The loitering

10 minutes from my work pickup: I have two people yelling, one at each end of the line (of vending machines).  One says he can't get his Coke.  Turns out the machine has a bad motor and no one's getting their Coke until the repairman comes tomorrow. 

At the other end, someone's yelling the snack machine stole their money.  Turns out it had a coin jam. 

"Can we put our pickup on hold?" I asked Ron as I lay on the floor by the soda machine, trying to unplug it.  "No," he replied "It's too close." 

What to do?  Well, we tried rebooting the soda machine.  Didn't work.  Like I said, a bad motor.  Unfixable (to me). 

To quote the machine "Make another selection".

The snack machine could be fixed, but not that fast.  I turned it off.  Better to have it off than "robbin'"

Yesterday, I got to sleep late.  I woke up and took my shower, and watched Supernatural reruns until Metrolift.  That's the nice thing for me, almost every episode is a new one. 

We went to Walmart.  Ron needed some soda, and I needed some cup-a-noodles, microwave buckets, etc.  Walmart has a very good selection of shelf stable vending foods, if you wear the right glasses.  [wink]  Our total only came to $20 - a case of soda and a huge sack of food. 

I decided to get "a little more than usual" shelf stable food.  As it turns out, that's a good thing. 

I did a little personal shopping, and got a handheld shower.  I wanted a showerhead with a cutoff switch.  I noticed the showerhead cost about the same as a handheld shower. 

I don't normally watch Ron bathe.  He gets everything clean and doesn't want my help, but recently I *had* to use the toilet while he was bathing. 

It was pretty tragic.  He had a lot of difficulty.  I thought of this, looking at the hand-held shower. 

The hand-held shower had the cutoff switch (which is really, apparently, "reduced flow" and not a cessation of the water).  I got it. 

We went to work, stocked, inventory. I had stocked virtually all our cold food product. A good thing. 

We finished up and came home.  I installed the hand-held shower - not hard.  I finally coaxed Ron into trying it.  He loved it.  Good.  "It's so easy to wash my hair!" 

I was pretty wiped out and went to bed. 

I slept pretty well, woke up on time with no headache.  I tried the handheld and figured out the "lower flow" setting.  I did my God Time and we went to the warehouse. 

Our first driver is a really nice guy.  I like him a lot.  But he is not a good driver.  He makes me nervous.  I'm not often nervous, riding in a vehicle. 

We got to the warehouse and I got everything I needed.  Honestly speaking, a little more than I should have, but I managed to get it all to work anyway.  I stocked. 

I asked Ron to put some leftover pastry in the freezer, and he started yelling.  It was warm.  Somehow the surge protector on our unit "tripped" and shut it off. 

Did it trip?  Was it flipped? 

Do we dare trust it with more product? 

That's a problem.  It would be awful to buy another hundred in cold food (we only lost, literally, one burrito, because I'd stocked the rest).  We got the freezer running again and I had the other problems, right at our pickup. 

About this time, our boss came by and said he wants to audit 2 reports.  Standard operating procedure.  AGH! 

Ron had called in our "other" wholesale order while I shopped the first warehouse.  We picked it up at the second warehouse.  Then we waited an hour and a half. 

People kept coming out and asking if we were "OK" and "Did we need anything?".  I had to explain, disabled, don't drive, we're waiting on a ride.  Since I had over $100 worth of inventory at my feet they didn't mind the loitering. 

I did get to meet our favorite customer service rep.  She's a really nice lady.  They were all REALLY nice. 

The pickup driver, again, a really nice person but terrible with "new" places.  She had it in her head she was looking for apartments, so she kept driving up and down the street.  When some of the wholesale company management, exiting a car, saw me waving at her, they started waving too.  And, she - kept on driving, looking for those apartments. 

They looked at me like "You have to ride with her?"  I gave a rueful grin and kept waving. 

She finally saw the massive logo on the side of the building and stopped. 

I never get upset.  One, I figure, if they're really dim it's abusing them, to yell.  If that really is their best then I have to accept it.  Two, if they're playing games "Oh, I didn't see you" "Yes you did"  I'm playing along if I get upset.  If I'm matter of fact and "happy to be going to my destination" that totally shorts out any game, and makes a driver who really didn't get it feel better. 

I also would like to have a reputation as a "good" client. 

Again, we had some merchandise, but she was so embarassed she didn't care, especially when I gave her a bag of chips. 

We got back to work.  I stocked some more.  I stocked the stock out of the vending machines. 

Of course, I fixed the snack machine first.  Ron and I disassembled the mech and I beat the cartridge against something until all the (jammed) coins flew out. 

One of the customers had been complaining that I had "All this new stuff".   This is a man who takes brown bagging to a whole new level.  I have never, in 13 years, seen the man buy a single item.  He likes to talk at us and do this rambling thing.  He would love to have a blog. 

The stuff I sell, sells.  No, we don't have any pickle chips, or plain pretzels.  That's the other vendor.  My people want cheesy.  They want hot and spicy.  Even better if it's cheesy and hot and spicy, so that's what they get. 

Me?  I like plain Ruffles.  But they stagnate, so I leave them at the warehouse.  I sell what they like, not what I like.  Unless it's a chocolate thing, I feel pretty safe doing that. 

Anyway, he kept saying we "didn't have any plain items" - I have at least 5 "salt-only", and about 10 non-spicy chips (plain cheetos, nacho bugles) total.   As he spoke, I began whacking the coin cartridge.  He started mumbling about me being angry - I said "I have to break up this coin [whack!] jam."  He left pretty quick. 

I also had a problem with backpack guy leaving his dirty backpack on top of my snack machine again.  I took it off, and put it off to the side on a rack (last time I put it on a nearby table).  He'll have to look for it, but only for a minute or two.  I left a note saying next time I would lock it up and he'd have to call us to get it back.  "Please use the provided racks to store your bag." 

If Ron had opened the vending machine, the bag would have fallen on his head.  God only knows what's in there.  It's huge, and very heavy.  It's not a lunch tote, either (I probably wouldn't care about that).  Not to mention, it makes the vending machines look very ghetto. 

The bag is filthy and very old. 

I'm trying to be professional.  Anyway. 

I stocked everything possible.  Snacks look fantastic.  The freezer is empty, but we still have soda in the fridge.  We couldn't stock it, but we didn't need to, really. 

One food machine can use a little work tomorrow, but the other one is fine.  Two of the soda machines are fine, one needs a vend motor (happening tomorrow). 

I was hoping to get tomorrow off, and work Saturday.  Oh, well. 

We'll be working tomorrow - repairman's coming. 

We also need to do accounting for the monthly report - we knew that. But we also need to do additional work for the audit.  They just want to make sure we don't have fake expenses. 

But it means I'll have a looong weekend.