"They must not hate you too much"

I had a Monday, alright. 

I didn't sleep well and woke up exhausted.  I reset the alarm to give myself some more time, and did my God Time later.  I had gone to bed with Torbie, but Biscuit was in my bed when I woke up.  Torbie tends to leave me in the early morning and seek treats from Ron. 

I took my shower, so glad I had shaved my legs yesterday, got dressed, and ate a protein bar.  We got picked up at 6. 

I was horrified when I looked at the trip computer and saw we were picking up "The pooper brothers" as Ron calls them.  They are twins, very developmentally delayed, wear adult diapers and "use it" on the vehicle.  They can also be combative and disruptive. 

Half the time, the one brother doesn't ride.  I don't see how they still have their service.  I can only assume they have a different rulebook for the developmentally limited clients. 

We got there early and the caregiver brought him out.  She loaded him into the vehicle and shoved a lunchbox in the backseat, next to Ron. 

For Ron's part, I told him not to do anything with his fannypack, the guy might want some of those interesting items for himself.  Ron closed it and crossed his arms over it so the guy couldn't grab anything. 

We had just gotten him in when sure enough, he lived up to Ron's nickname.  I could only hope they had him in a diaper.  Otherwise the driver was going to have a hell of a mess on her hands. 

The driver was pretty upset, rightly so, I think.  Why didn't the provider take him to the bathroom before bringing him to the van?  This is the second time I have witnessed the man have a bowel movement in transit.  It's something I'd like to avoid, you know? 

The driver said, at one point, one of them was playing with a knife and had scared the hell out of her other client.  I bet. 

We got to work and unloaded quickly.  I didn't want the guy "escaping" and running loose at work. 

We finally got inside and I got to work.  A customer came up to me, he was very angry because Soda #2 wouldn't take his money.  I find it endlessly amusing, a customer doesn't really care if the machine takes their money and doesn't give them the product.  They will mention it to me, casually, and I will pay them their refund with an apology.  But God help me if it doesn't accept their money, they get lived.  I find that funny. 

I opened it up.  No coin jam (that's the only thing I could fix).  I told him I was sorry, but I couldn't fix it (I probably should have added "right now").  He went off, upset. 

Ron called our repairman, who came out in a couple of hours.  We have a contract with Dr Pepper.  On their end, they provide 3 soda vending machines with free repairs.  On our end, we buy at least 30 cases of soda a month, and only stock 2 competitors per machine.  It's a good deal. 

So, Dr Pepper sent out our guy quickly.  It helped that I gave Ron the "asset number" when he called.  He came out and fixed it, and showed me how to reboot the board if needed.  It was working fine when we left.  Good. 

In the meantime, a woman bought a can of soda with a $1 bill (that was working) and got her change.  I told her about the guy, remarking I always thought people would be more upset about losing money, than a machine not accepting it. 

She didn't yell at me, but she was very rude: told me all the customers hated me, and talked about not using my machines at all.  Said I was very rude, "had an attitude", and no one liked me. 

I wanted to ask her if that was when I was making change for everyone, when I was paying refunds, or when I was stocking the machine.  I was a little shocked.  What a profoundly unhappy woman. 

I chose not to take it personally.  Now, when someone tells me a machine is not working, I do get a little upset at the machine, but maybe someone took it personally.  Or maybe she's just a miserable woman who hates me.  I don't know.  I was polite and told her to have a nice day, and when I saw her later I smiled at her.  She scowled. 

I told Ron about it, figuring he ought to know about the complaint.  Maybe I am "mean".  I don't think so, though.  I am always ready to drop everything and help a customer.  In fact, I tell Ron to wait on whatever he needs when I am helping a customer.  Ron quoted our last month's sales at me and said "They must not hate you too much". 

About then, sandwiches called, so I ran out to get the delivery.  While out there, I met the Dr Pepper repairman. 

There's something about sandwiches.  Whenever the delivery comes I always get the repairman, too.  It's funny. 

I got him in the building and he went to work. 

I stocked the sandwiches.  Ron only almost ran over the repairman once, he's getting better. 

He fixed the machine, showed me how to do the reset, and left. 

Come to think, it's a good thing that woman didn't complain to Ron.  He would not have responded well. 

Ron's big issue at work is the handicapped stall in the men's room by the Euro Sorter.  A Euro Sorter is a big oval, up in the air.  It has a conveyor belt on it.  There are bags on racks all around the machine.  When the item gets to it's destination bag, something opens and it drops down into the bag.  Usually.  Sometimes things fall on the floor. 

Anyway, they have a bathroom over there.  They have barricaded the handicapped men's room stall and Ron finds it upsetting.  He called his boss about it, asking them to fix it. 

That's the kind of thing that is better handled by the boss, than Ron.  Ron has no filter, remember. 

Someone came to me, complaining that Snack #1 (our best seller! sob!) wasn't taking change.  He implied he had done something wrong to cause this issue.  I didn't yell at him, I just opened the machine and tried to fix the coin jam.  If it's "on top" I can fix it, if it's in the unit, I can't. 

The coin jam was in the part that required disassembly.  I got him his chips and he left.  I put the machine (basically) out of order and had Ron call the repairman.  The guy has to come out for #2 anyway, I am down 4 coils on it and the lightbulb just burned out. 

I won't need to stock #1 tomorrow, that's about the only positive thing I can say about it. 

The repairman got back to us.  He could come and fix everything tomorrow morning.  I gave him the specs on the lightbulb for #2 and he said he would get it. 

I like snack #3 better, it has a strand of LED's for illumination.  It's more eco-friendly but I don't care about that.  It provides better, more reliable, light than the old florescent tubes. 

Done with work, we went home.  Kind of a discouraging day.  Yelled at, 2 machines down, riding with the Pooper Brother, at least we had a good ride home. 

I was so ready to take a nap, but the yapper was outside next door.  It barked constantly for hours.  Add to that, I had a severe allergy attack.  I need to wash my bedding and get rid of the dander.  Not a great nap. 

I reset the alarm and did my God Time later (but I did do it).  I got up and got dressed.  Ron wanted to go to the BBQ place.  We went, and had a pretty good time.  He did not spit out any teeth, or fillings.  He just ate his ribs and beans and had a good time. 

I had taken my pills earlier, and just had a little brisket with some mac and cheese.  The side dish was pretty forgettable but it didn't suck, it was just average. 

We had the same driver to go home.  She liked us.  We got home and I did my God Time.  I fed the cats and ran the washer on the "clean" cycle  The manual says to run the cycle once a month if you do less than 6 loads a month.  I do about 3 on average.  It looks and smells fine now, not that I had a problem before. 

I plan to do a load of clothes tomorrow.  Ron has the dentist on Thursday, that will take a while, so I really only have Wednesday off.  I want to be able to enjoy it without being neck-deep in chores.  We are supposed to have thunderstorms so I don't know about going to Walmart, but we'll see. 

Weather has a way of changing around here, quickly.