The Rest of the Week

On Wednesday, I got hit on the other side with my head cold.   I still had work to deal with... and freight day.  So I took some Claritin and went on to work.   Later on I threw in a benedryl because the Claritin by itself wasn't stopping the running eye/nose enough to keep from interfering with my work.   I felt pretty weak too.   Of course, throwing that freight around didn't help with that part.


But, I made it to church anyway and was glad.  We had a terrific lesson that night.  One I've thought much on ever since.


Back to work on Thursday.     The last time I had a bout with sickness (that was a coughing/weakness issue), I had gone into work on Thursday really not feeling like it at all, because I thought we might have a stock test.   When I got there, all the freight was out but the co still felt like he needed to keep me there to get out send out merchandise for seasonal because the district manager had called and insisted it all be out before the day was over and he wanted pictures to prove it.    


But that's straying from the point. 


The point was all the freight was out.   And it had been that way for several weeks running.  Besides, I really didn't have it in my mind that we'd be having a stock test this week-- although at one point it had crossed my mind that we could, since it was the first week of March-- so when I went in on Thursday, I was expecting a very low key work day.  I had my head set that I'd slip in and get a price gun and work on price changes in the art department.   (She had TONS to do.  All the tubes of paint were changing and we'd been told this time that not only did the change have to be made, we must FIRST REMOVE all old price stickers--instead of just putting the new sticker right on top of the old one.)   So I had my day charted.  I wasn't feeling great, but it would be fine if all I had to do was stand in one spot (like I did on Tuesday) and change prices.


Wrong.


I went in and first thing, even before I clock in, the district manager greeted me.  I knew what that meant.  Stock test.  


Still I collected a price gun from the office right after I clocked in and headed for art.   But this time I noticed as I walked by wearables that two people were working to get out freight there.  When I asked, "Didn't all the freight get out?" I was told "No".   So, of course, that immediately messed up my plan because we know ALL the freight has to be out before ANY OF US are free to do anything else. 


So, I joined them and we worked quickly to get that out.   We were just finishing up, when the DM got to wearables with his checklist of items to see if that department was going to pass the test.   Luckily, one of the items he was looking for, one of my co-workers HAD IN HER HAND to put out.   (If it had been in the tote, he wouldn't have counted it.)    As we finished up, one of those two who had been working said, "Well, I guess I'll head on over to floral and help there."


I asked, "You mean floral's not done either???"   "No."       So off I went to floral where we not only put out but there was a lot of trash and broken down boxes to get off the floor and take to the back.   I was getting tired....       But we got done before he'd worked his way around the store and got to floral.   (When he comes for one of those stock tests, sometimes it seems to take hours before he's done.)      


I headed off to the art department and began working on changes.   Then I started getting calls to the register.   (They actually may call more for back ups than they need to when the district manager or other higher folks are in the store because they sure don't want the lines to get backed up then so they don't even wait to see if it's likely. The rule is to call when the lines have three people.  Sometimes they'll call and the three are all together so that's actually only one person checking out.)   I was run back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, on and on.  


The good thing about it was that as the day progressed I could feel that I was getting my strength back.   So even with all the running around that I didn't intend to do, I still felt better by the end of the day than I had when I went in.   Afterwards, I even went to Walmart and picked up something I needed, because I didn't want to come back on my day off or go in early enough on Saturday to do it.


That was thinking ahead.  I had already told my son I'd keep his kids Friday evening AND Saturday morning because they needed to move the rest of the stuff out of the house they are selling.  He was going to borrow a truck to do that and he didn't really have room to take along five kids while getting the job done.   I had to be at work by two on Saturday so they would need to work quickly to get the rest of the stuff packed (Friday evening I guess) and then loaded up (Saturday morning I guess) and bring it back to Morgan City.     


On Friday, after I knew I was over my "bug", I went to see a couple who have gone to church with me nearly the whole time I've been in Morgan City who are pretty much homebound now because of his physical condition.  I had been planning to go for as long as I've been part time but one thing or another kept coming up and it took this long before I was able to get that done.  Shame on me. 


Friday evening and Saturday morning were more of a challenge to the kids than they were to me, especially the boys.   They pretty much have become habitually committed to spending their free time playing computer games.   I had decided, for reasons I won't go into here, that when I kept them they would NOT be doing that.   Initially it seemed to be a burden greater than they could bear, but after they realized I was not going to change my mind, they managed to come up with other activities to occupy themselves.


On Saturday when I got to work, I found that the new co manager in training was-- as far as I could tell-- left to take care of store duty all day by himself.   He's a really nice guy.   He was really working to get everything just right and do all the things the way he'd been told to do it, but by the time 9:30 rolled around, he decided we were going home and Monday's ad signs could be put up by Monday's crew.   I-- and everyone else-- was glad.    After all we'd be losing an hour Saturday night with the time change.  


So that was the rest of my week.