My Weblog

suffer, sleep, repeat

or maybe not, Last night I did my whole shift up front meaning on my feet. The pain in my feet and legs was SO bad. At one point I slipped off my shoes, stuck each foot into a plastic bag and tied the bags on around my ankles. (No one in their right mind wearing white socks would ever risk them coming into direct contact with those ancient worn out filthy mats they give us to stand on.) When it came time, finally to leave, I could barely make it to the van. When I got there, I hurt so bad I had to use my hands to lift my legs into the van.

Tonight looked equally dismal. I started up front and was sentenced to be there even after my break. I really thought I'd have to leave early. I was well on my way to hurting as badly as last night when one of the head cashiers decided I could go to Lumber, God Bless her! Not too long before time for me to come home, a head cashier came and told me management wanted to know if I'd work 11-8 on Sunday instead of my usual 11-5. I agreed, thinking of my fund to buy a new air conditioner, provided I could do the shift in Lumber. I explained I could use the money because I will need to replace my air conditioner, but I just did not think I could possibly stand the pain for that many hours. So, with the promise I could go to Lumber on Sunday, I am on the schedule for the extra hours. One way or another God is going to make a way.............

One more small piece of good news--there is now a generic version of my maintenance inhaler. This stuff retails for $335 each. With my insurance I've been paying $47 each. The retail on the generic is $200 less, which should result in a good amount saved on my part. 

There's other stuff I could report on, but, honestly, I'm too wiped out. Maybe I can catch you up tomorrow.............

Who knew?

I have ore spots where i didn't even know I had spots. I am sore from work and I've had some mini-muscle spasms which didn't last long, but long enough to make me sore. I am sore from the bottoms of my feet up to my neck where I had a very intense but short lived muscle spasm last night. I've pretty much decided on a series of doses of ibuprofen to try to make moving and just generally being alive more comfortable.

I'm off tomorrow and Monday which should help, but I think I really need more than that. I will have to look and see how much vacation time I have. Just took a peak. I have 34 hours including holiday pay. I'd like a week off. According to store rules that's 20 hours at 4 hours a day for 5 days. In some other world, a week off would buy you 7 days off, including a weekend. But, if you just request "a week's vacation", these geezers call you back to work on the sixth day. I will have to burn 28 hours of the 34 if I really want a week off. I'll have to think about that.

Phew! Glad that's over!

I spent the whole shift in Lumber. It was fairly busy. Not overwhelming but enough to keep me on my feet except for a little while close to quitting time. I was called upon to do 3 "phone sales". They are a pain in the butt and take a lot of extra time. After I'd done 3 of them, a passing cashier informed me the cashiers aren't supposed to do them anymore. We've been on again/off again with them for years. Sometimes cashiers are to do them, bu only up to a certain dollar limit. Sometimes the # limit changes. But, not once, in the more than 4 years I've been there have I been told ahead of time by a manager that the rules have changed.

I had one customer who wanted a price match with Amazon. I've always been told that the price match had to be to an item with the same item number. I've also always been told that we won't match our regular price to another vendor's sale price. Well, sure enough the Amazon item was on sale. The customer insisted he'd price matched items this way before. I called the Head Cashier and according to her the model numbers have to match. According to her it's okay to match our regular price to another vendor's sale price. So, throw out everything I've learned to date and start over, I guess.

One of the Lumber guys sold several pallets of blocks to a customer. He gave me the item number and I processed the sale. Then he and the customer decided he'd given me the item number for the wrong type of blocks. The Lumber guy, in front of the customer, ordered me to refund the sale and ring it differently. The problem is I am not trained on refunds and I'm supposed to send the customer to Customer Service. So I called the Head Cashier. She told me the machine I was on would not do refunds. Well, I knew that was not true. The girl who used to work there full time did them all the time on that register. Finally I had to talk her into coming down to do the refund. It was a pain in her tush and I'm just grateful she agreed or we would have had a very pissed off customer.

And so the day went. I really needed to get out of there promptly, but the Head Cashier had gone to lunch without arranging my replacement. So I couldn't clock out til 11 minutes late. I raced to smith's where I was supposed to have a grocery order waiting. I called to let them know I was there at 6:43. At 7:35 someone finally showed up to load my groceries into the van. I may have a hard time walking, but I think I could have successfully shopped for my groceries myself in that amount of time. I guess they had scads of orders and only two guys working. At least, they promised me to put a $15 credit on my order to compensate for the wait.............

So, now it's dark outside and I should be headed to bed but I'm still carrying groceries in from the van and putting them away. It's not that i bought so many groceries--just that I can't carry much and I need a resting period between trips..........

Neuropathy

One of the lovely problems I experience since having Levaquin pumped into my veins is neuropathy. The nerves in my feet are really after me this morning. So far I've had shots of pain in three different areas. One could possibly be related to some sort of arthritic condition; the other two are not. We used to say things like "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you get rained out" Well, no, I don't buy that. This body has been ceded to God for many years. I have difficulty believing God has random pain in His body so, therefore, why should I?

