Why Are You Like This?

 There's a certain frustration that follows when people can't follow directions. 

And really, it's probably part of the reason why I didn't post for a couple of months. 

Because a lot has been happening at work that was and has been stressful. 

And when I'm stressed out and don't really want to face my thoughts....I don't write. Because writing is how I process my thoughts. 

In any case. 

Part of that current frustration involves one of my fellow managers.

Who was my equal position wise, but I just recently jumped up to a higher manager position putting me over them in the tier of managers. 

And this manager... did not take the news well when they found out.

Which was a bit of a ??? moment for both myself and the head manager.

Because this management position has been open for months because for various stupid reasons it took forever to get through the interview process and to get approved to get bumped up to a higher position what with all the recent management changeovers work decided to do earlier last year. 

In any case. 

We had no idea this manager was interested in the open position.

Because they NEVER ASKED ABOUT IT. 

The closest to bringing it up was a complaint of "when is this position going to be filled?!" to which my head manager had responded "when I get applications and interview them then I'll fill the position" because with the new process we actually have to do the whole official apply online procedure and get interviewed and such rather than the old way where it was more of a 'here's quick interview click click your position is now changed!" 

In any case. Beyond that one singular comment this manager did not bring up wanting the open position AT ALL. 

And we kinda figured it would be a position that they would NOT want to apply for anyways because 

1. That position requires the manager to close once a week. Which this manager does not like closing and 2. Requires that you cannot work before a certain time. And this manager would much rather work early morning shifts...which the open position does not do early mornings unless there is no one else available. 

Plus this manager is just frankly...unqualified for the position because it's over a much larger aspect of the store that requires communication and organization and being comfortable in petcare as well as being comfortable with working the inventory in the store. 

So all in all not a good fit.

And yet. 

They were upset that they were never 'told' that the position was open. 

Like....pretty sure the manager LEAVING was the official opening, but also like they had asked WHEN we were getting the position filled and head manager had said "WHEN I GET APPLICATIONS" 

Like that had to be clear enough???

In any case.

The main frustration from this manager comes from the fact that they Cannot. Do. Their. Freaking. Job. or Follow. Freaking. Directions.

Like I am doing my best to communicate and to keep open channels so I can make sure the store is being run properly on my side, but this manager is refusing to play ball without some serious teeth pulling. 

I tell them to text me what tasks are left and they don't.

I give them a list of tasks that should be completed in a single shift.

And they don't complete them.

And more and more it's like "can we leave you alone to actually be a manager or do you need to be held by the hand and watched the entire time.' because we keep finding things and we're like ??? "how long have you been doing that for?" 

Like yesterday when I discovered there was a potential issue with the registers and when I asked "Were any of the registers off this morning?" to this manager expecting to hear "yah register # was short" and instead got "Yah all of them were off." 

When I knew head manager had closed the night before and therefore the registers should not be SHORT ANY MONEY beyond the maybe potential ONE register due to a different manager error a couple of days previously....

Only to have head manager RECOUNT all the tills and discover that no. NONE of them were short. They were ALL ON.

Which meant this manager had managed to MISCOUNT MULTIPLE TILLS and DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT to anyone until I had asked.

Makes me wonder just how often the tills are off when they open when they're actually on. It's just.....

It's just been so frustrating dealing with this manager.

And I can't tell if they're doing it on purpose because they're unhappy with me being the manager over them....or if they were really this incompetent the entire time.

Like I'm guessing it's more of the latter. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bit of the former because I'm quite open in trying to talk with and communicate with my coworkers and fellow managers. This manager? You can work a week with them and hear maybe 5 words.

So yah.

It's been a frustrating couple of months. 

Especially with the holiday crazy on top of it. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

All The Noise Noise Noise

 It's probably the lack of great sleep the last couple of nights. Like...New Years Eve I kept getting woken up by people texting me early in the morning and then last night I went to bed late and had an early shift...but like.....today was a day of feeling overstimulated. 

Which I'm saying is probably due to the lack of proper sleep allowing my brain to properly rest.

Because for the most part....being at work had the mostly normal amount of stimulation in the store. The occasional customer deciding to be annoying with the squeaky toys. The random string of multiple phone calls in a row. The cashier being chatty on the radios randomly. 

It's all noise that I'm pretty used to.

But today it just...was getting to be a bit too much.

And I think it was because of the wild birds stuck in our store.

As you see, we have two of them currently.

Because we keep our pallets outside in a little padlock area. And in the fall time, birds like to hang out in them. And if you're not careful...you can accidentally bring the birds inside the store when bringing the pallets back in the store to load in on the truck we send them back to the DC on....and let them loose. 

Which is what happened earlier this fall.

One of my managers didn't make sure there weren't birds in the pallets before bringing them in.

And now we have two wild birds once again loose in the store for the winter.

Because they won't fly out until the spring.

Because even though we've had like no snow whatsoever this year. The inside of the store is still warmer than the outside. So the birds, with free food and free water and no predators...are quite content to hang out. 

