(no subject)
'ello poppet!
yes, i am back! and i am front, too! yea that was bad, i know, so lets move on.
now lets see, where did i leave off..... oh yea! so i get home and such, call some friends to help unload it and hang out for a wee bit, then go drop off the u-haul truck, come home and just hang out and such for a bit until mom and sisters come home. the rest of the winter and part of spring goes by... so on...so forth.... etc...... worked at harry's for a while in the early summer, but that kinda sucked. i worked the 40 hours a week, listening to three or four different people telling me to do a certain task 5 or 6 different ways, mainly stuff like gun counter work. mainly stuff like "you can be behind the counter and do work, but you cant hand over guns", "you can hand over guns but cant sell them", "you can sell guns but someone senior has to sign them out", "you cant be behind the counter, period!" "you should be on the sales floor filling shelves" and so on. but the whole thing went well and without a major hitch for the 2 and some months i was there. however it all ended with something rather odd.
i was working again behind the counter one day, and this guy, bill, comes in with two rifles and a pistol to sell to the store (a common occurance). he gets them appraised and the store will give him $325 for the three guns. bill sez the pistol has more value to him then that, and asks about what he would get for just the two rifles, to which he gets the offer of $300, which he agrees to and mikey and/or eric and/or ernie start the paper-work to do the sale. meanwhile, no other customer is at the counter and i wander over to talk with bill and see his guns. chit chatting with bill, i find out the pistol was his son's at one point (son's still alive, he just didnt want it anymore for whatever reason) and that it was a black powder revolver with nylon holster, and in very nice condition, too (it was a reproduction). i told him that i was interested in getting one like that, and asked how much he wants for it. bill told me to make me an offer and i said i would give him $200 for it (just about what its worth) and we agreed on $225. i didnt have the money on me at the time, and i was waiting for a paycheck to come in at the end of the week. i told bill i would have the money, and i would call him later on. he gave me his number, he went home and i went on my week. the end of the week came, and so did my paycheck. i went to the bank, took out the 225, and went to work the next day. i called bill the day before and he said he would come in and take care of what we want to do. the day went on with little event, i almost commited a felony by almost selling a gun to a guy that moved and his adresses on his cards didnt match up. i honestly dont think i would have been imprisoned, but ernie, a cop, made it out to sound as if i would go away for a long time and other crap. but anyway! bill came in, and we both agreed we wanted to do this legaly. so i asked my manager mike what we would need to do the transfer. mike told me we would need about 3 papers (none of which we had) and he told us that he didnt want us doing that in the building. so, since we didnt have the needed paperwork, bill took his gun and went home, and i kept my cash and went to eat lunch. after lunch i went outside to make a quick phone call, and then i get found by mike. he asked me to come in to talk with him in ed's office. i knew i was late a few times, and took a longer-than-i-should-have lunch once or twice, so i figured it was about that. i walk in there ready to plead my case and apoligize to them about the tardiness, and mike is sitting down looking upset, and ed is standing there with his hand rubbing his forehead. i get in there and sit down, and mike begins to ask me about the guy that came in with the pistol. i told him the story and such, and he said some stuff about the company, and then finally ending with (a forced) "we're going to have to let you go". obviously surprised, i asked why, and they said that i was "undermining the company by stealing profits" by wanting to buy bill's gun that the store didnt. so the long and short of it, i got fired because i wanted to buy a gun. ironic, huh? so as i was leaving, i had to ask about any possibility of future employment, and mike said keep in touch and we'll see when the new store opens next fall. but the main kicker was that when i was hired on, no one told me that i couldnt do that, and no one mentioned it to me ever up until that point. it was apparent that mike and ed liked me, and that the desicion was made elsewhere in the company. so with as much dignaty i could muster, i swiped out, walked out of the store, to my car, called bill to tell him what happened and that the deal was off for a while (still havent called him back), looked to see if kyle was working that day, which he was, so i got out of my car and walked right into his bar!
