So while I was gone on vaca, we ended up with a new fridge.
Because well....our old one -that came with the house mind you- apparently had a hole in it.
Not quite sure where this hole was.
But basically one day our ice machine stopped working, and then the water machine stopped working, and then we called in the repair guy....
And he looked at it and basically said that someone had created a hole back there...and the pipe/tube thingys had worn out and basically....We needed a new fridge.
Sooooo
We got a new fridge!
And its interesting....
What sort of technology they put in fridges in this day and age.
Because there I was, leaving the fridge doors open while I was putting away groceries.
When I hear this noise.
Like a ring tone sort of noise.
Only...my roomies usually keep their phones on vibrate.
And....none of them were home.
I also couldn't see any accidentally left at home phones here either.
And after narrowing down that it wasn't a phone, and wasn't the security alarm....
I realized...
Well the fridge was open....and the sound started after I opened the fridge.
So I looked. and there on the area where you can choose your ice/water options.
Was a flashing light saying ALARM!!!
So I shut the doors....
And the odd musical ringtone noise stopped.
Apparently they've now placed a feature in fridges where an alarm will go off to alert you when the fridge has been left open.
Which is quite handy, as we've actually had problems with that in the past, of the freezer or the fridge door not being shut firmly enough.
So that's cool that our fridge is looking out for itself!
...but yah....still kinda weird though. New things are weird.
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Saturday, June 30, 2018
Friday, June 29, 2018
Past Encounters
Do you ever have random thoughts about strangers you've seen/met/interacted with in the past?
I had one of those today at work as I was putting out our fish shipment.
Specifically when I was putting some otocinclus into their tank.
As I remembered earlier this year, a woman had come into the store looking for them...only to be confronted with an empty tank as they'd been difficult to get in stock the first like...three months of the year?
And when she'd come in....we hadn't had them again. And she was like "You haven't had them all year!" To which I responded "No we got them in a couple of weeks ago because I bought them then." And she was like "NO YOU HAVEN'T BECAUSE I'VE COME INTO THE STORE EVERY WEEK AND YOU HAVEN'T HAD THEM!"
…..but I had....
In any case.
I remembered her today as I was putting out those otos.
And I had to wonder....
Did she ever buy any?
More specifically did she ever attempt to buy any from our store?
I mean we've had them in stock off and on multiple times now.
So...has she still only managed to come into the store when the otos aren't there?
Or did she actually see us have them in stock for once?
….Who knows.
I certainly don't.
But I do wonder if she did.....
I hope she did.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
I had one of those today at work as I was putting out our fish shipment.
Specifically when I was putting some otocinclus into their tank.
As I remembered earlier this year, a woman had come into the store looking for them...only to be confronted with an empty tank as they'd been difficult to get in stock the first like...three months of the year?
And when she'd come in....we hadn't had them again. And she was like "You haven't had them all year!" To which I responded "No we got them in a couple of weeks ago because I bought them then." And she was like "NO YOU HAVEN'T BECAUSE I'VE COME INTO THE STORE EVERY WEEK AND YOU HAVEN'T HAD THEM!"
…..but I had....
In any case.
I remembered her today as I was putting out those otos.
And I had to wonder....
Did she ever buy any?
More specifically did she ever attempt to buy any from our store?
I mean we've had them in stock off and on multiple times now.
So...has she still only managed to come into the store when the otos aren't there?
Or did she actually see us have them in stock for once?
….Who knows.
I certainly don't.
But I do wonder if she did.....
I hope she did.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Praying for Yourself
My dear brethren of the priesthood, though we are from many nations, we are, as Paul said, of "one Lord, one faith, one baptism."
But the strength of the faith within each of us is developed individually, not as a group.
For example, think of the faith of a boy, about eight years of age, who was facing an emergency operation for acute appendicitis.
As he lay on the operating table, he looked up at the surgeon and said, "Doctor, before you begin to operate, will you pray for me?"
The surgeon looked at the boy in amazement and said, "Why, I can't pray for you."
Then the little fellow said, "If you won't pray for me, please wait while I pray for myself."
There on the operating table, the boy got on his knees, folded his hands, and began to pray.
He said: "Heavenly Father, I am only a little orphan boy.
I am awful sick, and these doctors are going to operate.
Will you please help them that they will do it right?
Heavenly Father, if you will make me well, I will be a good boy.
Thank you for making me well."
He then lay on his back, looked up at the tear-filled eyes of the doctors and nurses, and said, "Now I am ready."
His physical recovery was complete, and his spiritual power was developing.
-Russell M. Nelson -Personal Priesthood Responsibilities -October 2003 General Conference
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
But the strength of the faith within each of us is developed individually, not as a group.
For example, think of the faith of a boy, about eight years of age, who was facing an emergency operation for acute appendicitis.
As he lay on the operating table, he looked up at the surgeon and said, "Doctor, before you begin to operate, will you pray for me?"
The surgeon looked at the boy in amazement and said, "Why, I can't pray for you."
Then the little fellow said, "If you won't pray for me, please wait while I pray for myself."
There on the operating table, the boy got on his knees, folded his hands, and began to pray.
He said: "Heavenly Father, I am only a little orphan boy.
I am awful sick, and these doctors are going to operate.
Will you please help them that they will do it right?
Heavenly Father, if you will make me well, I will be a good boy.
Thank you for making me well."
He then lay on his back, looked up at the tear-filled eyes of the doctors and nurses, and said, "Now I am ready."
His physical recovery was complete, and his spiritual power was developing.
-Russell M. Nelson -Personal Priesthood Responsibilities -October 2003 General Conference
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Returning to a Forest Fire
I always return to work with some trepidation.
Because when I'm gone for long periods of time...it always seems like something drastically changes, or something goes majorly wrong.
So I spend the first day back from vacation figuratively putting out the fires in the store.
*exhales*
Normally it's small things. Like a broken lock, or a sick animal or something.
But today's return to work?
Was like trying to put out a forest fire.
There was so much new and so much wrong/broken that...well I really wanted to turn around and head right back to the East Coast.
a) We have a new dress code at work now. We can wear blue or black jeans with our work shirts.
b) Half of our hamster wheels got replaced because a customer apparently complained that our wheels were 'too rusty' so a good half dozen or so plastic wheels were written off to replace them.
c) Our backrooms had further been reorganized so I wasted a lot of time hunting down items I needed.
d) I couldn't find our bucket of dirt used for the reptile bedding changes ANYWHERE. …….I later found it in the fridge of all places. O.o *shakes head*
e) Our goldfish cooling system had officially been deemed broken (it was getting so hot in the tanks that the goldfish were jumping out of the water) and the machine had been replaced the day before.
f) The bird door lock once again broke (I expected this to happen, it always breaks when I take long vacas), but I couldn't fix it because one of the key components to the lock had vanished.
g) We finally found the missing connector piece to the gravel vacuum so for the first time in like a month we could finally gravel vacuum our tanks.
h) I hit my elbow, while working with said gravel vacuum, hard enough that its still sore.
i) The hinge to one of our reptile cage/locks broke
j) The bottom of our Tortoise tank has come loose....so we need to find a way to fix it...or get it replaced.
k) One of my coworkers has been banned by the head manager from working with the birds. -Because they had a bad allergic reaction to the bedding we use for the birds.
l) We can't use the radios for anything but Customer related conversations now. So if you have to ask your coworker a work/task related question you're supposed to go find them and ask them in person...instead of using the radios. (Such a stupid rule.)
m) Our birds in our back rooms hadn't been put out onto the floor (even though all of them could have come out like a week ago. *exhales*)
n) The whiteboard in our back room that we use to communicate to each other has been taken down....because too much unnecessary communication was taking place. (now how are we supposed to let our coworkers know things?? *shakes head* Let's just add to our communication problems)
o) Our District Manager decided to visit AGAIN. Soo there was all that stress too.
Like....can you see why I wanted to go back on vacation?
Because that is ALOT of issues after me being gone just a week.
*exhales*
Hopefully tomorrow's work shift is better. Because if it's another crazy day like this...I dunno how well I'll be able to handle it.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Because when I'm gone for long periods of time...it always seems like something drastically changes, or something goes majorly wrong.
So I spend the first day back from vacation figuratively putting out the fires in the store.
*exhales*
Normally it's small things. Like a broken lock, or a sick animal or something.
But today's return to work?
Was like trying to put out a forest fire.
