Something to smile about

I've been busy at work the last couple days. 

Today was New Vending Machine - well, New To Me, day. 

First I had to have my repairman come and swap the locks out.  It has to go back to Austin with a lock and key. 

Most of our machines are keyed alike.  We're not handing out keys!  We do, however, have "junk" locks. 

He came, we did that. 

I stocked what I could, helped Ron. 

And waited. 

They said the new machine would arrive sometime this morning.  We got there at 6:51. 

We got bored.  I read my book, finished it, and began taking photos. 

Treats for the movers. 

Ron, with a bucket on his head. 

Ron, with the bucket, pretending to beg for money. 

The boss' assistant called, she was bringing the machines.  Happily the "manager" treat worked for either of them. 

They were "right around the corner".  Half an hour later, they came in, my "new" snack machine on a pallet jack.  I did a happy dance and called it "pretty". 

It's a Crane 160.  I was delighted to see it.  I have worked with one before (they took it due to poor sales), and liked it a lot.  It was well behaved and problem free.  I never had a complaint. 

It was old (fine) and in terrible condition (fixable), covered in grease and ick all over the glass, half the labels missing (how can you buy an item if you don't know it's A5, or the price?), old merchandise in the storage compartment in the bottom of the machine. 

I didn't complain.  I don't care that it's "old" (about 17 years old).  I cleaned up the other issues, polished the glass, cleaned out the THREE YEAR OLD products in the bottom of the machine, set prices, and made labels.  It looks a million times better, like I always had it. 

It's a good, reliable, machine.  That's what I need, that's what I got.  Praise God. 

After they left, of course I had to stock it.  I did that.  I was able to fill most of it with good products. 

The rest, I'll buy tomorrow, and it will look great. 

Snack one has a glitch.  Selection 22 doesn't work at all.  It's a control board issue, due to the power issues we had 2 weeks ago. 

[bad word] 

However, I have a homeless toy flamingo.  I will put him in #22 so I don't stock it, and the customers will have something to smile about. 

The boss said I could keep "my" coin mech, and the product pushers.  Those are hugely helpful.

I was glad I asked.  My motto: if I don't ask, it's stealing.

Since the door is literally hanging off the snack machine, it's clearly going to the scrapyard.  They would have let me keep anything I wanted.

All done, we went home.  I was exhausted.  I kept falling asleep.

When we got home, I put up the garbage cans and took a nap.  I slept a little over an hour.

Ron wanted to go out to dinner.  I said, sure.

I just remembered I have yet to take my medication!   GULP.  Done.

Oh, and I forgot.  I'm still having my period, so one point in my very long day found me in the bathroom, my (clean) hand groping inside my passage, trying to grab the elusive menstrual cup for emptying.  I finally got it, emptied it (looked like a massacre!), cleaned it up, and reinstalled, all praying desperately not to drop it in the toilet because I would never retrieve it.   Of course I washed, very well, before going back to work (at that point I was done stocking and only waiting on our ride). 

When we got home, I found a package from China labeled MENSTRUAL CUP in English and Chinese, in my mailbox.  That's a little awkward. 

I'm trying it out now.  We'll see how it works.  I washed it and dunked it in boiling water for a while. 

So, dinner: Ron called a cab.  We went to the restaurant. 

It's one of those places that invested, hugely, in decor.  It looked nice, and table service. 

The waitresses were barely dressed in skimpy tops and short-shorts.  But, as I told Ron "They can pull it off." 

When our waitress came by, Ron told her, earnestly "My wife told me about your uniforms".  She shot me a glance.  "It must be so hard to work in that long skirt!" 

She smacked hm on the shoulder and grinned at me.  We had fun.  The food was good, but not cheap.

"We're celebrating the new Snack machine" I told him.