Monday, July 11, 2016

Food machine business

I am beyond tired.  Please "to" forgive any spelling and grammar errors. 

I woke up at 4 AM.  Took my shower, ate my protein bar, took my pills. 

Went to work.  Ron dropped a case of Big Red on the floor.  Big Red is a caffeinated, red-colored, fruit flavored soda. We sell a lot.  Caffeine drinks do very well at work. 

Anyway, I had half a case of brightly colored red syrup all over the floor.  Agh.  It was all over Ron, me, and the wheelchair.  The custodian felt sorry for us and very nicely cleaned it all up. 

She was so sweet and helpful I just have to believe she knows Jesus.  She has "a servant's heart" as they used to say in my old church.  She was wonderful.  I praised her to one boss and had Ron call in a compliment to "the big man" in maintenance. 

Ron kept rolling back and forth in the goo, adding wheelchair tire tracks to the mess.  We got it cleaned up but what a mess.  He was far more careful stocking the rest of the sodas. 

I did snacks, which needed a lot.  I did all that, and then did the food machine.  We had a lot of trainees coming in today so I loaded the machine. 

We need to have the one machine taken away.  Half the time it does not accept money and it's just eating electricity.  It's a decent machine, but we just don't do that much food machine business. 

A good thing, too, generally they have a higher food cost than, say, snacks.  I can buy a bag of chips for 18 cents to a quarter.  I sell that bag for 70 cents.  You can see why vending machines are so popular. 

After everyone left, I went to work on the coffee vending machine.  I emptied the yuck bucket (waste pail) and filled the grounds, which were very low.  The wide bucket is harder to replace, but I figured out a trick.  If I take out the narrow bucket next to it, I can ensure the spout lines up with the hole.  Once I did that I replaced the narrow bucket, which I feel a lot more comfortable doing. 

I don't mind saying I pray a lot when working on the coffee vending machine, because it is a lot more complicated.  I got a nice compliment, by the way.  One of the customers was sitting one table over as I filled the grounds (open the mylar bag, pour it in, put the lid on) and said "Oh, that smells so good!  What is it?"  I told him, Community Coffee Dark Roast.  It brews up very well and even the repairman likes it. 

Once I finished that I had to help Ron run change, and do the Dr Pepper order.  That just means I counted everything, 5 of this 2 of that, none of those.  That way Ron knows what to order. 

The order is due Wednesday morning and we will not be working until Wednesday afternoon.   Ron will probably call it in tomorrow. 

A while back, a "new" sales clerk "messed up" Ron's order and sent everything to him as 12-packs instead of cases.  He was really pissed for a couple of days, then he realized it is a lot easier for him, he likes it, and he wants it this way from now on - so he requests them. 

And he gets them.  They are pretty good with Customer Service at Dr Pepper Bottling Company.  We had a Coke rep at one of our vendor meetings and they ate him alive.  Yike.  I'll take the distributor I know. 

Finally done.  Now I had to wrangle two huge canisters of coins into a sturdy bag and put them on the walker.  They money was going to sales tax, once we did a "coin dump" at the bank.  We went to the bank and did that, it took forever. 

I thought it was sad, there was a black guy sitting on the couches where people wait on the service reps.  He was sitting at one end.  Because we had some $1's for deposit, I placed Ron about 2/3 down so we'd have room to count.  A latino family came along when I was doing the coins and sat at the very end, so Ron was between them and the black man. 

I just thought it was sad that "everyone" was so scared of him.  He must have felt it, too. 

The black man was assisted (and he looked like he had a very expensive phone so I wasn't worried about him - I just don't like anyone too close when we are counting money - I would have done the same if he were a white guy in a suit), we counted the 1's, and I dealt with that transaction. 

We can finally start repaying savings for all the raids we've made lately, Torbie's surgery, the refrigerator...

And then today, the air conditioner.  Ron said it was making funny noises so he had called a tech to come out. 

First, we got some lunch.  Then we came home.  I did most of my God Time before the tech came out.  He had a look at everything. 

Everything was fine, except for one part about to burn out.  He showed me, it does look pretty crispy.  I trust the company, and, by extension, their tech, even though we hadn't seen this guy before. 

So we paid to have the part replaced and everything is humming along.   Good to know it's fine for now. 

We have had some hellish temperatures in the upper 90's, lately.  "It's not the heat, it's the humidity" - well, it's been pretty humid and extremely sunny too. 

I need to buy some more performance tshirts.  They are good in hot weather or cold, but they really shine in hot weather.  The ones by Dickies have a pocket, which I find very useful, too.  Best of all, they only cost about $10 each and have a decent range of neutral colors. 

By the time he left, it was 4 PM, so no nap for me.  :(  I am exhausted but I guess no more than usual. 

I already fed Biscuit his dinner but I need to clean the litter boxes.  Not looking forward to that but no one wants a filthy toilet. 

I also need to clean and fill the water bowls.  It's been hot and I'm sure the cats are feeling it. 

Tomorrow won't be bad, I hope.  We're just going to the pet store to restock on cat food. 

Ron's been really stiff today but says he did some unusual lifting the last couple days.  I'm hoping that's it.  If not, I'm going to have to drag him to a neurologist. 

It's hard to watch him suffer. 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My friend used to be in the vending business and she brought her change home to roll it ? Do you have to carrry your change back home? It is so heavy!i appreciate the info on your work, i never really knew what she did or how hard she worked until i read your blog! You work your asses off in vending! Plus you dont drive! Thats fortitude!

Unknown said...

Oh i commented yesterday but wanted to ask a kitty question? My soon as to be cat(s) will be indoor with a " catio" on the deck, you changed my husbands entire mind about kitties here with the catio, he loves the idea and drew plans already so while if a kitty comes to us sooner fine but once it is built we will search in ernest ...we have BAD traffic at the end of our road and lots of coyotes , i have never lived anywhere that did not have tons of strays kitties ...but here no stray cats ..i also live in an apparently very loving animal community as well folks are always doing things for animals here...but it is very .scary for kitties outdoors here...and we feed birds ...
So the plan ..i want to put the litter box in the garage and let them have " free run" in the attic and garage ( entry to attic in garage door to garage is in the kitchen ( i need love, fur to cuddle and a mouser! We do get mice that want to come in the house and i am not a fan!! , ) i would like to put a door in my door that both dogs and kitties will use? I am searching but overwhelmed there are so many opinions online! Since we are " preparing " now, may i tap your brain? You know so much about kitties! can you rec a type of door? ?..kitty will have full run of the house, garage, attic, and deck ....but not outside. Thanks Heather and really love your vending write up! You make us feel like we are there! ..thanks so much in advance for any more kitty info, the planning makes me feel like a kid again! Thanks oooxxx

Heather Knits said...

I don't know about the attic but we had a cat door going to the garage. Most cats seem more comfortable with an 8x11 inch door. That's what we have for our gang.

The change runs through the sorter, we count it in increments (say 100's, so we have 800 quarters). We take it to the bank and do a coin dump, loose coins in a giant sort of ziplock. Then they count it themselves, $200, goes into our account. That's the "new" way they do it at the really big banks. The smaller banks make you roll it, write your account number, and deposit that way.

Anonymous said...

thanks Healther!