If I drank, today would be the day.

I have to start by telling you: I hate bananas.  Hate them.  The texture, the flavor, makes me gag. 

That said, I had trouble falling asleep last night.  One of the married neighbors leaves for work around 6 AM every day.  So, why were they letting the kids run around outside after 9?  They have to get up and bathe in the morning, and eat, so they were depriving themselves, and me, of 8 hours' sleep.  I was a little gacked about that. 

I fell asleep around 9:45-10.  OK with that.  However, I had a very large, snoring Torbie in my bed.  She snored so loud, I woke up at one point thinking the neighbor was talking to someone outside my bedroom wall.  I was really pissed until I put my hand on the cat and realized it was her. 

SHE is about the only creature who can get away with waking me up.  I went back to sleep, but I didn't sleep very well. 

About 3 years ago, "they" began developing a corridor along the bayou.  One one side, you have our subdivision.  On the other, you'll find "light industrial and manufacuring".  It can make some noise, to me, at times, a lot of noise.  I can hear it sometimes at night, and in the early morning.  It's not as loud as a train, for instance, but definitely louder than the background traffic noise. 

I remind myself they are keeping my utility district taxes lower.  So I laid there in bed under my snoring cat, reminding myself: lower taxes. 

Overall I didn't sleep very well.  [laugh]   I asked God to give me a good quality of sleep if I couldn't get the duration, and He obliged. 

I dragged myself out of bed and took a shower, but saved my God Time for later.  I wasn't feeling very, ah, holy.  Especially when I heard the bang of a car door at 6 AM and the neighbor, looking very chipper, off to work. 

We went to the warehouse.  One of "my" greeters lost a cat and is pretty broken up about it. 

I got my inventory, not much, and waited for our ride.  It wasn't too bad.  The day was looking better. 

Then we got to work, and found our food machine down.  That's always scary because it's one of two things, "Health code" violation (power off for too long), or a broken door.  A broken door costs about $100.  I can "fix" a health code. 

Happily, it was a health code.  We're just having some ongoing power issues.  Considering the other vendor has two dead food machines, I'll take it.   I pity them; not only are they on the hook for hundreds in repairs, they are losing hundreds a week with the machines dead. 

We don't have anything perishable in the food machine, at all.  It doesn't matter if things "warm up" because they don't have to be cold. 

I got my candy bars stocked.  Everything else looked good. 

Until I got to the bottle vendor, and realized I had to fill the change bank.  It involves pulling the coin mech out on a slide.  The slide is very difficult, catching and jamming periodically.  It's easy to remove and fill the cartridge. 

But I put dimes in the nickel slot.  I fixed that, then remounted the cartridge.  I slid it back, and it jammed. 

Ron went into OMG you broke it mode.  "No I didn't".  "What did you do?"  A little faith would be nice!  I didn't do anything!  I told him that, but he wasn't receiving that.  Then he found the coin mech and inadvertendly pushed a button.  It started spewing coins and flashing an error message. 

[insert mutual finger pointing and raised voices] 

We couldn't get it to slide.  Then we did, and got it placed properly.  But we still had the error message. 

When they moved the machines, they pushed everything together very tightly.  Ron literally dragged out the bill changer and crawled back behind the machine to unplug it.  We left it down for about 10 minutes. 

When we got it running again, it was behaving.  "Maybe I should..." Ron began as he reached for the door. 

"NO!  It's working!" 

Now someone's heating up Chinese food and I realize I am starving.  I totally forgot I had some shelf stable beef stew hiding in the bottom of a snack machine.  I just knew I was hungry, and I wanted cupcakes. 

We sell chocolate cupcakes, but chocolate gives me a migraine.  I knew we'd be working tomorrow and I can't be sick, even if I were that desperate. 

The other vendor, I knew, sold a "vanilla" cupcake.  I went and found one, spending my last dollar to buy it. 

Imagine my horror as I read the package "Banana Pudding Cupcakes!" 

GACK.  I was so desperate I ate them anyway.  Ugh.  Nasty, fake, banana flavor. 

[shudder] 

We did have a good ride home with a driver I like.  It was a straight trip.  I went home and heated up some bbq chicken strips, eating it with some chips and a can of V8.  I try to do what I can to eat "better" and remain thrifty at the same time. 

Then I got a nap.  A nice long one, thank God. 

I didn't see Torbie, though.  She came and hung out with me later when I did my God Time (before I turned on the computer).