Chocolate "Chip" Shake

So there's this place that I occasionally like to go to get shakes from called Arctic Circle. 

And currently my favorite one to get is a Chocolate Chip shake.

I like it because they take...idk the word for it. But the 'Chocolate Topper shell." where it's liquid chocolate until you pour it onto something cold and then it hardens into a shell.

And usually they pour in a bunch of that chocolate stuff into the vanilla icecream and mix it in until the 'chocolate chips' are swirled all throughout the vanilla.

It's my favorite.

I love it.

And I decided, after a long day at work, that I wanted to go ahead and get one today.

And I should have suspected that something was gonna go wrong when I told the person manning the drive thru that I wanted a "Chocolate Chip shake."

And they were like "A Chocolate shake?"

"No, A Chocolate Chip shake."

"So that was a Chocolate shake?"

"No. Chocolate. CHIP."

"Oh. Chocolate Chip! Okay!" 

Like...something has to go wrong if it takes that many repetitions for them to hear the 'chip' part of 'chocolate chip'

*exhales* But I didn't really think much of it beyond the fact that the person was having a hard time hearing me.

Until I got to the window to get my food and shake.

And they hand me a 'Chocolate Chip' shake.

But not the chocolate chip shake that I had described up above. lol.

No. They'd poured a bunch of actual chocolate chips into the shake and mixed it in with the vanilla ice cream. *shakes head* lol

It was rather amusing, disappointing as I much prefer the other version, but amusing none the less.

And it tells me that there's at least one new person working in the store, if not two or three as nobody caught the 'mistake' of the chocolate chip shake.

*shakes head* lol

I wasn't about to make a scene though because at that point I was starving and just wanted to eat my food and go home.

Besides I did technically get what I asked for lol.

And it seems to be something that happens quite often there, as I asked my brother if he'd had that happen often when he'd worked at a different A.C. and he said that it happened alot.

*shakes head*

Gotta love those misunderstandings lol.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Full Moon Rising

 You know...it's pretty common knowledge that the full moon brings out the crazy people.

But I'm pretty sure it also tends to bring out the anti-maskers too. 

Like...I know the full moon was a couple of days ago.....

But today has just been...well beastly because of the anti-maskers.

Like we always have at least two or three that feel that they don't have to wear a mask.

And a good three or four dozen people that just 'forgot' to put one on but are willing to go grab one.

But today?

We had a good...I don't know...dozen people in the store who wanted nothing to do with wearing masks.

Like it was dramatic increase.

Especially because at least half of them decided to cause scenes about it.

One guy 'danced' his way out of the store after saying that wearing a mask was 'silly'

While another lady ended up calling our store to complain that one of our workers had "chased after her screaming at her to wear a mask"

-We heard no screaming btw. *rolls eyes* customers love to lie and be overly dramatic. 

And this evening we had a good dozen people come into the store right before close not wearing masks.

Like...I get it that our state mask mandate is ending in less than two weeks.

But our STORE POLICY is still in effect. And that Policy states that in order to be in the store you have to be wearing a mask.

It's been this way since JULY.

And it's crazy how people act like it's something that we 'just started doing' or else "should stop doing"

I'm pretty sure it's gonna get worse because people who have been vaccinated are now under the impression that they don't need to wear the masks.

And like...having the vaccine doesn't mean you'll never get it again. You could still catch the virus and experience a more mild case of it.  You could be a carrier of it and not show symptoms but pass it onto others who haven't yet been vaccinated. 

There's a lot we still don't know.

But like. You should at least respect a store's policy to require a mask be worn indoors. 

Like I don't expect us to get rid of the policy until the summer at the earliest.

Which in a way sucks because all of us are already mentally drained over having to constantly play babysitter over people who can't read signs and follow directions.

*exhales*

Yah....full moon brings out the crazies.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Early Morning Pricing

 It's rather bad timing on my part to get a migraine the night before I have to an early shift at work. *exhales* As it means I end up spending most of if not all of my shift as a zombie just trying to survive the day.

The migraine ended up being a rather bad one in the fact that it would wake me up every couple of hours during the night because my muscles were so tense it was making my head pound harder than a hammer on an anvil. 

It wasn't bad enough to make me nauseous which I suppose is a slight blessing. 

But it was bad enough that I actually kept my heatpack warmed up and on my shoulder to try and ease the ache there for the first couple hours of my shift as I was wandering around putting up price tags and such. 

As that's the reason why I had an earlier shift than normal.

As I usually get scheduled the 'early shift' on the days when we have new sales start in the store.

And since the 1st of April is this week...they started the 'new month' sale today.

It makes me wish that there was a way to like...have the sales be all electronically installed. Like instead of putting stickers up and taking them down only to put the same sale stickers back up with a different end date on them....the shelves would just alter their prices every month to show what's on sale and what's not on sale.

-Yes I can see how it would glitch and wouldn't work, but it would be so much easier than constantly taking down and putting back up sales-

At least it was simple work, so I didn't have to interact with customers as much as I was focused on getting all our prices up and such. Which is good when I've had a migraine and little sleep. Not having to think is always great. 

And hey...I managed to get all the sales up. So yay me. :D

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

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Family Time

It's been a while since my family has had an extended family party.

I think it was back in...October? Where we had a group meet up to celebrate my grandma's birthday.

But otherwise...haven't really interacted with anyone beyond immediate family for the past year.

And if it wasn't for the fact that my Dad wanted to introduce his fiancee to everyone together (after meeting with people individually throughout the week) I don't think we'd have had a family get together until this summer at the earliest.

In any case.

It was another opportunity to interact with and chat with his fiancee but also to see family that we haven't seen in a while.

Was I stressed?

Just a bit lol.

Crowds make me nervous and having a bunch of people around in an environment that wasn't work related is quite the stressor to me because I'm not used to it and there's that paranoia about accidentally catching or giving the virus at these types of events.

