It's bad when the high point of your day is when you are in the dentist chair

Tomorrow is finally Frog Follies, thank God. Each week has been worse than the previous week. One machine lost a Fanuc drive. Took most of the day going back and forth with support to verify which card was triggering the alarm and get one on the way. Lost a power supply on another machine. Get the OD grinders programmed for the second shift operator, get ready to leave, display goes gray on one of the two OD grinders. I had already looked up a new display as it has been getting dim lately, sign it is on it's last leg. Log back in to my e-mail and get one of them ordered. Fortunately, the display popped back on before I left. I told the second shift guy if it goes out again, call me, I have caller ID and won't pick up, see ya Monday, I am out of here :) The best part of today was after work, getting a tooth ground down for a crown. I am ready for a vacation.

I am so looking forward to morning. Friday at the Frog Follies is great. Most people are at work and the place is not crowded. Usually do my heavy shopping on Friday. If it rains one of the days, I will head to the Indy gun show.

Short week coming up, yeahhh

Another ungodly long week done. Six day weeks getting old quick. My FMLA abuser decided it was still too nice outside. He is out for another week now, at least. Must be nice to only work five days out of a month, and that is if he comes back when he said, which is a maybe at best.

Anyhow, Friday starts the Frog Follies. The biggest antique car show I have ever been to. I go every year, all three days, without fail. Have a vacation day scheduled for Friday, and am very much looking forward to it. I have worked the last few weekends, I better have this one off. I gave notice of having plans, for them to make allowances for me to actually have a weekend off. The event is for cars 1949 and older, but, the vendors have parts for collector cars of all eras as well as the for sale corral and flea market are open for everything. Want to pick up a few more items for the Mustang, as well as check out the booths. Like to have the front seats on the truck reupholstered. They are in great shape, but are about as comfortable as sitting on an upholstered rock. Short trips aren't bad, long trips are down right crippling. Never know what you are going to find there. If it rains one day out of the three, it will turn into a run to Indianapolis for the Indy 1500 gun show. At any rate, it will be a fun weekend. Just need to get through three grueling work days.

What a week, and she's not over yet

Got added to the Saturday list. Four AM start time. Yuck. My FMLA abuser won't be back for at least another week. I am betting on at least two more weeks. Every summer for the last three years, he mysteriously gets ill for anywhere from three to five weeks. Usually coincides with Harley weather. He finally called in midweek with notice of needing two to three weeks off. I really need to find out his doctor. He already has a standing arrangement where he gets two days a month FMLA. His pick of days. Usually the first two days of the month that land on a weekend. He has had that arrangement for almost two years now. I believe the doctor gave them out in case he needed a day or two here and there for his mystery ailment. He has not missed out on using one yet, ever. So, adding them up, he gets twenty four work days a year off, no questions asked. That is only one day shy of an having an additional five weeks vacation on top of the four weeks vacation he gets. That doesn't even add in the few weeks of leave, like the one he is on now. And, my company, being the pinheads they are, give him personal days, because they don't count FMLA against personal days. In order for a worker to get a personal day, they have to have perfect attendance for a four month stretch. You can acquire three a year and use them anytime. They are a paid floating personal day you can save up for emergencies, or fun. They actually give this guy his personal day as long as his doctor gives him an FMLA form. What a crock. I work six days a week, a lot of ten hour days in there. It is hard for a worker to get personal days. I have had eight years of perfect attendance down here. I earned every personal day I got. Management needs their heads examined. He gets to enjoy summer, the rest of us work overtime trying to make up for being short staffed. At least they are predicting a lot of rain all weekend.

Happy Monday

So, it is Monday. My FMLA abuser is on his second week of holiday, and my other operator is on vacation this week. I get the machines up and running and am just about done with the job, when, boss comes up. I am one of the lucky ones to go downtown for a random drug test. Having just used the restroom, it was going to be a bit before I was ready for the test. They take you, immediately down town, to the plant and you are watched until test is done. No problem as I lead a rather boring lifestyle, if you can call it that. I get a couple tall glasses of water and have to sit there and wait for nature to work. At this time, it hits me. The irony. I am a productive worker, running my machines, minding my own business when I am taken and watched until I pee in a cup, and can't leave until they get the results. On the other side of the fence, unemployed welfare rats can smoke weed, crack, snort coke or shoot up, and no worries at all, because it would be violating their rights to require a drug test. They get to draw a check out of money from taxes I help pay. They leach off the system and have funds to get high. Having gone to trade school and not having taken any of the liberal arts crap, I find it mind boggling the double standard. Now, I don't want to go get high, but I would like to see the welfare recipients put through the same jumping of hoops that us working folk get to do. If they fail, they lose their benefits. Not fair? If I were to show signs of drug use, I would be fired instantly with no recourse. Fair play seems to be, if you are using and on welfare, you lose your free lunch. But as I said, I am one of those lowly blue collar workers and haven't had any of the liberal brainwashing the true colleges have, so my small mind has a hard time grasping the reason society allows this double standard to continue. Back to mindless fun again tomorrow. Perhaps my FMLA abuser will grace us with his presence. Happy Monday......