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.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
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....
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, September 25, 2009
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....
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, September 24, 2009
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.
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, September 23, 2009
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….
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, September 21, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, September 18, 2009
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.
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…
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, September 17, 2009
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….
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….
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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.
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…
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…
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday - 9-15-09, what will the day bring.
Ok, most of yesterday's post I typed while I was at work, then just transferred it over. That is how I am going to do today's too. I know I didn't talk about what I did after work, but there wasn't much to say about. I went home, we went out to eat at Applebee's, and then went back home to watch TV.
Let’s see what all is going on so far today... Scratch seems to be slowly getting back to his self. I think he will be ok. The baby dragon is doing ok again this morning. I tried last night not turning the heating pad on, and her cage stayed in the upper 70's on the "hot" side. So that wasn't too bad... We had the window out there closed, tonight I think I'm going to leave the window open a little and see what happens.
When I got to work this morning I was surprised. I saw Tony's SUV was parked by the foods office, but he wasn't in his office. Usually that means I have to have someone call around to get the key cabinet opened so I can get my keys. But he thought of that, and opened it and gave the keys to Paul. So that solved that problem. Plus Paul told me that my safe was already open too. So that was another thing taken care of.
When I walked into Harry's office, I noticed something on his desk that I maybe shouldn't have looked at, but did. It was the outstanding employees for this month. They really don't make sense to me... The one is to a green tag (that's team leader in a stand) who already termed for the season. The second one was for a green tag that will admit she's best friends with the one of the area blue tags. So that makes me thing, and I'm sure other people too, that she only got it because of who she's friends with. Then there was a red tag (that's a team leader in training) who only has a week left. The last one was too a normal employee who I've worked with, and she is a very annoying employee, and I really don't think she deserves it. But since I shouldn't have noticed them, I can't say anything to anyone here at work.
Since I closed last night, I knew what the stand would look like, and knew I wouldn't have to reclean anything. So on my way into the stand I stopped by a few other stands. I picked up some things I needed, like daily communication logs sheets and filter papers for my fryer. I know one day this week I have to come early though so I can change the oil in my fryer and clean it out really good. So I got my stand setup, and ready to go, and that brings me up to where I started typing this. So for now I'll pause, and I'll type some more a little later.
So far today is turning out to be a slow day. I've had a few customers, but there really aren't too many guests at the zoo. I just looked at sales, and although I won't give numbers, I'll just say I didn't make enough money to cover the change I had to open... I really hope today picks up. It still could, there are people setting up for the RV show, and they usually look for things to do. I know last year when it was starting I got busy. Once people were setup, they went around Hershey and the surrounding area looking for things to do.
Well, I did get a pretty good lunch rush, but I don't know if it was due to the RV show, or not. I was told about a pre-school event they are doing every Tuesday. There is one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. So that could be what was bringing people in.
One thing I wish they would change is the direction signs. There is one down the path from me that has the bathrooms listed on it. The problem is it points straight ahead. The only thing straight ahead is my stand. You have to go up the path that branches off to get to them. One set is to the left, the other to the right. If it was up to me, I would have it show a curving Y arrow so people know to go either direction. The way it is now they come up to my stand to ask where the closest bathroom is, and I have to give them directions.
The afternoon didn’t go too bad. The business really slowed down. I was able to get all the precleaning done so I could get out on time. I got home and found out that we had to take Cathy’s mom’s cat up to the vet. It hasn’t been going to the bathroom lately, and when it does it really cries. Its currently on medication for a urinary tract infection, but the vet said it would have some kidney stones, so he wanted to check it out. He couldn’t find anything wrong with it, so he just said to keep giving it its medicine, and get food that is for urinary tract health. So I guess it will be ok.
After getting home from that I had to try to work on my motorcycle. I can’t get the gas cap open. I’m thinking all the dew in the morning caused it to rust, and I’m going to have to try to get it broken open. I coated it with WD40, but so far it won’t open.
If you didn’t watch Big Brother, and you are planning on it, I would advise not reading this paragraph. I was really happy about the outcome. Jordan won the final stage of HOH, and then she sent Kevin out of the house. So it was her and Natalie as the final two. The votes came in, and she won 5-2. So that was good. I really didn’t want Natalie winning… Well that was my day, and I’m hoping tomorrow is another good one…
Let’s see what all is going on so far today... Scratch seems to be slowly getting back to his self. I think he will be ok. The baby dragon is doing ok again this morning. I tried last night not turning the heating pad on, and her cage stayed in the upper 70's on the "hot" side. So that wasn't too bad... We had the window out there closed, tonight I think I'm going to leave the window open a little and see what happens.