There was so much new and so much wrong/broken that...well I really wanted to turn around and head right back to the East Coast.
a) We have a new dress code at work now. We can wear blue or black jeans with our work shirts.
b) Half of our hamster wheels got replaced because a customer apparently complained that our wheels were 'too rusty' so a good half dozen or so plastic wheels were written off to replace them.
c) Our backrooms had further been reorganized so I wasted a lot of time hunting down items I needed.
d) I couldn't find our bucket of dirt used for the reptile bedding changes ANYWHERE. …….I later found it in the fridge of all places. O.o *shakes head*
e) Our goldfish cooling system had officially been deemed broken (it was getting so hot in the tanks that the goldfish were jumping out of the water) and the machine had been replaced the day before.
f) The bird door lock once again broke (I expected this to happen, it always breaks when I take long vacas), but I couldn't fix it because one of the key components to the lock had vanished.
g) We finally found the missing connector piece to the gravel vacuum so for the first time in like a month we could finally gravel vacuum our tanks.
h) I hit my elbow, while working with said gravel vacuum, hard enough that its still sore.
i) The hinge to one of our reptile cage/locks broke
j) The bottom of our Tortoise tank has come loose....so we need to find a way to fix it...or get it replaced.
k) One of my coworkers has been banned by the head manager from working with the birds. -Because they had a bad allergic reaction to the bedding we use for the birds.
l) We can't use the radios for anything but Customer related conversations now. So if you have to ask your coworker a work/task related question you're supposed to go find them and ask them in person...instead of using the radios. (Such a stupid rule.)
m) Our birds in our back rooms hadn't been put out onto the floor (even though all of them could have come out like a week ago. *exhales*)
n) The whiteboard in our back room that we use to communicate to each other has been taken down....because too much unnecessary communication was taking place. (now how are we supposed to let our coworkers know things?? *shakes head* Let's just add to our communication problems)
o) Our District Manager decided to visit AGAIN. Soo there was all that stress too.
Like....can you see why I wanted to go back on vacation?
Because that is ALOT of issues after me being gone just a week.
*exhales*
Hopefully tomorrow's work shift is better. Because if it's another crazy day like this...I dunno how well I'll be able to handle it.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Another Security Check
Once more I had to venture through security to get to the airport.
But this time I was better prepared.
Because now I knew better.
I wasn't sure if the food would still be checked, but if it was....I might as well put it with my heat packs.
That way when the security guys opened my bag to check the heatpacks they could also check the food at the same time and hopefully it would mean one of my two bags would not need to be checked this time.
I had it all ready.
Liquids separated.
Food and heatpacks together.
And as I reached the conveyor belt to put all my things on.
The airport dude working that part of the line was like "All food, liquids, shoes and laptops in separate containers."
O.o
Oh?
So I pulled out my shoes and the liquids I had, and reached into the my bag -luckily I had my food on top when I opened my suitcase so I wouldn't have to dig- and plopped the whole confection into the tray.
-Which impressed the dude behind me lol. He was like "Wow! I didn't know we could bring snacks!!"
….like yah? Because uhmmm….you can get hungry on those long flights.
>.>
Which reminds me....I saw a dude eating a casserole dish full of green beans in the security line.....I wonder if he finished that before he hit the check point.... huh.....but like....why eat it there while standing in line?? *shakes head* So weird.
In any case.
With all the stated items on the tray.
I sent my things through the x-ray machine.
Still expecting them to pull out my heat packs to check them again.
Nope.
O.o
No issue whatsoever.
My things went through without needing to be pulled aside.
O.o
*shakes head*
It's so interesting what does and doesn't set off the 'alarms' within each airport and with each person.
Because my home airport the dude seemed to pull aside every other bag.
But in this east coast airport....I barely saw any being pulled to the side.....
So weird.
But hey! Less of a hassle for me so woot!! :D
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
But this time I was better prepared.
Because now I knew better.
I wasn't sure if the food would still be checked, but if it was....I might as well put it with my heat packs.
That way when the security guys opened my bag to check the heatpacks they could also check the food at the same time and hopefully it would mean one of my two bags would not need to be checked this time.
I had it all ready.
Liquids separated.
Food and heatpacks together.
And as I reached the conveyor belt to put all my things on.
The airport dude working that part of the line was like "All food, liquids, shoes and laptops in separate containers."
O.o
Oh?
So I pulled out my shoes and the liquids I had, and reached into the my bag -luckily I had my food on top when I opened my suitcase so I wouldn't have to dig- and plopped the whole confection into the tray.
-Which impressed the dude behind me lol. He was like "Wow! I didn't know we could bring snacks!!"
….like yah? Because uhmmm….you can get hungry on those long flights.
>.>
Which reminds me....I saw a dude eating a casserole dish full of green beans in the security line.....I wonder if he finished that before he hit the check point.... huh.....but like....why eat it there while standing in line?? *shakes head* So weird.
In any case.
With all the stated items on the tray.
I sent my things through the x-ray machine.
Still expecting them to pull out my heat packs to check them again.
Nope.
O.o
No issue whatsoever.
My things went through without needing to be pulled aside.
O.o
*shakes head*
It's so interesting what does and doesn't set off the 'alarms' within each airport and with each person.
Because my home airport the dude seemed to pull aside every other bag.
But in this east coast airport....I barely saw any being pulled to the side.....
So weird.
But hey! Less of a hassle for me so woot!! :D
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Monday, June 25, 2018
So am I Interacting or Not?
I'm not always one to socialize.
Especially when it involves interacting with strangers.
-At least outside of a work environment.
So I was a bit....anxious? I suppose? That my friends wanted to have me meet a guy while I was out visiting them.
But I was given enough advanced notice that I was mentally able to prepare to meet this random dude and spend the evening with him and my friends with dinner and berry picking and such.
Only...
It didn't quite turned out as we all expected it to go?
Like you kinda expect the guy to interact with the girl a bit, even if it was just basically a 'meet and greet' sort of deal.
But nope.
He basically ignored me the entire time.
Instead choosing to focus on talking with my guy friend.
And was sure to mention at least six times that he's quite happy being single.
*shakes head*
Well okay then.
But it was....frustrating really.
Because I had mentally prepared to have to talk to this guy for like the entire week.
And the only conversations I had with him were ones I instigated and be ignored otherwise because the dude blabbered on like a never ending chatterbox.
*exhales*
Meh.
At least my guy friend made a friend that evening XD lol.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Especially when it involves interacting with strangers.
-At least outside of a work environment.
So I was a bit....anxious? I suppose? That my friends wanted to have me meet a guy while I was out visiting them.
But I was given enough advanced notice that I was mentally able to prepare to meet this random dude and spend the evening with him and my friends with dinner and berry picking and such.
Only...
It didn't quite turned out as we all expected it to go?
Like you kinda expect the guy to interact with the girl a bit, even if it was just basically a 'meet and greet' sort of deal.
But nope.
He basically ignored me the entire time.
Instead choosing to focus on talking with my guy friend.
And was sure to mention at least six times that he's quite happy being single.
*shakes head*
Well okay then.
But it was....frustrating really.
Because I had mentally prepared to have to talk to this guy for like the entire week.
And the only conversations I had with him were ones I instigated and be ignored otherwise because the dude blabbered on like a never ending chatterbox.
*exhales*
Meh.
At least my guy friend made a friend that evening XD lol.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Ring a Ding Ding
Security systems are cool.
Because like they protect your stuff and announce things and such.
Like the place I'm staying at right now?
Totally alarmed up to the rooftops lol.
And very noisy about letting you know about it too.
You can't open a window or a door to the outside anywhere in the house without there being a chime that sounds off and a voice that goes "Garage Door open." "Kitchen Window Open." etc.
Handy.
Kinda annoying.
But handy because you know whenever anyone is coming into the house.
Part of this security system though.
Includes a sensor at the entrance to the driveway.
That goes off whenever anyone passes through it.
As the driveway is rather long (yay country driveways)
Long enough that you can't see the road from the house.
So the sensor was installed to give the people in the house notice that someone is coming up their driveway.
Pretty handy really.
Except....
The device is soo sensitive that a bird passing through it can set it off.
And being out in the country...there are herds of deer and squirrels and who knows what other creatures that too can set off the alarm.
So when the alarm goes off....
You have no idea if it's an actual visitor or an animal crossing through the boundary.
Which really makes me think if I were to ever install that sort of system.
I would have a camera down there.
Taking video.
So when I hear the alarm go off, and don't see a car driving up the driveway....
I can check and see if it was an animal that made the sensor go off or not.
Because really....
When that alarm goes off at 1 AM in the morning.
You can't really help but wonder....is it animal...or is it human?
*exhales*
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Because like they protect your stuff and announce things and such.
Like the place I'm staying at right now?
Totally alarmed up to the rooftops lol.
And very noisy about letting you know about it too.
You can't open a window or a door to the outside anywhere in the house without there being a chime that sounds off and a voice that goes "Garage Door open." "Kitchen Window Open." etc.
Handy.
Kinda annoying.
But handy because you know whenever anyone is coming into the house.
Part of this security system though.
Includes a sensor at the entrance to the driveway.
