Sofabed

Weekdays are great.  The neighbor kids are all at school and it's quiet. 

Weekends can bring anything.  Today it was 3 strange cars in front of the neighbors house, yet another party in progress, and Ron and I upset they're "ruining the neighborhood". 

I've got NO problem with a party.  None at all.  I do have a problem with very loud mexican polkas blasting from speakers set right next to my bedroom wall.  Especially when it runs late at night. 

At any rate, a lot of kids screaming in the yard, ball repeatedly kicked against the side of my house.  The kids got the dog behind me worked up and he added a lot of barking and baying to the mix.  This went on for hours after we got home. 

I didn't sleep well last night.  I had so been hoping for a nap. 

I got up at 4, hit the snooze button a few times, and did my God Time later.  (Already done)

Our pickup was a little late, but the driver was nice.  I was horribly queasy from my medication (pretty unusual, these days).  I crawled on the van, so to speak, and hardly said a word.  The driver kept asking me if I was alright and then yelled at Ron - "What did you do to her?!"

I told her I was "OK" but very sick to my stomach from my crazy pills.

Now if I were a driver, I would not greet that statement with relief.  Mine did.  She apparently likes me a lot, and was very worried.

We went to the warehouse.  Ron had a very long list of sodas, nearly 30 cases.  I told him "I can't get this, and my snacks.  We're going to have to come back for snacks if I get all this."  

I was pretty frustrated.  For years, Ron would buy sodas and food inventory in preference to snack items.  The snack machines looked awful, as a result.  Not only that everyone complained and it made me look bad. 

No one cares if a soda machine is out of Dr Pepper.  Everyone cares if the snack machine is out of Snickers.  I'm a little touchy about it. 

So, I got what I could (not much).  I checked out, to a much smaller total than Ron had expected. 

That would be my missing snack items.  I did get the pastry.  Praise God my label gun is working again.  I sell a good 36+48+24 = 108 to 120 items a week.  They like my selections. 

We did have a problem.  Our ride had a head cold earlier this week but swore he was "better now".  Ron said he sounded better so I agreed to the outing.  However, when he picked us up he sounded very gravelly and coughed a lot. 

He caught me looking at him "I don't have a temperature" he told me "I'm not contagious."  He then proceeded to tell me about the wonders of zinc lozenges, which I knew about in 1999.  He touched Ron's wheelchair.  He touched some of the merchandise.  He got up close to the guy helping me and made "cute" comments, speaking into his face. 

I was riding right next to him. 

I sure hope I don't get sick.  I did have this:  Whey isolate gel.  It's good for the immune system and muscle recovery.  I also took some supplements. 

I tried to load a lot of the drinks onto the "long" folding cart.  It got stuck in the door and set off a horrific alarm.  I'm sure the police had a lot of fun laughing at me on the security camera. 

Ron was desperate to help, and he had already.  He said he wanted to get up in the truck bed and help me get the merchandise.  I told him OK. 

I'm overprotective.  I need to stop that.  Ron managed for 37 years before he met me. 

So, I told him, try.  Just don't fall out of the truck bed, I begged, or they'll all blame me.  Once he got in there, he remained seated. 

The other blind vendor was in an accident recently, and I told his wife "I know what it's like to have people blame you for something that was never your fault."  She agreed with a wry laugh.

Ron was careful, and got up in there while I got my carts.  Probably a good thing I didn't see that. 

He shoved the cases toward the tailgate, I loaded them onto the carts.  It worked great and Ron felt wonderful about "helping". 

"I hate walking around in that truck bed" I told him.  "I get dizzy and I don't feel safe." 

After I had all the drama with the alarm - horribly triggering for PTSD, not to mention embarrassing  - I loaded the (heavy) drinks onto the 3 shelf metal carts and left the lighter things on the longer metal cart. 

I got it all inside, that took a while, and gave Ron my back brace.  I only use it for the heavy loading stuff, like handing cases of water up to the nice helper at the warehouse. 

I finished my gel.  I had a little adjustment to the texture but I like it.  I'm glad I have another one.  I plan to use it for my next heavy delivery day. 

Snacks looked OK, but the food machines were pretty weak.  I stocked some ramen, burritos, and sandwiches.  I helped Ron with canned and bottled sodas. 

All the machines were working. 

During the height of our coffee drama, I told Ron I wanted to buy some K-cups, cream packets, and sugar packets.  I wanted to put a cream and sugar packet into a cup, then set a K-cup in front of it, on a shelf in the food machine.  That way the customers had another option - they wouldn't have to use the coffee machine to make a cup of coffee. 

The plant manager bought two Keurig brewers.  Why not utilize them? 

We've sold hundreds of "K-cups".  I had to put out a couple more dozen today, and I just did them yesterday.  Ron has thanked me repeatedly, for the idea.  It saves a lot of wear and tear on the coffee machine. 

I want to keep them available.  And, at the lowest denominator, they take up 3 shelves in the food machine.  No one likes that food machine, for food, but they love it for K-cups. 

Our supervisor says "Sell what they want to buy", so we do. 

I got some of my stuff put up and then wedged everything into my corner of the stockroom.  I have several milk crates in an L-shape.  I have the folded mag-liner (a folding metal cart) wedged in front of the Dr Pepper cans.  The sodas follow my "long" wall, sitting on their milk crates (health laws). 

On the wall opposite my door, I have 2 metal racks, about 6 feet tall and 18 inches deep.  I have the bottled drinks and my snacks literally stacked to the drop ceiling.  I also have 2 huge cases of coffee cups on there, too.  I still have a tiny amount of room left, so I put one rolling metal cart facing one wall, loaded with merchandise, in front of the sodas.  I have another cart lined up in front of my racks, wedged up against the sodas, also loaded with stuff. 

I may only have 35 square feet, but I use it!  I just praise God I have on site storage.  The other vendor has the other 3/4 of the stockroom, but he also has 25 more vending machines. 

All that done, we left.  We had a good ride home. 

"I don't think she was expecting to like me" I told Ron, about the driver.  But she did. 

We came home and I could see some strange cars in the street, kids running around.  Oh, no.  Another party. 

I ended up yanking out my pull out loveseat.  I had a decent nap with Torbie during a lull in the festivities.   She's such a sweet, lovely cat. 

They're in full party mode, wandering around in the yard.  We have horrific mosquitoes right now.  I'm amazed they aren't getting eaten alive (I'd be). 

The music is pretty loud, but because it's a child's party, I assume it will end up pretty early. 

I just wish I could get a good 10 hour sleep. 

People in hell want ice water. 

Ron and I worry he will "drag the neighborhood down".  As I said earlier this week, no one else in the neighborhood has loud music during birthday parties.  You might see an inflatable bouncy house and hear the kids, but that's it. 

Ron did call the homeowner's association, they'll send him a "bad boy letter".  "No loud parties". 

Sad people have to be told. 

Don't get me wrong: I'm happy for the kid, happy everyone is healthy and energetic.  Overall I like them.  We could have far worse next door. 

I just wish they could turn it down.  I'm also a little worried they put their trampoline next to my house.  The safety netting is all ripped, and useless.  They tore it off.  One of the uprights is severely bent.  So the thumps I heard were probably kids bounding right into the side of my house. 

I'm not real happy about that.