cats was crying. If this keeps up there is no way we will be able to keep them inside. But the worst part was we figured out which one was peeing on the bed. It turns out its Daisy. At about 4:30 this morning we heard her digging on the mattress next to me. I swatted at her, and felt something wet. I smelled my had, and found it smelled like cat pee. So she not only peed on the bed next to me, but on me as well. So I had to get up and get a shower, and I just stayed up then.
We decided to put her back outside. We're going to try the other cats in and see what happens. I hope this works out. If not, then I guess we will just have to put them all back outside.
I got to work to find myself locked out of the foods office. Normally if the lights are on then the doors are unlocked, but not this time. I was just about to knock when Sophia came out of her office and saw me there, and left me in. She wasn't sure why the door was looked either.
I found out when I got to the stand that my cell phone battery must have died over night. I went to put it on silent mode, and found it wouldn't power up. I don't know why I’m losing power so quickly on it. I had three lines of battery yesterday.
Denise just told me that Sally, the one black bear, still isn't feeling good. They are pulling her out of the exhibit, and taking her up to the med building. Once the vet gets here and looks at her they will decide what to do next. I'll have to post an update if I get one.
The zoo is extremely slow today. As of noon I had only seen one person go through, and they were heading up the hill toward the exit. I figured at that point that if I didn't get any sales by about 1:00 or 1:30, I would call up to see about closing. I know that Harry is off today, so I guess I'll just call up to the office and see if they can find someone to make the decision to close early.
I did end up closing around 1:30, and was home by 2:00. When I got home the cats were resting nicely in the apartment. The evening was pretty uneventful, and I'm just hoping for a good night's sleep tonight...

Monday - 10-26-09, what a mess.

I guess I'll start by recapping the weekend a little. On Saturday we got the third cat into the house. They seemed to be doing fine once they got used to it. I had to work during the day, but Cathy was able to spend most of the day with them. Work was a slow day, but then it rained off and on most of the day. Saturday night was a bit disappointing. The Bears lost yet another game. If this trend keeps up they will never make the playoff this year.
On Sunday I stayed home. We had Dish Network coming out to install a new receiver for us. We upgraded to DVR. They said they would get there between 8 and 12. They called around 10, and showed up around 10:15. The guy switched out the receiver, and then was basically ready to leave. He really didn't want to explain anything about it to me. So when I got a call to do an automated survey about his installation I gave him a low rating in that area. Sunday night's Bears game was a good one. We finally won one again. They had Bacashihua in, so I think that helped. But then having the Pirate's goalie tip the puck into the goal for us doesn't hurt either. Over all it was a good game.
Sunday night we found a mess before bed. One of the cats decided to pee on the bed. So there we were cleaning it up before we could go to bed. I just hope they don't keep up doing that. If they do we will end up having to put them back out.
Now onto today. It was a messed up day from as soon as I got to work. I walked down to Vault to pick up the money. When they handed the loan bag out to me it was really heavy. I couldn't believe they ended that much change. Well when I opened it I found that I didn't. They ordered $24 in nickels last night. The par for nickels is only $20 and we still had $12 in the stand. They should have ordered $8 tops. So now I have way too much change in the loan box.
Then I make my way over to the stand, and find that a mess. They patio wasn't touched, which was the first thing I noticed. Then I came into the stand to find what looked like they just turned off the equipment and went home. I don't know why people think they can do things like that. I made up a list of what wasn't done, and I'm putting a PAM on Harry's desk when I come in tomorrow. If he doesn't sign it oh well, but at least I tried.
I'm at the point now where I feel if people don't want to be part of the solution to cleaning up Timber Treats, then they are part of the problem. And if that is the case, then I don't want them in the stand. But I know I can't make that decision. That would be up to Harry, and I Don't think he will go that far with fixing it.
Once I got everything set up for the day, I spent about two hours catching things up from last night, and I still wasn't done. I don't know how they could have made such a mess. By that time I was really starting to think that it was an intentional mess.
After having to spend an hour on the pretzel oven, and change the water three times, I've decided that I am going to do my plan for next year. I just hope I get the backing of Harry, and the foods office. But my new way of thinking about things is this: you are here to do a job, either do it, and do it right, or you won't have a job. I am going to start PAMing people for not doing their jobs correctly, and if the office follows through on their end, the people will lose their jobs after four times of doing the same thing wrong. That will either cause people to straighten out, or me to get new employees every few weeks.
On a better note, between cleaning I've been studying for my amateur radio test. I'm really starting to see improvement. I'm getting up to the upper 70, or lower 80 percent range over all now. If this keeps up I should be able to take the test and pass it.
It was an extremely slow day. I didn't get my first customer until 1:45, and he turned out to be my only customer. At least that let me get caught up on the cleaning that needed done.
I got home to find out that one of the cats had peed on the bed again, and that they had messed on the floor. We have to figure out which one is doing it, and try to stop it. We can’t have the house smelling of cat pee.
I finished watching the BBC series “Being Human” last night. From the shows I’ve seen it’s a pretty good series. I’ll have to watch for new episodes to come on in January….

Tuesday - 10-20-09, Signs, signs, everywhere the signs.

I forgot until she reminded me that Cathy had to go into work early today. She's going to another place for training. She actually took the GPS with her to direct her there. I had to set it up for her, but other than that she seemed OK with it.
When I got into work I had to stop at Minetown to get some stuff. We were totally out of a few things from the weekend, so I picked it up. Plus I wanted to get vinegar to boil out the fryer. When I got to the stand I noticed that they did put up the other signs on the pole outside the stand.
They now have the direction signs for the different areas of the zoo, plus the restrooms one they put up yesterday. Then this morning they did put up a "Timber Treats Food & Beverage" one, plus a "Gift Shop" one, and an "Exit/Enter" sign. So now we have signs everywhere. The only thing is I would have actually pointed the "Timber treats" sign at the stand, not up the path like its facing now.
After I got in, I started the fryer boiling out, and set the stand up. Setting up didn't take me long, which is normal. The fryer wasn't as bad as I thought I it would have been. I knew from the fact that the filter was clean on Monday that it wasn't cleaned properly on Saturday or Sunday. That usually makes the oil really bad when you boil it out.
After I opened the stand I had a lady come up with a cooler. She said that security told her to give it to me. She's with a school group that's here. I told her that people usually just put them on the tables where they want to sit. She didn't seem to sure about doing it, but I told her that's what they normally do, and finally she put it on one of the tables.
I got a little business around 11:45 when the school group ate their lunch. Some of the chaperones that were with the group didn't bring lunches. So that got me a few ales with them. Surprisingly I took my lunch at the right time today. I was finishing it up when they came up. Usually I'm right in the middle of it.
At about 12:00 I had a lady from the group come up for a cup. She seemed like she didn't want to ask for it. Her bottle of apple juice had sprung a leak. She then tried to pay me for the cup. At times I wish I could be more dishonest, and charge people at times like that. But I just can't do it.
I did more studying of for my general class amateur radio test. For the sections I studied today I'm getting better. I have about a 12% overall increase so far. If I can keep that increase average than maybe I will be able to pass the test. I think what I should do is find a place that is giving the test sometime before the end of the year, and set a date to force myself to really study hard, and learn the material.
Around 1:00 I got another line. It was a group of mentally challenged students from Reading Area High School. They were actually some of the nicest students I've had here in a long time. What really surprised me was the fact chaperones were even nice.
The second grouped I got just a few minutes after them were kind of rude. The lady kept changing her order, and then getting mad at me for not getting it right. Plus she kept insisting that the icees were only one flavor, "Blue Cherry Pepsi". I finally gave up trying to explain it to her, and gave her a mix of all three, since that was basically what she was ordering.
The rest of the day at work was fairly slow. I got home to see the neighbors were out cleaning their yard. They told me they would be moving soon. They got a house out on 39. They said if they knew they would get taken care of, they would leave the cats behind. I told Cathy we should offer to take them in. I know Cathy is going to miss them. I just hope when the house sells that we get good neighbors....

Monday - 10-19-09, What a wet weekend.