That goes off whenever anyone passes through it.
As the driveway is rather long (yay country driveways)
Long enough that you can't see the road from the house.
So the sensor was installed to give the people in the house notice that someone is coming up their driveway.
Pretty handy really.
Except....
The device is soo sensitive that a bird passing through it can set it off.
And being out in the country...there are herds of deer and squirrels and who knows what other creatures that too can set off the alarm.
So when the alarm goes off....
You have no idea if it's an actual visitor or an animal crossing through the boundary.
Which really makes me think if I were to ever install that sort of system.
I would have a camera down there.
Taking video.
So when I hear the alarm go off, and don't see a car driving up the driveway....
I can check and see if it was an animal that made the sensor go off or not.
Because really....
When that alarm goes off at 1 AM in the morning.
You can't really help but wonder....is it animal...or is it human?
*exhales*
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Saturday, June 23, 2018
Directionless
One thing about being on the east coast....is a distinct lack of mountains to be able to orient myself by.
Though with my area, it's not as bad as there are 'mountains' here.
...More like hills really but people insist they're mountains.
So while they're in sight I can use them to help me tell directions.
But otherwise....I have no idea which way is North or West etc.
Especially since it's been cloudy here, meaning I don't even have access to the sun to try and help myself out. lol.
So it caught me off guard a bit when one of my friends was suddenly like "Quick, Sarnic! Which way do I go?!"
O.o
Uh. Like I Have no clue dude? Because I don't LIVE here like you do?
Lol.
Especially because we were heading to a theatre. Which I'd never been to before.
But while we were out and about yesterday the same friend had given me a verbal tour as we were going to grab Wendy's.
So I was like. Okay. I just gotta get us to Wendy's and go from there.
Which ended up with me being like "Okay...so we turn left here....and at this part where we get on the freeway it's like a.....right?"
Ended up being a again.
But yah. ^^;;
Lol I ended up giving some other verbal directions like "You said the theatre was 2 exits past the one we took right?"
But also things like "Oh you said soandso works here! And this is where we'd go if we were going to Wendy's."
And he was rather surprised lol.
Like....I do listen to people. Haha. ^^;; Even if I'm not fully paying attention, I do try and keep in mind things that are stated. Even if I didn't expect to need to use it in the future.
Lol.
We did make it to the theatre alright, because my friend does know the way. XD lol.
That didn't stop me from genuinely believing for a moment that he didn't know where we were going though lol. I was pulling up the googlemaps and everything before my brain kicked in and remembered that he'd mentioned the theatre was like two exits away so therefore....he had to know where he was going. ^^;;
Ah.
Gotta love trying to find places in a new area. ^^;;
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Though with my area, it's not as bad as there are 'mountains' here.
...More like hills really but people insist they're mountains.
So while they're in sight I can use them to help me tell directions.
But otherwise....I have no idea which way is North or West etc.
Especially since it's been cloudy here, meaning I don't even have access to the sun to try and help myself out. lol.
So it caught me off guard a bit when one of my friends was suddenly like "Quick, Sarnic! Which way do I go?!"
O.o
Uh. Like I Have no clue dude? Because I don't LIVE here like you do?
Lol.
Especially because we were heading to a theatre. Which I'd never been to before.
But while we were out and about yesterday the same friend had given me a verbal tour as we were going to grab Wendy's.
So I was like. Okay. I just gotta get us to Wendy's and go from there.
Which ended up with me being like "Okay...so we turn left here....and at this part where we get on the freeway it's like a.....right?"
Ended up being a again.
But yah. ^^;;
Lol I ended up giving some other verbal directions like "You said the theatre was 2 exits past the one we took right?"
But also things like "Oh you said soandso works here! And this is where we'd go if we were going to Wendy's."
And he was rather surprised lol.
Like....I do listen to people. Haha. ^^;; Even if I'm not fully paying attention, I do try and keep in mind things that are stated. Even if I didn't expect to need to use it in the future.
Lol.
We did make it to the theatre alright, because my friend does know the way. XD lol.
That didn't stop me from genuinely believing for a moment that he didn't know where we were going though lol. I was pulling up the googlemaps and everything before my brain kicked in and remembered that he'd mentioned the theatre was like two exits away so therefore....he had to know where he was going. ^^;;
Ah.
Gotta love trying to find places in a new area. ^^;;
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Friday, June 22, 2018
Songs
Soo....
Last night.
We went to a Carnival.
Which is always a slightly weird experience going to those....since I usually go pretty rarely. lol. It's probably been at least 5 or 6 years since the last carnival I've gone to.
The main reason why we went to this one though was a) to get funnel cakes.
-Which now I know what those look like and they were totally different than what I was expecting. lol.
But also b) because my friends had discovered that a band called "Amish Outlaws" was playing that night at the carnival. And after listening to some of their music online, they wanted to check them out in person.
Lol they're a pretty fun and laid back group.
Wanting to interact with the audience and get them dancing and such.
We were encouraged to sing along, stand up, dance, wave our hands, clap, etc.
Which, me being shy.
I didn't stand up and dance or anything. Just kinda danced in place while sitting.
And I was singing along to the words of the songs and such.
Managing to avoid getting noticed by them....
Until they started singing Under the Sea from Little Mermaid.
Because like, how can you not sing to that song?!
So I started singing to it....
And that's when one of the group noticed me.
And he was like "You know all the words to the song and you're just sitting there?! Come up to the front and dance!"
Ha.
No.
For one. I don't like being in front of a bunch of strangers like that.
Two. It was a bunch of kids under the age of 12 up there currently.
No way would I be joining them. That would just be weird.
So I just grinned, shook my head, and refused to go up. ^^;;
But it does bring to mind another time a Little Mermaid Song brought guys attention to me.
Back while I was still in college, my ward had a talent show.
One I participated in.
And there was a quartet of guys who were singing songs for their talent.
They pulled me forward for one of them, and began to sing "Kiss the Girl" from Little Mermaid.
….yah, I didn't let them kiss me.
But it is interesting that both songs were related to the Little Mermaid.
>.>
So weird.
But hey.
I had fun both times. ^^;;
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Last night.
We went to a Carnival.
Which is always a slightly weird experience going to those....since I usually go pretty rarely. lol. It's probably been at least 5 or 6 years since the last carnival I've gone to.
The main reason why we went to this one though was a) to get funnel cakes.
-Which now I know what those look like and they were totally different than what I was expecting. lol.
But also b) because my friends had discovered that a band called "Amish Outlaws" was playing that night at the carnival. And after listening to some of their music online, they wanted to check them out in person.
Lol they're a pretty fun and laid back group.
Wanting to interact with the audience and get them dancing and such.
We were encouraged to sing along, stand up, dance, wave our hands, clap, etc.
Which, me being shy.
I didn't stand up and dance or anything. Just kinda danced in place while sitting.
And I was singing along to the words of the songs and such.
Managing to avoid getting noticed by them....
Until they started singing Under the Sea from Little Mermaid.
Because like, how can you not sing to that song?!
So I started singing to it....
And that's when one of the group noticed me.
And he was like "You know all the words to the song and you're just sitting there?! Come up to the front and dance!"
Ha.
No.
For one. I don't like being in front of a bunch of strangers like that.
Two. It was a bunch of kids under the age of 12 up there currently.
No way would I be joining them. That would just be weird.
So I just grinned, shook my head, and refused to go up. ^^;;
But it does bring to mind another time a Little Mermaid Song brought guys attention to me.
Back while I was still in college, my ward had a talent show.
One I participated in.
And there was a quartet of guys who were singing songs for their talent.
They pulled me forward for one of them, and began to sing "Kiss the Girl" from Little Mermaid.
….yah, I didn't let them kiss me.
But it is interesting that both songs were related to the Little Mermaid.
>.>
So weird.
But hey.
I had fun both times. ^^;;
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Thursday, June 21, 2018
A State Drive
The thing about living in the West....
Is that all our states out there are rather large.
Like it can take the entire day to drive through the state to reach another state.
And it wasn't that weird of a concept really.
If you want to go anywhere out of state.
It takes time.
But for the first time really....
I'm experiencing something different.
I flew out to the east coast this week to visit friends.
And I'm currently the furthest north on that East coast I've ever been lol.
Because before that point I'd been to like North Carolina and Virginia and Florida.
All states that are pretty big in their own right.
Where it can still take hours of driving to reach another state -depending on where you're starting from and where you're going.
But currently.
I'm not in one of those big states.
I'm in one of the little states.
And like it's weird.
We went on a drive today and like after twenty minutes of driving...we'd entered another state.
I don't even known 'when' we entered this other state.
I only knew that the location -an Amish Farm- was in another state.
And it's crazy.
Because I didn't 'see' when we entered the other state.