When I got to work this morning I was surprised. I saw Tony's SUV was parked by the foods office, but he wasn't in his office. Usually that means I have to have someone call around to get the key cabinet opened so I can get my keys. But he thought of that, and opened it and gave the keys to Paul. So that solved that problem. Plus Paul told me that my safe was already open too. So that was another thing taken care of.
When I walked into Harry's office, I noticed something on his desk that I maybe shouldn't have looked at, but did. It was the outstanding employees for this month. They really don't make sense to me... The one is to a green tag (that's team leader in a stand) who already termed for the season. The second one was for a green tag that will admit she's best friends with the one of the area blue tags. So that makes me thing, and I'm sure other people too, that she only got it because of who she's friends with. Then there was a red tag (that's a team leader in training) who only has a week left. The last one was too a normal employee who I've worked with, and she is a very annoying employee, and I really don't think she deserves it. But since I shouldn't have noticed them, I can't say anything to anyone here at work.
Since I closed last night, I knew what the stand would look like, and knew I wouldn't have to reclean anything. So on my way into the stand I stopped by a few other stands. I picked up some things I needed, like daily communication logs sheets and filter papers for my fryer. I know one day this week I have to come early though so I can change the oil in my fryer and clean it out really good. So I got my stand setup, and ready to go, and that brings me up to where I started typing this. So for now I'll pause, and I'll type some more a little later.
So far today is turning out to be a slow day. I've had a few customers, but there really aren't too many guests at the zoo. I just looked at sales, and although I won't give numbers, I'll just say I didn't make enough money to cover the change I had to open... I really hope today picks up. It still could, there are people setting up for the RV show, and they usually look for things to do. I know last year when it was starting I got busy. Once people were setup, they went around Hershey and the surrounding area looking for things to do.
Well, I did get a pretty good lunch rush, but I don't know if it was due to the RV show, or not. I was told about a pre-school event they are doing every Tuesday. There is one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. So that could be what was bringing people in.
One thing I wish they would change is the direction signs. There is one down the path from me that has the bathrooms listed on it. The problem is it points straight ahead. The only thing straight ahead is my stand. You have to go up the path that branches off to get to them. One set is to the left, the other to the right. If it was up to me, I would have it show a curving Y arrow so people know to go either direction. The way it is now they come up to my stand to ask where the closest bathroom is, and I have to give them directions.
The afternoon didn’t go too bad. The business really slowed down. I was able to get all the precleaning done so I could get out on time. I got home and found out that we had to take Cathy’s mom’s cat up to the vet. It hasn’t been going to the bathroom lately, and when it does it really cries. Its currently on medication for a urinary tract infection, but the vet said it would have some kidney stones, so he wanted to check it out. He couldn’t find anything wrong with it, so he just said to keep giving it its medicine, and get food that is for urinary tract health. So I guess it will be ok.
After getting home from that I had to try to work on my motorcycle. I can’t get the gas cap open. I’m thinking all the dew in the morning caused it to rust, and I’m going to have to try to get it broken open. I coated it with WD40, but so far it won’t open.
If you didn’t watch Big Brother, and you are planning on it, I would advise not reading this paragraph. I was really happy about the outcome. Jordan won the final stage of HOH, and then she sent Kevin out of the house. So it was her and Natalie as the final two. The votes came in, and she won 5-2. So that was good. I really didn’t want Natalie winning… Well that was my day, and I’m hoping tomorrow is another good one…
Monday, September 14, 2009
Common Sense - 09-14-09
Ok, This is a new type of blog that I'm going to start posting. As I have time I will be typing these and hoping people read them. If you do read it, please leave your comments. I would like to debate the issues. I intend to start locally, but I will address things on a national level as needed.
This part of my blog was inspired by Glenn Beck's book "Glenn Beck's Common Sense". http://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Becks-Common-Sense-Control/dp/1439168571/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253016089&sr=8-1 Its my way of speaking out about things that just don't make sense to me, and trying to change what I can. It I can get enough people on my side, then maybe we can change things locally, and nationally.
Not everything I post under the common sense blogs will be "political", but most of it will be. There are a few "non-political" things that I would like to address from time to time too that just don't seem to make sense. I'm going to start my blog with one of the non-political ideas.
This deals with the powers in charge of a local business, the Giant Center in Hershey PA. This is run by a division of HERCO, and like most things in HERCO, its not run the best. I've been a huge Hershey Bears fan for years, and I've gone to a lot of games. Every year they run team autograph nights. These nights just aren't run properly at all.
