A Do-Over

 This was definitely one of those days when I wanted a do-over.

When that alarm went off at 3:30 AM...that was the first thing:  the alarm went off at 3:30 AM, which is way too early any day, but I'd stayed up late yesterday watching a documentary on MPB about the Rolling Fork tornado.  Well, I only watched part 1, and frankly, it was not at all what I was expecting.  I guess I was thinking it would be something like what The Weather Channel or National Geographic would put out - more science based, but it wasn't.  

The first maybe ten minutes was the guy interviewing people about their experiences going through the storm, but the rest of it was mostly people complaining about their houses not being rebuilt quickly enough.  Every time someone would mention that recovery wasn't happening fast enough for them, I'd think, "First time?" 

I guess growing up on the Gulf Coast, I'm more in tuned to the massive damage a hurricane will cause.  Rita, Ike, Harvey...I know after Hurricane Harvey, it was ten days before the flooding went down enough that my cousins could even get to their houses, and for some of my friends, it was two years before they were completely through rebuilding.   When Laura came though Lake Charles, there were still houses with the blue roof tarps a year and a half later.  

Anyway, when that alarm went off at 3:30 AM, I seriously thought about calling in and staying in bed, but I didn't.  Out of bed and off to work I went, and that's when the ...um...stuff hit the fan. 

First of all, there was nothing ready for us to do.  Second of all, the parts stager and the backup parts stager neither one was there, so there was no one to get anything ready for us to do.  Fortunately, I had some orders already on my stand that I'd put there yesterday, so I had work.

Or so I thought. 

The first three orders I tried to set up on all had parts that had been made wrong, so I had to take them back to Group Leader Shark, who does not like to be greeted with bad news first thing in the morning.  As I predicted, she was not happy.

I had one more order I could set up on...only I couldn't pull up a print of the part.  I tried several times, using every trick I knew, but finally had to admit defeat.  I went back around to Group Leader Shark, and said, "I know you're about tired of me..."  So, she tried to pull up the print on the dispatcher's computer, but she couldn't get one, either.  I told her I could set it up on the jig without the print, but because it was a brand new part that I'd never seen before, I'd have no idea whether I was brazing it correctly or not, so I'd prefer to wait until I got a print.  She said I'd have to wait until the front office people came in at 7:00 for that, but I figured that was better than doing them all wrong and having the parts kicked back by the line.

All this, and it wasn't even 6:00 yet.  

Eventually, I got my parts and I got my print and I got all those orders done.    

But wait, there's more!  While all this was going on, one of the assembly supervisors came up to the component area and saw another brazer just standing there because she didn't have any work to do.  I guess he was still mad because yesterday, he'd texted my Supervisor and asked if he could send me to work on the assembly line for the rest of the day.  Apparently, Supervisor told him no, and all heck broke loose. 

See, the supervisors in the back have always been able to use the sub-brazers as sort of their own personal floater pool, and they've had the privilege of picking and choosing who they want to get and our Supervisor has had no choice but to give them whomever they want.  Until yesterday, that is.  

The assembly supervisor actually made me stand there and watch him type out the text to my Supervisor asking if he could have me.  I fully expected Supervisor to come tell me to go work on the line for the rest of the day, but that didn't happen.  There was a big discussion and a bit of a brouhaha, and they sent someone else, and I guess that supervisor was still mad that he didn't get his way, so he went and yelled at Group Leader Shark, who in turn came and yelled at the other brazer, who pointed out that there wasn't anything ready.  

There was another brouhaha, and Group Leader Shark told the brazer to get something off of the conveyor that we've been told for the last five years to never, ever get anything off of.  And nobody went to the assembly lines today. 

By lunch time, as I was heading to the break area, I said to Group Leader Shark, "This has been a day and a half already!"  

After lunch, things settled down a bit, but by that time I was already completely knackered, though I did feel a bit better after eating something, and at long last, the interminable day came to an end and I came home and sat all evening.  

Seriously.  I sat.  OK, I did laundry, too, but mostly I sat. 

And I knit a bit.  Speaking of, I found a knot in the the skein of yarn, so I cut it out and did a normal join.  It caused a bit of an odd pooling, but it doesn't look too terribly bad, so I'm not going  to worry about it. 

I think now, it's time for a hot shower and an early bed time.  

Good night, all.