Maybe I missed the sign.
Or they only do it on large freeways/highways.
But the fact that we drove for only twenty minutes...and reached another state is mindboggling a bit lol.
Because that shouldn't happen.
It shouldn't be so short of a drive.
Yet it was.
And like...if we'd driven for another hour or two, we'd probably would have been able to reach two or three other states in that time frame (depending on direction we were driving.)
Like...weird.
So weird.
To think that you could live in one state and work in another and have the commute be like...twenty minutes.
*shakes head*
It was pretty cool.
But definitely not something I'm used to. lol.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Is that all our states out there are rather large.
Like it can take the entire day to drive through the state to reach another state.
And it wasn't that weird of a concept really.
If you want to go anywhere out of state.
It takes time.
But for the first time really....
I'm experiencing something different.
I flew out to the east coast this week to visit friends.
And I'm currently the furthest north on that East coast I've ever been lol.
Because before that point I'd been to like North Carolina and Virginia and Florida.
All states that are pretty big in their own right.
Where it can still take hours of driving to reach another state -depending on where you're starting from and where you're going.
But currently.
I'm not in one of those big states.
I'm in one of the little states.
And like it's weird.
We went on a drive today and like after twenty minutes of driving...we'd entered another state.
I don't even known 'when' we entered this other state.
I only knew that the location -an Amish Farm- was in another state.
And it's crazy.
Because I didn't 'see' when we entered the other state.
Maybe I missed the sign.
Or they only do it on large freeways/highways.
But the fact that we drove for only twenty minutes...and reached another state is mindboggling a bit lol.
Because that shouldn't happen.
It shouldn't be so short of a drive.
Yet it was.
And like...if we'd driven for another hour or two, we'd probably would have been able to reach two or three other states in that time frame (depending on direction we were driving.)
Like...weird.
So weird.
To think that you could live in one state and work in another and have the commute be like...twenty minutes.
*shakes head*
It was pretty cool.
But definitely not something I'm used to. lol.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Sparks of Light
The sun had mostly sat when my friends and I ventured outside to pick black raspberries from their patch that borders their house.
It was dark enough, even though it was still light, that we needed to use our phone flash lights to be able to see the berries.
So there we were,
Walking through the grass to go to the first patch.
When I saw it.
A spark of light.
And then another.
I blinked.
Wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me.
-After all I'd been traveling all day, and I was tired.
But no.
There were more of these yellow flashes of lights.
That's when it clicked.
"ARE THOSE LIGHTNING BUGS?!" I gasped.
They were.
Little fireflies flitting about their yard.
*shakes head*
Like I feel like I've seen them before.
I'm almost positive I have....
But not like this.
Not this many.
There were hundreds of them scattered through the yard.
Flaring up with their bright yellow lights.
Flitting by our heads.
It was amazing!
Like mini sparklers really.
Honestly, I thought they were sparks of fire at first.
Which makes sense. Since their names are FIREflies lol.
It was just sooo cool to see!!
SO. VERY. COOL.
I've never seen so many together before.
Definitely the highlight to the night for sure. ^^;;
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Checked
One of the fun things about traveling, especially if you're flying....is the security check.
Because like...you never know what's going to be a flag for the checkers to pull your bag to the side after going through the x-ray machine.
I have to admit.
I wasn't surprised that they pulled my suitcase to the side.
I do tend to travel with weird objects.
Like rock wands, and heat packs, and randomly shaped objects and such.
Soo, I figured my suitcase would be pulled to the side.
What surprised me though was my carryon bag too was pulled to the side as well.
Like. O.o What in the world was suspicious enough in that bag to have the people go "Oh we better look at this?"
Because mostly it was some power cords for my various electronics and a bunch of notebooks...and like one rock wand that I figured would be fine.
In the main suitcase it was the heatpacks that caused it to be pulled to the side.
They even did a little wipe paper test thingy to put in a machine to test it.
I'm guessing to make sure there were no drugs or something within it.
Nope. Just a regular old rice bag lol. Used to keep my tense muscles from...well getting tenser.
But my other bag?
Apparently....having a variety of random snack food in your bag is suspicious enough to warrant getting pulled aside lol.
Because I had a thing of cookies, and some chocolate bars, granola bars, rice krispi treats, and ritz crackers in that bag.
You know...snack food.
But because they were all in individually wrapped packages and such....
The agent dude needed to pull it aside and check every single one of those packages to makes sure they were properly sealed and not disguised as something else.
*shakes head*
Good to know for the future lol.
Can't do much about the heatpacks, so I suspect that I'll get my bag pulled to the side again when I return home. Though I will be sure to put them on top so the agents don't need to dig through my bag to find them.
But the snack food?
Yah, gonna make sure that's all eaten before I have to come back. ^^;; heh.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Monday, June 18, 2018
Sound? What Sound?
So, last week I was late to work by like an hour because I'd turned off my alarms Monday morning and forgot to turn them back on for work the next day.
*exhales*
Today....well I was late for work again.
>.>
Which that's not a good sign if something occurs multiple times in a week....
But like...I don't get how it happened?
I'd made sure the alarms were set before going to bed last night.
So they were on.
They were going to go off.
And what do I wake up to this morning at 7:15 when I was supposed to be at work at 6:30?
Yah, the vibrating of my phone as work was calling me to see if I was alright.
Soo....
What had happened to the two alarms I set to ensure that I wake up for work?
Well....
Apparently they went off.
Because my phone had notified me that I had missed both alarms
-aka. they'd made noise. They'd gone off for at least a couple of minutes. Each.
Which the alarms are only like 6 minutes apart.
So that much noise...
Should have woken me up.
The noise has been wakening me up every work day for like ever.
So the fact that I didn't hear it this morning?
So weird.
So. Very. Weird.
*shakes head*
At most I can figure that my brain just is in vacation mode.
Because I had the last couple of days off work.
And then I had work today.
And then for the next week....I'm on vacation.
So I guess my brain just...checked out, decided it was too tired to hear my alarm, and whatever I was dreaming at that point in time just filtered out the sound.
Hopefully by the time I get back from Vaca…..my mind will be much more willing to hear my alarms again.
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Note: Posting may be sporadic for the next week due to being on Vaca. :)
*exhales*
Today....well I was late for work again.
>.>
Which that's not a good sign if something occurs multiple times in a week....
But like...I don't get how it happened?
I'd made sure the alarms were set before going to bed last night.
So they were on.
They were going to go off.
And what do I wake up to this morning at 7:15 when I was supposed to be at work at 6:30?
Yah, the vibrating of my phone as work was calling me to see if I was alright.
Soo....
What had happened to the two alarms I set to ensure that I wake up for work?
Well....
Apparently they went off.
Because my phone had notified me that I had missed both alarms
-aka. they'd made noise. They'd gone off for at least a couple of minutes. Each.
Which the alarms are only like 6 minutes apart.
So that much noise...
Should have woken me up.
The noise has been wakening me up every work day for like ever.
So the fact that I didn't hear it this morning?
So weird.
So. Very. Weird.
*shakes head*
At most I can figure that my brain just is in vacation mode.
Because I had the last couple of days off work.
And then I had work today.
And then for the next week....I'm on vacation.
So I guess my brain just...checked out, decided it was too tired to hear my alarm, and whatever I was dreaming at that point in time just filtered out the sound.
Hopefully by the time I get back from Vaca…..my mind will be much more willing to hear my alarms again.
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Note: Posting may be sporadic for the next week due to being on Vaca. :)
Sunday, June 17, 2018
A Visit
I visited the home ward today.
Meaning the ward I grew up in.
And like...it was definitely different.
Looking over the sparse audience (because a lot of people were gone this weekend)
I only recognized like a dozen people in the ward.
When I used to know like everyone.
But I suppose that's what happens when all the people you grew up with have also grown up and moved out of the ward.
Plus the ward boundaries have adjusted slightly to include more townhomes and such.
So there's a lot more younger couples in the ward now with a handful of older folk.
I kept expecting to see like all my wardies there. The kids I grew up with and their parents.
But nope.
Only a few familiar faces.
*shakes head*
Totally a weird experience for sure.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Meaning the ward I grew up in.
And like...it was definitely different.
Looking over the sparse audience (because a lot of people were gone this weekend)
I only recognized like a dozen people in the ward.
When I used to know like everyone.
But I suppose that's what happens when all the people you grew up with have also grown up and moved out of the ward.
Plus the ward boundaries have adjusted slightly to include more townhomes and such.
So there's a lot more younger couples in the ward now with a handful of older folk.
I kept expecting to see like all my wardies there. The kids I grew up with and their parents.
But nope.
Only a few familiar faces.
*shakes head*
Totally a weird experience for sure.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Saturday, June 16, 2018
Those Rings
I went to a Gem Faire today.