Which overall isn't that big of a deal.....when they're quiet.

But the last few days at least one if not both birds have gotten super vocal. Singing and chirping for ages above us.

And it's LOUD. And constant. And doesn't STOP. 

And apparently is just one straw too many for me when I haven't had enough sleep and have been dealing with work related stress for the week. 

Because I was sooooo overstimulated with the birds today. Sooo overstimulated.

I literally wanted to find something to throw at the birds just to get them to shut up so I could have some quiet for a bit because the noise was tensing me up. 

And I'm grateful that I don't have to be at work for the next few days so that I can hopefully get enough restful sleep and time away from people and socialization needs that I can unwind, relax, get my zen back and not be overstimulated when I get back to work.

Because I do not need the migraine thank you very much.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

2026 Decisions

 I came across a post a couple of days ago that said something like "There's literally no rules saying your New Years resolutions can't be for evil." 

Which at the time I thought was funny and I was like "what would I do if I made an evil resolution?" which honestly I couldn't think of anything that i wanted to do. 

But like.

The thought did keep crossing my mind today that some people DID wake up and choose violence on the first day of the new year.

Metaphorical violence in my case. Though I've seen plenty of news stories about actual violence. 

But like.

It's New Years Day right?

The day after New Years Eve.

The night where people STAY UP LATE to party. Like until at least midnight but more likely until at least 1am people are staying up if they've ventured out anywhere. 

Me. I was home by 1 am because I had to work today. So even though I was out until midnight with family and friends. I was being careful to give myself enough time to get home that I would still be able to get enough sleep to be fine at work this morning. 

And you would THINK that knowing that people stayed up late that the next day no one would really be in contact until like...later in the day.

Like bare earliest would be the typical 9 am time frame. 

AND YET. 

I got woken up multiple times before my alarm went off by people TEXTING ME. 

And some of them I could forgive. Like older relatives who get up at the crack of dawn or friends in other time zones who may have forgotten the time difference. 

But I had like SIX different people texting all before 9 am. 

The one text I was most annoyed by though was my freaking guy manager.

Who I had told on TUESDAY to text me on WEDNESDAY what he'd gotten done during his shift so I could continue on with projects and know what got completed and what didn't. 

Did he text me Wednesday?

No, he decided that it was best to text me at SIX IN THE MORNING on NEW YEARS DAY. 

Like the morning after everyone has PARTIED ALL NIGHT AND SHOULD BE SLEEPING IN. 

Yes. I had to work. But dude. CHECK THE SCHEDULE And SEE THE TIME I WORK. 

I wasn't in the store until 9. You could have texted me much closer to that time.

Like granted we're usually in the store about 7 am. But like it's a HOLIDAY the hours are DIFFERENT TODAY. 

So yah.

I was irritated.

Like dude WHY. 

*exhales*

So yah. Apparently some people did wake up today and decide to be inconsiderate to others and their sleep schedules. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

WATER

 It's not often you have that "We're gonna die!" moment but today sure felt like that.

So there we were, driving back from looking at some Petroglyphs up at Sego Canyon, headed back to Moab where we could see the heavy clouds of a storm coming towards us. Ones that indicated that rain was coming. 

Which there was quite the thunderstorm this morning that woke me up with how loud the thunder was....but we managed to overall do all the 'fun activities' between the rainstorms.

Now though, we were heading right back into one.

Not usually a big deal since it's just rain.

But there was a slight concern because even from a distance the rain looked....heavy. 

Like you could see the wall of water approaching.

And by the time we reached the canyon just before you reach Arches National Park....we got hit with a deluge.

Like Rain so heavy that even with the wipers going at full force you couldn't really see what was in front of you because the rain was so thick.

I was halfway convinced we were going to die or crash because it was so loud, Daddoo--who was driving--- couldn't hear me telling him to GET OVER behind other cars where at least I could see their red lights and he was still going pretty fast I was like "SLOW DOWN MOVE OVER SLOW DOWN"

And we drove through what was the beginning of like a flash flood/mud crossing over the highway too which I could barely see that we were driving through it before Daddoo had plowed through it with the car...which we were lucky because they ended up briefly closing the canyon later on. I'm guessing because of how heavy the rain was and I'm guessing the water crossing the road had gotten deeper and faster and wider. 

In any case.

We made it through down the canyon and to the Entrance of Arches where the weather had rain and hail mixed together but also it was raining heavy enough that we could see waterfalls on the cliffs. So braving the crazy we drove up into the park to see the waterfalls there and it was AWESOME. Especially around the 3 gossips area. 

But also kinda stressful because there was lightening and thunder all around so there was always the thought whenever I stepped out of the car--because I was on the wrong side of the car to get pictures by just rolling down my window- of ''hope I don't get hit by lightening" because some of that sounded so close.

Not deafening but it's always stressful to see the lightening flashing from the corner of your eye. 

Still. A fun experience overall that we don't often get to see when visiting the park. So yay waterfalls!

Until you next find these words;
i'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Quiet Hike

 You know, I've kinda, unwillingly gotten used to Arches National Park being busy. 

