Good turds

After my last post, we went to the bank, went to Sam's Club for inventory.  I bought myself some air fresheners. 

I have been very disappointed with wax melts.  What a messy pain in the butt. 

I'm sticking to the plug in and airwicks. 

I also got lots of crackers, sour gummy worms, and peanut M&M's for my customers.  I need to get more peanut butter M&M's.  The customers seem to like them as much as I did. 

Until the migraines. 

We went to work and all appeared well, until... we went in the doors and they had the wheelchair door blocked off, waxing or polishing the floor.  They had solution all over, and a buffer. 

Ron blew his top.  I talked him down and told him "I'll just leave you here" (poor custodians!  I'm sorry!) "And go stock." 

I did just that.  Ron apparently spent the next hour complaining so much they got him, the wheelchair, and a case of V-8 through the turnstile. 

In the meantime, I did all of his work and most of mine.  We didn't need much, but the machines did need work.  One of my machines was acting up, and another one needed the change bank filled.  I had to stock all those crackers (nearly 100), gummy worms, etc.  I was pretty busy. 

Then I mashed up all the cardboard and put it in the dumpster. 

About halfway through doing snacks, Ron rolled into the cafeteria. 

"You again?"  Ron grinned. 

He inspected my work and finessed the canned sodas a bit.  "I was doing a triage stock" I told him. 

When we don't have a lot of time, take an empty coil.  That's a red.  A coil that's nearly empty would be an orange.  A nearly full coil, on the other hand, is a yellow. 

Ideally all colors get stocked, but when paratransit shorts me 2 hours on my stocking time I may only get the reds and oranges. 

The machines looked a lot better when I left. 

Everything looked fine, was behaving.  The third shift liked seeing us. 

We went home and waited a while on the plumbers.  They finally showed up. 

Ron wants me to tell you he called Roto-Rooter.  They told him they didn't know how much the drain line cleanout would run, even though we told them we had access, and one toilet.  We found that deeply disturbing. 

I found an online special with ARS.  $50.  Ron called them and was very happy with the people.  They confirmed $50 and said they would work us in today. 

Considering I had raw sewage in my bathtub, that sounded pretty good. 

They came.  They spent about 10 minutes working and I heard very familiar snake noises. 

I have always lived in houses with bad plumbing.  My first home had clay pipes.  They had to tear all that out and redo it when I was about 9.  We moved when I was 10.  That house had terrible plumbing, so bad Dad had to buy his own snake. 

I used to hear him snaking the pipes, and cursing (he wasn't reached yet), late at night.  He hated those pipes. 

The plumber who did the contract work for the home builder did such a bad job, he killed himself when the homeowners sued him.  Well. 

Then I moved in with Ron and we lived in the ghetto for 12 years.  You can imagine. 

Our house has had trouble with the toilet drain from the start.  Ron used to malign my bowel movements. 

Tonight, he apologized.  I "tearfully" told him "You said they were bad, but they were good turds."  He laughed so hard he almost fell out of his wheelchair. 

He was very appreciative, partly for my attitude toward all the plumbing stuff,  and for "all the work I did" today.  Neither, to me, is a big issue. 

I don't want to be the ugly, hateful, impatient, person.  I don't want to be a martyr and make people "pay" for "services rendered". 

I want to be a good example of God's love, flawed but repentant, working to better myself every day. 

After the plumber left, I did a massive cleansing on the tub.  Ron washed out the portable commode.  He's a good man.  I finished that job, but he did all the awful, gagging, work. 

That would have been a good title.