With the weather we had this past weekend the business wasn't too good. On Friday Hershey actually decided to not open HersheyPark in the Dark. This decision was made around noon. They decided to close me around 1:45, which was ok with me. I already had everything cleaned up, and was ready to go. All I had to do was just lock up the money and lock the door.
Saturday's weather wasn't any better. They did have HersheyPark in the Dark, but there weren't a lot of people there. I was scheduled to work from 9am until 7pm, but I left at about 4:30. We were totally dead. I did see that they got a little business after I left, but not enough to need me to stay.
Sunday morning started out cold and wet, but it got better. We had decided weeks ago that we were going to go to HersheyPark in the Dark that day. So we were hoping the weather would clear up, and it did. There really weren't too many people there either. We were able to ride all the roller coasters without having to wait in any lines. We got on everything we wanted to. We walked through the zoo several times, and saw the stuff they had set up just for HersheyPark in the Dark. We watched their one skunk paint, and also one of the snakes paint. That was kind of interesting. Overall it was a fun day.
Today I came in to the normal mess I find after I'm off. The stand wasn't properly cleaned last night. We were totally out of hot chocolate mix, and things were rearranged again. So I spent my first hour putting things back to where they should be. Then I spent a few minutes doing up the orders I needed for the week.
Once all that was done then I went to studying my amateur radio test again. I am still holding steady at about a 55% over all. Although I get some sections where I do really good, I then get ones where I do really badly, and it just balances out again.
There was one school group in the zoo around 11:00. They looked like 1st or 2nd graders, so I'm almost positive they won't eat here. There were also some other women with children walking around already at that point, but like usual no one buying anything yet.
Around 12:45 I got my first customer. Although it wasn't a huge sale it was enough for me to have to stay open all day. By 1:00 I had finished going through my General Class test study book. I got an overall score of only 55%. So that means I need to do some more studying. I really wish I knew which test I would get. Then I would know what questions to focus on. But that's why they do it randomly. They don't want people just memorizing a few questions and taking the test.
I've been spending most of the day watching maintenance putting up new signs in the zoo. They added poles in the summer that said "ZooAmerica" on a flag a t the top. Now they are putting directional signs up. The first ones they put up on the pole outside Timber Treats were ones pointing people to the various sections of the zoo like "Northlands", "Big Sky Country", and "The Great Southwest". Now I see the7y are back with new signs. I saw one that said "restrooms" and one that said, "Timber Treats". They spent about 20 minutes discussing how to put them up, and in what direction to point them.
After this long discussion they decided to only put up the one restroom sign. They put it up pointing up the hill toward the new staff house, and new restrooms. They took the Timber Treats sign with to another location in the zoo. I also noticed when they left that they had a sign for the exit with them as well. Since most of the maintenance people only work until 2:30, and this was around 2:00, I figured they weren't going to actually put the other signs up, but just slowly walk out to their truck and then slowly head back over to the office. That would get them there by 2:15 or 2:20, and they could get ready to leave.
A little after 2:00 Harry called over to see what kind of business I had done so far. I told him I only had one sale, and the amount. He said, "Well, enjoy the rest of your day," and hung up. I wasn't sure if that mean close down and go home to enjoy the rest of my day, or to stand here bored and enjoy the rest of my day. So I decided to just stand here bored.
I don't know if I was right or not, but maintenance never came back before I left. After I got home we decided to run up to the pet store to look for a tank heater for the two fish we got. According to the guide for that type of fish the water should be between 72-78 degrees, and without a heater it’s staying at about 70-72 degrees.
Since they didn't have the heater we wanted we decided to get the next size up, and to get the 5 gallon tank out of the attic. This will give the fish a bigger swimming area.
After the pet store we decided to stop at Red Robin in Harrisburg, since its right next to the pet store. Well that took a lot longer than we thought it would. I don't know what it was, but it seemed like our waitress was disappearing for long periods of time, and it took forever for our food to be made.
Since we ended up getting home so late we decided to wait until tomorrow to set up the other fish tank. I called Dish Network to see about upgrading out receiver and getting DVR. They said that if we signed a two year agreement they would send us a free receiver, with free installation, and then the DVR service would be $5.98 a month. So we ordered it. They will be upgrading us on Sunday between 8 and noon....

Wednesday - 10-14-09, a chilly day.

For anyone reading this that isn't from central PA, I'm calling it a chilly day because we are well below the average low for the day, and they are calling for it to be well below the average high for the day. It was down in the upper 30s this morning, and I actually had frost on the back window of my car. I didn't really have to scrape it. With the rear defroster on, and letting the car warm up, it was melted before I backed out to leave.
While I was waiting at Vault to pick up money I got a phone call. It was Cathy, she had a question about jumpstarting a van. So I answered that, and still had to wait. There was some guy there cashing in $2000 in $100 dollar bills. He wanted to get it back in all 50s, but vault told him they didn't keep that much in 50s on hand. He was able to get $1000 in 50s, then just got the rest in 20s. While they were counting out his money they got my bags and got me on my way.
When I got to the foods office everyone was shocked to see me in shorts. I guess they don't remember last year. I'll wear shorts almost all the time. If it’s above freezing, I'm usually fine in shorts. Plus once in the stand it gets warm.
I got over to the stand, and set up as far as I could by 9:30, and just had to wait for Harry. He told me he would be over in a few minutes when I was in the office. He got there at about 9:45, which still gave me plenty of time to count the loan box, and be open by 10:00.
I decided that since it was so cold, and I since I usually don't get a lot of customers before 11:00 or 12:00, that I would go through the bread and do some rearranging. I found a ton that was no good, and got rid of it. There were almost 6 trays of bread that had to be gotten rid of. Then I restacked it, and rearranged the soda that's still sitting in the stand. If I would be allowed to sell it most of it would be gone already. Instead it’s sitting back in the back taking up space, and out dating. As cases of it out date, I dump them out, and get rid of the bottles.
I spent from when I was done with the bread and soda until I took my lunch break studying for the General Class Amateur radio test. While doing that I had only seen three people in the zoo that weren't part of the school group that was here. And none of them stopped by the stand. After eating lunch I went back to studying.
I had only started studying again for a few minutes when warehouse showed up with my stock. The guy from warehouse was by himself this week, so it took him a little longer to get all the stock to me. He brought it all in three loads, and by the time he got the second and third loads to me I had the previous ones away. I still hadn’t had a single customer by this point, and figured I would go back to studying again.
I was hoping not to have any customers by 1:00, then I was going to call about closing early. But of course that was messed up now. At about 12:45 I got a family that came up and ordered lunch. So with their order being about $20 I figured closing early was out.
I decided to stop studying shortly after 1:00. It was getting a little depressing. I know that for the actual test only a few questions are pulled from each section, but I like to be passing each section, and over all, before I take the test. As of now I'm only getting an overall score of about 63%. I could do better on the later sections, but I figure I 'd stop for the day.
The day stayed really slow, but that was to be expected with the colder weather. I didn't get any other customers after that first family. There were only one or two more families that came through after that, and they didn't even look at the menu.
Since Cathy had her training class, I got some stuff done around the apartment. I took out the ACs, and did some basic cleaning. I then went outside to try to get my dad on simplex with my 2 meter amateur radio. I figured we wouldn’t be able to reach each other, but we tried. Then at 9 we watched Ghost hunters, and then headed to bed…

