Can You Hear Us Now?

There I was at work, just a working away, keeping my head down and minding my own business when suddenly I heard a blood curdling scream coming from the direction of the automatic brazers.  We all ran over like lemmings to see what was going on, and it was a terrible terrible thing. 

First, you need a little explanation to understand what was going on.  In order to get the parts from the component areas -- tubing, fin press, sheet metal, etc -- they are loaded onto buggies, which can be connected together and are then pulled by what we call a tugger.  

With me so far?  

OK, so there was a man who was hooking up a buggy full of parts to the end of a train of buggies, only the tugger driver didn't wait for him to get clear of the line of buggies.  She just jumped up onto the tugger and started driving while he was still in front of the last buggy, and she ran over the man.  

He was laying in the floor screaming, and one of the maintenance guys named Derek ran over and quite literally turned into the Incredible Hulk, and lifted that entire buggy full of parts off the man so the others who were there could pull him out.  I don't know how badly hurt the man is, but he was sitting up and talking as they wheeled him to First Aid.  

Once we figured out what had happened and that the guy would be OK, I turned to a couple of my coworkers and said, "I don't mean no harm..."

Ever notice that when someone says they don't mean any harm, they're about to say something harmful.  And yes, I know it's a double negative.  I was speaking vernacular.  I do that in real life, you know.

But I digress...

I turned to my coworkers and said, "I don't mean no harm, but That Driver should never have been on a tugger in the first place."  They all agreed with me on that point.  Then, we all began wondering how HRH will take this out on the rest of us.  What will they take away from us now? 

That's the thing.  As much as they hoot and holler about safety, it isn't really that much of a priority for them.   They care about giving the appearance of caring about safety, but they don't care that much about making the plant a safe place to work.   I'll give you an example.

Over in the sub-brazing area, we have conveyors where we put our completed orders.  Back when they first put them out there, they were about 3" higher than the highest our little rolling tables would raise up to, which meant we had to pick up all those heavy bins of parts.   We have been begging for years for them to lower them, but they wouldn't do it.  I know for a fact, at least four maintenance request were submitted, but they were all rejected because someone named Lee Jackson -- whoever that is-- said he didn't think it was that big of a deal, and he wasn't going to do it.  Lower the conveyors, I mean. 

We finally got them lowered about a month ago, but I had to go all the way to the head of the safety department to get it done.   I told him about all the maintenance orders, and he said, "You didn't tell me!"  But I shouldn't have had to.  ANY time an employee brings up a safety concern, it should be taken seriously and dealt with right away.  

I heard from multiple sources that a lot of people have complained about that particular tugger driver, but nobody did anything about it, and today it could very well have cost a man his life.  So to those members of management who don't want to listen...

CAN YOU HEAR US NOW??????

In more pleasant news, my mysterious package that Amazon felt it had to hide for privacy has arrived, so I can show you what it is.  A new weedeater!

This one is battery operated and sooo much lighter that my old gas powered one.  I've already put one of the batteries onto the charger, but it won't be done before I go to bed tonight.  I'll probably just unplug the whole thing and finish it tomorrow.  

Funny thing, the UPS delivery guy rang my doorbell, which he doesn't usually do.  I thought maybe I'd need to sign for the package or something, so I went out there and he just wanted to ask about my snakes. He remembered when I lived on Riverdale Road and had the snakes and my dogs.  I told him the dogs have died, but I still have four of the snakes.  He was amazed that they are 21 years old.  

He asked if I had anything new, and I said just the cat.  I told him I'd gotten her when the man across the street died, and he said, "Oh, yeah, that's {So and so's} dad, and he called his daughter in law's name.  

And I'm thinking, isn't that life in a small town? 

And finally, the landscaper I reached out to messaged me back last night after I'd gone to bed.  In a strange stroke of luck, I just happened to be beset with insomnia, so I picked up my phone and there the message was.  He said he'd come by today and we could talk about what I want done, but so far, he's been a no-show.  

I'm not giving up just yet, though.  It rained pretty hard last night, so it might have gotten him a bit behind.  But keep your fingers crossed.  I'm anxious to get started with my herb gardens!