Over the last few years, as the Bears keep doing good, the number of fans attending the games keeps increasing. Due to this more and more fans want to get the autographs of the players. Hershey advertises that they will open two sections to enter the ice, but never do. Then once everyone is down on the ice, you have to form lines at each player, and wait in those lines. This just doesn't make sense. There is no way for anyone to get every player's autograph. What are some common sense things to do?
Well, open one path to get on the ice, and one to get off. Then have everyone form a line, and head down to the ice. Once on the ice you just keep in that line and follow it around the ice to each player. This ONE line would move a lot faster then a ton of jumbled lines going back and forth on the ice. I know that there is a good chance that if you are at the back of the line you may not get the autographs, but that is a chance fans would have to take.
Another thing that would make sense, at least to me, is when time runs out. Right now with all the small lines, once time runs out people are cut off, and forced off the ice. If they formed one line, and it went around to all players, you could cut that line off when it was time, and let everyone on the ice finish getting autographs. If you want the player to be done on time then you could also cut the line coming onto the ice off a little earlier.
If you agree with the ideas I have listed above, and you would like to help change this, please visit a website I have set up with a petition on it. By electronicly signing the petition you are letting the managers of HERCO know that you agree that things need to change.. http://bearspetition.t35.com/
Now I can't post this blog without putting anything political into it. So for today just think of this, are the politicions doing what's in your best interest? If not contact them and tell them. Will they listen to just one, probably not, but if enough people complain they will be forced to listen.
Do you think the politicions are doing what is best for our country, and our national debt? I don't, if you don't then again please contact them. If we all bana together and make our voices heard they will have no choice but to listen to us.
Until my next post, please use your common sense in every decision you make....
This part of my blog was inspired by Glenn Beck's book "Glenn Beck's Common Sense". http://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Becks-Common-Sense-Control/dp/1439168571/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253016089&sr=8-1 Its my way of speaking out about things that just don't make sense to me, and trying to change what I can. It I can get enough people on my side, then maybe we can change things locally, and nationally.
Not everything I post under the common sense blogs will be "political", but most of it will be. There are a few "non-political" things that I would like to address from time to time too that just don't seem to make sense. I'm going to start my blog with one of the non-political ideas.
This deals with the powers in charge of a local business, the Giant Center in Hershey PA. This is run by a division of HERCO, and like most things in HERCO, its not run the best. I've been a huge Hershey Bears fan for years, and I've gone to a lot of games. Every year they run team autograph nights. These nights just aren't run properly at all.
Over the last few years, as the Bears keep doing good, the number of fans attending the games keeps increasing. Due to this more and more fans want to get the autographs of the players. Hershey advertises that they will open two sections to enter the ice, but never do. Then once everyone is down on the ice, you have to form lines at each player, and wait in those lines. This just doesn't make sense. There is no way for anyone to get every player's autograph. What are some common sense things to do?
Well, open one path to get on the ice, and one to get off. Then have everyone form a line, and head down to the ice. Once on the ice you just keep in that line and follow it around the ice to each player. This ONE line would move a lot faster then a ton of jumbled lines going back and forth on the ice. I know that there is a good chance that if you are at the back of the line you may not get the autographs, but that is a chance fans would have to take.
Another thing that would make sense, at least to me, is when time runs out. Right now with all the small lines, once time runs out people are cut off, and forced off the ice. If they formed one line, and it went around to all players, you could cut that line off when it was time, and let everyone on the ice finish getting autographs. If you want the player to be done on time then you could also cut the line coming onto the ice off a little earlier.
If you agree with the ideas I have listed above, and you would like to help change this, please visit a website I have set up with a petition on it. By electronicly signing the petition you are letting the managers of HERCO know that you agree that things need to change.. http://bearspetition.t35.com/
Now I can't post this blog without putting anything political into it. So for today just think of this, are the politicions doing what's in your best interest? If not contact them and tell them. Will they listen to just one, probably not, but if enough people complain they will be forced to listen.
Do you think the politicions are doing what is best for our country, and our national debt? I don't, if you don't then again please contact them. If we all bana together and make our voices heard they will have no choice but to listen to us.
Until my next post, please use your common sense in every decision you make....
Monday 9-14-09, catching up from a long time of posting.
Ok, I know I havne't posted in a while again, and I hope to start changing that again. I guess I"ll catch some things up from the last couple of days, and then get into what's going on today.