Friday - 10-02-09, a rainy Friday

Today is kind of a rainy day. Usually days that are like this aren't very busy. I planned on that when I got to work. When I set up my stand I only made a small amount of food, and figured I'll make more as needed. I figured the only thing that would make me busy would be if we got some kind of a group in, and as far as I could find out there weren't any scheduled.
Around 10:00 someone from warehouse drove into the zoo. They only brought me bread though, and it was bread I didn't order. I don't know how people decide on what bread I'm going to get. What I really wanted to know was where was the rest of my order. They had no clue if I was getting anything else or not, but they were pretty sure I wasn't.
I saw a few people in the zoo, but not many. Around 11:00 Troy went by with a few other brown tags. I only vaguely recognized them. I figured they were probably high up people in Hershey, and if they didn't stop in I was more than happy with that.
I got my first customer around 11:40. He didn't buy much. He got a medium soda. I kind of can't wait for next week. It is antique auto week, and that usually brings in people. So business should pick up for that week.
Around 12:45 warehouse came back with the rest of my stock. So I spent about a half hour putting that away. So between that and the stock that I was given from other stands, I think I have everything I ordered for the weekend. The only thing I don’t have is relish, since I forgot to order it. I figure tomorrow morning I'll check if Minetown has any, and if they do, get a box from them.
I got a few customers between 2:00 and 3:00 while I was precleaning, but not many. It looked like this Friday was going to be the slowest day this week. But oh well, tomorrow is a sell out for the park, so that should boost business.
What an afternoon, I closed and headed to vault. When I got to vault I dropped the one red bag in, but didn't see the other one. I searched my back pack, and didn't see it. I came back to the stand, and couldn't find it. So I assumed I must have dropped them both together.
When I got home, I rechecked my back pack, and couldn't find it. So I again assumed I must have dropped them together. When Cathy got home we left to go grocery shopping.
While at Giant we saw two Hershey Bears. First we saw Grant McNeil by the one entrance. Then several times again throughout the store. We also saw Andrew Joudrey in one of the aisles.
After shopping we came home, ate dinner, and watched TV. I found that Smallville was moved to Friday nights, so I watched that. I must have missed several shows, because a lot didn't make sense. Then Stargate Universe premiered. It was a two hour premier so I recorded it, and watched half. It’s pretty good, but I’ll have to get used to the new cast...

Monday - 10-12-09, catching up again.

I can't remember what day I posted a blog post last, so I guess I'll just recap the last week, and today. I was really expecting last week to be really busy. It was antique Auto at Hershey. That usually brings in tons of people from all over the world. Then not only do they walk around over there, they usually come to the zoo.
Tuesday was the first day that people could show up for it, and the overnight lots seemed to be filling up quickly. But I wasn't any busier on Tuesday then I normally am this time of year. Wednesday to Saturday it was open to the public.
Both Wednesday and Thursday were kind of slow days. I was a little busier, but it was nothing to be concerned with. One of those days I got a lady that was kind of strange, and a pain. She ordered a pretzel, and was getting a credit card out to pay with. Without me saying a thing to her, she snapped at me, "What do you have a problem with taking credit cards?" I told her we didn't, and swiped her card and gave it back. Some people I guess are just strange.
On Friday I got a little busier, but with the threat of rain it didn't get as busy as it could have. Saturday morning also wasn't too busy with the rainy AM, but as the day went on, and cleared up, the business picked up. It turned out to be a pretty good day over all.
Sunday I was off. I went up to church, which was a normal day there. On the way up I tried talking to my dad on my 2 meter amateur radio. We wanted to use the one repeater that was close to where he lives, but I couldn't pick it up until I was only about 20 minutes from where he lived.
Sunday night was disappointment. We went to the Bears game, and pretty good seats. We got section 111, row C free for HERCO night. That part was good, but the way the Bears played was horrible. They just didn't seem to be into the game until about half way through the third period, and by this time they were losing 2-0.
They were able to score one goal, but that just wasn't enough. They just couldn't get the puck in the net. I know they had bad ice, but that shouldn't be an excuse. I do have a problem with the end of the game, but there is nothing I can do about it. The puck went in basically as the time ran out. Myself and several other people I talked to, all felt that it was in, and should have counted. If that would have happened, it would have been tied and forced over time. But the officials decided it wasn't in in time, and the Bears lost 2-1.
Today hasn't been that bad of a day yet. Cathy's car has two tires leaking, so he drove my car to work today. I took the motorcycle. It was a little chilly riding in today, but wasn't too bad with my cold weather gear. She will have my car at least today and tomorrow.
When I got here Harry was outside the foods office talking. It was almost as if he was waiting for me. As soon as I came out of the office he walked with me over to the zoo. He told me that the stock order that I never got in last week would come in this week. He was over at Antique Auto all last week, and not in his office. So he was unable to enter the order. He told me he put it in Sunday, so I should get either today or tomorrow.
I somehow got the stand set up in about 20 minutes this morning, and had a ton of time to kill. So I got a little caught up on the book I'm reading. Since I'm not as far in the book as I wanted to be, I renewed it this morning so I have an extra three weeks to read it. I'm figuring that I will just borrow books from the library until after Christmas. That way I can ask people for the books that I want for Christmas. I know there are several out that I wouldn't mind getting. I don't know if there are enough out though to last me another year. If not then I’ll go back to borrowing them from the library.
By about 11:00 the business was picking up at the zoo, but not yet at Timber Treats. I hadn’t even had anyone look at the menu yet. And no one was buying. It was mostly moms with their kids. A few of them had what I assumed to be the dad's of the kids with them too.
Around 11:30 I got my first costumers. The first one was a guy with his two kids. He came up and ordered three hotdogs. That was all I heard from the order because at that point his son started yelling in a really high pitched annoying voice, "I want a hot dog, I want a hot dog." I had to keep asking the guy to repeat what else he ordered, which turned out to be just a medium drink, but with the kid screaming I couldn't hear him.
The second customer I got was a lady with her son. She ordered a kid's meal, but wanted me to make it to go. All I have to even try to do that with is foil to wrap the hot dog. So that's what I did. She was just standing their staring at it. Finally she was like, "Oh I guess I can put it in my bag", and then she put the wrapped hot dog and chips into her back pack, picked up the soda, and left.
The guy with the three hot dogs came back a little later and asked if we had any kind of wipes. He said that his son had ketchup all over his face. I told him I could wet some paper towels for him, but that was all I had. He decided that that would work, and took them to try to clean his son up. If you know your child is such a messy eater, then you should be prepared for it.
Around 12:00 I actually got a small line. This was started off with a lady ordering a "cheese pizza hot dog." I asked if she wanted both a cheese pizza and a hot dog, and she said, "No, just the cheese pizza hot dog." So I asked if she wanted a pizza, and she said, "No just the cheese pizza hot dog." So I though ok, she wants a hot dog with cheese, and asked her that. Her response was, "I don't want cheese on it. I just want the 1/4 pound cheese pizza hot dog." So I decided she was getting a plain hot dog. This seemed to make her happy, and she paid and left.
The next person wanted a hot dog and a regular bucket of fries. I hate when people order that. So I asked which she wanted, the regular or bucket, and she only wanted the regular. At least her and the lady behind her were kind of smart. When I said that I would have to cook the fries, the next lady said I want to get a regular too. So I was able to put enough for both of them down. Then the first lady said she would be getting a Large for another lady, so I added more to it so I would have enough.
Most of the line seemed to be together. It was a group of kids ranging in age, with several adults. I'm not sure if it was some kind of day care for all ages since schools are off or what it was. Most of them also wanted hot drinks. It started off with hoot chocolates, but then I got 3 coffee requests. I didn't want to lose the sale, so I brewed coffee.
Now if anyone reading this has worked at Timber Treats towards the end of the summer, you know about how the coffee machine leaks. So I put paper towels down under the coffee pot, and started it brewing. It got about halfway through the pot when it started its leaking. Plus after filling the three cups, and the coffee pot, it still filled two and a half more buckets with coffee. It should have only made the three cups, and maybe the one pot, but probably not even that much.
Today was like most days. I waited until I didn't have a line, and then decided to take lunch. And what happens, my 15 minute lunch break gets interrupted several times. When this happens it’s hard to know exactly how long you were on break. So I usually just guess. Once I'm done eating I figure I have time to read a little, then go back to work.
After work we didn’t do too much. We just ate dinner, and watched some TV shows we needed to get caught up on.

Thursday - 10-01-09, Spooky has passed away.

