Wool hoodie

Ron woke up as I got out of the shower. 

"How did you sleep?" he asked.  I didn't mention I'd had some trouble dropping off, I just said "I kept thinking I heard someone playing loud music, driving around." 

"Oh."  Ron replied.  "I heard it too."  Oh, it was real.  One of the fun things about living with a psychotic mental illness - I never know what the heck is real, or not, or is my brain just gone buggo again?

Anyway, I left my hair down.  It was very humid and I hate having hot, wet, hair on my head.  I don't use a hairdryer.  Ron used my last one to defrost our freezer at work. 

As it turns out, I should have put it up.  Yes, it looked nice, burgundy waves falling down around my shoulders to my waist, against my trademark black-pocket tshirt. 

But I felt like I was wearing a wool hoodie, with the hood pulled up! 

I was running, too. 

Our deliveryman and the repairman showed up at the same time.  I had to bring in the repairman and throw him at Ron, then dart off to the loading dock.  I got the sandwiches and came back. 

I stocked while the repairman serviced the bottled vendor.  Ron and I have decided it's easier to keep it running than to try to fix it.  Not to mention it makes the customers a lot happier.  He also had a look at a few other machines, then left. 

The next repairman showed.  This one was free, we have a contract with Dr Pepper. 

Most retail establishments have a "deal" with either Coke, Dr Pepper, or Pepsi.  The soda company loans a machine to the business, with the understanding it will be stocked with, in our case, 75% Dr Pepper products.  We also have to buy the Dr Pepper from them direct, at a set rate.  In our case we also get free repairs. 

We have a total of 3 machines at our primary location.  Yesterday, the bill validator on #2 wasn't working.  I checked the validator. 

Bill validators have flashing light codes.  Two flashes, for instance, means it's disconnected from the computer.  It had power but it wasn't talking to the motherboard.   I checked all the connections, the validator itself, and nothing. 

I told Ron and he called his lady at Dr Pepper.  She sent our guy out in an hour. 

Of course it was working today.  But he said we should replace the whole thing anyway because "We don't have any parts anymore, and your business is getting bigger now anyway."  He said the closed front bottle vendors are good machines, good to know, because I'm coveting one. 

I'd love to swap that old canned machine, for a bottle vendor.  But I may not know what I'm getting myself in for! 

I think my favorite Dr Pepper story would be the wreck.  One day our Dr Pepper delivery came very late.  The account rep was driving and very stressed.  "The original truck got in a wreck and your delivery is damaged.  If you accept it, as is, I'll give you $1 off a case on every order for a year."  We took it, it was shrink wrapped. 

Once we got the shrink wrap off sodas started falling and leaking everywhere.  The pallet had clearly been in a wreck!  We lost about half of the orange soda but in the long run we saved a lot of money. 

I had to wash a lot of soda cans, too. 

But I'm cheap.  Worth it. 

We got him done and off.  I stocked cold food.  Cold food was pretty weak when we came in, but we stocked Gatorade, orange juice, sandwiches, pudding cups, yogurt, you name it. 

We left work and went to the warehouse.  We got yogurt, some chips, and a case of Mountain Dew cans for Ron.  We also needed V8, which we quick-chilled in the freezer and then stocked into the cold food machine.  I got some cheap filler honeybuns to fill up the coils.  Glad I did.  I needed them. 

Snack # 2 has a very narrow coil in the pastry row.  I can only fill it up, pretty much, with a honeybun. 

We did pretty much everything we came to do, and left. 

We had really good rides all day.  It was a little scary, but maybe the extremely hot (feels like 100, already) and humid weather's a ride deterrent. 

I brought my folding chair and "made" Ron hold it so I had a place to sit.  I was very happy I did. 

I even got a nap when I came home.  Awesome. 

Still kind of depressed - I can tell because I count the minutes until I can go to bed.