Monday, 9-07-09, was the last week day that HersheyPark was open. So now on weekdays business isn't as bad. The people that come to just the zoo tend to be nicer people. Due to the weather last week it wasn't too busy of a week for me. On Friday I closed after just a few hours because there were no guest in the zoo.
Saturday, 9-12-09, we went to the PA Ren Faire. Even though it rained we had a fun day. Cathy and I invited Josh with. I guess he had fun, he seemed to. We saw several of the shows, and watched the jousts. We usually miss the jousts due to wanting to watch other shows, but what we like to see wasn't there this year. While walking around we stopped by the "Baby Dragon" stand, and Cathy decided to purchase a baby dragon. They are actually nice little lizards. According to the paper they are green anoles. They said they could baby sit it for us, and we could pick it up at the end of the day, which we did. Cathy also got her beer jug refilled, and picked that up on our way out too.
On Sunday, 9-13-09, I stayed home from church. I wanted to rest from Saturday, and get some things done around the house. Like I usually do on Sundays, I went to do my wash, and a few other chores. I dod get my 2 meter radio hooked up so I can use it from the attic. I want to get it set up in my car too, but I need to get a new mic for it. I can't send the tones needed to access the IRLP, which I like to use. Then once Cathy got home from her parents we went to get stuff for the baby dragon.
We had an old aquarium in the attic, so we planned on using that. We needed to get a screen cover for it, a small heater(to get one side a little warmer then the other), a heat/UV lamp, and of course dirt and decorations. We covered the bottom with about an inch of gravel, then wet it(to keep the plant roots wet). Then we added about an inch of dirt at the low end, and aobut three to four inches of dirt at the high end. Plus on the high end we put the plants in for the baby dragon to craw on. We also gave her a small half log to craw on, the bamboo from her original cage, and her sea shell from the original cage. We then decided to add a litte more color we would put the green gravel that was in the original cage in for her too.
So after we got it all set up we monitored the temperature and humidity until we were ready to go to bed, and found that with the heater on, and the light on, it stayed in the range that is good for them. The humidity was a little low, but that can be fixed just by misting the cage. Over night the cage isn't getting quite as cold as I've read it should on the internet, but over the next few days I'm sure we can get all that worked out.
One problem I did find is that our ferret seems to be getting jealous. From the time when we started setting up the baby dragon cage, until we went to bed last night, he just wasn't acting himself. If we got him out of his cage, and let him run, or played with him, he seemed fine. As soon as we put him back in he would just lay there and stare at us like he was depressed. And again this morning he kept doing the same thing. I really think he's jealous of our new pet.
Well now onto today. A little of today was mentioned talking about Scratch, our ferret, and the baby dragon. But that was only the first few hours. After checking the baby dragon's cage, and making sure everything was ok, we decided to feed her. We have live crickets for her. We dropped three in, we were only trying to put two in, but a third on fell out of the tube. So we just left them in. She went after two of them and ate them. After getting her fed, I did up scratch's pen, and left him run. Before leaving for work I checked on them and Scratch was acting depressed, and I noticed that the baby dragon seemed to be browner then usual. So I looked that up quickly.
According to the internet they get brown when they are upset/depressed. So that now makes it look like I have two depressed pets. I wasn't sure what to do. I talked to Scratch, and that cheared him up, but I don't know to chear up a lizzard. I did mist her cage again, and that seemed to help some.
When I got to work this morning, I found that things weren't cleaned properly last night. That's one problem with the park being open weekends, and me being off. I know I"m coming in to a mess. I ended up spending most of the time opening just cleaning up what wasn't done last night. There are somethings that I figure I'll clean when I do my end of the night cleaning, since they will just get dirty again throughout the day.
I kind of forgot, but didn't, that Harry was taking over today as our area brown tag. I really think him taking over will be good for the area. There is a lot I want to ask him about, and see if I can get a lot fixed, but I want to give him some time to get settled in. He did come over to unlock my safe, and he asked if I needed anything, and I wanted to tell him everything we needed, but I didn't. I figured that would scare him off. I just have to make sure that I remember everything over the next few months. I figure I'll make a list of what needs done, and then order it by importance, and then start asking him about it.
I guess today was an ok day of work. I did get a small lunch rush, and between that and the other customers, I think it was enough to pay for me being here. Like most days when I"m working by myself, when I took my lunch I had to server some guests in between eating, but I"m used to that now.
Since there was so much left from yesterday for me to do, I figured I should start my precleaning early. Like most days, while I was precleaning I got a little busy. But over all it wasn't too bad, and the precleaning went really good.