Well, today started off as a normal day. There wasn't anything different that happened until I went up to Troy's office to drop a note on his desk. While I was up there Dee told me that if anyone asks we only have two bears now. The one female, Spooky, died last night.
The strange think is up until today I never knew her name. I knew the male was Butch, and the one female was Sally. But I never knew the other female's name. I also wasn't sure which one was Sally. I found out that the one whose hair looked a little clumped or matted was Spooky. So as Dee put it, "she is now in bear heaven."
I got everything set up pretty quickly, and decided to do some cleaning that needed to be done. I noticed that things were still covered with dust from when Rich power washed the awning. So I cleaned all that up, which took me up to time to open the stand. I figured today was a good day to do it since I figured it wouldn't be busy.
While I was catching up on Heroes on my PDA I only saw three families go by. Two were moms with their kids, which are here almost every day. The other one was a dad with his kids, none of which stopped. Seeing people before 11:00 sometimes is a sign that I will be busy, but not always.
I got a surprise around 11:30. Troy came in to talk to me about the note I gave him. He said he was very impressed by the way it was written, and he gave me a "thank you" PAM for writing it. He told me that he would work with Harry to try to solve some of the issues in it. He also said he didn't realize that there was such a problem with theft, and they would come up with a way to correct that for next year. So we'll have to see what happens.
It was kind of a slow day over all. I did get my normal rush while trying to preclean. I made about as much on average as I did all week so far. I got home, and didn’t really have much to do. My plans were pretty relaxing, just sit and watch TV while reading, which is what I did. :)

Wednesday - 09-30-09, The cat could be going.

We got up this morning, and trouble was at the edge of our bed on the floor. We talked nicely to him, and tried to pet him. What did he do? He growled at us, and swatted at us. So we filled his food up, and went about our morning. I noticed Scratch seemed calmer the last night.
I got a call as I was pulling into the parking lot. It was from Cathy. She talked to her supervisor, and she agreed that we can't have a cat that is acting this mean to us, and peeing on the walls. So she told Cathy that she would make arrangements to come pick it up. Cathy wasn't sure at this point when she would pick it up, but she did say that they decided that they would try the liter we use for Scratch. Her supervisor thinks that maybe her boyfriend is actually sneezing from the liter and not being allergic to the cat.
Jon and Harry both came over to open my safe. After they left I counted my money, and got a drawer set up. When I went to put it in I saw they were out on the patio looking at my menu. Jon asked me what Gluten Free items we offered. I told him that the only ones we knew of were our potato chips, and possibly our nacho chips. I said if we have other ones, then I wasn't aware of them. He told Harry that they have a bunch of gluten free items in the park, and they were discussing what they could give me when they walked away.
Around 10:30 a group walked by the stand. They reminded me that they would be Milton Hershey kids. Since most of the Milton Hershey kids are really rude, I was happy when they didn't stop in.
Around 11:00 two mothers with children went by. The kids ran up onto the patio, but the mom's wouldn't buy them anything. I think this is going to be another really slow day. One good thing is I got the feeding schedule done for our baby dragon.
Cathy kept saying she would be able to remember when the baby dragon gets fed, but last night she asked me if it got fed today. I told her that it would get fed in the morning, and decided that I would do up a feeding chart. It was really easy to do. I just entered it into outlook as an appointment, told it that it recurred every other day, gave it no end date, and put it in a category of its own. That way I could just print the "pets" category, and see what we have for any of the pets.
I figured this also would make it easier to keep track if we have any kind of appointments for them to remember. Even if it isn't our pets. I know Cathy helps her mom from time to time with her pets, so I could add that as well. I figure around the end of each month I’ll print out the next month's calendar.
At 11:30 I got my first customer, and he only purchased an apple juice. I'm guessing it was for a kid. He asked for a cup with a straw for it. Most adults will just drink it out of the bottle, but most kids end up spilling it that way.
Unfortunately I had two customers by noon. Even though they didn't get much it’s still usually enough for me to have to stay open the whole. Unless I get a call from someone asking how busy I was, I won't plan on closing early.
By 1:00 I hadn't even made $10.00, and I didn't see anyone walking around the zoo. I really hoped that I could close early, but I didn't see that happening. None of the brown tags were at their desks. They were all in a meeting. So until they were done with the meeting there would be no one to make a decision on closing.
It was a pretty slow day today, which I figured it would be. The busiest time for me was in the 2-3 o'clock hour. That doesn't surprise me though. I was working on getting precleaning done, and I usually get busier when I'm trying to preclean.
I got home, and plugged my phone in to charge, and there was a message on it. Cathy called to tell me that her supervisor was coming to pick the cat up. So I went and got our food from the pizza shop, and when Cathy got home we started eating. She told me that they were coming around 6:00 to get the cat. They showed up, loaded everything up, and left. They are going to try to force her daughter to take the cat.
Cathy went to her training class, and I started doing my tasks. I hooked up my amateur radio, and tested. In doing so I blew a fuse in it, but found it works with a few problems. I found what is wrong with the mic, and the antenna. So I have to work on fixing them and look for a new fuse. I will probably do that tomorrow. After getting that done, I did a few more things about the apartment, and then watched my TV shows.

Tuesday - 09-29-09, Doing some catching up.

Ok, since I'm currently at work, and don't have internet, I'm not sure what the last thing I posted was. I have posts from several days, but my PDA is giving me problems, so I have to work on fixing them before I can put them online.
I know I haven’t typed anything since 9/25 though, so I'll start with 9/26. I had to work in the morning. Then came home that night to do some cleaning up, and some running. Since there was a Bears game, which they depressingly lost, on Friday we didn't get out shopping done. So we did that, and pretty much didn't do anything else the rest of the night.
On Sunday, 9/27, Cathy went to her mom's, and I stayed home. I did some of my normal tasks in the morning. Then when she got home we ate a quick lunch and headed up to the preseason Bears game. This was a pretty exciting game. It looked like they would win, then it looked like they would lose. It ended up going into overtime, and the Bears pulled out a win.
We noticed that when we got home from the game that some of the names on our cups were starting to rub off more. So Cathy tried something. She covered all the autographs with laminating sheets. I hope that holds the names on.
Now a recap on Monday, 9/28. I was off work, I had requested off, and even though I could have worked I decided I would rather stay home. Cathy called me from work. She told me we are getting the cat now. Her supervisor would be brining it over later that night. SO I had to do a little straightening up. She showed up with the cat at about 6pm. She was there until after 7 saying good bye to it. Cathy told her she can come visit any time she wants to.
Now onto this morning. We got up this morning, and the cat wasn't where it was last night. When we went to bed he was under the bed. We looked and found him under the couch. So we had to try to get him out. We ended up lifting the couch up while I slid under and pulled him out. The first time he knocked my glasses off my face batting at me. We put him in the kitchen to feed him, and he came back in, and ran back under. So we had to get him out again.
Once he was out, and had food he seemed fine under the table in the kitchen. I got scratch out and cleaned his pen and left him run. Once we were done with that we moved the screen so the cat, trouble, could come back in. He stayed out in the kitchen until about 8. Then he snuck in past me and went back behind the couch. When I looked back to see if he was ok, he just hissed at me. SO I guess he's ok.
I got to work this morning to find that the stand wasn't open Sunday or Monday. I know when the park isn't open, if I can't make it in, they usually don't open. But when the park is open they usually have the stand open. But the last day's paperwork that is anywhere around hast Saturday's date on it.
I was expecting to come into a mess, which I did. This is the third week in a row that the stand wasn't cleaned right. So I made a list of what wasn't done, and I will type a PAM, and put it on Harry's desk. I hope he signs it.
Around 11:00 Natalie came down to see if they could get any drinks for the preschool event that runs every Tuesday. I gave her what she wanted. Plus she asked if she could get some carrots, which I gave her. Since they are out dated, I told her that if they wanted them for the animals the zoo could have them. She said they would definitely take them. So we'll see if anyone ever picks them up, or if they get thrown away.
Although I had seen some people walking around, I hadn't had one customer yet at 12:00. I figured that if I didn't have any customers by 1:00 I would call up to the office and see if I could just close early today.
By 12:30 that idea was gone. I got two people who purchased kids meals and fries. So now there was a good chance that I wouldn't close early. Although with Rich power washing the awning over my patio, I don't think I’ll get too many more people.
Rich made a mess on my patio while working on the awning. Although it’s water resistant, when you spray it with a pressure washer, the water comes through. So the whole patio is wet, my condiment table and counters are soaked with dirty water. I'll have to throw away the sugar, salt, and pepper packets. He actually got the main part of it done pretty quickly. Then he moved on to the edge of it.
Sometimes people don't use their brains, and this time Rich was one of them. After getting my entire condiment table soaked, he came to me and told me that he was working on cleaning the awning, and I may want to cover everything. So I went out and covered everything to make him happy.
It took me about 20 minutes, but I got through all the bread that was either moldy or mouse eaten. I figured it wasn't done since I did it a few days ago. And since I wanted to take all the empty bread trays, and soda trays, to Minetown, I figured this would be a good time to go through all the bread. I ended up throwing a lot out. There was a ton that was moldy, and some that was mouse eaten. If they wouldn't have ordered so much the last time I wouldn't have had to throw so much away. But I wasn't the one who did the ordering.
I didn't get another customer until 2:00. And that one only got a pretzel. The lady was a little upset that she got wet from Rich washing the awning, but she saw what he was doing before she walked up. He only had a small section to do at that point. I figured once he was done I would finish with the bread. I didn't want to get wet carrying out the trash bag.
I was a little behind on my precleaning. With Rich doing the awning, that created another mess I had to clean up. Plus, like always, I got some customers. Not a lot, but enough to slow down my precleaning.
I got out around my normal time, got home and looked for trouble (that's the cat's name). I think if I would have known that up front I may have said no to getting it. :) Anyway, he was behind the couch where he was when I left for work. But I noticed that Scratch's fur was all ruffled up, and that Gordina (our baby dragon) was totally black. This means that both are stressed. But I decided to be nice to the cat, and talk to it. What does it do, growl and hiss at me.
So after watching our shows I decided to go get a shower and shave. As I'm finishing up in the bathroom I hear Cathy yelling, and banging on something. I go out to see her on the chair I sit on looking in the corner behind it. I asked what was wrong, and she told me that the cat just backed up to the corner and peed in it. Well we can't have this. So at 10:00 at night we were trying to get him out of the corner, and show him the litter box again.
In doing so he scratched my hand and arm, and tried to bite me. We finally got him out, and I put him in his letter box. He just sat in it hissing at me, and swatting at me. So we decided to lock him off to certain rooms. We moved his liter box to the back hall, and closed off the door to it. We then closed the one bathroom door. This gives him the bathroom, bedroom, and back hall to roam in. It also keeps him from Scratch and Gordina. I just hope he starts to settle down. If not Cathy and I were talking about it, and have decided that if it keeps up he'll have to go....

