Window into work last week
I was just clocking out and going to the other building for my break last Monday when I heard my boss on the phone. He was finishing his phone call and said that my one coworker, driving the work van, had busted the window. Oh, goodness! What happened? My boss didn't know. I went in the back to have my lunch and chill before band, and I made sure to tell BBC. He uses the work van on Tuesdays, so this was important info for him to know in case some how the van wasn't driveable.
(FYI, spellcheck dinged both "drivable" and "driveable," which is really helpful. A quick Google search led me to go with the latter.)
BBC happened to be in the break room talking to me when our one coworker drove up. He gave the play-by-play as the van got closer, first saying, oh, it's fine, but then going, nope, the window really is missing! Our one coworker had had to go to a hardware store in the far south suburbs, where he was calling on clients, in order to get something to cover the window; they'd come up with one of those sheets you use to weatherproof the windows in your house during the winter, the kind you take a blow dryer to to sort of shrink-wrap it and keep the room a little warmer. That's actually a really good idea in a pinch. I'll have to remember that--plus I think I still have one of those somewhere.
My one coworker had gone to get food on the way down to his clients and was in the drive-thru. He'd rolled the window down to order, but because it was cold, he went and rolled it back up while he waited. There was some sort of noise, and when he got to the pick-up window for his order, the van window went down in a hurry and did not come back up. Somehow the mechanism busted, but lucky for everyone the window did not. He was able to make an appointment for Tuesday morning to get it fixed, but BBC was going to have to meet him over at the dealer to pick him up--the manager is off on Tuesdays, and our boss goes and visits his own clients. And, at some point, BBC was going to have to take him back there to pick it up.
Mind you, Tuesday was BBC's birthday. Given the state of his projects, I wasn't sure he was going to make it. :P Well, I let him live, and since he is but a few years from 30 at this point, he's due for a typical adult-type birthday situation, where work sucks and things don't go the way you want them to. Oh well. Welcome to adulthood. At least he did get something special. I'd called back to his desk to say, did you bring treats for the class? You know you're still supposed to do that, right? I could hear the good doctor cackling in the background. As it turned out, my boss' mom--BBC's grandmother--about bought out the bakery, bringing him several boxes of goodies that he ended up sharing. Remember how I'd gotten a cinnamon roll the week before? I got one this week, too; the good doctor brought it up. (They kept the cream puffs or bavarian cream whatevers, which was fine by me.) The cousin, YC, and I all split it...which was tough because we couldn't find a knife. When Papa died, I snagged a couple knives from his place to bring to work, and then recently our retired coworker gifted us with a big knife; those are all gone. I have no idea what happened to them. The big knife had a sleeve to cover the blade, and we still have the sleeve, but no knife to go in it. I had to cut the roll with a spoon; we have plenty of those. And thankfully I was able to do it.
The cousin and I also made sure to get our pieces before YC touched it. She's been sick, so sick in fact that she called in on Monday. When she got in Tuesday, I asked how she was doing; she said she was at 65%. And how were you Monday? She said, 35%. Ah, glad you're doing better. Because she calls in a fair amount, either late (somewhat regularly) or sick (not as regularly), my boss had told me, she's not allowed back without a note from her doctor *and* her mother! Okay, well, *you* tell her that. I'd known she wasn't feeling well starting last week. When she did come back to work, she kept coughing up a lung. Great. Just what I need to be around. I was having to remind her to cough into her elbow, as she wasn't covering her mouth at all at times. Sweetie, every time! Cover your mouth every time! She was getting better at it, at least, but come on. She has something she does on most Tuesday nights, and I told her she'd be better off going home and resting. It's the sort of thing where she's in close proximity to other people, and her coughing would be a distraction plus nobody would want to worry about getting sick, so she took my advice and stayed home. She was unwell enough that she didn't even enjoy her day at home on Monday; she just laid in bed. I mean, that's her typical M.O. from what I hear, but when she doesn't even play computer games or watch YouTube, you know she's ailing.
We've been waiting on some new fixtures recently. They were ordered last month and we've been like, any day now, they're going to arrive... That day was Friday, Valentine's Day, which happened to be the coldest day so far this year. Nice. Because that's when you want to get these large fixtures and have to unpack them on a cold dock. They couldn't have come on Thursday? Or waited until Monday? We got below zero overnight; I think it was -8F at my house when I got up in the morning. Our high temperature was only going to be in the teens, and it was the coldest V-Day in something like 77 years. It was the coldest it's been since November, and the first time I wore my big sheep sweater since about Veterans Day (must be a V-holiday thing). Once we brought the new fixtures inside, we left them alone; they had notes on them saying not to put anything on or in them until they came to room temperature so they didn't risk cracking or breaking. Great. We have a showroom-type area where we display things, and these are supposed to enhance things, so I hope they help spruce things up. But they're big and unwieldy and certainly didn't make things look better on Friday, when they were sort of haphazardly placed near my workstation. We'll have to figure out where to put them; maybe that happened yesterday. Guess I'll find out when I get to work tomorrow!