what else would anyone else do in that situation?! lol. i get in there and sit at the bar and kyle comes up to me all smiles. in which we had the following conversation, or at least something very similar to it:
kyle - hey buddy! whats up? you on break?
me - nope!
kyle - you get fired?
me - uh-huh!
kyle - wow, that sucks. you want a drink?
me - oh yea!
kyle - let me get you something. ::makes drink:: so what happened?
me - ::tells above story::
kyle - thats fuckin' bullshit
the afternoon goes alright, well, as alright as it could go, lol. another buddy came in and shared a few drinks with me. i had a good time, shared my story several more times with friends and family and they all had the same reaction that kyle had. then about a week later i went back to harry's to talk with the owner to plead my case, if for nothing else then to make myself feel better. i went in, talked with some former co-workers, and then i was able to head up to the owner to say what i wanted to say. and ed was there again to be a witness. i told rick (the owner) the story which he heard of for the first time. he had no idea i had gotten fired, so that was a surprise to me. i tell my story, and rick gives his opinion on what happened and how it was delt with, and then i head out feeling better. then ed turns to me as im walking out an tells me to use him a referance if i want to for another job. so that was kinda surprising. i go home and a few weeks later, kinda randomly too, i go up to the precious pets store up in hightstown looking for stuff for my tank, but also half-looking for work. while no signs are on the pet place, there is a sign on the global-ag store next door. i go there and turns out its a garden/farm/yard/pet supply store and i thought it would be a neat place to work. i ask the people there inside for an application, which i fill out and and return within a day or two. then a week later i get a call back for an interview, and then i started within a few days of that! and i've been there since the mid-september, i think. lol.
and so far its been cool. $8/hour, part time, low stress atmosphere, good people to work with, and its still pretty close by, so its nice. not my ideal job with the low pay, but nice none-the-less.
and thats pretty much my year in a nutshell. nothing much else happened thats note-worthy. if there is anything else, i'll add it in a later post. but as for now, i have other things to do and such.
adieu!
yes, i am back! and i am front, too! yea that was bad, i know, so lets move on.
now lets see, where did i leave off..... oh yea! so i get home and such, call some friends to help unload it and hang out for a wee bit, then go drop off the u-haul truck, come home and just hang out and such for a bit until mom and sisters come home. the rest of the winter and part of spring goes by... so on...so forth.... etc...... worked at harry's for a while in the early summer, but that kinda sucked. i worked the 40 hours a week, listening to three or four different people telling me to do a certain task 5 or 6 different ways, mainly stuff like gun counter work. mainly stuff like "you can be behind the counter and do work, but you cant hand over guns", "you can hand over guns but cant sell them", "you can sell guns but someone senior has to sign them out", "you cant be behind the counter, period!" "you should be on the sales floor filling shelves" and so on. but the whole thing went well and without a major hitch for the 2 and some months i was there. however it all ended with something rather odd.