Friday - 9/25/09, My PDA sucks

I may have lost this morning's stuff already. I'll have to wait until I get home to check it. Anyway, people really drive me nuts. There is the group that brings various mentally challenged people into the zoo. Whenever they are here they always eat from my stand. They usually spend between $75 and $100. So it boosts my sales when they come up. The problem is the chaperones with them are a pain in the butt. They don't read signs. We don't have fries again today, and they ignored my sign saying that. Then when I told them they got mad. Then they ordered 8 hot dogs, and I only had 4 more made, but they take less than 2 minutes in the microwave. Well I guess that was too long of a wait, although I got other things together while they were cooking. I usually don't sell a lot of pretzels, so I only had three in there. I had made 4 and sold one. She wanted all of them, and asked how long it would take for more. I told her about 5 minutes. She didn't want to wait that long. So after she left I made some new ones. I figure she'll be back for more. Then like usual, she had a fit about the total price. They've only eaten hear almost every day for the past two weeks. You would think by now that they would know the prices.
I wish my fryer was working. I got a lot of requests for fries, and could have made a lot more money, but maintenance can't seem to figure it out. A guy was in, and he turned on the fryer. Then he took the hood apart, and concluded what I already knew. The buzzing I heard was just the electronic air filter. What he didn't know was that if you left the fryer on for any length of time it would set the hood alarm off. I told him this, and he didn't believe me. He turned on the fryer, and sure enough, two minutes later the alarm went off. He looked at me, and asked if that was what I meant. I told him it was, and he asked me how to stop it. I told him the only way to do so was to turn off the fryer. Shouldn't he know this, he is the one who was here to fix it. Well, he took the hood apart; banged on a few things, put it back together. Then he turned it on, and yet again the alarm went off. So he turned it off and told me he didn't know how to fix it, and left. That sounds about right for maintenance.
I got home Friday night, and got things ready to go up to the bears game. Once Cathy got home and changed we left. We met Josh and his mom there. It was a rather depressing game. They ended up losing. If this is what they are going to look like all season there is no way we will win the cup this year. One thing to remember though is a lot of them are only here for preseason, and then the Bears will cut them....

Thursday - 9-24-09, Season Ticket Pickup

As the above title indicates, tonight is the Season Ticket Holder's Pickup night for Hershey Bears tickets at the Giant Center. It should be a fun night.
Today started out kind of interesting. I got another call from Cathy. Her supervisor's daughter is going to try taking in the cat. So we may not get a new pet now. If it works out at her daughter's house then they will keep it. If not, then we will be taking it in. So I guess I have to wait and see on that.
I got to work this morning, and there was no one to open the key box for me. So I had to ask Paul to find someone. Brandon from the warehouse got it for me. I also had to let Paul know that I couldn't work on Monday October 4th due to a doctor's appointment. He didn’t seem too happy about it, but he said he would put me down. I'll get two points for calling off five or more days in advance. Then if I bring in a note, I'll get two points taken off, so I’ll end up with zero points for calling off that day.
I got to the stand, and saw that the DOB was wrong again on the register, so I called IT. At about 9:50 the safe still wasn't opened for me, so I called up to the office and Paul said Tony would be out to open it. He got here at about 10:00. So I was open shortly after that. But IT still hadn't changed the DOB on my register. I asked Tony about it, and he said he would call their boss, and have it fixed. I figure if it isn't fixed by the time I get my first customer, I'll just ring them up, and if it messed anything up, oh well.
I got my first customer at about 10:30, and the DOB was still wrong. So I don't know if that will cause problems if IT changes it. But I called them, and Tony said he was going to call them. So I'm sure they know about the problem, they don’t seem to care. They will say they have too much to do for tonight if you ask why they didn't do it.
Today looks like it is going to be a busy day. By 11:00 I already had a small line, but all they wanted were drinks and a few pretzels. I did have one lady that came up and was a little upset with the answer to her question. She asked how to get onto the Monorail, and I told her she could only get on through the park, and that the park wasn't open today. That didn't make her to happy, but there's nothing I can do about it.
People can be really annoying. Around 12:00 I got another small line, which wasn't too bad. The first people in line were a father and his two daughters. They weren't too bad either. They asked for pizzas, and I told them that the pizzas would take about 5 minutes to cook, and they were ok with that. So I put the pizzas in, and got the rest of their order together, and told them I would let them know when they were done. Well the next couple in line were really annoying. They couldn't decide on what they wanted. Finally they ordered a pretzel, and a large soda. This came to $7.10, and the guy threw a five dolor bill on the counter. Like that should pay for it all. So I repeated the total, and the lady was like, "Do you take Discover?" I told her we did, and she snapped, "Then use this, and give me that back," and she threw her discover card on the counter. By this time the timer for the pizza was beeping, and I was trying to get back to it. One of the daughters was here waiting for the pizza.
I finally just had to run back for the pizza and make the next people wait. Well they got upset that I made them wait. But oh well, I didn’t want the pizzas to burn. It turned out that the line of old people were together, and that’s why they didn’t want to wait. Well, next time they should hurry up on deciding what they want.
Around 1:30 the phone rang, it was a rick somebody, from the safety office. He wanted to talk to Marino. I went to check if Marino was in his office, and he wasn't. So Security radioed him, and he said he would call him back. The guy on the phone didn't seem too happy about this, but Marino was out in the parking lot, and there was no way he could get back in quick enough to get the phone.
The day didn’t go too bad from then on. I was able to start my precleaning by 2:00, and by 4:00 I was ready to close. I got up to the office and out pretty quick. I then headed to pick up Josh for the season ticket pickup. He came back to the apartment while I got ready, and waited for Cathy to get home. Once we were all ready we headed up.
He had an extra ticket, which he gave to a friend that met him up there. As soon as we got in, we kind of slip up. His tickets were one way, and ours the other. So we got out tickets, and then decided to go down onto the ice to get some autographs, and ice skate. The only problem was I forgot socks. I had worn sandals. So since Cathy wanted to get the season ticket holders pin, we picketed that up too. It took us about a half hour to get through the gift shop with all the people.
We skated for a while, and got a bunch of autographs. Cathy came up with an idea, and we go a bunch of them to sign out season ticket mug. It was really a good idea. But some of the names started rubbing off a little. I just hope the hold through the season.