Which isn't a surprising occurrence as they come to town every four months or so.
So like....going to go check out the rocks is something that happens for me quite frequently.
However.
I'm not always able to make it to the gem faire that takes place in the summer. Particularly in June as that's when a lot of my family vacations take place. So like...I don't actually remember going to a June one before.
To also make things slightly more different.
I went on a Saturday instead of Friday like I normally do.
….people are weird on Saturdays.
The whole thing was weird.
Whether if it was just a Saturday weirdness.
The fact that I was there towards closing time instead of opening.
Or that it's just a June weirdness that I haven't noticed before....
It was weird today at the Gem Faire.
Within thirty seconds of entering the floor to see all the shiny jewelry, rocks, and beads plus all the other random stuff....
I heard a guy speaking slightly behind me.
Turns out he was talking to me.
He was like "Hey! I know you! I've seen you around all the time back down in Happy Valley haven't I?"
Dude didn't look at all familiar to me. He had one of those faces where....sure I could have possibly seen him. But like...there are a lot of doppelgangers in Happy Valley, so who knows if I actually saw him or saw him recently at that.
But I did live in Happy Valley, and being one valley over from Happy Valley...made it definitely likely that he'd seen me around from there.
Did I know him though? Nope.
Once he established that he did know me, the guy proceeded to show me a ring he'd just bought for himself.
A nice silver one with some sort of green stone within it.
And I was like Ooooo
Because you know, I like shiny things, especially if rocks are involved in said shiny things.
And then he was like "It's a poison ring!!"
-Meaning it's one of those rings with a secret compartment where you can hide poison and such.
Which me being me....and having read/seen a lot of fantasy/mystery/and history....
It made me want to take a couple of steps back.
because >.> Did it have poison in it now?!?!
(probably not, but you never know)
He then told me that the stone in the ring was like his favorite stone or his birth month stone and then proceeded to say "Well I gotta go! Cya later! Bye!"
And he left just like that.
*shakes head*
I thought it was weird.
Though I usually find it weird when people want to approach me outside of work.
Because I'm never expecting people to do so.
It just doesn't really happen.
In any case.
I continue to wander around the different booths.
Have a couple of the owners try to start up conversations with me, but I was on a time crunch and didn't want to get into chitchat when I wasn't interested in jewelry.
But I'd paused to look at another booth.
When this other person came up close to me.
Me being me, I automatically try to move out the way so that I don't block people and they don't run into me.
But this person moved with me.
So I looked up, mostly in the "okay why are you being so close to me, do I know you or something?' sort of thing.
And there's this woman there.
Smiling at me.
And she's like "Hi, I know this is going to be a little weird."
It was already weird. Since she'd been standing next to me not saying anything until I looked up.
-I think she was trying to see my hands.
Because she said: "My husband and I came here to get this ring appraised"
and she showed me this ring that had a large blue stone in it, with a ring of diamonds around it in kinda a star/sun shape.
Big...not really my style of ring.
I don't remember if she said what the value was....but apparently it wasn't worth much because her next words were "And we can't get the ring resized because of how it's set, so we're looking to give it away, so I was wondering if it would fit your fingers." And she held it out to me.
So, me being me, I took it. Because I'm curious like that.
And slipped it on.
It fit...ish, but was loose. "Is this a size six?" I asked her.
to which she oddly enough seemed unsure of that answer.
But it probably was because I put it on my middle finger and that finger usually is a size five.
So the fact that it was slightly looser would put it at a 5 1/2 or a 6.
So I was like "Oh, this is too big for me too, I usually wear size 4 or 5 on my fingers." And I gave it back to her.
I don't know if she was disappointed or not.
The conversation ended pretty quickly after I returned the ring to her. A comment on that 'yah your hands are rather tiny' and such....
and then she vanished into the crowd with her ring.
….I wonder if she ever found anyone to give it to.
Or if she was singling me out in particular.
But in retrospect.
It was kinda weird.
To have a random person approach and ask if you want a free ring.
Honestly, one of my thoughts as I took the ring was "I wonder if it's cursed."
Because people don't usually give away nice looking rings (unless it's like...fake costume jewelry?)
So there has to be a reason why they would just...not ask for anything.
Why give away a ring.
Why not try and sell it.
Get some money out of it?
It's suspicious.
So I'm like...did I just avoid getting a cursed ring?
Who knows. *shakes head*
I probably never will.
But definitely was a weird day at the gem faire. lol.
Didn't mean I didn't walk away with more rocks though!!!
Yay Rocks!! :D
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Friday, June 15, 2018
Three Tank Tries
I had a customer come up to me towards the end of my shift, wanting to know if we had a particular tank in stock.
So he took me to the reptile aisle to show me the empty space there where a 10 gallon desert starter kit was supposed to be....but wasn't.
We usually keep our smaller overstock tanks on the steel nearby. So I told the customer that I would go check and see if we had the one they wanted.
First glance showed me that I possibly did, though it was hard to tell since the tanks were over my head and turned sidewise so I couldn't see their label.
So I grabbed the tall ladder we had and climbed up to the tank in question.
And it was the one I was looking for!
Ha!
So after a bit of shuffling about, I grabbed it down and brought it to the customer....
Who realized that that wasn't the tank they were looking for.
….Okay.
They were looking for a different tank.
One that had a picture of a leopard gecko on it.
They even showed me a picture of the tank in question....Only it wasn't the entire tank that they'd taken a picture of. No they'd only taken a picture of the picture of the leopard gecko.
Probably as a visual memory aid to help them find the tank in the store.
And like I knew that we had a tank in the store that had a leopard gecko on it.
because we sale a 10 gallon kit specifically for them.
But that spot had been accidentally double faced over by the tropical 10 gallon kits. Which meant...it wasn't on the shelf.
Plus there was also another tank that was for 10 gallon desert reptiles as well....which that spot was also empty...that could possibly fit the bill...but I couldn't remember what the animal picture was for that one.
So I went hunting again.
And found the 10 gallon tank leopard gecko kit tank up on the steel.
I brought it down, and with the help of a coworker, moved the tropical tanks aside so I could put that tank in it's proper spot.
Only....
That 10 gallon kit still wasn't the one the customer was looking for.
*exhales*
Who knew if the last tank was what they were wanting at this point.
I'd already struck out twice with these customers.
And unfortunately...I hadn't seen any other 10 gallon desert reptile tanks in the steal that I hadn't already brought down.
And I told the customer that.
But I also knew that we'd just gotten in a truck in our back room.
Which we usually work the truck the day after it comes in because we can't plan on 'when' the trucks will show up on their shipping days, so it's easier to schedule the stockers to come in and work the tank the day after so they know they'd be coming in to actually work a truck and not have to deal with the 'maybe it will show up during my shift' issue.
So I told the customer I could check one last spot, and I'd be right back.
I wandered to the back of the store, to the wrapped up pallets hanging out in our receiving area.
And walked through the narrow passageways, searching for a pallet of tanks.
-Most of it was pallets of dogfood and cat food really.
But in the back, hidden out of sight was a small pallet of tanks.
Only two levels really.
And there on the bottom of that pallet....
Was the missing tank that I hadn't been able to find elsewhere.
So, with permission from the manager to unwrap the pallet and get the tank out for the customer.
I did just that.
Grabbed the tank.
And brought it up to the front.
Where.
Success!!!
That was the tank the customers wanted!! lol.
It only took me three tries to get the right one. But at least I was able to make the customer's day. ^^;;
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
So he took me to the reptile aisle to show me the empty space there where a 10 gallon desert starter kit was supposed to be....but wasn't.
We usually keep our smaller overstock tanks on the steel nearby. So I told the customer that I would go check and see if we had the one they wanted.
First glance showed me that I possibly did, though it was hard to tell since the tanks were over my head and turned sidewise so I couldn't see their label.
So I grabbed the tall ladder we had and climbed up to the tank in question.
And it was the one I was looking for!
Ha!
So after a bit of shuffling about, I grabbed it down and brought it to the customer....
Who realized that that wasn't the tank they were looking for.
….Okay.
They were looking for a different tank.
One that had a picture of a leopard gecko on it.
They even showed me a picture of the tank in question....Only it wasn't the entire tank that they'd taken a picture of. No they'd only taken a picture of the picture of the leopard gecko.
Probably as a visual memory aid to help them find the tank in the store.
And like I knew that we had a tank in the store that had a leopard gecko on it.
because we sale a 10 gallon kit specifically for them.
But that spot had been accidentally double faced over by the tropical 10 gallon kits. Which meant...it wasn't on the shelf.
Plus there was also another tank that was for 10 gallon desert reptiles as well....which that spot was also empty...that could possibly fit the bill...but I couldn't remember what the animal picture was for that one.
So I went hunting again.
