Dock 11

"That's right!" I shouted at the departing vending machine "That's the last time you'll rip her off!"  The customer laughed. 

It was a looong day. 

I had an exciting start.  If the family next door is gone, at night, their dog tends to get fairly hysterical.  She is pretty neglected anyway (fed, water, and shelter so nothing to "report").  I just figure a pet should be in the house and sleeping in the bed at night, but that's me. 

At any rate, I had to deal with hours of barking after I was supposed to be asleep.  I'd set my alarm for 2 AM.

I finally dropped off after 10.  You can imagine my shock and horror when Ron woke me up at 3:15.  I got the AM and PM mixed up (it went off during my nap!).  I need to apologize to him, I freaked out, yelling, running around. 

My hair was filthy because I'd skipped my shower yesterday.  One day, I will learn, never, ever skip it.  I also had to change my tampon. 

You can imagine my horror when the string broke.  I tried various maneuvers to remove it, but finally gave up and jumped in the shower instead.  No one would know about the tampon, but they'd sure notice my hair!  I got all the showering done and completely washed up. 

I gave the tampon another try, and gave a triumphant shout as I removed it.  Ron congratulated me from the other room.  [laugh]  We are crazy.  I got dressed, got my back brace, and ready to go.  Our ride was a little late, but as it turns out it didn't matter. 

We got into work.  We had a lot to do: stock, sandwich delivery and stock, soda delivery and stock, soda machine delivery and stock, removal of the old machine's inventory, change, and lock... install the lock into the new machine... you get the idea. 

The sandwich guy was back - he had a bad cold.  I'm glad to hear he is basically OK.  I handled that. 

I had jokingly suggested we'd get multiple deliveries at the same time.  That always seems to happen.  Sure enough, it did. 

I don't know who screwed up, but I was sent to the non existent "Dock 11" when they were at 111.  You can imagine the walk I had!  They delivered a machine to the other vendor, and then brought mine. 

I did everything necessary to "get rid of" the old machine.  A customer came up and asked for her quarter back.  The old machine hadn't dropped it. 

That's when I pointed at it, loaded onto the "Piano cart", getting dragged away, and shouted it would never rip off my customers again.  She got a good laugh out of it, and it's a good example of customer service. 

If it rips them off, get rid of it!

Seems obvious to me.

We got it loaded, boy that took forever.  We had to stock cold drinks first.  The machine vends the "lowest" soda first.  We put room temperature drinks on top of the cold ones, as usual.  They chill down quickly, being aluminum cans. 

The customers love the new machine.  They must have bought 4 cans of root beer, as I watched. 

The machine is great for several reasons.  It's a Vendo V-21.  It has a slide out loading rack, which we love, and the ability to hold tons of soda.  Our old machine would choke if we stocked more than a case at a time.  Frustrating. 

Today, we could finally stock a whole case of Mountain Dew (I would have done 2 but Ron said he was tired).  Wonderful. 

They aren't cheap, but it belongs to Dr Pepper.  We get to "borrow" it, as long as we fill it with primarily Dr Pepper products.  For instance, it has 10 slots.  We are permitted to sell 2 competitors.  Right now, that's Pepsi, and Mountain Dew.  We sell Coke in the other 2 machines.  Dr Pepper has tons of other good products like RC, Dr Pepper, Sunkist, and the ever-popular Root Beer (we are the only vendors selling it). 

So, that done Ron calls to arrange our ride.  We had to "put it on hold" because everything soda related, came late. 

In the meantime the postal workers were yelling at me about microwaves.  We have traditionally supplied microwaves.  However, the population is incredibly abusive and has destroyed, just counting our inventory, over $2,100 in microwaves.  In a six month period.  They just killed the last blind vendor microwave, and are demanding, quote "Ten more, Sharp, 1,100 Watt, commercial-grade microwaves"  That's about 11 THOUSAND.  To be destroyed in another 6 month period? 

With the economy the way it is, many people are brown-bagging.  They have a container of rice, another of meat, and one of vegetables.   Or maybe they have some takeout from a restaurant (my favorite on that, they come to me and demand I give them forks and condiments).  They want to heat all this up sequentially.  Now multiply this by a couple dozen people and you can see why we have a big traffic jam!  The brown baggers never, ever, buy any vending machine items. 

I don't know why they burn up the microwaves so fast.  Are they not cleaning them?  Are people trying to heat up foil items?  Both?  I couldn't tell you.

I can tell you what our boss replied when I told him about this "You are not buying any more microwaves.  The program is not supplying them, either.  If they have a problem, send them to me."  I've been telling them this when they complain, but they just shout at me, make threats, etc.  I did send him a "heads-up" text message. 

One guy from the union was so confrontational I was stammering.  I never do that.  I was very upset at myself, which is what he wanted, I'm sure.  He was laughing as he made threats to "have you thrown out of here".  I will be sending them to Ron from now on. 

It's actually kind of funny.  They killed 2 of their own microwaves.  No one complained.  They killed 3 of ours, no one complained.  They killed our last one, everyone's complaining.   I guess they hit critical mass. 

I could say a lot more, but I'll leave it.  1.  This could be read, printed up, and passed around.  2.  Not complaining! 

Last thought, though, when did people "have" to have microwaves?  I never had one available at any of my other jobs.  I just ate my food cold or got takeout.  I lived [shrug].  "First world problems". 

It's my hope management will buy several and put them out, like they did in 2009.  The customers were happy.  We were happy.  They lasted at least 5 years or so.  

Ron was so desperate to get home he called a subsidized cab.  The transit company pays the first $8 of the fare, then Ron pays the rest.  Ron also added a generous tip.  We got Lou, who's a great guy.  We got his card, too. 

We had a nice ride home.  I was completely exhausted, mentally wrung out, and feeling a little frazzled. 

I ate some cheese and crackers, discovering they work quite well with my evening meds, and took a nap for a few hours.  Except for the alarm, it was very nice!  [laugh]

No cats, except for Torbie jumping on me about the time I woke up (I was up, she jumped, and ran off).  I did find Biscuit sleeping in the doorway. 

I may or may not get pizza tonight.  I'm really tired, and pray I sleep OK tonight. 

We may be getting some more rain tonight, we'll see. 

At any rate, I do have tomorrow off.