Wednesday - 09-23-09, fall begins

Ok, for those who don't know today is the first full day of fall. I had listed that in the post I had typed for yesterday, but I had a problem with my PDA. I was typing everything at work, and it locked up. The only thing I could do to get it to work was a complete system reset, and that caused me to lose all my data that wasn't backed up yet. So I hope that doesn't happen today.
Today started out as a strange day from the start. Cathy left for work, and wasn't' gone all that long when the phone rang and it was her. I answered and she just wanted to remind me to pick up dinner tonight since she had her class. And also to tell me just to order the same thing for next week. So that wasn't all that bad.
So I got on the computer, and started working with my PDA, and got everything back to the latest back up, which was up to date as of yesterday morning. So that wasn't too bad. I only lost three files hat I typed while at work. I really should get in the habit of saving them on the memory card, then I wouldn't lose them. Anyway, the other thing it did which always happens when I have to do a restore, is it duplicated emails, contacts, appointments, and tasks. So now I have to go through everything and delete all the duplicates.
So I was on my way out the door to head to work, and I got a call on my cell phone. It was a Lebanon number, and since Cathy's work number comes up as different Lebanon numbers, I answered it. She was in tears on the other end, and I couldn't understand what she was saying. Finally she calmed down enough to ask me if we could take in a cat. I reminded her we aren't allowed to have pets, and she started crying again. I guess her supervisor's dad is moving somewhere that doesn't allow pets, and said that if he doesn’t find a good home for it he will just put it to sleep. So I told her I guess we could try taking it in, but in the landlord finds out we could be in trouble.
So all this was before I even got to work. I get in, and I see the keys on Harry's desk, and when I get to the stand I find the safe unlocked. Those were both good things, since it didn't slow me down any with setting up. But when I go to clock into the register, I see the DOB is wrong again. So I called IT. For some reason they couldn't get in remotely and the guy had to come out. He fixed the date, but I showed him the sales that were still combined from yesterday, and he said there was nothing he could do about that. There has to be something that can be done, but I'm sure this IT guy just doesn't know how to do it.
So once I got set up, I decided to work on one of the files I lost from yesterday. I was asked by Troy for ideas on how to increase the per cap, and overall revenue of the zoo. So one area I thought of almost immediately was by stopping theft. The file I had done was a list of who ran the cart, and how far they were off by each day. This way I can show potential theft.
Around 10:15 warehouse brought my stock order over. It definitely wasn't what I had ordered. I'm not sure who did up the order that was entered, but they didn't order the right stuff. Now I have to worry that on Friday I will get everything I ordered, and have double of some of the stock. I guess I'll have to wait and see.
By 11:00, I had only seen one family go by. That usually indicates another slow day. If this keeps up, I won't even get full time hours through the end of December like usual.
It was 11:45 before I got my first customer, and she only wanted a small drink. One good thing about the day going slow is I was able to get some things done I wanted to get done. I still had two of the files I Lost to retype. I'll get them done sometime today.
I got a little busier between noon and 1:00, but not much. It’s hard to tell really how busy I was though. The sales from everyday since last Friday are all combined each day and showing as that day's current sales. I did get a few bigger orders though, so that helps bring up the sales. I had one guest that read the sign about not having fries today, and then asked me if the chips in the kids meal were fries or potato chips. Well since we are in the US, and in the US we don't call fries chips, common sense should tell you what they are. But I can't say that to a guest, and had to tell her politely what it was.
I forgot to mention earlier about my fryer not working. When I set it up this morning, and turned it on, the hood kept arcing. After a few minutes of this, the hood alarm went off. I tried several times cleaning it, and putting it back together, but it keeps doing it, so I decided I wouldn't have fries for today. I really wasn’t busy enough to have to worry about it.
By 1:30 I was already starting to preclean. I usually don't start that until 2, but since I wasn't busy I figured it couldn't hurt. Since the fryer wasn't working, that was one less things to have to worry about precleaning. I figured that if sales stayed this slow, I could count the loan box early, and get finished with that too.
I was right, and the sales did stay slow. I was able to get out really quick, and get home on time. I had a lot to get done in a short amount of time. I had to go to the bank, and the post office. Then the library. Then I wanted to get the dishes done up, and some other cleaning done, like Scratch’s pen. While doing all this, I watched Heroes, which I had on tape. I wanted to get all that done before Ghost Hunters came on at 9:00….

Monday - 09-21-09 - The last day of summer

Today is the last official day of summer, and I'm more than ready for it to be over. I had one last fun weekend. We spent all day on Saturday at HersheyPark. It was a really fun time.
My sister, Ang, and her family met Cathy and I at our house around 9:30 that morning. They checked out the animals, then we headed up. We didn't get home until after 10 that night. It was a long day for everyone, but I think over all everyone had a fun time.
Sunday I stayed home from church. I was just too tired to drive up. I did some things I needed to get done around the house, and rested.
Today was a bad day from the start. I came in to find out that somehow they messed up my load box, and it is now $20 over. I guess that's better than being $20 short. Then I got to the stand to find it extremely dirty, and unorganized, which I should have expected. I can't seem to take more than a day off and not come back to a mess. Then I read the log book, and found that there is another register error. It’s not changing the Date of Business (DOB) each morning, and if it was wrong I had to call IT.
Well the DOB was wrong, so I called IT. The guy called back a few minutes later, and he went in remotely, and got it updated. He told me that if it doesn't start updating itself then they will have to put in another new register. The funny thing is they just gave me a new register on Thursday of last week. But if that's what's needed to fix it, then I guess that's what they will have to do.
So after I got off the phone with IT I started setting up, but with all the things that were wrong set up took longer than usual. I was barely ready to go at 10:00 when it was time to open. Once I got the stand open I started doing the needed cleaning I had.
The first thing I did was the back room. I figured I wouldn't be too busy first thing in the morning, and could go back there without missing too many people. I was able to get that done without any known guests. I don't think anyone came up. The next area to work on is the pizza/dish area since that is in the back of the stand.
While doing the pizza/dish area I could tell the zoo was getting a little busier. I got two guests that came up to buy things. The next area I needed to do is also in the back, but its closer to the front area, and I can look really easily for any guests.
I got all the stuff done that required me to be in the back, and it was about lunch. I was going to take my lunch then, but decided I should wait just in case I got any guests over the lunch hour. So instead I started working on cleaning the pretzel oven that wasn't cleaned properly last night.
I was able to get the pretzel oven, and some other needed cleaning done, with only one interruption. So I figured since it didn't look too busy I would eat my lunch. For once I was able to eat without getting a customer. Surprisingly by about 12:15 I was almost done with all the cleaning I could do before closing today.
The end of what I had to do took me until about 1, but that was also with stopping to wait on guests. That gave me about an hour until it was time to start precleaning, and at that point I could clean the rest of what wasn't done last night.
Today turned out to be a slower day then I thought. Although if you looked at the overall day's sales you wouldn't think that. But that's because the register combined yesterday's sales with todays. I decided though since I was so slow, and since no one had ordered fries, that I would close the fryer down early, and clean it good. The hood, and filter, needed cleaned. Since I know they weren't done on Sunday, and most likely weren't done on Saturday either.
While precleaning I got one of those guests that I really hate. I'm the only person here, and I can't be in front of the window at all times. Well, I had a guy come up and was yelling in the window, "Hello, is anyone here!" The thing is I had just checked the window less than a minute before he came up. So he wasn't there all that long. Well, he acted like I had left him standing there for hours. Then while trying to get his order together, he was throwing his money at me. I don't see why people can't wait until I'm ready to take their money instead of trying to force me to take it when I'm not ready to finish the sale.
It was a pretty quick closing, and I got home fairly quick. Surprisingly we went to funks for dinner last night, we haven’t eaten there in a while. I got liver and onions. It’s one of the few times I was able to eat liver, since Cathy doesn’t eat it. We then came home, and just watched TV for the rest of the night. I’m actually waiting for NCIS tomorrow night.