Encounters with two thieves

The good news is they didn't get squat outta me. But they both tried. Of course they were after tools, the number 1 thing they try to steal. And they don't go for the cheap stuff, they want the pricey power tools. They came one at a time, spaced out. Each of them had a package with one of those electronic gizmos on it which has to be removed by an employee. I have learned to never take my hand off one of those boxes til they've been paid for in full. One of the thieves had something in a large, heavy box. I had put it totally out of reach behind me. When I went to move it, he very "kindly" offered to lift it for me. I joked and told him I could handle it, but if I dropped it on my foot, I'd get out of work tomorrow. And, I never moved my hand/arm off the box. He finally mumbled something and walked out. I guess he gave up. It's my understanding that after I foiled the first thief, he came back into the store, grabbed something and made it out thru the main exit. Funny thing--we have a new electronic device we're using. It's WAY louder than the old ones. And, it has the added glory of making that obnoxious noise for more than 30 minutes. I can't imagine being in a closed car with that thing. I have no doubt it's capable of permanent hearing damage! And, whatever he took, it had one of those things attached.............

So, not on my watch! Yay, me.

 

Hoping I've found the solution

Employees have been under the "you must wear a mask" order for weeks now. During this time I have tried the following: a fabric mask made by a co-worker, a fabric (tee-shirt material) mask supplied by the store, a disposable mask supplied by the store, my own disposable masks, and a tube of stretchy fabric which can be wet down before putting it on. The tee-shirt mask stuck fast to my lips and crawled into my mouth. That didn't seem good. The fabric masks made by a co-worker were in the van when it was stolen, and gone when the van was recovered. I have a terrible time breathing through the disposable masks. The stretchy tube feels really good when it's damp on the back of the neck. It's great in our heat. However, once you're wearing it for an hour, it stretches out and falls off your face. I've tried pulling it over a pony tail in the back of my head; I've tried tucking the top of it behind my ears. It still falls down. The only thing that keeps it in place is putting my glasses over it which then digs a dandy trench across the bridge of my nose which hurts.

I just bought myself some of those see-thru plastic face shields. I know medical personnel tend to wear these together with a mask. However, one of our employees has been wearing one without any additional mask for about a week now and no one has given him any trouble about it. In fact, the store manager was very impressed that his had a "Cowboys" logo on it.

This shield solves another problem. With a straw a person can actually get a drink while wearing it. One of our head cashiers was even given trouble for pulling a mask down long enough to get a drink of water from a water bottle. But, my straw will go up under the shield without a problem. We'll see how this works out..................

Just an interesting fact I found while researching: the disposable masks are created to stop particles roughly 3 x the size of the virus particles. Meaning, they're really of no use at all except, possibly, as a torture device..............Viral particles can go right thru them like water thru a sieve.

Alternate reality

On the way to work today, I went to CVS to pick up refills on a couple of prescriptions. I pulled into the "wrong" drive-thru lane (which is usually the "right" drive-thru lane). I was advised by the woman inside the window that I had pulled into the lane where covid tests are given. She said she'd wait on my anyway but demanded I close my window. She seemed convinced that covid cooties were going to jump on me and overpower me. After all, at some point, someone might have coughed while sitting in their car awaiting their covid test. Now, mind you, I'm in my van, my van is in the great outdoors and she wants me to close my window because some cootie from someone who at sometime past might have coughed while sitting in their car. Is this all getting a little far fetched?

I want to hurt something

Clients are making me crazy...........One brought me her stuff about a week ago. Then she informed me she didn't know what she'd paid in. She was going to call the IRS and call me with the info. I never got the call. I finally called her this evening and by 9PM she was in bed...... Once she woke up, she called me back. Here is my question: How do you send the IRS $36000 and not remember what you sent them? She actually has two returns. I still need more info on her personal return and I'm doing an extension on the other.  The other client got me her stuff two days ago and I need to produce the return by tomorrow. This one is really no problem. She has a honkin' huge loss, so no tax. If there's no tax, there can be no penalties.

I care about these people. I feel a heavy responsibility to keep them out of trouble. They sure do make it hard. And, it certainly does bad things to my stress level.............

Hot as Hades

I've seen the desert hotter. But, we've surely got up a good head of steam. At 10:00, the thermometer said 106. It's so hot that as you walk past the garage to the front door, you'd swear you can feel the sun suck the moisture from your skin.

Feeling so much better..........

I felt so rough I went to bed. I slept uninterrupted for 5 hours, y'all. There is no good reason for me to be that tired. I was off yesterday and caught a nap during the early afternoon. Then I overslept this morning, resulting in about 10 hours of sleep. Whatever the explanation, I am grateful. I am actually typing this two-handed and I can walk from here to the bathroom at the other end of the house without wondering if my legs are going to give out on me. Also, the oxygen level has come up. And the heart rate isn't outrageous either. So, I'll likely be here on this earth a while longer.

I even feel as though I might be able to accomplish a little something around here. What a remarkable feeling!