That W day again

[altivo]

Full of screaming hyperactive children, oblivious parents, utterly clueless computer users, spaced out colleagues, and beautiful weather outdoors that makes you want to be anywhere but where you are stuck.

Bright side: Came home to find Gary making something yummy for supper, and a box had arrived from Rabbit Valley with the three issues of Chris McKinley's Coyote River and the last three issues of Circles as well as a Coyote River t-shirt. I knew I would probably like Coyote River and I do. It's really funny and cute.

Dark spot in the bright side: Rabbit Valley failed to honor their own advertised offer. Provide a code from the advertisement, get $5 shipping on any order above a certain size. I did as they told me, but they still charged me full shipping. A year ago, Furplanet pulled the same stunt. (They are under different ownership now, though.) What is it about furry merchants that they can't be more detail oriented? Well, not all of them. Sofawolf has always done well for me.

Anyway, enough. I'm ready for the weekend. NOW.

Comments

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

The weekend for me has just gotten longer than it already was.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Meaning you have more time off or that you have to work?

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

I already had to work, I must work every weekend, but for the next 2 months my Frito-Lay route I drive in my (now newer) car has lengthened by 2 stores, so I'll have more work. Its at least an extra hour of work, probably over an hour and a half when the extra driving is taken into consideration.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad to hear you got a more reliable car. I hope it gets reasonably good mileage with the price of gas what it is. Now a bit of preachy advice: Budget for regular service costs to help keep it running longer and better. Oil and filter changes every 3000 miles for an older car, brake checks for safety and adjustment once or twice a year, etc. Plan on the expense if you can't do those things yourself (I gather you can't or don't care to) and it will keep going much longer for you. Generally they are not horribly expensive if you can go to one of those quick oil change places or something like Midas or Car-X. Get a little notebook to keep track of your expenses so you know how much to budget into the future.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

Oh I budget those things, there's a lube shop here in town I usually go to.

Unfortunately, no, the car gets no better gas mileage than my previous car, only 23 mpg. $4/gal @ 23 miles/gal means $4 = 23 miles / $4 = $0.174/mile. Frito-Lay (my weekend job) pays $0.505/mile for miles driven between stores (starting from my first store, ending with my last store), but doesn't pay a dime for miles driven between my home and the first store nor from my last store home.

The order of my stores is up to me, so I use the closest two stores on my route as my first and last store, which minimizes how many of my miles are unpaid; by comparison, if I went to the closest store first and worked in geographic order, my last store would be the furthest store away from me, and I'd not get paid for any of the miles heading back home from it. I also use Sundays to fill out my four pages of weekly paperwork (and two extra pages once per month) and turn them in at the distribution center/office before getting to my last store, so I clock that time and extra distance. I'm wringing every last penny I legitimately can.

I also get paid every minute from starting at my first store until I finish with my last, which can run 12, 16 or more hours ... no time or deduction is made for taking breaks or lunches, so its up to us to take what's reasonable. Usually its cheap dollar menu drivethru, but I'm also kinda fond of Subway now and then, especially with their $5 footlong subs.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

Oh, I also wait until after my first store to gas up, so I get paid those fifteen minutes or so while I'm fuelling. Since I have to drive a route anyway, I can keep track of the station prices and have an idea where I can save a couple dimes per gallon on gas on my route, and just have to make sure I have the gas to get there.

Its probably a bit hypocritical of me, considering how I hate getting nickelled and dime, but ... if its a hypocrit of me to nickel and dime my employer and to minimize how much unpaid time and effort I have to make to accomodate work, then I'm a hypocrit.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No, it's not hypocritical. You're working the kind of job where the employer naturally assumes you are going to pinch every penny you can as a rule, and you obviously have learned a lot of the little tricks to help with that, which is good.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Subway can be reasonably healthy eating if you're careful what you choose. Being a bread connoisseur myself, even I can still approve of their bread.

Sounds like you have it under control all right. Just don't stretch the reported hours to where someone thinks they look excessive and you should do pretty well.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

I don't, but I do stay to do a thorough job which often irritates my superiors. We're chained to a "number of cases of new product emptied" meter, when there are other things that need to get done, that we are told the route sales reps (the ones who order and deliver the chips to the stores during the week) are solely responsible for (which contradicts the detailer's handbook, of course), namely rotating the product. It has never failed that the first time I service a store, I find at least a dozen bags of well past-sell-date ("stale") product behind fresher bags, so especially if there is little else to do because the sales rep has not left enough cases of backstock behind (and/or choked out the backstock area with stuff not on sale, leaving little product that actually is selling), I will go through the shelves and thoroughly rotate the product (and, of course, pull out any that's already stale).

I've had talkings-to before because I spend sometimes hours at a store with very few cases of fresh product emptied; this happened the last time I worked for Frito and my bosses harped on me, one of them actually made a surprise visit to a store while I was servicing that I only serviced at the beginning of each month (so I couldn't regularly rotate it to maintain it) ... I quickly pulled out 20 cases worth of stale product on the shelf (it was a high-volume store, comparable to a Costco or Sam's club). He never bothered me again after that, and in fact after that, he had me take on stores where the store managers had complained they were getting poor service. The same manager also actually called me several times over the two years after I had quit to come back, because I was the only one out of 20 or so detailers he had that customers actually requested.

I wasn't too worried about my job back then, as we had union representation, but in the time since I left, we no longer do, so I do worry a bit that my job might be at risk ... without union representation, employees can get terminated at random, and someone like me that ignores the corporate meter to do a job right I fear may be at risk ... this is not the same office I used to work out of, though one of my managers from that old office is now in a high enough position that he manages several different offices, including my current one.

I guess I'll see ...

