Perpetual Ruminations

Thursday

Where does the time go? I was just looking through my mail and seen, off to the side, it's been four days since I blogged in here! I knew I didn't get in here the last couple days, but four? It's been a busy week, and I know that has a lot to do with it, we are training another person this week, and of course the week started out poorly with a guy not showing up for work. Sometimes it seems the problems just wont end.

Every time it seems we have things working smoothly, something comes along and messes it all up. It's been four weeks now that I have finally been able to take a couple days off each week with Rhonda. And, each week it's been interrupted with problems. This week was no different, we had Tuesday and Wednesday off together, and then I also had today off.

Monday we had plans to go out to eat, then come home and enjoy a fire, with the week looking like it was going to start off well. I had opened and was done by eleven. Rhonda and the new guy were doing the afternoon shift, and were scheduled to work until five in the afternoon, but being slow, may have gotten out early, around three or four. I had come home and taken a nap, so I would be rested up for dinner and the fire later that evening.

I woke to the phone ringing, and found out when I answered it, the closing guard had not come in to work. I was still in a fog, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and drove in to see what was going on. The new guy offered to work the closing shift, making his shift twelve hours long. Rhonda and I both tried calling the other guard, but did not get any answer or return calls to our messages. I drove over and sure enough, he was at home. I suppose I should have fired him on the spot, or at least informed him he did not have to worry about coming in  on Tuesday.

Instead, I had a good conversation with him about work, and some of the problems he is having. We worked out some schedule changes, and hopefully have a solution for him and for myself. Since we are training this week, it would have created a lot of problems had he quit or been terminated, and he did have some legitimate issues. So, we worked out a solution, and new schedule, open to some minor adjustments, if needed.

By the time we finally had things resolved, it was getting kind of late, and since the dogs were along for the ride, it made it difficult to go out to eat. We had kind of missed the opportunity because I had to go discuss things with this guy. So, we ended up picking up some steaks and going home to cook.

This made for a late dinner, but we enjoyed it, then sat out on the patio and enjoyed a fire and a few drinks. By the time we came in, it was about one in the morning, so of course we didn’t want to get up early on Tuesday. We had plans to get an early start Tuesday, but then we had plans to eat out and have a fire until ten, maybe eleven at the latest.

Sleeping in was nice, but it got us started late on our chores we needed to get done, and to top it off, the temperature went over one hundred by early afternoon. Even so, I got the grass mowed, and Rhonda emptied the pond, cleaned it, and refilled it. We had to take frequent breaks as a result of the heat, so it ended up getting pretty late by the time we finished.

This resulted in eating late again, and since it was a nice night and we had not had much for a relaxing day, we decided to have another fire and a few drinks, again. We did get to bed earlier, but not much. Wednesday we slept in again, then worked on some more of our projects, but made it more of a lazy kind of day.

Today, it was up early and drive Rhonda in to work, and get training going. The new hire will test this afternoon, and I needed to get his paperwork all finished up and faxed. I didn’t have to do much, Rhonda had most of it done for me, but I still needed to sign things off, and fax them to the office. So, after the paperwork was done I brought it all home, worked out the next schedule in accordance to the changes the other guard and I had discussed, then signed and checked the hire packet, faxed it, and went outside for a break.

The fax sent and everything was looking good, so I decided to tackle another job that has been needing doing, splitting up a bunch of firewood. I got it done, and restacked it all, leaving some out for a fire this evening, maybe. After, I drank a glass of cold water and sent a text or two off to Rhonda to see how things were going. After a nice break, I came in and washed up, then logged into here.

A busy week, but it’s more than just the busy part, it’s the stress and problems from work following me home and not getting a clean break from them. I hope the new guy works out, passes his test, and does a better job than the other guy was doing. I also hope he is more reliable, and I can take a couple of days a week off and not have my phone ringing with work related issues. It’s looking brighter and brighter, but it’s still not certain.

One way or another, however, it is going to calm down and I am going to restart my crash course in editing and get back to some writing. Either the job and writing will balance, or one of them has to go. Oh, and I can’t give up writing, there just isn’t any way. It isn’t just a matter of want to, I need to. It is a part of who I am, and it always has been. So, either they balance, or I may just have to lay myself off. Can I do that?