I am, today

Today found me hunched over the coin sorter, hand in it's innards, trying to extract a dime.  It was quite a challenge. 

First, though, I got up late and took a shower.  I got dressed.  I took some aspirin for my headache.  It was supposed to rain so I wore my cheap Bible Handout shoes instead of my "good" ones.  We had a good ride to work. 

I didn't have a lot to do for snacks but I did what I could.  I got the sandwiches in the pouring rain.  I stocked them.  I forgot to empty the waste bucket on the coffee machine, I just remembered.  Oh, well, worst case it will shut down. 

The other vendor left and Ron decided to sort change.  He got to work on the sorter.  I was engaged in something else when I heard him hollering for me. 

You can imagine how I felt when I found he had taken the cover off the coin sorter, and had his hand in the mechanism, while it was still plugged in.  The machine even has a little icon showing a hand getting crushed where he was working. 

I yelled at him and made him unplug the coin sorter.  We took all the change out of the sorter (to be sorted) and I used the upside down and shake it maneuver. 

It's a very technical, professional, move, only used by the finest electronics experts (grin).  I picked it up and held it upside down.  Then I shook it vigorously.  We heard coins flying out of the mechanism and when I looked, all of the jammed coins were gone, except for the dime. 

The dime was tightly wedged at the inlet.  I tried to pick at it with my pocket knife but it wasn't budging.  Frustration.  I worked on it for a while and Ron and I yelled at each other.  I told him to try it, maybe it would work anyway. 

It didn't. 

I decided it was too crowded in the stockroom so I took the unit out to a table and sat down.  I found something that said "Up" and had an arrow indicating, I thought, that it swiveled up.  I was right.  Now I had better access to the coin.  I got it up at a 45 degree angle but it was still tightly wedged. 

After a little thought, I borrowed an adjustable wrench (he didn't have a set of needle-nose pliers) and managed to get a good grip on the coin.  I began yanking as a couple of electronic technicians watched. 

"Are you an electronic technician?" one of them asked. 

"I am, today."  They laughed with me. 

HA!  Gotcha ya little weasel!  I looked at the bent, scuffed coin and dropped it in my pocket.  I didn't want it going through the coin sorter again. 

I took it back to Ron, the triumphant technician returning with the repaired item.  It worked!  Thank God.  I really didn't want to send it off to be repaired. 

Especially if it was something we could fix.  That pretty much ate up our whole day, so we began preparing to leave. 

Ron and I have decided to stock a toolkit at work so that doesn't happen again.  If I had a set of pliers and some sort of pick, I could have fixed it a lot faster.  Of course, we agree, now that we're doing this we will never need to use the tools. 

Ron was very appreciative of my repair.  I probably saved him $100+. 

We went home.  It was still raining but I put him in a garbage bag.  I put it on him, upside down, so it covers him to his thighs.  Then he sits in the wheelchair.  It keeps him dry, he says he has plenty of air, and he doesn't need eye holes. 

We ate and I took a nap.  I slept really well.  The headache is still gone. 

We were going to go to Walmart this afternoon but Ron begged not to go.  He set up another trip for tomorrow. 

This, to my mind, perfectly describes paratransit: "We will have either 20 minutes, or an hour".  Yeah.  I'm hoping for the hour. 

I am thinking I might need to buy a new set of work shoes.  The heel cup is coming loose in my left work shoe.  It isn't bothering me yet but I don't want to wear shoes that are falling apart. 

They'd be fine to wear on a wet day, like today, when I don't want to ruin my "good" shoes.  Or I can leave them under a bus bench for a homeless person to scavenge.  I've done that plenty. 

I also need to get the stuff for the tool kit.  Maybe Thursday, we can clear out the underneath part of the snack machines and put all the "repair" stuff into one location.  I don't know why we haven't done this before. 

The cats can always use cat food but I am still OK for litter.  I just cleaned the box - boxes - before I sat down here.  Ron has a box in his room, that's his job.  I do the other 3. 

So, basically, it's my Friday night.  I get 2 days off which I plan to enjoy.  The weather will be nice, too. 

I "have" to make my deposit for the health insurance.  $385 probably seems like a good deal but I'm certain it's a crappy plan.  The only good thing about it was that I did get to keep my doctor.  All the crappy health insurance decisions run through him and I trust his training. 

OK, that's it for now.  Have a good one.