(FYI, spellcheck dinged both "drivable" and "driveable," which is really helpful. A quick Google search led me to go with the latter.)
BBC happened to be in the break room talking to me when our one coworker drove up. He gave the play-by-play as the van got closer, first saying, oh, it's fine, but then going, nope, the window really is missing! Our one coworker had had to go to a hardware store in the far south suburbs, where he was calling on clients, in order to get something to cover the window; they'd come up with one of those sheets you use to weatherproof the windows in your house during the winter, the kind you take a blow dryer to to sort of shrink-wrap it and keep the room a little warmer. That's actually a really good idea in a pinch. I'll have to remember that--plus I think I still have one of those somewhere.
My one coworker had gone to get food on the way down to his clients and was in the drive-thru. He'd rolled the window down to order, but because it was cold, he went and rolled it back up while he waited. There was some sort of noise, and when he got to the pick-up window for his order, the van window went down in a hurry and did not come back up. Somehow the mechanism busted, but lucky for everyone the window did not. He was able to make an appointment for Tuesday morning to get it fixed, but BBC was going to have to meet him over at the dealer to pick him up--the manager is off on Tuesdays, and our boss goes and visits his own clients. And, at some point, BBC was going to have to take him back there to pick it up.
Mind you, Tuesday was BBC's birthday. Given the state of his projects, I wasn't sure he was going to make it. :P Well, I let him live, and since he is but a few years from 30 at this point, he's due for a typical adult-type birthday situation, where work sucks and things don't go the way you want them to. Oh well. Welcome to adulthood. At least he did get something special. I'd called back to his desk to say, did you bring treats for the class? You know you're still supposed to do that, right? I could hear the good doctor cackling in the background. As it turned out, my boss' mom--BBC's grandmother--about bought out the bakery, bringing him several boxes of goodies that he ended up sharing. Remember how I'd gotten a cinnamon roll the week before? I got one this week, too; the good doctor brought it up. (They kept the cream puffs or bavarian cream whatevers, which was fine by me.) The cousin, YC, and I all split it...which was tough because we couldn't find a knife. When Papa died, I snagged a couple knives from his place to bring to work, and then recently our retired coworker gifted us with a big knife; those are all gone. I have no idea what happened to them. The big knife had a sleeve to cover the blade, and we still have the sleeve, but no knife to go in it. I had to cut the roll with a spoon; we have plenty of those. And thankfully I was able to do it.
The cousin and I also made sure to get our pieces before YC touched it. She's been sick, so sick in fact that she called in on Monday. When she got in Tuesday, I asked how she was doing; she said she was at 65%. And how were you Monday? She said, 35%. Ah, glad you're doing better. Because she calls in a fair amount, either late (somewhat regularly) or sick (not as regularly), my boss had told me, she's not allowed back without a note from her doctor *and* her mother! Okay, well, *you* tell her that. I'd known she wasn't feeling well starting last week. When she did come back to work, she kept coughing up a lung. Great. Just what I need to be around. I was having to remind her to cough into her elbow, as she wasn't covering her mouth at all at times. Sweetie, every time! Cover your mouth every time! She was getting better at it, at least, but come on. She has something she does on most Tuesday nights, and I told her she'd be better off going home and resting. It's the sort of thing where she's in close proximity to other people, and her coughing would be a distraction plus nobody would want to worry about getting sick, so she took my advice and stayed home. She was unwell enough that she didn't even enjoy her day at home on Monday; she just laid in bed. I mean, that's her typical M.O. from what I hear, but when she doesn't even play computer games or watch YouTube, you know she's ailing.
We've been waiting on some new fixtures recently. They were ordered last month and we've been like, any day now, they're going to arrive... That day was Friday, Valentine's Day, which happened to be the coldest day so far this year. Nice. Because that's when you want to get these large fixtures and have to unpack them on a cold dock. They couldn't have come on Thursday? Or waited until Monday? We got below zero overnight; I think it was -8F at my house when I got up in the morning. Our high temperature was only going to be in the teens, and it was the coldest V-Day in something like 77 years. It was the coldest it's been since November, and the first time I wore my big sheep sweater since about Veterans Day (must be a V-holiday thing). Once we brought the new fixtures inside, we left them alone; they had notes on them saying not to put anything on or in them until they came to room temperature so they didn't risk cracking or breaking. Great. We have a showroom-type area where we display things, and these are supposed to enhance things, so I hope they help spruce things up. But they're big and unwieldy and certainly didn't make things look better on Friday, when they were sort of haphazardly placed near my workstation. We'll have to figure out where to put them; maybe that happened yesterday. Guess I'll find out when I get to work tomorrow!