ow ow ow
I feel like I've had a tetanus shot in both shoulders. The right is worse than the left, no surprise there.
The good news is that it's not as bad as last year. Back then, it really wasn't possible to raise my arms to more than a 45-degree angle in any direction; it wasn't even necessarily the pain as much as the weakness. Today, after getting up and applying a handful of tigerbalm, I managed to rachet my right arm up far enough to put my hair in a knot on the top of my head. If it's this way now, it's not likely to get noticeably worse over the weekend. I guess that's what comes of having another year of muscle.
So I'm not doing too badly, all things considered. As is always the case, the worst part is having to go back to work today, but it should limber up again once I'm out there.
I am disgusted again by the weather service: once again, "light showers" means "pouring rain all day". I hadn't expected to be soaked, so I haven't bought my boots yet. Ah, well, I don't work until 2pm, maybe I'll have time to pick some up.
It was, by far, the lightest Black Friday I've ever seen, and not just from the vantage of traffic control. Parking lots were not totally full, the main arteries through downtown were clear around noon, and while there was a noticeable increase in the number of cars going to Fry's, I was still left wondering "where is everybody?" Either the economy is worse than I thought, or everyone's going online, or the reputation of the first Friday looms so large people decided to go earlier or later rather than brave the mobs. I certainly didn't get as overloaded as I expected to -- though the worst time last year was the weekend before Christmas, when the freeway backed up in the outward direction and I couldn't send people out... they were parked up halfway across the mall because nobody was able to move on the green light at Willow Pass. So I still have something to look forward to. :)
There are worse things than having Lt. Dae Ji (called L3) doing the scheduling. Dustin was grumbling about that last year, how Dae couldn't make a schedule to save his life... but Dae isn't doing it this year. Director Collins, Dae's supervisor, took it on this year -- and while he's a great guy, he's horribly overcommitted, and tends to run in all directions at once. I came in early (since traffic was so light getting there), and he sent me out to get whistles from Copeland's because he hadn't had any time to buy any. When I got back, I said, "I should clock in..." and he told me, "Oh, I already clocked you in twenty minutes ago. You're all right."
Eight hours later, I swiped my timecard and clocked... in.
And we still don't have a schedule. We were told when to come in for the first day, and that we would get our schedule for the rest of the weekend then. By the time I went home, we had nothing except a hurried "have her come in at ten" when L3 asked Collins about it. Dae looked at me, said, "He'll forget by morning -- would you rather come in at two?" Yes, I think so. Of course, there was no ulterior motive to him asking that... except that Dae is swing shift himself, and if I'm on duty, he doesn't have to run the intersection unless I'm on break. Let day shift handle the hours when I'm not there.
Because I'm currently the only one who's definitely going to be there today. Bill managed to tweak an old injury in his foot and is out for the season. The other person hired so far was James -- and he was nicknamed "Long-Lunch Lipston" last year for a reason. He'll disappear for forty minutes at random, then saunter back like he was never gone. Thirty minute lunches stretch to an hour and a half. And apparently he didn't even bother clocking out yesterday, just disappeared, which means Dae didn't get a chance to talk to him about the schedule for today (I assume James will get a phone call, if Dae even bothers to bring him in). So it's me and Security now, and most of Security would rather gnaw off a foot than do traffic control.
God, I love this job. :)
The good news is that it's not as bad as last year. Back then, it really wasn't possible to raise my arms to more than a 45-degree angle in any direction; it wasn't even necessarily the pain as much as the weakness. Today, after getting up and applying a handful of tigerbalm, I managed to rachet my right arm up far enough to put my hair in a knot on the top of my head. If it's this way now, it's not likely to get noticeably worse over the weekend. I guess that's what comes of having another year of muscle.
So I'm not doing too badly, all things considered. As is always the case, the worst part is having to go back to work today, but it should limber up again once I'm out there.
I am disgusted again by the weather service: once again, "light showers" means "pouring rain all day". I hadn't expected to be soaked, so I haven't bought my boots yet. Ah, well, I don't work until 2pm, maybe I'll have time to pick some up.
It was, by far, the lightest Black Friday I've ever seen, and not just from the vantage of traffic control. Parking lots were not totally full, the main arteries through downtown were clear around noon, and while there was a noticeable increase in the number of cars going to Fry's, I was still left wondering "where is everybody?" Either the economy is worse than I thought, or everyone's going online, or the reputation of the first Friday looms so large people decided to go earlier or later rather than brave the mobs. I certainly didn't get as overloaded as I expected to -- though the worst time last year was the weekend before Christmas, when the freeway backed up in the outward direction and I couldn't send people out... they were parked up halfway across the mall because nobody was able to move on the green light at Willow Pass. So I still have something to look forward to. :)
There are worse things than having Lt. Dae Ji (called L3) doing the scheduling. Dustin was grumbling about that last year, how Dae couldn't make a schedule to save his life... but Dae isn't doing it this year. Director Collins, Dae's supervisor, took it on this year -- and while he's a great guy, he's horribly overcommitted, and tends to run in all directions at once. I came in early (since traffic was so light getting there), and he sent me out to get whistles from Copeland's because he hadn't had any time to buy any. When I got back, I said, "I should clock in..." and he told me, "Oh, I already clocked you in twenty minutes ago. You're all right."
Eight hours later, I swiped my timecard and clocked... in.
And we still don't have a schedule. We were told when to come in for the first day, and that we would get our schedule for the rest of the weekend then. By the time I went home, we had nothing except a hurried "have her come in at ten" when L3 asked Collins about it. Dae looked at me, said, "He'll forget by morning -- would you rather come in at two?" Yes, I think so. Of course, there was no ulterior motive to him asking that... except that Dae is swing shift himself, and if I'm on duty, he doesn't have to run the intersection unless I'm on break. Let day shift handle the hours when I'm not there.
Because I'm currently the only one who's definitely going to be there today. Bill managed to tweak an old injury in his foot and is out for the season. The other person hired so far was James -- and he was nicknamed "Long-Lunch Lipston" last year for a reason. He'll disappear for forty minutes at random, then saunter back like he was never gone. Thirty minute lunches stretch to an hour and a half. And apparently he didn't even bother clocking out yesterday, just disappeared, which means Dae didn't get a chance to talk to him about the schedule for today (I assume James will get a phone call, if Dae even bothers to bring him in). So it's me and Security now, and most of Security would rather gnaw off a foot than do traffic control.
God, I love this job. :)