And found the 10 gallon tank leopard gecko kit tank up on the steel.
I brought it down, and with the help of a coworker, moved the tropical tanks aside so I could put that tank in it's proper spot.
Only....
That 10 gallon kit still wasn't the one the customer was looking for.
*exhales*
Who knew if the last tank was what they were wanting at this point.
I'd already struck out twice with these customers.
And unfortunately...I hadn't seen any other 10 gallon desert reptile tanks in the steal that I hadn't already brought down.
And I told the customer that.
But I also knew that we'd just gotten in a truck in our back room.
Which we usually work the truck the day after it comes in because we can't plan on 'when' the trucks will show up on their shipping days, so it's easier to schedule the stockers to come in and work the tank the day after so they know they'd be coming in to actually work a truck and not have to deal with the 'maybe it will show up during my shift' issue.
So I told the customer I could check one last spot, and I'd be right back.
I wandered to the back of the store, to the wrapped up pallets hanging out in our receiving area.
And walked through the narrow passageways, searching for a pallet of tanks.
-Most of it was pallets of dogfood and cat food really.
But in the back, hidden out of sight was a small pallet of tanks.
Only two levels really.
And there on the bottom of that pallet....
Was the missing tank that I hadn't been able to find elsewhere.
So, with permission from the manager to unwrap the pallet and get the tank out for the customer.
I did just that.
Grabbed the tank.
And brought it up to the front.
Where.
Success!!!
That was the tank the customers wanted!! lol.
It only took me three tries to get the right one. But at least I was able to make the customer's day. ^^;;
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Thursday, June 14, 2018
Panicking...but Why?
I don't understand how the managers always get so stressed when our District Manager visits.
Like...she comes in every other month it feels like.
And every time she says she's going to come in.
It's the same old panic.
Where the managers are rushing about to get the store looking clean and shiny and make sure all the planograms for our products are properly set.
*exhales*
And I don't get it.
I don't get why they stress so much about it.
I mean I'm probably missing some aspects of these visits.
Like the paperwork half of it where they sit in the office for forever looking at things.
But overall....
I feel like it's a lot of stress....for nothing.
We usually do alright with these visits.
No one gets fired....
Yet every time the managers are like "It's gotta look perfect or we're getting FIRED!!!! AHHHH!!!!"
….
I've yet to see a manager get fired after these visits.
>.> No...they usually get fired for other reasons.
But for a visit not going well?
Nope.
But the managers still react like it's a strong possibility.
And it makes them....paranoid.
Like today.
Today I had the bird bedding change to do.
It was all normal things.
Normal procedure.
It was taking the normal amount of time to do things....
Like I'd just finished cleaning the cages and replacing the bedding for the birds, when I needed to go take a lunch before my fellow opener left for the day.
I hadn't yet put back the perches or toys or food or water.
But that's a normal occurrence.
I usually only get the cages cleaned before needing to go on lunch and then when I get back I put everything back in.
Yet....
When I came back from lunch.
I discovered that my head manager had briefly switched out places with our cashier -who is also trained in my department, while my coworker was in the middle of helping a customer with a cat adoption--
But my manager had the cashier placing food and water in the bird cages.
Because he was concerned they'd gone too long without food and water.
And that he would get fired for not having food and water in the cages.
O.o
Like...…..
……..
I really didn't have words.
Because, yes, there was a rule waaaayyy back like four years ago? three years ago?
Where you're never supposed to let the animals be without food and water for long than...an hour I think?
But that was 3-4 years ago.
It's...well it hasn't been brought up in a long while.
Especially since the philosophy of opening changed to "Do the jobs while helping customers"
Which means that the bedding changes take a lot longer because they're done last, while the store is open, instead of first before the store is opened.
It hasn't been an issue.
Due to customers the bedding changes can often take my entire shift.
But birds?
*shrugs*
That's an easy bedding change.
Normally doesn't take me longer than two or three hours depending on how many cages we have with birds in them and how dirty the glass is.
The birds have been fine without their food and water that long.
But the way my manager was acting...it was like they were going to drop dead from starvation in the next fifteen minutes if we didn't.
Or he was going to get fired if we didn't.
*shakes head*
The birds today had only been without their food and water for a couple of hours by the point I got back from Lunch.
They would have gotten their food and water within the next 15-30 minutes depending on how much I was interrupted by customers.
So like...it was odd to have the manager freak out about it today.
When he hadn't before.
It hadn't been an issue for him before.
But for whatever reason he'd remembered that "one hour rule" today and figured that the DM would remember it and he'd get in trouble and...*exhales*
I don't know why he even thought of it.
The DM hardly ever spends any time in my department. Mostly she focuses on products on the shelves, and occasionally goes "Why is there nothing in this tank? How is the bedding change going?"
And I answer "Oh those tanks are being cleaned today, or the cages are being cleaned, the bedding change is going good."
Like...it's never a major issue.....
And it's one of those things where I doubt the manager is going to bring it up again after today.
Because the DM isn't going to be in tomorrow or next week (most likely) and sooo...why do we need to worry about how long the bedding change is taking or how long the animals don't have food and water in their cages while said bedding change is happening?
So that's probably why I find it frustrating.
Because the managers only seem to notice my department if "things are going wrong"
or if "things aren't getting done quickly."
If the DM hadn't come in today I doubt the head manager would have said anything.
I probably would have been the one to put out the food and water instead of the cashier.
Yah...
I don't get it.
I don't get the stress over these visits.
I really don't.
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Like...she comes in every other month it feels like.
And every time she says she's going to come in.
It's the same old panic.
Where the managers are rushing about to get the store looking clean and shiny and make sure all the planograms for our products are properly set.
*exhales*
And I don't get it.
I don't get why they stress so much about it.
I mean I'm probably missing some aspects of these visits.
Like the paperwork half of it where they sit in the office for forever looking at things.
But overall....
I feel like it's a lot of stress....for nothing.
We usually do alright with these visits.
No one gets fired....
Yet every time the managers are like "It's gotta look perfect or we're getting FIRED!!!! AHHHH!!!!"
….
I've yet to see a manager get fired after these visits.
>.> No...they usually get fired for other reasons.
But for a visit not going well?
Nope.
But the managers still react like it's a strong possibility.
And it makes them....paranoid.
Like today.
Today I had the bird bedding change to do.
It was all normal things.
Normal procedure.
It was taking the normal amount of time to do things....
Like I'd just finished cleaning the cages and replacing the bedding for the birds, when I needed to go take a lunch before my fellow opener left for the day.
I hadn't yet put back the perches or toys or food or water.
But that's a normal occurrence.
I usually only get the cages cleaned before needing to go on lunch and then when I get back I put everything back in.
Yet....
When I came back from lunch.
I discovered that my head manager had briefly switched out places with our cashier -who is also trained in my department, while my coworker was in the middle of helping a customer with a cat adoption--
But my manager had the cashier placing food and water in the bird cages.
Because he was concerned they'd gone too long without food and water.
And that he would get fired for not having food and water in the cages.
O.o
Like...…..
……..
I really didn't have words.
Because, yes, there was a rule waaaayyy back like four years ago? three years ago?
Where you're never supposed to let the animals be without food and water for long than...an hour I think?
But that was 3-4 years ago.
It's...well it hasn't been brought up in a long while.
Especially since the philosophy of opening changed to "Do the jobs while helping customers"
Which means that the bedding changes take a lot longer because they're done last, while the store is open, instead of first before the store is opened.
It hasn't been an issue.
Due to customers the bedding changes can often take my entire shift.
But birds?
*shrugs*
That's an easy bedding change.
Normally doesn't take me longer than two or three hours depending on how many cages we have with birds in them and how dirty the glass is.
The birds have been fine without their food and water that long.
But the way my manager was acting...it was like they were going to drop dead from starvation in the next fifteen minutes if we didn't.
Or he was going to get fired if we didn't.
*shakes head*
The birds today had only been without their food and water for a couple of hours by the point I got back from Lunch.
They would have gotten their food and water within the next 15-30 minutes depending on how much I was interrupted by customers.
So like...it was odd to have the manager freak out about it today.
When he hadn't before.
It hadn't been an issue for him before.
But for whatever reason he'd remembered that "one hour rule" today and figured that the DM would remember it and he'd get in trouble and...*exhales*
I don't know why he even thought of it.
The DM hardly ever spends any time in my department. Mostly she focuses on products on the shelves, and occasionally goes "Why is there nothing in this tank? How is the bedding change going?"
And I answer "Oh those tanks are being cleaned today, or the cages are being cleaned, the bedding change is going good."
Like...it's never a major issue.....
And it's one of those things where I doubt the manager is going to bring it up again after today.
Because the DM isn't going to be in tomorrow or next week (most likely) and sooo...why do we need to worry about how long the bedding change is taking or how long the animals don't have food and water in their cages while said bedding change is happening?
