Feb 13

What a waste of time!!! The meeting we were required to be at, the meeting we were required to dress up for under penalty of disciplinary action, the meeting they scheduled three hours for was today at two o’clock. All week, they were building it up so that everyone was nervous about it. Every big wig from the new company to the property management was supposed to be there. So, I went to sleep almost as soon as I got home so that I would be awake for it. I even left early so that I could get a parking spot. As people began arriving, everyone was dressed accordingly, except this one new guy. He wore a black concert shirt that looked like he just pulled it from the dirty clothes hamper and jeans that were rugged, holey, and so big on him that they drug on the ground. As we all went up, I was actually looking forward to seeing what they were going to do to the new guy. I would have felt sorry for him, but while we were waiting, he bought a bag of chips from the vending machine and had to eat them right next to me. Of course he had to smack his lips and eat with his mouth open the entire time. When we arrived in the conference room, there were only two people from the new company at the tables. One was our account manager and the other was the nighttime driver. I assumed that all of the other bigwigs were tucked away somewhere in an office waiting to make an entrance or maybe finishing up a management meeting before they came to ours. Nope, they were the only ones that showed up. Even our direct bosses didn’t make it. And, the only thing that the account manager said about the guy that didn’t dress up was that he was new and didn’t know. The only good thing about the meeting was that my part in it only lasted an hour. I was called downstairs to monitor the computers while the other person that was monitoring them was called up to participate. I didn’t get any of the pizza they ordered, but at least I didn’t fall asleep at the table.
The rest of my day was about the same. We needed to get a new battery for our new car today. It had to be today, because when I arrived I was told that one of the day people was fired and I needed to stay late to cover half of his shift. So, we needed the other car ready so that my wife could use it to get to work in the morning. We took the car to Walmart. It’s cheap and they usually do a good job. Today, there were only two employees working. We were about the fifth or sixth car in line, so we started walking around Walmart. Two and a half hours later, we were standing next to the window wondering when they were going to bring our car in. Installing a new battery couldn’t take that long. When they finally got under the hood, the guy that was working on it made several trips from the car to the battery stand. Finally, he called his manager over and she said that they didn’t have the battery we needed and couldn’t put in anything that wasn’t approved. We wasted about three hours. On the plus side, they did give us a gift card for $45. I think I would have preferred to take a nap, but there is always tomorrow.
The project work I was given yesterday took much longer than I expected and I didn’t get to finish chapter one. So, I am going to work on that today. I’m putting Pink Floyd, America, and Night Ranger in the playlist today for background music and it’s time to get started.
-Thom