Common Sense - 09-18-09

Ok, today I want to talk about something I saw yesterday. Now I need to start this by saying I don't agree with child molesters, and I think they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Also, I would never wish anything to happen to any child, but shouldn't parents use their common sense with their kids?
Right now there is an RV show going on in Hershey, so that draws people in from all over the country, and in some cases the world. Yesterday there were several parents, mostly mothers, who were here with their children of different ages. The two biggest problems I noticed yesterday were 1. parents not watching their kids, and 2. the way the kids were dressed.
Parents not watching their kids and letting them wonder off to where ever they want to go in a public place like Hershey isn't always safe. I know that the Hershey entertainment complex over 100 cameras hidden throughout it, but I"m sure most parents don't. So if you are letting your child run free and not watching them, someon could grab them and be gone beofre you even notice what happened. To me its just common sense to watch your children, and keep them safe. BUt I guess not alll parents see it that way.
I know there were several times where kids came runnig up the path, and around the corner, which puts them out of the view of their parents. Then in some cases it was as much as ten minutes later until the parents finally come around. I've heard of cases where the parent only turned their back for a few seconds and the child was gone.
The other thing I wanted to talk aobut is the way parents let their children dress these days. Now I know that some kids change clothes after they leave, and the parents don't know about it. But in these cases they parents are with the children. There were kids, some only todlers, that were dressed way inappropriately. When a child has on short skirt, and skimpy tops, that just draws people's attention to it. There was one child yesterday that looked like a preteen that had on shorts that said "hot stuff" on them, and a shirt that said "porn star" on the front. WHAT KIND OF MESSAGE IS THIS SENDING PEOPLE???
If you let your child wear that when you are around, when they get older and start wearing things with out your knowledge, what are they going to wear? Again shouldn't common sense tell you not to let you kids wear stuff like this, and to protect them. If some sicko out there sees this, and decides they are atracted to your child, and they you let run around unsupervised, what is going to happen. Most likely they are going to get attacted.
When this happens is the parent going to take any of the blame? No it will all fall on the sicko how did what they did. Just once I would like to see a court case against both the person who did the crime and the parents. THen maybe parents would wake up.
Common Sense should tell us to protect our children. They are the future of this country. IF we keep letting them do what they want, we are going to destroy our future. Please wake up and help protect your own family, and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same.

Like always please feel free to post any comments you have. I just ask that you use your common sense before posting.

Friday - 09-18-09, A day of questions

I don't know what's going on, but I seem to keep finding that things are missing, and I can't explain it. Lately it's been money. A few weeks ago I notice money missing, and possibly some other stuff, and couldn't figure out why. I thought that maybe I used it and somehow forgot, but I didn't think that was likely.
Now today I went looking for money I had in my backpack, from when I got gas yesterday, and it wasn't there. At least not where I had put it. I haven't gone through the whole backpack, I figure I’ll do that here in a few minutes. I had run out of time at home, and didn't have time yet at work.
Ok, now I feel like a complete idiot, and maybe I did use the other money and forgot. I just looked in my backpack, and found it. It was right where I put it yesterday. I was trying to figure out how this could happen, and I looked closed in the pocket, and found that there is a small whole near the top. So what I think may have happened is the money shifted, and slid into that hole. Then while I was carrying my backpack to work, it must have shifted back out. So at least I have that money. Now if I could only find the other money that seemed to disappear.
About 11:30 today I got a visit from a small group of people. Harry, my brown tag, Adam, one of the area blue tags, Justine, a building blue tag from another stand, and Erica, another building blue tag from another stand. According to Harry he just wanted to "check a few things out" and ask me a question. I don't know why he brought the gang of people with him. They looked at a few things in the stand, wrote down how much bottled soda I had, and then walked down to the cart to check some things out. They were down at my cart for about 10 minutes then headed back out. No one stopped back in, so I guess everything was in order down there.
Around 2:30 Adam, Justine, and Erica came back. They said that they unplugged the serving freezer down at my cart, and were now going to clean it. The strange thing is, the serving freezer used to be unplugged. I unplugged it a few weeks ago, right after I was told the cart closed for the season. So I don't know who plugged it back in. They said they would be back by 4 when I close. But with me I never believe things until I see it.
About ten minutes later Harry came looking for them, and I told him they were all down at cart. He went down looking for them, and they all came up about five minutes later. Adam seemed like himself, but the rest seemed a little strange towards me. I'm wondering if one of them told Harry some of the lies about me, and if he's wondering if they are true.
I got a late lunch rush, but overall it turned out to be a pretty good day. The sales were up in the range they like them to be for this time of year, I didn't get any guest complaints, and I didn't run out of anything. Like usual as the day went on I stopped making things, and if there wasn't anything left then I would have to tell a guest I was out of it. But I got luck and the things that I did run out of, or throw away, weren't ordered.
My Friday night wasn’t too exciting. We had to go grocery shopping, and then came home and watched TV. I intended to go to bed early to go to HersheyPark on Saturday, but that never happened…

Thursday - 9-17-09

Well today started pretty well normal. I needed to leave for work early so I could stop for gas, and still get there early enough to change the oil in the fryer.
Cleaning the fryer went smoothly while setting up the rest of the stand. I was almost finished when I noticed an error message on my register. This is the third time I’ve seen the same error, and the fourth time I’ve heard of it coming up. So I called up to vault, who in turn calls IT. I told vault what it was doing, they radioed IT, and IT called me. I told him what it was doing, and he said he would fix it from his end. I knew he couldn't, the last three times they had to come over. Eventually he figured this out and said he would come down to fix it.
Based on what it’s doing, I’m almost positive the hard drive is going bad. Another thing that makes me think that is the problem started after a lightning storm, and we think the register got hit indirectly. But since I’m not part of IT they won't listen to me. The funny thing is I have more schooling in computers, and more knowledge, then most of the IT department.
So the zoo, and my stand, opens at 10am, and what time does IT show up, 10:45. Luckily this time of year I don't get all that busy. Then what does he tell me, he has to take the hard drive back with him to the office to look at it. He thinks it maybe have gone bad. That's only what I've been saying since the first time we got the error message. So he gave me a temporary credit card machine, and said I would have to do all the sales manually. It’s a good thing that I took the time to type up a price list, and have it on my PDA. I've only asked three or four times over the summer for them to type one up for me, and it never got done.
So, no sign of IT during my rush when the rain started. He came back around 1:45. He put the hard drive back in, and rebooted the register. It got a little further, but wouldn't boot to window, it just kept rebooting. So he called someone, I think the one person who works in IT that actually knows something about computers, and after talking to him for a while, decided that the whole register terminal was bad, and that he had to take it. So he unhooked everything and asked me if I could help him carry it out to his car, and I did, and he said he would be back in a few minutes with a working register.
Well, IT didn’t make it back until 4pm, which is when I close. So I was counting my money when he came in to hook up the new register. So I had to wait for him to finish, and then ring all my sales into the register, and print all my reading out. For running the whole day by hand, and tax being figured differently, I was only .21 off. So that’s pretty good.
After work we ran to Bob Evans for dinner. I kind of knew we would do that. There was a commercial on the other day, and usually when they have commercials on for something like that it makes Cathy hungry for it, and we go. After we got home, I cleaned the aquarium, which needed done for a few days now, but it was the first time I had the chance to do it….