So that's probably why I find it frustrating.
Because the managers only seem to notice my department if "things are going wrong"
or if "things aren't getting done quickly."
If the DM hadn't come in today I doubt the head manager would have said anything.
I probably would have been the one to put out the food and water instead of the cashier.
Yah...
I don't get it.
I don't get the stress over these visits.
I really don't.
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
All the Lights
So the saga with my fishtank lights continues.
As I tried to buy a bulb a couple of days ago, only to discover it was already broken when I got home.
And I return trip to the store resulted in the discovery that the one other bulb on the shelf too was broken.
So I went home emptyhanded.
Well yesterday, knowing that there was company coming over,
I decided to buy a different style of bulb.
Instead of the regular white light bulb, I'd go for a 'color max' bulb that would 'enhance the color of the fish' because it would give off a more pinkish light? Or something?
*shrugs*
But at least it would be a light.
And if I didn't like it, I would only need to keep it until we got in more white light bulbs and then I could return the pinkish one and get the white one.
Easy peasy.
Only.
After double checking the bulb to make sure it wasn't rattling before I bought it.
I took it home.
Put it in the hood.
Turned it on.
To nothing.
The bulb didn't turn on!!
*exhales*
Had I really bought ANOTHER broken lightbulb?
But. I decided to test it.
So I pulled out the other lightbulb in the other hood on my tank.
And put the pink bulb in.
It turned on.
I put the white bulb from that hood into the other one...
And it didn't work.
Which meant....
That it wasn't the bulb that was broken.
But the hood.
*exhales*
Which meant I needed to buy a new hood for the tank, not a bulb.
Except...we don't really carry bulb hoods anymore.
Everything's gone more LED.
And the LED lights? Expensive.
*shakes head*
And it would be weird to have one LED light and one Bulb light.
Because they give off different brightnesses.
So I'd need to get LED lights for the entire tank setup.
But that's $$$$
Money I don't really want to spend.
But like...I don't want only half my light working.
Except.
I had this thought today.
Where twice a year, my work increases the discount we get. Doubling it.
And I realized....that had to be coming up soon.
Because it's usually around this time of year that it happens.
And if it was happening soon, then I could wait until then, and then buy the LED lights and get a discount on them.
So like woo!!
Only I needed to find out when that was happening.
And after asking a manager,
I discovered that this doubling of our normal discount....
Starts tomorrow.
:D :D :D
YES!
So really I just need to wait another day, or maybe two to buy the new lights!!!
Woot!!!
^^;;
Hopefully this works out.
*fingers crossed*
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
As I tried to buy a bulb a couple of days ago, only to discover it was already broken when I got home.
And I return trip to the store resulted in the discovery that the one other bulb on the shelf too was broken.
So I went home emptyhanded.
Well yesterday, knowing that there was company coming over,
I decided to buy a different style of bulb.
Instead of the regular white light bulb, I'd go for a 'color max' bulb that would 'enhance the color of the fish' because it would give off a more pinkish light? Or something?
*shrugs*
But at least it would be a light.
And if I didn't like it, I would only need to keep it until we got in more white light bulbs and then I could return the pinkish one and get the white one.
Easy peasy.
Only.
After double checking the bulb to make sure it wasn't rattling before I bought it.
I took it home.
Put it in the hood.
Turned it on.
To nothing.
The bulb didn't turn on!!
*exhales*
Had I really bought ANOTHER broken lightbulb?
But. I decided to test it.
So I pulled out the other lightbulb in the other hood on my tank.
And put the pink bulb in.
It turned on.
I put the white bulb from that hood into the other one...
And it didn't work.
Which meant....
That it wasn't the bulb that was broken.
But the hood.
*exhales*
Which meant I needed to buy a new hood for the tank, not a bulb.
Except...we don't really carry bulb hoods anymore.
Everything's gone more LED.
And the LED lights? Expensive.
*shakes head*
And it would be weird to have one LED light and one Bulb light.
Because they give off different brightnesses.
So I'd need to get LED lights for the entire tank setup.
But that's $$$$
Money I don't really want to spend.
But like...I don't want only half my light working.
Except.
I had this thought today.
Where twice a year, my work increases the discount we get. Doubling it.
And I realized....that had to be coming up soon.
Because it's usually around this time of year that it happens.
And if it was happening soon, then I could wait until then, and then buy the LED lights and get a discount on them.
So like woo!!
Only I needed to find out when that was happening.
And after asking a manager,
I discovered that this doubling of our normal discount....
Starts tomorrow.
:D :D :D
YES!
So really I just need to wait another day, or maybe two to buy the new lights!!!
Woot!!!
^^;;
Hopefully this works out.
*fingers crossed*
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
....Late
Well....it's been a while since I've been late to work.
I woke up this morning to the vibrating of my phone and opened my eyes to see that it was work calling.
Which lead to a moment of confusion of 'why is work calling me?'
Until I looked at the clock...
And saw that it was 7am.
….I was supposed to have been to work half an hour ago. *groans*
I barely missed picking up the phone to talk to my manager.
Which meant I had to call back.
Which should have been a simple thirty second dealeo.
But apparently said manager had left a message and then walked away from the phone as it took like six tries to get someone to pick up. *shakes head*
In any case.
I was late to work by an hour.
All because my alarms didn't go off.
Why hadn't they gone off?
Because I'd turned them off yesterday when I was preparing to call out from work and I didn't want them waking me up....and I'd forgotten to turn them back on because I basically almost never turn them off and so last night just assumed they were on....
Yah, I made sure they were on before I left to rush to work lol.
The interesting thing about this....
Is I do wonder how long it would have been before the managers noticed I wasn't there?
I mean...like in my first year at work I had a similar occurrence happen where my alarm, for whatever reason, didn't go off and it was like 9am before people realized that I hadn't come in to work yet and called to make sure I was okay.
Today though, the managers noticed earlier....
Because my fellow opener had called to call out sick.
So they were down two people in my department.
And probably only realized I hadn't shown up yet because they checked the schedule to see who was coming in.
In any case.
The manager was like "Oh so and so called out, so I would probably skip the bedding changes of today"
O.o Excuse me?
Huh?
Skip the bedding change?
Ha.
Ha.
No.
Today was the small pet bedding change. The hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, and chinchillas.
It's basically the one bedding change that you can't really get away with skipping a week on.
Because it's the most obvious when the bedding gets messy.
Besides....
I was only an hour late to work.
I'd opened the department before coming in later like that.
And hadn't had an issue.
And I had an entire shift to do so in.
So I was like Nu-uh, I'm doing the bedding change.
And I did.
I got the rest of the department open -managing to do that before we opened HA!
And then spent the rest of my shift focusing on the bedding change and tada!
I got it done. XD So There!!
But, the interesting thing of today was like...the head manager asked "Who is opened with you"
When he saw me working on the bedding change.
And I was like "No one, they called out."
His response was to say: ()_() And vp manager didn't call in a replacement?!
^^;; Heh...
Oh yah...
That's a thing isn't it?
Where if someone calls out sick...you can call in someone else to work their shift.
It's just been that for the past six months...that hasn't really been an option due to most of my coworkers being in school. So like, nobody was available to come in if someone called out.
So it's kinda slipped my mind that that is something we could do.
But like, I'm also quite used to working by myself as well.
If someone calls out, I'm very capable (so long as we don't get crazy crazy busy with customers) of opening the entire department by myself with no issue.
*laughs*
But yah....I didn't dare bring up to the Head Manager that I was late to work today.
Didn't really seem to matter in the moment since the department was basically open at that point. ^^;;
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
I woke up this morning to the vibrating of my phone and opened my eyes to see that it was work calling.
Which lead to a moment of confusion of 'why is work calling me?'
Until I looked at the clock...
And saw that it was 7am.
….I was supposed to have been to work half an hour ago. *groans*
I barely missed picking up the phone to talk to my manager.
Which meant I had to call back.
Which should have been a simple thirty second dealeo.
But apparently said manager had left a message and then walked away from the phone as it took like six tries to get someone to pick up. *shakes head*
In any case.
I was late to work by an hour.
All because my alarms didn't go off.
Why hadn't they gone off?
Because I'd turned them off yesterday when I was preparing to call out from work and I didn't want them waking me up....and I'd forgotten to turn them back on because I basically almost never turn them off and so last night just assumed they were on....
Yah, I made sure they were on before I left to rush to work lol.
The interesting thing about this....
Is I do wonder how long it would have been before the managers noticed I wasn't there?
I mean...like in my first year at work I had a similar occurrence happen where my alarm, for whatever reason, didn't go off and it was like 9am before people realized that I hadn't come in to work yet and called to make sure I was okay.
