Dang It!

Dang it again!  I forgot to do Thanksvember yesterday.  I told you this would happen.  I guess the time change has gotten my mind messed up, so you get it today. 

Thanksvember Sixth:  I know it sounds weird to most of you, but I'm thankful to go back to standard time.  I like the early sunsets.  

I love being able to shut down and snuggle down with a movie and knitting, or a good book, without feeling obligated to be staying busy.  Sunsets are my off switch.   So to speak.

Now, on to today's post. 

Yesterday's post was short, because I didn't have a whole lot to talk about.  Today's post will make up for that.  It all started...well, it all started about a year ago when the plant announced that we'd be required to wear steel toed shoes.  Honestly, it's been Lennox policy for ages, but our plant has managed to stay under the radar all this time.  Somehow, Lennox found out and is now enforcing the policy.  Starting January 1, 2024, we will all be required to wear steel toed safety shoes. 

A couple of weeks ago, the plant posted that the shoe truck will be coming by, or we could buy our own approved shoes and they'd give us a $100 credit towards those shoes.  Since I'd already been wearing steel toed boots, I'd planned on re-ordering the ones I already had and just submitting the receipt.  However, when I got to work yesterday,  they'd posted that in order to get the credit, we'd have to buy our shoes off the truck.  Well, bummer. 

Today, when I got to work, there was nothing ready for me to braze, so I decided it would be a good time to go see what they had on the shoe truck.  Wanting to do the right thing, I went and told Supervisor I was going to go to the shoe truck.  He told me to go tell Group Leader Shark.  Which is what I did, and she told me to go tell Supervisor.

"He told me to come tell you," I replied. 

Now, I don't know what the background story with that was, but she went off.  "Oh no, he is not going to put this on me!" she exclaimed.  For a start.  In the midst of all her ranting and raving, I got the story that Cuz had been complaining about people going to the shoe truck too early in the day, and he wanted us to come in early instead.  I'd originally planned on going after work, but changed my mind when I saw I'd be standing around waiting for something to do. 

"I didn't know any of that," I told Group Leader Shark. "I just thought it'd be a good time to go because there's no work."  She said I should have just told her I needed to go to my car, then gone to the boot truck.  I turned around and walked back towards my stand, and after I'd taken about ten steps, I called back, "Group Leader Shark, I need to go to my car!"  I got my keys, and conspicuously twirled them around my finger as I walked down the aisle, and once I got outside, went straight to the shoe truck. 

Which brings me to Thanksvember Seventh.  The shoe truck had the exact same boots I've been wearing for the last two years, and in my size, too.   

Hey, the Bible says to be thankful in all things, not just the big things.  

I got my shoes, put them in my car, and went back to work.

Shortly after I got back to my brazing stand, Group Leader Shark came around and told us we had an insurance meeting.  I mean, it was no big deal.  We do this every year.  It was just a meeting to tell us what changes have been made and what's new, etc. etc.  At the end of the meeting, the guy leading it said, "We've got some free swag.  Come up and get you some."  

They had t-shirts, lunch bags, pop-its for your phone, tape measures, and....

insulated tumblers.  That's the one everyone wanted.  It was a mad stampede to get all the cups.  I had more than one big man push me out of the way to grab one, but I finally managed to stick my skinny arm through the crowd and get my cup.  I'm glad I was in the first meeting, because I don't think they had any left by the time we were done.   I didn't see anyone come out of the second meeting with cups.  They all had t-shirts and lunch bags. 

In other work news, yesterday the guy who picks up our scrap at the end of the day came around and said they'd told him not to pick up any scrap from the brazers, because we aren't supposed to have any in the first place.  

Um, what?  

Yeah, we're not supposed to have any, but we do because nobody will make tubing get their act together and everything gets passed down to the brazers.   This afternoon, I called Supervisor over and showed him an adapter tube that was messed up, and asked him what we're supposed to do with our scrap if Scrap Man doesn't come get it any more. 

Supervisor told me that we -- meaning the sub brazers -- are supposed to leave our brazing stands, take the part back to tubing, figure out who cut it, and have that person write a scrap ticket, which will probably involve standing there arguing with that person, because she won't want to do it.  I stood there looking at him like this:

and said, "Are you serious?  We already have to do so much non-brazing stuff as it is.  Don't put more on our shoulders!"  

He said not to worry about it.  He'd figure something out.  In the mean time, our scrap isn't getting picked up, and our scrap boxes are filling up.  I hope he comes up with a solution soon, but I can guarantee you one thing.  Whatever the solution is, it won't be making tubing do right.  

It never does. 

At long last, the work day finally ended, and I went and voted.  Alas, I'm afraid my vote might not count because I didn't post a photo of my sticker on social media.  

You have to do that, you know, if you want your vote to be valid.