Common Sense - 09-16-09

Ok, today I want to talk about a few things I've heard recently. It deals with Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst to the President.
First let me say I think how he responded may not have been the best option at the time, but at least he spoke his mind. Don't we have freedom of speak in the US? If at the time he honestly thought Obama was lieing, then he had every right to say so. But what has happened since then? Now he's a racist.
I have no problem with a black man running this country, but already the problems are starting. As soon as you disagree with him, you are a racist. Why is this? I mean throughout history, while we had white presidents, you could speak your mind and not have to worry about being called a racist. Should common sense tell you that we will do the same thing with a black president?
Now as you may have noticed I've said "black" everytime. I don't agree with the whole political correctness of "African-American", or "Anything-American" for that matter. If you are living here, you are an AMERICAN. If you want to put another country in front of it, then move to that country, because you are saying that one is better. I have no problems with people wanting to express their haritage, but still call yourself an American, and only and american.
I know after I post this blog, and some people read it, I'll be called a racist myself. Well if you want to think that about me, then you don't know me. I could care less what race you are, or what your background is. I only care about how you treat me, and how you treat our country. So use your common sense and think about what you say before you start calling me names.

Wednesday - 9-16-09 - The RV show begins, what will it bring?

Today is the first day of the RV show in Hershey. They are holding it over at the Giant Center. They've been setting it up for almost a week now, with different RV dealers showing up daily. According to the ads it’s the largest RV show in the US.
Today coming into work traffic was heavier than normal. I didn't really think too much about traffic this morning when I left for work. Luckily I got here on time.
When I got in Harry said he would be over to open my safe, and I knew he would eventually. While I was setting up though one of the workers for the zoo came down to get an Icee. Luckily Harry had perfect timing. He showed up just as I was ringing in the order, so I was able to get change out of the safe, which was a good thing.
I guess the RV show has us a little busier. Right at 10:00 there are people in the zoo, and they looked at my menu. Usually I don't see anyone until closer to 11:00.
The people I work with amaze me. The zoo is open almost year round, basically only closing for some holidays and bad weather. When it’s open you can't drive vehicles into the zoo, unless you get permission and have security escort you to you location. So what does the warehouse do? They deliver my stock at 10:30. What is the problem with this, they drove the truck down to the stand. When he was questioned by security the guy's response was, "I didn't know the zoo was open when the park wasn't." It’s only been this way for about 100 years now, but I guess to him that's something new. So he unloaded my stock and left quickly to get security "off his back."
After I put stock away, and looked at what I had, I saw that whoever worked on Sunday didn't do their jobs right when doing orders. It was a little better than last week, but not much. So I did up the correct orders to give to Harry when I leave.
I don't know if it’s the RV show or not, but today seems like it’s a busier day than usual. By 11:30 I’ve made almost enough to make it worth having me here all day. If that trend keeps up, it will turn out to be a really good day. One thing that always brings customers in is me trying to eat my lunch. I was only about a third of the way through my popcorn chicken salad from Sonic when I got customers. The funny thing is not all the customers were zoo guests. I also got employees. At least with one employee he helps himself. I'll get him anything that requires gloves, but he'll get his own soda, and chips, and things like that. That really helps me out, especially when I want to get back to eating my own lunch.
There was a representative from Dippin' Dots in today, and he was upset. I guess he stopped in at the foods office and said he was here to inspect all the Dippin' Dots stands, and was told to just walk around the park and let them know when he was done. Well he made his way over here to the zoo, and couldn't find my cart, so I told him how to get to it. He came back about 10 minutes later and asked where our storage freezer was, I told him it was in the shed behind the cart. He insisted he didn't see a shed. I don't know how you can miss it, it’s a big blue wooden shed. Well he mumbled something about hating this park, and walked back down. I guess he found it, when he came back up he just walked by me and headed back out of the zoo.
I love some of the things guest come up and say. There was a lady that asked if I could get a hold of one of the zoo people. She said her grandson dropped his cup into the duck area. I asked her where it was, and she said, "down there with the ducks." Well the ducks walk around wild, so that could have been almost anywhere. So I called up to the admissions building and asked them to call one of the naturalists, which they did. Dale came down, and she said the same thing to him. So he walked down the path to look for it. He found it, but I didn't get a chance to ask where it was.
Then she wanted to order food for her and her grandkids. Well, she wanted two kids meals, which some with chips or carrots, and a drink. Well she asked if she could get one small order of fries instead of the two chips. So I figured I could do that, and just ring up a soda refill to make up the difference. But then she asked to get icees to drink instead of the soda. Again, over the summer when we did this we would ring up a refill to make up the difference. So that's what I did for that too. Well when I told her the total she had a fit about the price, but I told her up front that I would have to add some on for the upgrades.
Then I got one of my normal groups in. It’s a group of mentally challenged adults. They are usually I with a chaperone or two, or in this case three. They almost always eat from me, and I know when they do they will spend almost $100. It really helps boost my sales for the day. As often as they are in, and with as much as they usually buy, I wish I would give them a discount, but I'll get in trouble if I do.
I'm not sure what's going on the last few days. Yesterday there were a ton of brown tags walking around the zoo, and now today there are a ton again. Yesterday I don't think I recognized any of them, but today I do recognize some of them. One is Harry, who is now my area brown tag. There were two other ones that I recognized, but I can't figure out what department they work in. I'm thinking the one is merchandise, but I'm not sure. And the other one I think maybe security, but again I'm not sure. I'm guessing they are having meeting about what we are going to do next year, but I don’t know for sure.
Closing didn’t go too bad, and I was able to get out of work really early. That was good because I had to pick dinner up from the pizza shop. When I got there, about 5 minutes early, he wasn’t quite ready with it yet, but he was working on getting it done for us. So that was a good thing. After dinner, and Cathy left for her training, I ran some errands I had to do. After doing them I decided to try to find another GeoCache, and got luck and found one. That’s two that I’m up to now. :) After that it was just watching TV until I went to bed. Ghost Hunters did catch some good evidence on their one investigation…

Common Sense - 09-15-09

Ok, yesterday's common sense post was one that was a little personal to me, but if we can change things that are personal, eventually we will start changing things that are national, and maybe global. Today I want to talk about something that effects the whole state of PA, and that is the budget that hasn’t been passed.
I had heard this back when the budget was about to expire, and did some research since then. Gov. Rendell has yet to pass a budget on time since he's been in office. Something is wrong with that picture. How can Rendell and the other law makers get away with not doing their jobs, and still have a job? My answer is THEY SHOULDN'T......
We are now about 76 days into this whole mess, and from what they are talking about on the news, they are nowhere near passing a budget. So what happens as the budget runs out, and a new one isn't passed? Well one of the things they cut is the state workers pays, and eventually they don't get a pay at all. Is this right? I say no.
Who should lose their pays? In my opinion it should be the Governor and the law makers who aren't passing the budget. But that doesn't happen. As they argue about it, and threaten to take money from areas that it's needed, they still get paid. A way to solve this is to have a simply law passed. Give them say 30 days from when the budget runs out to pass a new one. If they don't have it passed by then, then the governor and the law makers don’t' get paid until it is. Trust me, you take away their money, and they will pass a budget really quick.
But if Rendell can't do his job why does he keep getting reelected? I really think its because he has people scared of him. I say enough is enough. I don't know if there is a better candidate out there, but we at least have to start by getting him out of office. Then maybe a budget can get passed on time.
Now let’s take this nationally. If the local law makers can't agree on how to spend out tax dollars, how can we expect the national law makers to do it. Its time we start getting people out of office that aren't doing their jobs, and try to get people in who will. The problem with that is they all lie. They will tell you what you want to hear to elect them, but once in office they will do what is best for them.
How about this. I've worked at several jobs where there was a probationary period. So when you campaign you tell me what you are going to do, and you have so long to prove it. If by the end of a probationary period you haven't at least honestly pushed to do what you promised then you are booted out of office.
How could this be done? Well we would just have to hold a few extra elections. When the end of the time period is nearing we hold an election. What happens here is people vote on either keeping the person who's in office, or electing the person that ran against them. If more then two ran in the election, then you are voting for either the one in office or the one who got the 2nd largest amount of votes. I really think this would motivate people to be more honest and do what they say.
So how can we change things? Well I say e-mail and write the law makers. Information on how to do this can be found here:
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=3014&mode=2
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/
http://www.governor.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/governor%27s_web_site/2985

Like all my common sense posts, I am asking you to read them, think about them, and if you feel like it comment on them. Everything here is open to discussion.