i was working again behind the counter one day, and this guy, bill, comes in with two rifles and a pistol to sell to the store (a common occurance). he gets them appraised and the store will give him $325 for the three guns. bill sez the pistol has more value to him then that, and asks about what he would get for just the two rifles, to which he gets the offer of $300, which he agrees to and mikey and/or eric and/or ernie start the paper-work to do the sale. meanwhile, no other customer is at the counter and i wander over to talk with bill and see his guns. chit chatting with bill, i find out the pistol was his son's at one point (son's still alive, he just didnt want it anymore for whatever reason) and that it was a black powder revolver with nylon holster, and in very nice condition, too (it was a reproduction). i told him that i was interested in getting one like that, and asked how much he wants for it. bill told me to make me an offer and i said i would give him $200 for it (just about what its worth) and we agreed on $225. i didnt have the money on me at the time, and i was waiting for a paycheck to come in at the end of the week. i told bill i would have the money, and i would call him later on. he gave me his number, he went home and i went on my week. the end of the week came, and so did my paycheck. i went to the bank, took out the 225, and went to work the next day. i called bill the day before and he said he would come in and take care of what we want to do. the day went on with little event, i almost commited a felony by almost selling a gun to a guy that moved and his adresses on his cards didnt match up. i honestly dont think i would have been imprisoned, but ernie, a cop, made it out to sound as if i would go away for a long time and other crap. but anyway! bill came in, and we both agreed we wanted to do this legaly. so i asked my manager mike what we would need to do the transfer. mike told me we would need about 3 papers (none of which we had) and he told us that he didnt want us doing that in the building. so, since we didnt have the needed paperwork, bill took his gun and went home, and i kept my cash and went to eat lunch. after lunch i went outside to make a quick phone call, and then i get found by mike. he asked me to come in to talk with him in ed's office. i knew i was late a few times, and took a longer-than-i-should-have lunch once or twice, so i figured it was about that. i walk in there ready to plead my case and apoligize to them about the tardiness, and mike is sitting down looking upset, and ed is standing there with his hand rubbing his forehead. i get in there and sit down, and mike begins to ask me about the guy that came in with the pistol. i told him the story and such, and he said some stuff about the company, and then finally ending with (a forced) "we're going to have to let you go". obviously surprised, i asked why, and they said that i was "undermining the company by stealing profits" by wanting to buy bill's gun that the store didnt. so the long and short of it, i got fired because i wanted to buy a gun. ironic, huh? so as i was leaving, i had to ask about any possibility of future employment, and mike said keep in touch and we'll see when the new store opens next fall. but the main kicker was that when i was hired on, no one told me that i couldnt do that, and no one mentioned it to me ever up until that point. it was apparent that mike and ed liked me, and that the desicion was made elsewhere in the company. so with as much dignaty i could muster, i swiped out, walked out of the store, to my car, called bill to tell him what happened and that the deal was off for a while (still havent called him back), looked to see if kyle was working that day, which he was, so i got out of my car and walked right into his bar!
what else would anyone else do in that situation?! lol. i get in there and sit at the bar and kyle comes up to me all smiles. in which we had the following conversation, or at least something very similar to it:
kyle - hey buddy! whats up? you on break?
me - nope!
kyle - you get fired?
me - uh-huh!
kyle - wow, that sucks. you want a drink?
me - oh yea!
kyle - let me get you something. ::makes drink:: so what happened?
me - ::tells above story::
kyle - thats fuckin' bullshit
the afternoon goes alright, well, as alright as it could go, lol. another buddy came in and shared a few drinks with me. i had a good time, shared my story several more times with friends and family and they all had the same reaction that kyle had. then about a week later i went back to harry's to talk with the owner to plead my case, if for nothing else then to make myself feel better. i went in, talked with some former co-workers, and then i was able to head up to the owner to say what i wanted to say. and ed was there again to be a witness. i told rick (the owner) the story which he heard of for the first time. he had no idea i had gotten fired, so that was a surprise to me. i tell my story, and rick gives his opinion on what happened and how it was delt with, and then i head out feeling better. then ed turns to me as im walking out an tells me to use him a referance if i want to for another job. so that was kinda surprising. i go home and a few weeks later, kinda randomly too, i go up to the precious pets store up in hightstown looking for stuff for my tank, but also half-looking for work. while no signs are on the pet place, there is a sign on the global-ag store next door. i go there and turns out its a garden/farm/yard/pet supply store and i thought it would be a neat place to work. i ask the people there inside for an application, which i fill out and and return within a day or two. then a week later i get a call back for an interview, and then i started within a few days of that! and i've been there since the mid-september, i think. lol.
and so far its been cool. $8/hour, part time, low stress atmosphere, good people to work with, and its still pretty close by, so its nice. not my ideal job with the low pay, but nice none-the-less.
and thats pretty much my year in a nutshell. nothing much else happened thats note-worthy. if there is anything else, i'll add it in a later post. but as for now, i have other things to do and such.
adieu!