Today though, the managers noticed earlier....
Because my fellow opener had called to call out sick.
So they were down two people in my department.
And probably only realized I hadn't shown up yet because they checked the schedule to see who was coming in.
In any case.
The manager was like "Oh so and so called out, so I would probably skip the bedding changes of today"
O.o Excuse me?
Huh?
Skip the bedding change?
Ha.
Ha.
No.
Today was the small pet bedding change. The hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, and chinchillas.
It's basically the one bedding change that you can't really get away with skipping a week on.
Because it's the most obvious when the bedding gets messy.
Besides....
I was only an hour late to work.
I'd opened the department before coming in later like that.
And hadn't had an issue.
And I had an entire shift to do so in.
So I was like Nu-uh, I'm doing the bedding change.
And I did.
I got the rest of the department open -managing to do that before we opened HA!
And then spent the rest of my shift focusing on the bedding change and tada!
I got it done. XD So There!!
But, the interesting thing of today was like...the head manager asked "Who is opened with you"
When he saw me working on the bedding change.
And I was like "No one, they called out."
His response was to say: ()_() And vp manager didn't call in a replacement?!
^^;; Heh...
Oh yah...
That's a thing isn't it?
Where if someone calls out sick...you can call in someone else to work their shift.
It's just been that for the past six months...that hasn't really been an option due to most of my coworkers being in school. So like, nobody was available to come in if someone called out.
So it's kinda slipped my mind that that is something we could do.
But like, I'm also quite used to working by myself as well.
If someone calls out, I'm very capable (so long as we don't get crazy crazy busy with customers) of opening the entire department by myself with no issue.
*laughs*
But yah....I didn't dare bring up to the Head Manager that I was late to work today.
Didn't really seem to matter in the moment since the department was basically open at that point. ^^;;
Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Monday, June 11, 2018
An Almost Absence
I nearly called in sick today for work.
Like it's probably the closest I've come to actually really doing it.
I turned off my normal alarms.
Set one for a specific time for me to 'wake up to' even though I hadn't really slept last night.
And when it went off I was going to call the manager and be like "Hey, I can't come in because I have a migraine so bad it's making me nauseous and shaky and such. So I'm calling out."
Because it was that bad.
Like pretty sure I've hard worse nuclear headaches.
I've gone to work on worse nuclear headaches, ones where I can barely stand up and work because the pain is so bad. (I did leave work early after that one)
But last night....it was...just bad.
Like I went to bed at 1130ish.
Woke up at 2ish.
And the pain was still there.
The headache was still pounding away.
Around 3ish I got up and took a shower to have the heat pound into my skin.
At 330ish I jumped back into the shower to again try my luck.
My stomach was twisting and turning to the point where I dared not move so I wouldn't upset it.
But like I was both too hot. And too cold. Shaking so hard.
And yah....I was like "Oh no, I can't go to work on this."
At 5 something I made the plan.
I would call into work.
I would call out.
I would just sleep the day away and hope the headache would just vanish if I could fall asleep.
I had it all planned out.
I just needed to wait for the manager to get to the store before I could call the store.
Which meant that he should show up at 6.
But if people were late to work then he wouldn't be able to come in until the others showed up.
So I would give it an extra five minutes before I called out.
And I really hoped that the manager would answer.
That they phones would be working.
Because I didn't want 630 when I was scheduled to come in to come and go and have them be like "Where's Sarnic?!" because I couldn't reach them.
And of course there was the guilt.
Because like...it's never fun to come into work on a Monday Morning and find someone calling out.
But like...they'd be understanding for me right?
Because I never call out sick.
So if I'm calling out sick then it must be serious.
But because there's been a lot of coworkers calling out sick recently, I'd heard that they started requiring doctors notes and such.
So like what if they needed one.
I didn't want to go to a doctor!
And then I remembered....
It was Monday.
And for like the past month of Mondays....
I've been the only one scheduled to open in my department for like my entire shift.
So if I called out....
There would be no one there to open.
And who knew when they'd be able to bring someone in.
No one would be in a couple of hours later to pick up the slack because I was scheduled alone.
So maybe I call out a couple of hours and go in a little later?
So I can still do the work? Still get the department open but not as quick.
Like I didn't want my department to suffer because I couldn't come into work.
And at like 5:55amish
I cautiously sat up in bed.
Just testing to see how I felt sitting up.
Which I wasn't feeling as bad as I had like 20 minutes ago.
So I got up to get ready for work -like bare minimum get ready for work.
And was still alright.
Headache wasn't as bad.
It wasn't good but I've had worse headaches.
Sooo I went to work.
And thankfully didn't have to interact with people much.
Because I did not have the energy to do so.
I still had the headache.
the radio would make me wince if someone spoke too loud and suddenly.
But I survived.
I got work done.
I did the things.
lol though when I told my manager I was like on day 3 of my migraine he gave me this look of disbelief.
Like "How do you do that?!"
"Why do you get so many?!"
Cus I'm stubborn. That's how I go to work on headaches. Because I'm stubborn and loyal and don't want to let people down.
Why do I get so many? Because I get tense and the tension causes most of the headaches.
"So don't be tense!"
Ha. Easier said than done. *shakes head*
But yah.
I didn't call into work.
I survived.
Hopefully this headache will be gone in the morning so I don't have to go to work twice in a row with the aching behind my eyes.
But we'll see.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
Like it's probably the closest I've come to actually really doing it.
I turned off my normal alarms.
Set one for a specific time for me to 'wake up to' even though I hadn't really slept last night.
And when it went off I was going to call the manager and be like "Hey, I can't come in because I have a migraine so bad it's making me nauseous and shaky and such. So I'm calling out."
Because it was that bad.
Like pretty sure I've hard worse nuclear headaches.
I've gone to work on worse nuclear headaches, ones where I can barely stand up and work because the pain is so bad. (I did leave work early after that one)
But last night....it was...just bad.
Like I went to bed at 1130ish.
Woke up at 2ish.
And the pain was still there.
The headache was still pounding away.
Around 3ish I got up and took a shower to have the heat pound into my skin.
At 330ish I jumped back into the shower to again try my luck.
My stomach was twisting and turning to the point where I dared not move so I wouldn't upset it.
But like I was both too hot. And too cold. Shaking so hard.
And yah....I was like "Oh no, I can't go to work on this."
At 5 something I made the plan.
I would call into work.
I would call out.
I would just sleep the day away and hope the headache would just vanish if I could fall asleep.
I had it all planned out.
I just needed to wait for the manager to get to the store before I could call the store.
Which meant that he should show up at 6.
But if people were late to work then he wouldn't be able to come in until the others showed up.
So I would give it an extra five minutes before I called out.
And I really hoped that the manager would answer.
That they phones would be working.
Because I didn't want 630 when I was scheduled to come in to come and go and have them be like "Where's Sarnic?!" because I couldn't reach them.
And of course there was the guilt.
Because like...it's never fun to come into work on a Monday Morning and find someone calling out.
But like...they'd be understanding for me right?
Because I never call out sick.
So if I'm calling out sick then it must be serious.
But because there's been a lot of coworkers calling out sick recently, I'd heard that they started requiring doctors notes and such.
So like what if they needed one.
I didn't want to go to a doctor!
And then I remembered....
It was Monday.
And for like the past month of Mondays....
I've been the only one scheduled to open in my department for like my entire shift.
So if I called out....
There would be no one there to open.
And who knew when they'd be able to bring someone in.
No one would be in a couple of hours later to pick up the slack because I was scheduled alone.
So maybe I call out a couple of hours and go in a little later?
So I can still do the work? Still get the department open but not as quick.
Like I didn't want my department to suffer because I couldn't come into work.
And at like 5:55amish
I cautiously sat up in bed.
Just testing to see how I felt sitting up.
Which I wasn't feeling as bad as I had like 20 minutes ago.
So I got up to get ready for work -like bare minimum get ready for work.
And was still alright.
Headache wasn't as bad.
It wasn't good but I've had worse headaches.
Sooo I went to work.
And thankfully didn't have to interact with people much.
Because I did not have the energy to do so.
I still had the headache.
the radio would make me wince if someone spoke too loud and suddenly.
But I survived.
I got work done.
I did the things.
lol though when I told my manager I was like on day 3 of my migraine he gave me this look of disbelief.
Like "How do you do that?!"
"Why do you get so many?!"
Cus I'm stubborn. That's how I go to work on headaches. Because I'm stubborn and loyal and don't want to let people down.
Why do I get so many? Because I get tense and the tension causes most of the headaches.
"So don't be tense!"
Ha. Easier said than done. *shakes head*
But yah.
I didn't call into work.
I survived.
Hopefully this headache will be gone in the morning so I don't have to go to work twice in a row with the aching behind my eyes.
But we'll see.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
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