Monday, 9-07-09, was the last week day that HersheyPark was open. So now on weekdays business isn't as bad. The people that come to just the zoo tend to be nicer people. Due to the weather last week it wasn't too busy of a week for me. On Friday I closed after just a few hours because there were no guest in the zoo.
Saturday, 9-12-09, we went to the PA Ren Faire. Even though it rained we had a fun day. Cathy and I invited Josh with. I guess he had fun, he seemed to. We saw several of the shows, and watched the jousts. We usually miss the jousts due to wanting to watch other shows, but what we like to see wasn't there this year. While walking around we stopped by the "Baby Dragon" stand, and Cathy decided to purchase a baby dragon. They are actually nice little lizards. According to the paper they are green anoles. They said they could baby sit it for us, and we could pick it up at the end of the day, which we did. Cathy also got her beer jug refilled, and picked that up on our way out too.
On Sunday, 9-13-09, I stayed home from church. I wanted to rest from Saturday, and get some things done around the house. Like I usually do on Sundays, I went to do my wash, and a few other chores. I dod get my 2 meter radio hooked up so I can use it from the attic. I want to get it set up in my car too, but I need to get a new mic for it. I can't send the tones needed to access the IRLP, which I like to use. Then once Cathy got home from her parents we went to get stuff for the baby dragon.
We had an old aquarium in the attic, so we planned on using that. We needed to get a screen cover for it, a small heater(to get one side a little warmer then the other), a heat/UV lamp, and of course dirt and decorations. We covered the bottom with about an inch of gravel, then wet it(to keep the plant roots wet). Then we added about an inch of dirt at the low end, and aobut three to four inches of dirt at the high end. Plus on the high end we put the plants in for the baby dragon to craw on. We also gave her a small half log to craw on, the bamboo from her original cage, and her sea shell from the original cage. We then decided to add a litte more color we would put the green gravel that was in the original cage in for her too.
So after we got it all set up we monitored the temperature and humidity until we were ready to go to bed, and found that with the heater on, and the light on, it stayed in the range that is good for them. The humidity was a little low, but that can be fixed just by misting the cage. Over night the cage isn't getting quite as cold as I've read it should on the internet, but over the next few days I'm sure we can get all that worked out.
One problem I did find is that our ferret seems to be getting jealous. From the time when we started setting up the baby dragon cage, until we went to bed last night, he just wasn't acting himself. If we got him out of his cage, and let him run, or played with him, he seemed fine. As soon as we put him back in he would just lay there and stare at us like he was depressed. And again this morning he kept doing the same thing. I really think he's jealous of our new pet.
Well now onto today. A little of today was mentioned talking about Scratch, our ferret, and the baby dragon. But that was only the first few hours. After checking the baby dragon's cage, and making sure everything was ok, we decided to feed her. We have live crickets for her. We dropped three in, we were only trying to put two in, but a third on fell out of the tube. So we just left them in. She went after two of them and ate them. After getting her fed, I did up scratch's pen, and left him run. Before leaving for work I checked on them and Scratch was acting depressed, and I noticed that the baby dragon seemed to be browner then usual. So I looked that up quickly.
According to the internet they get brown when they are upset/depressed. So that now makes it look like I have two depressed pets. I wasn't sure what to do. I talked to Scratch, and that cheared him up, but I don't know to chear up a lizzard. I did mist her cage again, and that seemed to help some.
When I got to work this morning, I found that things weren't cleaned properly last night. That's one problem with the park being open weekends, and me being off. I know I"m coming in to a mess. I ended up spending most of the time opening just cleaning up what wasn't done last night. There are somethings that I figure I'll clean when I do my end of the night cleaning, since they will just get dirty again throughout the day.
I kind of forgot, but didn't, that Harry was taking over today as our area brown tag. I really think him taking over will be good for the area. There is a lot I want to ask him about, and see if I can get a lot fixed, but I want to give him some time to get settled in. He did come over to unlock my safe, and he asked if I needed anything, and I wanted to tell him everything we needed, but I didn't. I figured that would scare him off. I just have to make sure that I remember everything over the next few months. I figure I'll make a list of what needs done, and then order it by importance, and then start asking him about it.
I guess today was an ok day of work. I did get a small lunch rush, and between that and the other customers, I think it was enough to pay for me being here. Like most days when I"m working by myself, when I took my lunch I had to server some guests in between eating, but I"m used to that now.
Since there was so much left from yesterday for me to do, I figured I should start my precleaning early. Like most days, while I was precleaning I got a little busy. But over all it wasn't too bad, and the precleaning went really good.
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