[schnee.livejournal.com]

I'd just call (or email) Rabbit Valley about it - they probably just made a mistake there.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I did. I e-mailed them asking about it as soon as they sent an order confirmation message. That was on Sunday. They haven't even bothered to reply.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Give them a phone call?

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

Furplanet is owned and operated by one of my friends here in Dallas. ^.^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The current owners are nice and responsive. Whoever was running it a year ago, wasn't so good, in my opinion. ;D

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that he is doing a better job. The previous owner is also located here and while I know his name I don't really know anything else about him.

[hrrunka]

Yeah, I like Coyote River (though I'm not quite sure I'd call it cute, exactly...), and I should probably settle down and re-read Circles through sometime.

[hrrunka]

...and the weekend can't start soon enough!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Amen to that. We're sorta starting early here, though I still have to work tomorrow. Today's only a half day as usual, then I have a brief meeting of my spinning study group. After that, Gary and I are going to see Prince Caspian and hopefully have a dinner out. Work tomorrow but a three day weekend follows. I see Monday is marked as a "bank holiday (UK)" on my calendar, so hopefully you and my other friends on that side of the water have it off too.

[hrrunka]

Yeah, the holiday next Monday caught me by surprise. Usually it's four weeks after the May Day one, but this year it's only three. This time of year's somewhat over-blessed with holidays, with two days at Easter, one for May Day, and this one, which used to be Whitsun but is now called Late Spring. Then we don't get any more 'til the end of August. After that we wait 'til Xmas for the rest.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Whitsun. Now there's an old fashioned name that most Americans wouldn't even get, except maybe for the ones who go to Episcopalian or Anglican churches. ;p

We're a bit more fortunate in that we have Independence Day to break up the long summer run of no holidays. But isn't Her Majesty's birthday somewhere in the summer? I thought it was, and was often observed as a holiday?

[hrrunka]

There are occasionally extra holidays, but they're the exception, not the rule. There are eight we'll get every year: New Year, Good Friday and Easter Monday, May Day (first Monday in May), Late Spring (last Monday in May), Summer (last Monday in August), Christmas Day and Boxing Day. For the Xmas and New Year ones we'll get a weekday holiday if the day itself falls on a weekend.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Most employers in the US seem to give 8 or 9 paid holidays as well, though a few are more generous. Typical would include New Year's Day, Memorial Day (roughly matches your Spring Bank Holiday,) Independence Day (July 4,) Labor Day (roughly matches your Summer Bank Holiday, but at the beginning of September,) Thanksgiving Day (third Thursday in November, plus the Friday after for many but not those who work in retail,) Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Depending on the industry or field, some get Presidents' Day in February or Columbus Day in October. Depending on where it falls in the week, Christmas or New Year's may generate an extra free day to make a four day weekend, and occasionally the same happens with Independence Day.

I loved the holiday schedule when I worked in the academic libraries. We got all of those holidays, plus the entire time from December 23 to January 2 as paid holidays, AND all the Friday afternoons in June, July, and August. There was a departmental option to let people barter those Friday afternoons into alternate full Fridays off instead, which the library did offer us in order to stay open on Friday afternoon with half staffing.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, not all of it is cute, of course, and one or two spots were a bit raunchy for my taste. But the overall story of the romance between Charles and Buck is definitely cute in my opinion. I hope he plans to continue it. The spot where it stops in the third issue is definitely not a resolution.

And I really liked the side bit with Zack and Bruno. A bit too graphic, but definitely cute.

[hrrunka]

Not exactly something to read in public, but definitely an enjoyable read, and I'll be most disappointed if the story isn't continued.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Stay on that bright side, I'm doing the goodly dinner too.

Nothing like a good dinner to make shipping charges go away in
a mouthful of tasty.

^.~

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Would take a pretty good dinner. I did exactly the sort of thing they hope you will do, and ordered more than I normally would have in order to qualify for the shipping discount. The Coyote Valley comics have been on my wish list for a while, but the additional Circles issues weren't quite so urgent. The t-shirt was a total splurge, though I do like the picture on it a lot.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, your going to do GREAT!

[drgnkiyo.livejournal.com]

Seems like we were in the same stuck-wanna-get-out mood yesterday. ~_~;

I can't wait for Saturday.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

My weekend looks like work, alas, though not at the library. Hope yours is better.

[drgnkiyo.livejournal.com]

If all works out I'll get to spend Saturday with a bunch of furs. We might go geohashing.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Hmm sometimes I preferred working where I couldn't see outside for just that reason. Coyota River? Those are naughty in many places ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, Coyote River has a few scenes that are downright raunchy, moreso than I think is called for by the story. I'd have preferred to be a bit more tasteful about that. But it's still a good story in spite of the oversexed aspects, and I'm very curious to see if he will carry it out farther. Besides, I really like that rabbit character, Charles. He and I think alike in many respects. (And anyone who gets a vanity license plate that says "Hrududu" is literate too...)

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Well a cute clever bunny character with glasses is always going to be endearing :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

And he is. That little plaint of "Don't I get a good night kiss?" is very telling about his personality, I think.

I'm also curious about the ranch owner's story. And I think Zack the weasel is pretty darned cute too by the end of issue 3.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

And I really like the Bear who bearly speaks *no pun intended*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes. He seems to be a pretty sweet guy. And I'd love to know just what it is he whispered to Charles at the square dance and even more, to Zack after... well, you know. The expression on Zack's face is precious.

McKinley does such a superb job with facial expressions most of the time. I particularly enjoyed the look on some of the horses' faces at various points, like when Buck first sends Chis'm off with Charles aboard...

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly about the expression on Zack's face, it was a very complex expression which conveyed a lot more than words would have.

Chisholm hehe, McKinley is very good at facial expressions, I've often noticed that.