But overall it was a good experience.

I didn't visit with as many of the extended family as I wanted to.

But it was nice to get out and do something more 'normal' after a year of mostly just traveling between home and work.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Rough Handling?

 So we have this policy.

One that's been in effect for...oh a year now.

Where we don't allow customers to handle any of the animals in the store unless they're planning to buy that animal that day.

The main reason for this is because we can't really social distance (stay 6 feet away) if we have to open the cage and then hand the animal to the customer, so we are doing what we can to minimize the chances of being exposed to people who could potentially be carrying the virus.

Overall it's been a great because it minimizes our interactions with the customers who 'just want to hold' a pet and allows us to be more productive elsewhere.

But occasionally you get in that customer that's like "Well how do I know I want it unless I handle it?"

Which yes, sound logic, but still...

Today was one of those days. 

Where this lady came in wanting to hold a bearded dragon.

And I was like "We don't allow handling unless you're planning to purchase the bearded dragon today"

And the customer was like "Well how can I know if I want one unless I hold one and see their personality?"

Which yah I get it.

So I went ahead and allowed the customer to have their way and I opened the cage and picked up the bearded dragon that she pointed to and placed it in her hand while making sure to keep a slight grip on the tail of the bearded dragon to a) keep it from running away and b) be holding onto a part of it if the customer decides to freak out and try and throw it. 

And the customer was like "Where did the bearded dragon come from, how old is it, etc."

And like...we get the animals from specific breeders that work with our company...but I don't know who they are or where they're located or anything. And usually the bearded dragons are around 3-4 months old when they come in like most creatures are.

And the customer was like "Well...I think I might go with a breeder instead because you handled the bearded dragon a little rough when picking it up and that's nothing against you it tends to be typical in pet stores, but yah." 

....Like how can I not be slightly offended by it?

Like....I know how to handle a bearded dragon. I've been working in my store for 8 years.

And I hardly was 'rough' when I picked it up.

I picked it up.

Like...reached in, grabbed it around the middle, lifted it up, placed it on the customer's hand.

There was nothing 'rough' about it. *shakes head* 

It's not like I treated the dragon like it was fine china about to shatter if it I looked at the him wrong.

But it wasn't like I was being 'rough' with it either.

I don't even know what she meant by rough. Gah.

But it bugged me for the rest of the day. That statement. "You handled him a little rough."

Like....WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

No idea.

But it shows that the customer is rather particular/picky and probably will be one of those helicopter parents that worries over every little thing their bearded dragon does that they think 'isn't normal'

It would be interesting to discover if she actually went with a breeder or not though....

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Call For Me

 You know how I've been mentioning the past couple of days that customers have been needier than normal?

Yah. The trend still continued into today. *exhales*

It's like spring peaked it's head around the corner and suddenly everyone forgot how to think...or well do things for themselves.

This morning, stupidly early -like who comes into the store looking to buy an animal within the first hour of the store being opened? Only crazy people really. They should be in bed.

In any case. A couple came into the store before we'd been open twenty minutes looking to get a snake.

Which. Ha.

I only have a cornsnake available for sell right now.

As yah, we still can't keep animals in stock for longer than a couple of days and I've yet to get any other snakes replenished. 

-Leaving one entire endcap of 11 cages completely empty btw. Yay empty cages (not) 

And the guy of the couple was like "Do you have any snakes?"

I have no idea what kind of snake he was looking for but I'm guessing it was a ball python as that's what most people come into the store looking for. 

And I told him. I just have the one cornsnake.

He wasn't impressed.

"Do you have any snakes back in quarantine?" was his next question.

Which I'm sure he meant "do you have any snakes in the back that are ready to sell but you haven't put on the floor yet?" 

Because with our birds and rodents we do quarantine them for a few days to make sure they're healthy before putting them on the floor.

Our reptiles though? Not so much. They go straight into their floor cages as soon as they come in.

And while I do have a ball python quarantined in the back currently....he's quarantined because he hasn't been eating for us. So aka not for sell because he's not healthy yet. Not because he just came in or anything.

So yah. I told the customer "Nope." 

And instead of being like "Okay" 

The woman of the couple was like "Could you call your **** store for us then and see if they have any?"

Which, I could have easily called our Sister store that shares the valley for us.

But the store they mentioned is in the next valley over where there's like six other sister stores as well.

And well...I never have to call those stores. 

I was like "I don't know their number, sorry." 

Because I don't. I have our Sister Store's number memorized because I've constantly had to call them over the past 8 years. But the rest of the stores in our state? Haven't the foggiest idea what their numbers are.

And I didn't understand why they wanted me to call the store for them. They have their phones. They have access to google. They can look up and call as easily as I can.

Which the lady confirmed by saying "If we give you their number can you call them for us?" 

Like...lady. You already have their number why in the world do I need to do it? I ended up saying something like "You can call them yourself." because literally they can.

But the dude was like "But you'll get further than us!"

Which at the time I was confused by. Like. Further than you? It's literally dialing the number of the store, hitting the proper number to get to the right department, and then saying "Hi, do you have any ball pythons in stock?"

Literally anyone can do that. 

But my roommate brought up a good point that the customers were probably thinking of the stores as more like an 'office' than a store. 

Where people within the building have an easier time accessing other 'departments' within their building. Other offices and such. Than a customer would if they were calling into the office trying to reach a certain person.

But retail stores? No you dial the number and walla! You get the same person no matter if you're a worker or not. 

I do wonder why they were so insistant on that one particular store being their next choice though.

I'm pretty sure there's three other sister stores if not four along the way to the one they mentioned....

But yah the customers ended up leaving in a huff after I told them they could call the store themselves.

Like I have things to do. I'm not gonna stand there on the phone when the customer can easily call the store themselves. *shakes head*

It does make me wonder why they were so desperate to find a snake so early in the morning though.

Like we hadn't been open half an hour yet.

Were they trying to find a gift for a birthday present? Did they accidentally kill a snake they were watching and were looking for a replacement? Like...why did they need it so early?

Who knows.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Meeting

 It's been a long day.

Mostly because I worked a closing shift last night, then a morning shift this morning -and did not sleep well btw- and then went straight into social interaction right after work.

So yah.

I'm exhausted. And drained. So much peopling. Too much peopling. 

Especially when customers have been rather...needy...today and yesterday. Like...I have no idea what's in the air but I don't like that it's here.

In any case.

Today was a bit of a momentous occasion.

In that I was finally able to meet my Daddoo's fiance today. 

Since she lives out of state, I haven't been able to meet her before now.

But she's in town for the week to meet the family and such.

And to keep her from getting overwhelmed, she and Daddoo are meeting up with each of us kids on a 'one on one' basis. So we're basically taking turns having dinner with them throughout the week and then this weekend we'll have a big family dinner with everyone together.

Lol and funnily enough, things have worked out that she's meeting us kids in our birth order. So me first, and then my siblings after. 

And overall. I think the meeting went well.

Like. I was tired and such. But I was left with a good impression of her. 

Though I couldn't help but compare her to Mother Dearest.

I mean, who wouldn't?. But it's interesting to see in what ways she's similar to my Mom...and how she's quite different. 

Overall she's more different than similar.

But it was rather jarring to have her react to things in a similar way that mom would lol. Like when Daddoo mentioned that he used to have scorpions and spiders and cockroaches as pets.

lol her reaction was exactly the same as Mother Dearests.

Aka. She did not like hearing that. XD lol. No to the bugs. 

But yah.

I like her. 

I can't help but think though...about the future.

Like it's weird to think that whenever I actually do get married and have kids...that my kids will never know Mother Dearest as their Grandma. No, they'll know a completely different woman. Woh I can forsee will do her best to spoil them rotten and such.

But at the same time. It makes me miss my Mom even more. 

I want her to be the one holding my kids. Spoiling them. Sharing special monumental moments. 

It's a bittersweet feeling.

Like I'm glad that they'll be able to have two grandparents on my side to talk to.

It's just weird to think that they'll never really know my Mom as a Grandma. 

*exhales*

So yah...still processing my feelings about that, though honestly since I have no boyfriend at the moment it's a far off concept lol.

But I am glad to see Daddoo so happy. To see him being more like himself and being attentive to his fiancee. 

I think she'll be good for him. Help him be better and such.

It's just...gonna take some time to get used to the new dynamic. To get used to having a different person participating in our lives and family events and such. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Busy Busy Busy

It was a rough night.

Like. Tuesday nights aren't supposed to be crazy. 

They're one of the slowest days of the week for us in the store.

But today....today was a needy day.

Where customers just basically wanted you to hold their hands and help them find everything they needed in the store. Or else were just difficult in general. 

And like...I was hoping it was just the morning that was gonna be rough. That the evening would calm down.

As both my opening cashier and my opening petcare person mentioned that they were dealing with difficult customers today. Especially my petcare person who mentioned that customers were just 'needy' and that they were spending a good 20 minutes with customers at a time.

And the poor cashier was dealing with customers such as one dude who paid for a $18 item with a $50 bill and had the bad luck of encountering a till just filled with $5s and $1s and he proceeded to hold up the line for a bit because he insisted that he wanted other bills besides the $5s in his change.

Unfortunately for him, all the managers were busy at that moment and if we had the change available then he would have to settle for the $5s. 

He didn't like that. *rolls eyes* Too bad for him. He got his change in $5s. That's what happens when you buy a little bit and pay with a big bill.

In any case.

I was hopeful that it would be just another slow Tuesday night.

That the customers would be less needy.

But no.

The trend continued all night long.

Where customers kept tying up my petcare person with a ton of questions.

And people kept having complications at the register or else would all herd together to the front at once requiring a back up cashier.

So like....I basically spent my entire shift moving between the register as back up and the fish wall as back up.

Which seriously sucks when there's just 3 of us closing. Like...a 4th person would have been so handy.

Because we were all kept up at the front, we weren't able to get any facing done in the store before we closed.

I wasn't able to do all the money counting until well after close.

And my petcare person struggled to get the closing tasks in the department done before close.

We ended up staying half an hour later than we were supposed to to just try and get the store back in a sembalance of order and looking nice for the morning.

It was frustrating. So frustrating.

Especially when the last customer I helped before we closed for the night was some needy woman who was upset that we only carried one type of dewormer and she needed a different one and why didn't we have more types to offer....

*exhales*

Yah. All of us screamed after all the customers were gone.

Like literally. We screamed.

Because. AHHHHHHH.

It shouldn't be this busy unless it's Christmas.

And last I checked it's definitely not Christmas. XP 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

One on One

 So part of being a manager is doing like...managerial duties. Aka. Holding meetings and such.

Which bleh. Meetings. I've never liked them and never will.

And apparently part of my managerial duties...is to hold one on one meetings every month with the members of my team -aka the workers in my department- to basically check in with them and see how they're doing, what goals they want to work on, plans for the future, how they want to improve, what they think they're doing great at, etc. 

Basically...it's a wellness check from what I can tell.

And like...I can see the worth of said checks. Just to be able to give little corrections or to see how your employees are doing and if there's anything that can be done to help them want to stay at their job. 

At the same time.

Every month? 

Like Do you know how many duties I need to juggle already while being short staffed and dealing with a ton of customers during a pandemic? 

Like...I don't need this sort of pressure on me to try and find the time to check in with everyone every month. Gah.

*exhales*

Like I could see it being quarterly or something.

But every month?

Boooooo.

I mean, I held my very first 1 on 1 meeting with one of my coworkers today and it went well enough and we had a great ten minute chat and such. 

So it's not all bad.

And it's not like I have to do this for fifty people every month. Like it's under ten. I can check in on ten people and call it good. 

It's just...bleh.

I feel like corporate just likes to give us more and more work...and less and less time to do all the work in. XP 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Spider Adventure

 So it's finally that time of year...where the spiders come out.

As there's always a time of year where at least once a year a spider suddenly appears on the couch I'm sitting on and scares me half to death. *shakes head*

I probably should have been expecting it. 

As it's officially spring now. And we've been having warmer weather this past week.

But yesterday.

It snowed again. The weather turned cold and wet.

So of course any spiders that had woken up from hibernation or whatever they do during the winter would want to take shelter. 

I ended up finding 3 spiders in the house. *shakes head*

Only one startled me on the couch though. 

It appeared out of the blue right in front of me which made scrambling under the couch without getting closer to the spider rather difficult. 

But we obviously startled each other as the spider disappeared underneath the seat cushion.

So yah. Totally needed to burn the couch to ashes. ;) lol

But no. I just moved to the other couch. As there was no way I was going to try and capture a spider somewhere in the cushions when I had no idea where exactly it was lurking.

But after like...I don't know...half an hour or so? Of hanging out on the other couch. 

I look up and see that the spider has made it's reappearance. 

And was just chilling on the cushion next to the pillow I'd been using before said spider startled me.

And I was like "I should catch you" but then I was like "Nah" and just let the spider hang out with me.

It wasn't moving.

I wasn't moving. 

And then my roommate came upstairs.

I was half distracted at the time when they came up.

And I didn't realize they'd sat down on the couch the spider was on....until like maybe 5-10 minutes into our conversation.

Surprisingly....the spider was still in it's same spot.

It hadn't moved.

And my roommate hadn't noticed it.

Probably because it was partially hidden by the pillow...and also nearly the same color as the couch.

So like...as long as the spider didn't move....my roommate probably wasn't going to see it.

But oh. I kept expecting her to. 

Like...there she was sitting on the couch drinking her drink and chatting with me and the spider is like...six inches away from her leg. And she hasn't seen it.

I could only image her actually seeing the spider, spilling her drink because it would surprise her, and then she would squish the spider. 

All because I chose to not capture the spider and toss it outside when I got the chance.

So yah. It was difficult to try and hold a normal conversation when I was waiting for my roommate to notice what was sitting next to her.

But amazingly enough.

She never noticed said spider.

Once she finished her drink, I got up to get my own drink and she followed me into the kitchen -and the spider still didn't move when she got off the couch- and we continued our conversation there before she headed back to her room.

And I...as soon as she was out of sight. Took the opportunity to grab a jar and capture the spider and toss it outside.

No need to tempt fate again lol. 

But yah. Ended up capturing another 2 spiders as well and tossing them outside.

All without neither one of my roomies being the wiser.

So yay me. ^^;

Hopefully the spiders are okay outside...and haven't found their way back inside already. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Long Shift

So I had to work a ten hour shift today.

I guess I didn't 'have' to. 

But I did.

Because my closing manager called out sick today. 

Which meant that for the last couple of hours the store was open...there wouldn't be a manager on duty...

Which we can't do because a manager always has to be present in the store.

So someone would have to over those last couple of hours.

And option 1 was that I would stay late and work longer.

Option 2 was that my VP manager was the morning mid shift would leave the store a couple of hours earlier in their shift and then would come back for the last two hours. 

In either case...it would mean for about four hours or so...I would be the only manager on duty. :S

Like double yikes. 

I mean, I've gotten used to being the only one 'in charge' in the building.

But still doesn't mean that I like it at all. 
There's always that constant worry that something major would go wrong. Even though those sort of situations aren't common at all. 

Still. I don't know if I've ever closed on a Saturday night before. I know I haven't done so by myself. 

And Saturday's are usually the most crazy shopping days.

But I would much rather close by myself than be by myself in the middle of the afternoon rush. 

So option 1 was my choice. 

To work a couple of hours longer and therefore keep my mid morning shift manager until at least dinner time when the store is at it's most crazy.

Which was a good decision to make, because similar to last saturday's crazy, everyone and their mom decided to come into the store around 3pm and do their shopping.

So we were once again dealing with a line of 15-20 people.

But despite being short a manager, at least we weren't short on coverage or down a register so we were able to have two or three people manning the registers when the lines started getting long.

And in typical fashion -though it was rather unexpected for a Saturday night, the crowds died down after the sun set and it got closer to closing time. 

So we actually managed to get everything down and finished on time so yay me. 

Still exhausted though.

Working 10 hour shifts isn't fun. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Another Visit

So it's been a slightly stressful week for the store.

Which is unsurprising because the store usually gets stressed out whenever we get word that our District Manager is coming into town.

And I suppose it's a bit more stressful for us because we've yet to meet this district manager. They're a temporary one for us. Until a 'new' official district manager can be appointed. 

I feel like we've been waiting for a 'new' district manager for like...ever now. Though of course with the pandemic time moves rather weird anyways. As I remember being told that the temporary DM would be in place for like 4 months....so maybe there's still another couple of months of the DM being our DM until the new DM is found and trained? I think I heard we'd gotten a new one...

But honestly I don't know.

In any case. This is the second time our temporary DM has flown out to see the stores in our state. However, last time, due to an unfortunate break in of the DM's rental car....they never had the opportunity to see our store.

So I suppose there was slight more pressure for us to look good this time around because this was the first time the DM would be seeing our store. 

And it's been hard because we just went through an Inventory count and our replenishment shipments have been huge making it difficult to stocking done in a timely manner. 

Not that it looks like we've been stocking at all because of how fast product is flying off the shelf quite quickly. *exhales* 

And like typical DM visits....

I honestly don't understand why we stress out every time.

I haven't had a chance to actually find out what all the DM said during their visit here. But my Head Manager said that overall they were impressed with the store. 

And the DM seemed to be happy with how my department was looking overall. So that's a bonus lol. ^^;; I'm sure there's some notes about little things we can improve on. 

But like...I suppose part of the reason why my department looked good was because we were putting out our fish shipment into the tanks when the DM walked by. So most of them had a bunch of fish bags inside which did wonders to hide any potential flaws in the tanks.

Namely algae -which my associates did a good job of making sure there wasn't.

But also pest snails. Which my store has been struggling off and on with. Thankfully they weren't as noticeable when the DM walked by. ^^;; lol though I was thinking "Don't look too close don't look too close" 

^^;; Heh. There's always room for improvement. But like...with our fish system going down earlier this week....it is amazing that the tanks looked as good as they did. 

But yah.

Overall the visit went well. So that's one less stress on our shoulders...until you know...the next DM visit. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

ID Please

 So I dropped by Lowe's today after work to grab some giftcards to use as birthday presents as the particular kind I needed I've only ever been able to find there. 

And I didn't think much of my purchase when I went up to the register to check out.

But like....I'm guessing that the store has had an uptick in...credit card thefts? Or scams or something?

Because the cashier asked if I was paying with a card and when I confirmed that I was said that I needed to show them an I.D. where my name matched the name on the card.

Like. Huh. 

I suppose it's probably suspect to have a young person come into the store and buy $$ worth of giftcards with a credit card.
Working retail myself I can see how that would be suspect as it would be a simple thing to make the money on the 'card' disappear by switching it over to various gift cards.

Not what I was doing by any means lol. It was easy enough to pull out my driver's license and show it and the card I was going to use to the cashier so they could confirm that I indeed owned the card I was using and that I was intentionally buying gift cards. 

They never did ask why I was buying them. 

Which I suppose would be considered prying or something.

But yah.

Definitely a different experience lol. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fish System Meltdown

So it's been a well known fact that the fish system controlling our wall of fish tanks at my store is...well...ancient.

Like. The entire thing is old enough that we were considered to get an entirely new fish wall and such last year before well...all the crazy happened. Who knows when or if we'll get an entire fish wall.

But our fish system?

Yesterday around noon it started acting up on me.

It started out innocuously enough with the system suddenly turning off (aka stopping the water from running) and then turning back on.

It's a thing that usually happens if water levels in our sump get too low and usually that's because the filters within the sump haven't been changed recently. 

But upon switching out the filters and adding a bit more water to the sump....the fish system continued to do it's off/on thing. 

...Not good.

So I figured maybe it would need a break and so I put the system on a feed hold while I went on lunch to give it a break from being on.

...the Feedhold should have only lasted 45 minutes...yet an hour later the system still hadn't turned back on.

That probably should have been another clue that something wasn't right.

In any case. I also checked all the electrical things to make sure none of the switches controlling the pumps/heaters/ etc had been kicked off. As sometimes something triggers the system to shut off a heater or a pump and I have to hit the right switch to get it back on.

Everything was normal.

I even went  through an manually kicked off and then on every switch in there.

The system continued it's on off thing.

Like it would turn off and turn on and turn off multiple times over the course of 5 minutes and then run smoothly for like 15 before repeating the process.

Like...I knew something was wrong. But What was wrong I had no idea. Glancing through the odd user manual thing told me nothing helpful as whatever I was checking for I either couldn't find or it was working normally. 

I ended up calling a manager at our sister store who was familiar with the system and asked for their help and they suggested adjusting the water pressure and then making sure that the sump was fully filled which meant using our gravel vaccuum to siphon water from the sink behind our fishwall into the fish sump to give it more flow and to let that run for like an hour.

The system was still acting up when I left work for the day.

And my closing managers informed me when I checked in with them, that it was constantly turnin gon and off.

Not good.

And I didn't feel good about leaving the system on and acting like that without supervision all night.

So I had the closing manager turn off the fish system for the night.

It wasn't ideal as the fish do best with running water and said running water would be heated. With the cold nights we've been having....not the best to give the fish no constant heat source. 

At the same time...I knew that if the temperature dropped slowly throughout the night the fish overall would be just fine even if the water got a little colder than they usually like it.

Better to have cold fish than to have something 'burn up' in the system and set the store on fire from all the off/onness it was doing.

Which is probably a good thing that I had the system turned off...

As when the opening crew came into work this morning...the system wouldn't turn on at all.

Not. Good.

We got an emergency work order sent in and a Tech came out ASAP to check it out and see what the problem was.

The problem?

Yah...the computer/hard drive whatever electrical thing that controls the fish system is called....was completely fried. 

Insomuch that the entire box of electrical parts needs to be replaced. :S 

Yikes.

Definitely probably a good thing I had the system off all night then.

But yah. We have a new 'computer' thing on order to replace the ancient one currently being used as that thing is apparently from the 70s and the company that makes them stopped making them ages ago so parts are like...impossible to find. 

So yah.

We're gonna get a whole new device to control our fish wall.

And no worries about the fish themselves. 

Luckily the system can 'manually' be turned on. So even though the 'auto' system no longer works and all the buttons don't work...we can still ensure that the water is being heated and running through the tanks.

Even though we can only have 2 of our 3 pumps running at a time on said manual setup. So the water flow is a little less strong compared to it's usual capacity.

But hey. At least it's running.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Back to Church

 I went back to church today.

First time I've been back in the building since like...October. 

As I stopped going to church when our COVID cases increased to over 1,000 a day. 

I mean, I'm constantly exposed to people in my job since I work retail...and since my ward meets on a college campus...I was more than a little leery about going to yet one more place where I could possibly catch the virus from when I already risk myself 5 days a week for ungrateful people.

But the past couple of weeks, our case counts have finally gone down again.

To the point where we're consistently reporting under a 1,000 cases and most of the time cases are under like 500 new cases reported a day.

And I could have started attending church again like...two weeks ago.

But the funny thing about the 'unknown' is that sometimes it can stress you out.

And 2 weeks ago...I wasn't quite in the mental frame of mind to interact with people who weren't my roommates or customers at work.

It's an unknown group. My ward. As my old ward was split and placed into a different ward like...two weeks before everything shut down for the pandemic. So I know next to nobody in the ward because I never really had a chance to interact with anyone before it all went crazy. 

In any case.

Today I was actually in a good mental place to be able to handle the possibility of interacting with strangers and being in a different place than my usual places for an hour. 

So for the first time since like...October...my roommates and I all went to church together.

Lol my one roomie who has steadfastly gone the entire pandemic was so happy that we chose to go with her this time. 

And I have to say it wasn't too bad.

Like yes, there were still individuals who can't properly wear a mask. But the social distancing was still in place. Everyone was rather respectful and such and I barely interacted with anyone. So bright side.

It still left me on edge though.

Like being in a different place. Surrounded by strangers. Yah. I could feel my anxiety about it spiking even though I was doing what I could to remain calm and such. 

But yah. Gonna take some getting used to to get back to feeling comfortable heading to church every week.

But I am grateful that cases are finally down to the point where I feel safer going to church. 

So yah. Fun times.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Christmas Crazy in March

I honestly don't know what it is about snow storms that encourages people to go out shopping.

Like...personally, if the weather isn't good I tend to stay home where I'm safe and dry and not risking my life with all the other crazy people on the road. 

But I guess the snow storm today just put people in the 'Christmas' spirit or something. Where they decided that they wanted to reenact the crazy of Christmas shopping and mob our store.

Like Saturdays are busy in general. But compared to the last two Saturdays which have been basically dead....today was off the charts crazy busy. 

There was a point where we had two registers running for like 3 straight hours.

And that entire time the line never got any shorter.

Said line extended halfway down the store. Which in reality was probably only around 15 people in line.

But when you have to social distance...the spacing makes it seem so much longer.

And to consistently have 15-20 people in line at any given time with two registers going?

It's nuts. It was crazy that the rush lasted for so long. Especially compared to how dead yesterday was in the store. 

And it sucked too in a way because our third register (technically register 2) had decided to be stubborn and break on us and it took my other manager like an hour straight on the phone with our solutions center to figure out what the issue was and get the computer up and running again so we could use three registers instead of two.

Though by the time we got the 3rd register up and running...the rush was basically over with.

It was just...frustrating. To have the line never end no matter how quickly I tried to get customers through the line.

It was especially frustrating when customers came up to the register unprepared. Like they had a return but didn't have the receipt or forgot their card out side or something because it made like a two minute transaction into a five or ten minute transaction which again slowed down the line.

It was just. Crazy.

Especially because we ended up being short staffed today due to a couple of coworkers calling out/leaving early.

So we had two people on register, my other manager on the phone trying to get the third register working, and then my poor petcare person by themselves over by the fishwall trying to keep up with the rush of customers over there wanting fish and birds and reptiles and hamsters.

Like once I finally got off register it just seemed like I got stuck helping at the fish wall only to get stuck helping at the register only to get stuck back helping at the fish wall.

The people never ended.

And like....It's March guys. We're not even halfway through the month.

Why are you all in the store on this particular Saturday?

*exhales*

I blame the storm.

But yah. Today was a day where 'nothing' got done because we were constantly having to help customers out. XP 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Smashed

 You never realize how much you use something until it hurts to use it.

Aka. Your fingers.

Like yes, you use your fingers for a lot of things throughout the day, but it's crazy just to see how much specific fingers interact with objects throughout the day.

Today...I ended up smashing the pointer finger of my right hand.

Which honestly, it was only a matter of time before this particular incident occurred. Just rather frustrating it happened today of all days.

In any case.

I was bored out of my mind at work. 
It's what happens when everything to do in petcare has already basically been done by the time I show up for work. And then the fact that we had inventory last night meant that everything in the store had already been faced and worked on. And our truck of the day wasn't due until closer to dinner time. Which meant our expected fish shipment wouldn't arrive until then as well.

So basically I was left looking for things to do to keep me from growing crazy.

But I was also trying to help my coworkers out and give them tasks to do to help them pass the time as well.

And one of those tasks was that the sump--if that's the term for it--but the big water filter behind our fish wall for our comet tanks needed to be cleaned out. 

Aka gravel vaccuming all the gunk out that was sitting on the bottom of it.

An easy task. The only other thing really that would need to be done would be to remove the filter out of the sump first to give easier access.

And this filter is basically a giant plastic folder/sleeve thing that you pull most of the way out and open in order to pull out the filters -the foam stuff- to switch them out when they get dirty. 

But in order to better reach the bottom of the entire sump you have to pull the entire thing out.

And I'm usually pretty cautious about pulling the thing out because I am rather sensitive to my fingers -specifically the fingernails- getting caught on things and hurting myself. 

I don't know what happened this time.

Maybe I was just in a hurry, maybe the world was against me. Who knows.

But as I was doing my best to pull the big plastic folder filter holder thing out of the sump....the front half ended up...I don't know...slipping? 

And slammed down on my right hand pointer finger, squishing it against the back half of the folder filter thing.

I managed to pull the filter device all the way out before freeing my finger.

but OW

OW OW OW OW OW

Like you know it's bad when you can immediately see blood welling underneath the nail. *exhales* 

And it sucked because it happened towards the beginning of my shift, so I've had to deal with a sore finger all day.

And like it's not as bad as it could be because I'm left handed, so all the major tasks I do usually involve my dominate hand.

But there are plenty of other tasks in the store that I've adapted to using my right hand for.

And it's amazing how much I ended up choosing not to do because it would antagonize my finger. 

Like...even typing out this blog post I've had to adapt my typing style a bit because it hurts to put direct pressure on the tip of my finger. Pressing the buttons with the pad of my finger is overall okay but yah....trying to type this normally? Not gonna happen for a couple of days at least I'm sure. 

Hopefully the major pain will fade overnight and I'll be able to function more normally tomorrow.

but at the same time it won't surprise me if my finger continues to ache for a couple more days.

Because OW. It was quite the smashing it got.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Pot of Gold

 You ever have those people that just kinda...stick to your mind and you find yourself thinking about them every now and then?

Well, I may have a new person that this would apply to.

As on Monday I ended up helping a customer at the fish wall, an older customer, one that you can pretty much tell is pretty set in their ways and once they have an idea in their head it's hard to get them to stray from said idea.

The idea this customer had was that they wanted to put a goldfish in a bowl -originally it was like two or three goldfish but I managed to convince them that only one would be recommended in a bowl. Though I did do my best to be like "You don't want to put a goldfish in a bowl that's a lot of work." 

As goldfish tend to get tanks dirty really quickly. And evenmore so in a bowl. I was like "You're gonna have to change the water like every day to keep it alive."

And the customer seemed...unconcerned about this. 

Which is annoying. Like yes...there's a belief that goldfish don't live long but that's because the care they get most of the time is not good care. 

In any case. The customer insisted that they wanted a goldfish for a bowl.

But not any goldfish.

No, they wanted the 'goldest' goldfish.

Which in this customer's opinion 'goldest' meant 'orangest' goldfish that they could see.

Why did they need the 'goldest' goldfish?

Because the customer wanted to have said goldfish in a bowl and when people came over the customer could then tell their visitors "I have a pot of gold." and point to the goldfish in a bowl.

*shakes head* Like...clever. It's a cool idea. 
Just...not the best in execution. If I had any 'gold' bettas I would have been like "Hey how about a betta instead." but nope. The customer insisted. "The goldest of the goldfish."

Which unfortunately for me, because most of the goldfish were like...all the same shade of orange...meant that the customer spent an unreasonable amount of time staring into the tank of fish trying to find the 'goldest' one. 

Not the best when I started to get people lining up waiting to get help with their own fish and crickets and such. 

And I was like "I can come back later."

But nope. The customer was like "No! No! I know which one I want!" 

And then would continue staring into the tank. *exhales*

I hate standing there doing nothing when I can feel that other people are waiting for me. 

The customer ended up finally picking a fish...but when I fished out this 'goldest' goldfish the customer wasn't sure 'it' was the 'goldest' and so had me fish out two other 'goldest goldfish' so that they could compare the three together before picking one.

....yah. They were all literally the exact same shade. The only difference really was that one was smaller, one had a longer tail and the last was larger. *shakes head*

But I ended up getting the customer their 'goldest' goldfish and sent them on their merry way so they could go have their 'pot of gold'

Only...

Today the customer came back in.

Like I wasn't sure it was the same person when I first saw them.

But the vibe they were giving off was similiar, the haircut was similar, but the hair wasn't quite the same shade as I remembered.

But this customer today pointed to a different tank of fish and was like "I want the goldest goldfish from here." 

Sooo unless there's currently a trend among old people to have a 'pot of gold' in their homes....it was the same customer.

Though thankfully this morning they weren't as picky. No they let me pick the 'goldest' one for them.

But instead of just buying it and leaving...the customer also ended up getting a 5 gallon tank with a filter as well. 

Which I was happy --though it did take a bit of effort to convince the customer that they wanted the 5 gallon tank as the 3 gallon tank that they had their heart set on upon entering the store...was out of stock in our location. But a 5 gallon tank would do the goldfish a lot better than a dinky little fish bowl.

It would take less work too.

So I was happy that the customer had come and got the tank though still kinda worried about their 'goldest goldfish' because if they'd already come in for one....that had to mean that, as expected, the other one had died. 

This was confirmed when the customer came back a second time today to get some decor and two more goldest goldfish to put in their five gallon tank.

As they mentioned that they had done a water change for the goldfish that they'd gotten on Monday, yesterday and the fish had died yesterday.

....Which...I am now wondering if the customer had used too hot or too cold of water for the water change and killed the fish....

Who knows.

But it is kinda depressing to know that the first goldfish hadn't made it.

Does make me wonder if the second goldfish they bought is doing okay since the customer came back to buy two more goldfish...

Which if the one from this morning is still alive...that would mean 3 goldfish in a 5 gallon tank.

:S Not the best situation....but at their current size should be alright....though again I wouldn't be surprised if one of them does end up dying within the week....usually a 5 gallon I would only recommend 2 goldfish and those ones would need to be smaller ones....

*exhales*

Who knows. 

Like I'm glad the customer upgraded their pot of gold.

But I'm not gonna be surprised if I see them again this week. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Alone to Manage

I was the only closing manager tonight.

Which was...weird in a way.

Because for the past...I don't know couple of months? I've been closing with another manager.

Technically they've been working my same shift with me because we needed the coverage in petcare.

But like...it's been nice to have another manager around. 

One who can help with any potential problems that might pop up with customers that require a manager to be present.

It's been nice to have that safeguard really.

And has probably helped me relax more into the manager position and be less...frentic about being left alone as the only manager on duty.

That doesn't meant that the concept doesn't still terrify me though.

Like being the one in charge? Yikes.

Especially when I'm not expecting it.

And today was one of those days I wasn't expecting it.

Because again, the past couple of months when I've worked a closing shift...I've had another manager with me until close.

But this week....we have Inventory.

Which means that we need at least...I don't know...three?? of our managers to cover the overnight shift where a third party comes in to count all the product in our store and make sure it's all done correctly and nothing gets broken and such.

Meaning that the rest of the week...well, schedules have had to shift around to make room for said overnight hours.

Meaning that today I was actually scheduled to be the only manager closing.

Which doubly sucked because usually a second manager will be present until the last couple of hours the store is open. 

But because of Inventory...my other manager left around dinner time.

Leaving me as the lone manager to manage the store. *exhales*

Yay stress.

Though thankfully it wasn't anything too crazy.

The nice thing about the Christmas season finally finishing is that the store doesn't get too crazy busy towards close.

Like, yes, we do get the customers who decide that they need to come shop like half an hour before we close. But it's not crazy busy. 

For which I'm grateful.

As I was kept pretty busy myself trying to do what I could to help my stocking crew and fellow managers get ahead in the inventory preparation process. 

lol busy enough that my coworker asked if I was 'okay' because I seemed kinda 'frantic'

Ha. Not really.

I was moving gravel at the time. Which is exhausting in of itself so that made it seem like I was more frenzied then I was because I was out of breath.

But overall I was okay being the only manager in the store tonight. 

Nothing crazy happened and I was able to get all the tasks I wanted to get done done so yay that.

But yah...definitely was a weird feeling to be by myself again.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Ever Counting

 I know it happens like...twice a year.

But having to do the live pet inventory is still an annoying thing.

Like...we count the animals constantly why do we have to do an 'official' count? *exhales* 

In any case.

Tonight was our live pet inventory count.

Which thankfully I didn't have to work an entire shift today.

No, I was only scheduled to come in for a couple of hours after we closed.

No customer interaction. Just counting animals.

Perfect. 

And surprisingly....we got the count done really fast this year.

I mean...part of it could be that we're still really low on animals as we're still trying to get our cages to the point where they're not empty two days after we put new animals into them. (Yes people are still buying pets like crazy it's weird.) 

But with our breeders unable to keep up with the demand....

There were definitely less creatures to count this time around.

Like usually I feel like we have around 7,000-10,000 animals in the store (most of that is fish and crickets)

But tonight we only counted around 4,000. 

Still alot of creatures. But not as much as previous counts.

And it probably helped that I went straight to work on counting and was moving faster so we were able to get it all done faster.

But yah. An hour and a half.

Not bad for having to come into work on a Sunday.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Too Much Sugar

 So there I was, outside getting carts at work, when I saw a guy walking into our vet office with a box of Crumbl Cookies.

And I was like "Ah. Jealous. The Vet just had cookies delivered to them." over the radio.

And my coworkers were like !!!!!! "those sound really good!"

So my other manager was like "I'm gonna go get us some!" 

lol so on their lunch break they went and grabbed us some Crumbl Cookies to try.

As Crumbl is popular because of their unique...business set up.

In which they only sell 6 types of cookies a week. 2 of them are constant flavors. Chocolate Chip or Sugar Cookie with pink frosting.

The other 4 flavors of cookies though? They switch every week. So you can only get the flavor for a week. And then it's months before that flavor comes back.

This week their 4 flavors were :Chocolate Cupcake, Birthday Cake on Oreo, Reeses Pieces, and a Lemon flavored one.

So my manager went with all four to have everyone try them.

Which meant that we ended up cutting the cookies into quarters so everyone could try a piece.

I ended up only trying the Chocolate Cupcake and the Birthday Cake Oreo.

The chocolate was okay. Nothing to write home about.

But the Birthday Cake Oreo?

Yeesh. 

My mouth is still twisting inside itself at the mere thought of that sugar overload.

Because that cookie was PURE SUGAR.

Like one bite of a quarter of the cookie was more than enough to handle.

It was like "instant cavity" heavy on the sugar. 

So. Much. Sweetness.

And it took me like three or four bites to finish that quarter of a cookie -as they are large cookies- 

And by the fourth bite I was regretting life because so. much. sugar.

I had to immediately go rinse my mouth out with water to try and get the taste out of my mouth because it was sooo sweet. So sweet.

Like "I need a salad to cleanse my palate" sort of too sweet.

*shudders*

Yah. Definitely never getting that particular cookie again.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Sleeping Curse

So I have this...apparent curse.

Where I could be left totally undisturbed all day long.

Yet the moment I decide I want to take a nap and lay down for a while.

That's when everyone and their mom suddenly decides that NOW is the time they need to talk to me.

*exhales*

It makes it really hard to rest when that happens. 

Because hearing my phone tenses me up. Makes me wonder what's wrong now? And I can't relax until I check my phone...and if the texts persist...it's just a lost cause at that point. Might as well shut off my alarm and stay awake. 

Really. I may just forgo taking a 'timed' nap and just leave my phone in a different room and just sleep until I wake back up again.

Because it feels like I won't get any rest otherwise. 

Today was worse than normal too.

Like...I've been up since 4:30 this morning as I had an early morning shift at work.

And by the time I got home from work.

I was tired.

To the point where I could sense that a headache was going to occur if I didn't lay down and rest.

So I set my alarm.

Half an hour. I figured I'd be okay if I could just rest my eyes for half an hour.

But nooo.

Lke five minutes into my nap. My phone goes off. 

It wasn't a text message surprisingly, but instead a notification from one of the games I play. XP bleh.

Seriously. There was no need for my phone to decide it needed to send me a pointless notification. But send it it did.

I close my eyes again to rest.

And what do you know?

Five minutes later the doorbell rings.

*exhales* Not my phone. but still someone was at the door.

And I got up. Why? Because I was hoping it was a package I've been expecting on the otherside of that door. 

It wasn't. It was some stranger holding papers and looking halfway official.....and like someone I definitely didn't want to interact with.

So I didn't. Just watched them leave through the peep hole.

Another false alarm. But I still had like another twenty minutes I could nap in. That was fine.

It wasn't.

Because of course that's when my managers decided that they just had to text me a question which meant that this would be a slight conversation which meant bye bye sleep.

And hello headache. XP 

Gah.

Honestly.

If it didn't give me such anxiety to leave my phone in a different room because what if something important happens and I need to be notified--

I would be doing just that the next time I try and take a nap.

Leave my phone elsewhere and just rest in peace far far away from any potential interruptions.

Because headaches may just be a worse consequence than leaving my phone elsewhere for twenty minutes or so.

*exhales*

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

-Sarnic Dirchi