Since the pandemic hit back in 2020 and more people were 'working from home' it also seemed to increase people's ability to travel more because as long as they had an internet connection they could 'work' from anywhere.

So the parks saw a sharp increase in visitors. To the point where Arches would be 'filled' by like 10am some days. To the point where they were like "we need to do timed entry things" 

And visiting it seemed like there were always a steady stream of people on the trails. 

It used to be where you could hike the longer hikes and barely see anyone else.

But then it became pretty common to see people even on the less common trails.

So I've unwillingly gotten used to having people all over. 

So imagine my surprise this morning when it felt like....well like the 'old days' 

Because my Daddoo and I hiked out to Dark Angel today and we left pretty early in the morning, getting to the trailhead around 830 or so. And like the parking lot wasn't crammed full. We could easily find a spot because there were plenty of spots. 

And hiking was so nice.

Like yes, there were more people on the trail to Landscape, but after that point? The people on the trail dwindled down to basically nothing. 

Like we only had like a couple of people in front of us. Maybe had a handful of people pass by us on their way back to the parking lot.

And when we reached Double O arch? 

There was NO ONE there.

Which is basically unheard of. Like usually there's always someone hanging out at the arch there. Kids playing. You have to wait to take pictures and time it so that no one is in the shot. 

But NO ONE was there. 

It was crazy.

It was awesome.

So awesome to have such a quiet trail.

I bet the primitive trail would have been even quieter than the main trail, though we just did the straight up and down version this time around as Daddoo wasn't sure how great of shape he was in as he's been recovering from various things the past few years. 

So we took the 'easier' route to get to Dark Angel and back to the parking lot.

And it was so nice to just....enjoy not having people about. To just encounter one or two people on the trail instead of a steady stream.

Admittedly by the time we finally decided to head back to the parking lot the steady stream of people had begun to arrive where we were always encountering someone. 

But the hike out?

So peaceful.

So quiet.

It was great.

I really hope it goes back to being that way.

Though honestly it may be just because we were hiking in the middle of the week lol. As last weekend was Fall Break and the park was super crowded...and I suspect this weekend will be more crowded too. 

But for the fact that with the Government Shutdown making it so that the park is open but you don't have to pay anything to enter it...having the hike be basically empty? That was nice. So nice.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Side Quest

 So Utah had this quest start earlier in the month. A Pin Quest.

Where there are 10 pins related to important aspects of the park that you could go to certain places -museums and the like- to collect for free.

And the people who put it on were rather smart because they gave each pin multiple locations you could pick them up at. So that it would hopefully give more people an easier time to reach more of the pins without having to drive through the entire state to get them.

And while there were a good handful of locations located relatively close to me, I ended up being a bit too busy with work and exhausted after work to venture there. 

Plus considering when they did the Pin Quest earlier in the Summer and it 'sold out' within 48 hours....I had no idea how quickly pins would go.

But. Here in the Moab area, Utah Raptor State Park -which became a State Park just this spring, was one of the locations that had one of the pins.

And with it being in a more out of the way location....I thought there might be a chance there would still be a pin there. 

Hard to say with Fall Break this past weekend....but still. It was worth a shot to go check it out.

Which I stated I wanted to go look at Raptor State Park but didn't say WHY I wanted to go there beyond wanting to go there.

Because I figured the moment I said "I want to see if I could get a free pin there." 

It would be more than likely that there would be no pins at all.

So best to check it out and ask quietly if the pins were there and if they were great! And if they weren't oh well at least I didn't disappoint anyone else but myself and could still enjoy the place otherwise. 

BUT!

They DID have the pins!

So ha!!

So I got 1/10 pins. XD lol. And it will probably be the only pin I will get from the pin quest unless they do another release of it in the spring or something.

But still. Nice to have a bit of success.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Shopping Ever Shopping

 Shopping in Tourist Towns is always an experience because like...you never really shop they same town twice. There are, of course, stores that have been there in business since before you were born that are like staples to the touristy shopping experience, but then there's the rest of the shopping area where there's shops that you literally go to once and by the time you're there next time...they're gone and replaced by another store. Some may last a year or two longer....but yah....there's always shifting trends and changing store fronts in tourist towns.

Like there used to be more crystal rock shops here in Utah, you could find like two or three that sold just rocks...now there's just one, the oldest one that's been there since before you're born. While the rest are gone and the other stores maybe just have a tiny section. 

And even the staple shops have changed a bit. Like rearranging the insides some areas are more crowded others are less crowded.

And I'm sure the stupid Tariffs are affecting some of it. But the rest? Who knows. It could be changing trends it could be changing owners, it could be a variety of things.

But it is interesting just what you find and don't find every time you come into a tourist town, especially if ti's one that you visit basically every year. Like is this one store still there? Are there any new stores that have opened?

It's kinda fun. But also kinda frustrating. Especially when it feels like things are trending to being more expensive and 'fancy' rather than down and dirty. Though it does depend on the store you walk into I suppose.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi