Memorial Day Delays

 I hate working holidays. 

One of the 'joys' of a retail job, I suppose. Dealing with people as they try to make the most of their 'holidays' their own days off away from work.

Holidays tend to be busy for us. Lots of customers. Lots of demands. It's not fun.

Especially with a migraine.

Which I'm not quite surprised I ended up with one today.

I haven't been looking forward to working today at all.

Since I would be there the entire day. Coming in an hour after we opened, and staying until after close to make sure the store is in order.

Which bright side to it being a holiday...we closed early today. So I wasn't there until after dark today.

But the knowledge that I would be spending 8 hours working with customers and dealing with them...yah...didn't look forward to it. 

In any case.

The day itself wasn't too crazy compared to other holidays. 

Like we were busy. But not crazy busy. We had a couple of rushes but nothing out of the ordinary.

Of course...this is like my first time working a closing shift for a holiday as a manager. 

So I wasn't quite sure what to expect with everything.

Like I'd heard the stories from other managers. Of customers refusing to leave the store when we closed. Of people trying to come in after we closed. Things like that.

Surprisingly enough....closing went well enough for us tonight.

We had the customers out basically as soon as we closed. 

But that didn't mean that customers didn't trying to come back in.

Like I got three phone calls in the last five minutes we were opened, asking when we closed.

And I was like "In five minutes." "In two minutes." "right now."

And then after we closed I got two more phone calls. "When do you close?" 

"Five minutes ago. Eight minutes ago." 

Since the registers were still open I didn't mind answering those phone calls.

But after that point? Nope.

I stopped answering the phone. We'd closed. Therefore I didn't need to answer said phone. 

Like you people had ALL day to come into the store. Why is it that you only think to do so AFTER we close? Whatever the reason, they could wait until tomorrow to come in. 

But like....my coworker turned away 4 people in the parking lot as they were gathering carts in for the night.

A woman actually managed to slip inside and tried to start shopping only to have my other coworker inside turn her away because I'd already closed down the registers. There would be no ringing up customers with them closed. 

A customer came like 20 minutes after we closed and used our app to announce that they were here for a curbside pick up. 

Which. We're closed. No way I'm taking anything out to you when we're already done for the night. 

That customer and at least three others proceeded to call the phones to try and get us to pick up.

We didn't answer. We were closed. We just let them ring. 

One old guy came up to the doors and rang our doorbell like three times, holding down the button for various lengths to try and get us to come to him.

Nope. We're closed.

Like half an hour after we were closed I had everything locked down and loaded. We were all ready to go home. Which was great as I'd been worried we'd be stuck there until far later because of customer craziness.

Yah....we could have been out of the building like 35 minutes after we closed. Which would have been great as my migraine I woke up with this morning was spiking and I just wanted to go home.

There was only one....well...major snag.

On the hour exactly when we closed a family walked into the Vet Clinic that's located in our building. -They have their own separate door...why said door wasn't locked I have no idea.

But the vet had closed like...an hour earlier...so there shouldn't have been anyone coming in.

But there was.

This family came right at my store's closing time.....to say goodbye to their 14 year old kitty and have him put down because his kidney disease had gotten far too advanced. 

I didn't think much of it at first. I figured the vet could handle the customers and they would be on their way. 

After all, I still had a good half hour after we closed at least to get everything in order and registers properly shut down.

So I didn't mind them being in the store as it looked like they were going to stay in the vet part of the store.

However.... I finished my tasks....half an hour after we closed...and the family was still there in one of the waiting rooms. Crying. Still saying their goodbyes to their kitty. 

Which...I get...letting go of a beloved family pet...especially after 14 years....it's hard. It's not easy. 

But....saying goodbye for over thirty minutes? That part I didn't understand. Sure. It was a large family. Like at least 10 people had shown up to do farewells. 

Plus...I had this migraine. My sympathy levels were waning fast because my head was pounding like a stake was being drilled into my head. I was quickly reaching the point where I could throw up if I breathed wrong. 

But I couldn't leave. 

In any other case, if I'd had another manager on duty...if I hadn't been a manager....I could have left my coworkers to handle everything and gone home.

But as the closing manager...I couldn't leave until I was certain that everyone else in the building was gone.

Because I needed to arm our security system. And I couldn't exactly set it when there were still people inside.

So I had to wait it out.

And one of my coworkers also had to wait it out. As there always needs to be at least two of us in the building...and it's unclear if the vet personnel count as a 'second' person since they don't work for us and are their own separate business within the store.

So the two of us had to wait...because I was proactive and got all the tasks done early. So we would be ready to go home on time for once. You know...half an hour after we closed.

But again...the mourning family was still there.

Trying to be as....considerate as I could be....I flagged down one of the vet staff and asked them how much longer they were going to be because we were ready to go.

"Tenish minutes." Was the guesstimate. The receptionist was checking out the family now. They were saying their final final goodbyes. They were about to start the euthanasia. 

*exhales*

The family didn't leave until an HOUR after we closed. 

A FREAKING HOUR.

If it were any other night I might have been more sympathetic.

But it was a holiday. We closed EARLY. I wanted to go home.

*exhales* 

I get loosing a pet is hard. I do. I've had to say my own goodbyes to my own beloved pets.

But with a pounding migraine.....I just wanted to curl up in a ball and die. 

We could have been out of the building half an hour after we closed.

But instead we left an HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES after we closed.

*exhales* To say I'm irritated....is an understatement. Definitely not the day to have to deal with delays.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

"Fully Vaccinated"

 I shouldn't let the little things get to me.

Especially when it's so easy for said little things to get under my skin and ruin like....my entire day.

So. We had church today.

Nothing too crazy about that....beyond the fact that our Stake 'finally' loosened restrictions on mask wearing, following the trend of everywhere else where they stated if an individual is fully vaccinated then they don't have to wear a mask.

Which I didn't think much of. Like I knew there would be people walking around maskless.

But I wouldn't be one of them because I still have a couple of weeks to go before I can get my second dose....and a couple of weeks after that until I'm actually considered "fully" vaccinated.

So like...I still have a month to go.

And I figured that a lot of people would be in the same boat. That they'd be wearing masks.

They weren't.

Maybe all the individuals who aren't fully vaccinated are still staying home....

But in the meeting itself?

It was just me and one other person wearing a mask.

Like...my roomies were wearing masks too...though with both of them being fully vaccinated, one of them chose to take their mask off during the service, while my other roomie kept theirs on.

But like....out of a good fiftyish people in the room....only three of us wearing masks....seemed so wrong.

Like only 32% of my state is considered fully vaccinated.

Which meant that I was extremely skeptical that everyone else in the room with me was fully vaccinated.

Like the odds didn't match up. 

But its not like you can confront people about it. Ask if they've been vaccinated. Ask to see their vaccinated cards.

No it's the honor system. The trust system..

Which after over a year of dealing with anti-maskers. I know exactly how 'honorable' people in my state are.

And it bugged me....knowing that there was a high chance that a good third of these people in the room with me weren't vaccinated. They weren't being honest in their dealings with their fellow peers.

They were going maskless because they wanted to not because they'd actually gotten the vaccine. 

Of course.

I don't have any way to prove it.

It could be that my ward actually was more proactive and got their vaccines earlier than I did and are considered fully vaccinated. It could be that 'all' of the others in that room were vaccinated.

But I don't believe it.

*exhales*

And that's put me in a bit of a....pickle? I suppose.

Because on the one hand....there is sooo much peer pressure. So much judgement from the non mask wearers on those still wearing masks.

It's a line I knew would occur at some point.

Where instead of it being odd to be maskless....it's now odd to still be wearing a mask.

I knew that turning point would come.

But with how slowly it's been progressing at work where 80% of my coworkers are still wearing masks and around 50% of the customers (though the number is dwindling) are still wearing masks...

It's not yet seen as odd to be wearing a mask at my job.

So it threw me off for it to turn around so suddenly at church and have it be 'weird' to still be wearing a mask when no one else was.

Do I want to have to deal with the stress of that peer pressure at church? To know that people all around me are wondering why I'm still wearing a mask when 'we don't have to anymore?' Do I want to have to deal with that?

Should I stay home instead? Should I avoid going to church in person until after I'm fully vaccinated a month from now?

Or should I be stubborn. Refused to be cowed and still go to church wearing a mask? 

*exhales*

I don't know honestly.

Like I'm not expecting to go to church in a couple of weeks because I have no idea how I'll be feeling after getting the second shot.

But the other three weeks? Will I go? Will I stay home?

I don't know. 

I probably won't until the day of. 

Still. It's an unwelcomed stress that I didn't want to have to deal with and now have to. *exhales*

Guess we'll see what happens. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Blame Game

 Sometimes....Customers are the worst.

Especially when they try to make us workers out to be the bad guys...when it was their own fault that things didn't turn out in their favor.

It gets tiresome getting blamed and getting anger directed towards you...for something you didn't do.

We had a customer come into the store today.

One who interacted with the staff at the vet clinic first and ended up not having a good experience with them either.

I got involved when one of the vet staff asked for my aid in checking on stock in the back.

As apparently the customer had called our store FIVE times to see if we had a specific brand of prescription food in stock in a specific flavor.

It had to be the specific flavor because their dog was super sensitive to foods and could only eat like this one food.

And apparently this customer had been reassured that we did indeed have the product in stock. In the flavor they wanted. 

They'd driven down from the next valley over. Apparently 'wasted half their day' coming to us. 

Only to discover that the specific flavor they were seeking...wasn't at our store.

We had 2 other flavors. But neither one was the one they needed. 

I double checked the back.

Checked with our sister store.

But this specific flavor -a flavor I'd never seen in any prescription food before--wasn't available.

The customer ended up picking up a different flavor. Salmon instead to 'try' because they needed something to feed their dog.

And while checking out at the register...they encountered my head manager.

And when they complained about being lied to.

The manager called them out on it.

Because this manager was the one who had talked to them on the phone. And the customer hadn't called five times. They'd called only once. 

And in that call they had only asked if we had the specific type of food in stock. 

Which we did.

But they hadn't brought up that they needed a specific flavor of this food to the head manager. It hadn't come up. 

*exhales*

Like I said....some customers are the worst.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Adulting

 Gotta love the feeling of accomplishment when you go do and accomplish the adulting errands you set yourself to complete today.

Because like...as a mostly introvert...I tend to not want to go anywhere on my day off. I love just hanging out at home and chilling and not having to worry about interacting with people for a day. 

And if I do have to run errands...I often try to do them after I get off work while I still have the energy from being in 'work mode' and haven't yet reached home where I won't want to leave after I get there.

But one of the things I've needed to accomplish this month...was updating the registration on my car.

Because that's a thing that has to be done like once a year. *exhales* And my time had come for that.

And I'd already procrastinated it like...the entire month and I did want to give myself some leeway in case something didn't pass on my car that would take time or another day to fix.

Hence why I went in to get my car checked this morning.

As it's not as busy in the mornings compared to the afternoons.

And yah...I got an oil change while I was at it...cus I'm a bad car owner and haven't done one of those in like...a year. ^^;; heh. Oops.

To be fair...with the pandemic going on, I have been rather reluctant to go to other places and expose myself to more random people than I'm already exposed to at work. 

Still. My car still runs soooo yah. ^^;; I got it in before anything went wrong. Yay me. XD lol.

In any case.

I finally did the adulting errands I've been meaning to do this month. The car stuff. The grocery shopping, the water change on my tank because I needed to do that....

So yah. It's felt good to 'accomplish' things. 

Though it's still rather odd to go places and see people wandering around without masks now.

Like I know most places have established that if you're fully vaccinated you don't have to wear a mask anymore.

But honestly....after the amount of people who said they had a "medical condition" to get out of wearing a mask in the stores...I really don't believe that all the people I see without masks have actually been fully vaccinated.

At some point it won't be weird. At some point I'll probably stop tensing up at seeing people without masks on.

But yah...still gonna try and be a mostly homebody until I'm fully vaccinated myself. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Grooming Visit

So we had some Grooming higher ups drop by to visit today.

I would say it was a surprise visit...but technically we got some warning....in an email...last night...at like 8pm...when no one ever checks the mail. *shakes head*

But yah...I never like coming into work only to discover that we have higher ups coming in. *exhales*

Honestly I don't know which one is worse...the surprise visit...or the knowledge of just when a visit is gonna happen. 

In any case.

I was hoping to avoid interacting with the Grooming Higher Ups while they were in the store. Mostly because I don't usually have anything to do with grooming. Soooo there's not really a reason to interact beyond the typical polite "hellos" and such.

Except.

We have this thing in the store where three times a day we have to do a "walk" where we use our handy dandy ipads to check on certain aspects of the store and make sure that everything is still going well.

It's one of those things where I can see why we do it. Because it's good to keep a finger on the pulse of the store basically and be aware of things going on.

But it's really annoying most of the time. Because you have to make time to do these walks and you have to make sure your walk isn't too long or too short or else it doesn't count in the system and sometimes you just get busy and it's hard to break away to do this thing.

And when I came into work today, my Head Manager assigned me to be the one doing our mid day walk.

Which no big deal. We had enough coverage I could happily do that.

Except for two small issues. As you see, part of the walk is going into the grooming salon and making sure everyone -dogs/people- is doing good and there's no signs of stress and such.

The midday questions for this are pretty easy. And I could be in and out of the salon in a couple minutes.

However, it so happened that today was a day where there was a bit of a line in the grooming salon. Where customers were waiting to check in and out their dogs.

And with current pandemic policies...there isn't supposed to be more than one 'family' in the salon at a time.

So us managers try to wait until the customer is done in the salon before entering ourselves. That way we're still following guidelines and such.

Further bad luck...the Grooming Higher Ups were also waiting for a clear moment to enter the salon.

I was hoping to get in and out before they noticed me so I could finish the check quickly.

But no such luck. One of the higher ups saw me walking by with the Ipad and was like "Oh! Are you doing the walk? Let me do it with you!" 

*exhales*

Which okay. It's not the end of the world.

But that does put some pressure on me. Especially with the Grooming Salon as I have general ideas of what to look for, but I'm not aware of every little thing to keep an eye out on.

And this is a grooming higher up. That means they know what I should be looking for...

And I don't.

It's like a surprise test that you didn't know you had to study for.

Thankfully, I'm pretty good at taking tests. 

And beyond a couple of little pointers of things to look out for from the higher up...I managed to hold my own pretty well in answering the questions posed to me by the higher up and giving suggestions and such on things.

I honestly think the higher up wanted to do the entire walk with me...but they ended up getting distracted in the salon...and my head manager came to my rescue allowing me to escape so that I could finish the walk within the time limit -as I'd already spent half an hour in the salon with the higher ups- and such.

So yah. Yay stress. *shakes head* 

Glad that it went well overall though.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Adoptions

 You know, I have to say that I haven't missed doing Cat Adoptions whatsoever at work.

Like...yes...I missed being able to interact with the cats and such.

But doing the actual work of adopting out the kitties that we had in the store?

No. No not really.

This past year and a half has been rather nice in that regards. Where we let the adoption groups handle all the adoptions with the cats and had them take care of their kitties and such.

It was one less thing to have to worry about in the middle of a pandemic.

But now that things are getting back to a more 'normal' setting....

And the fact that we partnered with a 'new' adoption group that doesn't have the resources to do all the adoptions themselves.

We've returned to doing the adoptions and such ourselves in the store.

Which is gonna be a bit of a learning curve for a lot of my associates as most of them were hired during the pandemic and they've never done adoptions themselves.

And yah...

I definitely haven't missed doing adoptions.

Mostly because they can be so time consuming, especially if the customer is being indecisive. 

And it can still take a good twenty minutes or so to get everything finalized and settled even if the new pet parent is quick on their decision.

We ended up adopting four kitties today.

Which is great.

But at the same time. It was so stressful because 3 of those adoptions happened one right after the other as one set of pet parents decided that they wanted two kitties....

And like...this particular couple just was...off to me.

Like. Their energy grated wrong against me, though they didn't indicate otherwise or send of any red flags that there would be issues...they just...felt wrong. 

Mostly because it seemed like the couple just wanted a cat...but didn't care about the cat?

Like the dude picked out both cats but didn't want to try and hold them and see their temperament.

He picked them out on looks and age and that was about it. And barely got his wife??'s opinion on the matter even though it seemed like she was the one he was getting the cats for?

It was just an all around odd situation. 

And I can only hope that they're going to good homes and such.

but yah...it just felt off.

And I hate dealing with customers where things just feel...off. Like you know something is up but you don't know what is up. 

Hopefully the kitties do well....

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Cough Cough

So there I was, sitting in church. Waiting to take the Sacrament.

And like...it's been three weeks since I last attended, mostly because I wasn't feeling well the last three Sundays. 

So of course...I was a bit...stressed about going to church. It's been hard, especially with the end of mask wearing and such and me not yet fully vaccinated just yet...to want to be around people when I don't have to be around people. 

I'm around people all the time at work. Customers who don't read our signs, don't follow the requirements we have....

In any case.

I was at church, thinking about masks and coughing and such.

Because there's always that slight bit of paranoia that goes through you if someone coughs and you wonder if it's the rona.

And I was like "What if I choke on the bread/water during the sacrament and start coughing? What would I do? How would I leave the room?"

It's just one of those random thoughts you think but don't expect to happen. 

I mean, I've taken the sacrament hundreds of time. And like rarely does it go down wrong. Rarely do you choke and start coughing from it.

But I took the water, swallowed it, put the cup back...and suddenly I was coughing.

*exhales*

Like the one thing I didn't want to happen...happened. 

So I basically bolted from my seat and left the room as quickly as possible so I could go into a true coughing fit to try and settle my lungs/throat from the water that triggered the attack. 

Who knows what people thought about that.

I took a while to come back because I needed to seek out some water and needed to make sure that the tickle in my throat was soothed so I wouldn't start coughing again. 

Yay for making 'good' impressions. *shakes head* 

Hopefully next time I take the sacrament I don't end up choking. We'll see. I suppose.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Tank Is A Tank

 Soo...a few years ago, Mother Dearest ended up getting a 36 gallon tank from my Aunt. One that she wanted to set up with fish and such. Which she's always loved Tiger Barbs and so she ended up getting quite the school of them. She also ended up getting some glo rainbow sharks. 

I had suggested that they only get one, but I think Mother Dearest got like 3 of different colors.

In any case. As time wore on, there ended up only being one gloshark in the tank. A blue one.

Said blue one ended up getting transferred into a bigger tank that I got for my Dad....

After Mother Dearest had passed away. 

The shark did well enough in the new tank....but ended up getting aggressive to some of the smaller fish. And Daddoo didn't like that.

So he pulled the shark from the tank and stuck it in a little one gallon tank temporarily.

Surprisingly the shark has done alright in such a small space. 

I honestly don't know how long the shark had lived in said tiny space...it hadn't really crossed my mind beyond the odd moment that dad had mentioned it.

But with Daddoo heading out for the summer to spend time with his new wife out of state....

He needed someone to take care of his fish.

The big tank is easy enough where we can just throw a vacation feeder into it and call it good for the week. 

But the shark? Not so much.

And while I had agreed to take in the shark --and some of dad's other fish that he no longer wants--I was rather surprised to be gifted with said shark when we met up for a family dinner on Sunday. 

I knew I would be taking it...I Just hadn't expected to have it show up at dinner and me to take it home. *exhales* 

And knowing the shark is aggressive...and me wanting smaller fish in my tank...it's not a good idea to add said shark to the tank. 

But I couldn't just leave said shark in it's little 1 gallon tank. It was already like 5 inches long. The tank was way too small for it.

But I already had 5 fish tanks in the house before this unexpected gift. 

Four betta tanks and my big tank.

And I've been working really hard to keep said number of tanks at 5. I don't want to overwhelm the home with tanks and I don't want to have to upkeep so many tanks in the long run.

But now I had this 6th tank...that I didn't want...and I needed a bigger space for the shark.

With the 125 gallon tank out of the running...my next largest tank was a 2.5...but I had a betta in the tank. And while I could switch the shark to the 2.5 gallon and move the betta to the 1 gallon...that would mean i would still be at six tanks instead of five.

*exhales*

After stewing over it for a few days and talking to my roomie about it....

She suggested that I set up my 10 gallon quarantine tank that I got to temporary quarantine fish that got sick in my big tank. 

Mostly because a) that would give the shark more space. but also b) I finally figured out that the gouramis in my big tank were being aggressive to the other fish and I needed to separate them from my tank as well. *exhales* 

So putting the three trouble makers in a 10 gallon tank would probably be the best.

As I didn't feel good about returning the gouramis to work and having a poor unsuspecting customer get them and have them be aggressive to their fish. 

And one of my bettas ended up passing away this week as well....

So after talking it out.

I set up the 10 gallon tank for the troublemakers. And then took down the one gallon tank that the shark was in. And also took down another one gallon tank that no longer had a betta in it.

Making three smaller betta tanks, a 10 gallon tank, and then my large 125 gallon tank the only tanks in the home that are set up.

So still at 5 tanks woot!

But yah....I kinda have mixed feelings about having the 10 gallon set up.

Like it's a semi-permanent temporary tank? As I intend to only have it set up for however long the shark and the gouramis live....which could be a week...or it could be another 6 years. *exhales*

So yah...fun times.

But at least I got the tank situation figured out and at least the shark is finally out of his little 1 gallon isolation tank. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

What's That Smell?

 Gotta love those weird experiences that happen that you can't really explain.

So there I was, sitting in our living room, hanging out on my computer doing this and that.

When I suddenly began smelling...kerosene. 

Which was...well odd. 

Because we don't have anything kerosene oil scented in the house.

And it had been a couple of hours since we'd cooked in the house...and like our stove doesn't use any sort of gas at all.

No candles burning.

No heater running.

Sure the AC was going...but the AC shouldn't trigger a kerosene smell. 

I even went outside to see if it was just a smell coming into the house.

Yet I could find nothing.

Nothing from the AC. Nothing from the garage. Nothing whatsoever to indicate a source of the smell.

Which like...apparently diesel fuel smells like kerosene? 

In any case, after getting my roomie and having her investigate with me....

We concluded that the smell was only found in a specific spot in the living room. A little hallways between the living room and the garage.

Yet...the only thing there was an intake vent for the AC and a chimney....a chimney that while it uses gas, we've never used because there are parts missing and therefore it's been turned off the entire time we've lived here.

My random thought was that this 'kerosene spot' could be the sign of the presence of a ghost.

As ghosts can carry scents with them on occasion.

But more than likely....it could be that something drove by that used diesel fuel and air containing the scent may have encountered a downdraft outside that sent it shooting down the chimney and into the living room. 

A weird set of circumstances that aligned in such a way to send the smell down into our house. 

As we aired out the house. Turned the AC back on and such to check and make sure that wasn't the cause as that was the only thing running when the scent hit...

But nothing.

The smell hasn't come back. Which is good as that means it's nothing in the house.

But I do wish I had a firm answer on just why our living room suddenly smelt of kerosene....

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Last Minute Shoppers

 I will never understand the last minute shoppers.

Like. Sure. I get that you forgot to get food and didn't realize you were out and need to dash out to grab a bag so that you can get your pet their dinner.

But it's the customers who like...decide to gather all the supplies they need for a new pet...ten minutes before we close. Or the ones that decide that they need a new pet...ten minutes before we close.

It's just weird. 

I don't understand why people would wait all day to do that last minute. Or impulse buy things....it's just weird. 

And it's sooo annoying for us workers who just want to get everyone out of the store and the doors locked for the night.

It would be nice to close actually on time. And not have to wait for the last minute shoppers to finish their last minute shopping.

Tonight was one of those nights.

Where there were a ton of last minute people in the store. *exhales*

The worst though was a mob of like 20 college students -all in pairs- who came in ten minutes before we closed. None were wearing masks which was irritating. But the worst thing was that they all wanted a single goldfish each. So like 10 goldfish total. But each pair was buying one so they had to be bagged separately.

And it wasn't a simple catch and grab. No the kids wanted to pick their goldfish as they were looking for the 'fastest swimmers' 

Which led me to believe that they were wanting to race the goldfish (how would one do that?) and such and that we probably shouldn't be selling said fish to the group. 

Only my newbie petcare person had already helped like half of them. So it would be hard to say "no you can't" when half of them already did.

So I ended up swooping into the rescue to help catch the goldfish as quickly as possible to get everyone out of the store as we only had like 5 minutes until close and a good 5 or 6 more people needing help.

Which since I have like...8.5 years of experience at work catching fish....it was a cinch for me to catch the specific goldfish the college kids wanted.

Which impressed them with how quickly I could scoop them all out and get them bagged as it was taking my coworker a lot longer to catch the fish for the other people. 

Yay experience lol.

And it was great to get complimented so much in like the five minutes I helped out.

But didn't stop me from being annoyed at the kids for being last minute shoppers and needing a 'complicated' order at the end of the work day. XP 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

First Shot

So in the month of April my state gave the go ahead for basically every adult to get the vaccine.

I ended up holding off on doing so...mostly because a) a bunch of my other coworkers were taking time off to get their own shots. b) the other half were taking time off to finally take some vacation and c) we were having coworkers getting sick....

So April was rather hectic at work. And so I put off getting the vaccine. 

Not that I didn't keep an eye outish. Like my general plan has been to try and get the vaccine after one of my shifts at work, with said shift occurring before my day off.

That way I could have the day off to recuperate in case the vaccine shot had bad effects on me. 

And I wouldn't have to take any extra time off for said shot.

There's only one tiny problem about that.

My day off...tends to occur after I work a closing shift.

And unfortunately, most places giving out shots stop doing so waaaayyy before we close for the night.

And without knowing how the shot would affect me, I didn't want to get the shot before work and end up getting sick and having to leave my shift early.

Especially with May turning out to be nearly as difficult of a month in getting shifts covered as April was. 

But I wanted to get my shot.

It was stressing me out that I haven't gotten my first vaccine yet. Especially because I want to be able to travel this summer and fall and go visit family and fear less about possibly spreading the virus by having said vaccine. 

But with schedules still consistently being like 2 weeks out...as well as schedules shifting last minute to account for sudden call outs......

Yah...there's no easy way to plan to have an early shift coincide with the day after being my day off.

So I finally decided to bite the bullet.

I've had multiple people say that the first shot isn't that bad. A bit of soreness of the arm, maybe some tiredness or a slight headache. 

Overall. The symptoms aren't as major for the first shot.

So I decided to just go get the shot on my day off and hope that I wouldn't have a bad reaction so that I could go into work the next day and be okay.

So that's what I did today. :) Scheduled an appointment a couple of days ago and went in first thing this morning to get the shot so that a) I would have the entire day to rest and b) I wouldn't spend all day worrying about going to get the shot.

And it all went well. :D 

I ended up getting the Moderna. First shot. And so far the only major symptom I've had has been the typical sore arm around the injection site. 

I've felt pretty normal otherwise. Slightly tired...but that could be from the amount of sleep I got. Who knows.

But yah...gonna take a couple of Tylenol tonight before bed to hopefully help with the soreness and will cross my fingers that tomorrow's work shift goes well. 

Guess we'll see what tomorrow brings. :D

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Breaking the Migraine

 So since like last...Wednesday? I've been suffering from a near constant migraine.

For the first two days it was behind my left eye, but then Thursday night the headache moved over to be behind my right eye and has just....stuck around.

Like...it would semi fade towards the evening and be gone when I woke up....but usually within a couple of hours of me waking up the migraine would be back to behind my right eye.

And like....

I could tell that tension was involved. As the muscles in my neck and my shoulder have been sore and achy and stiff for the entire week.

But nothing I did would help it go away. Like I tried all the combinations of medications I could to get my muscles to relax to no avail. The ache just...persisted. To the point where the past couple of days I've basically not taken any medicine because what's the point of taking it if it's not helping me?

Like I took two aleve and that didn't even help. *exhales*

In any case.

I did end up managing to get my headache to fade a bit during work today. 

 A little bit of caffeine seemed to help...until I apparently had too much and then wham migraine came back stronger.

But I ended up hitting the pressure points along my right arm multiple times throughout the day and yeouch those are sooo tender. So very tender. Which again. Tense muscles. It would explain it being tender. 

And the pressure seems to have helped as well.

But oddly enough...what seems to have helped me actually finally break the migraine (we'll see what the morning holds) is the fact that I decided to drop by Wendy's after work and grabbed my usual order of a Crispy Chicken with Fries and a Dr. Pepper....and to give myself a bit more protein I also grabbed a hamburger as well....

And it seems like eating that food did the trick? Like the migraine has noticeably faded and my muscles are feeling less tense than before.

So apparently Wendy's was the solution all along?

*shakes head* Who knows for sure as the other things I was trying earlier today could have compounded and helped it as well.

But yah...note to self. To save myself a week of migraines, go grab Wendy's next time this lasts longer than a couple of days. 

So weird.

So very weird.

I wonder if there was a nutrient in the food somewhere that I was missing and that's why the migraine is finally fading because my body is finally satisfied that whatever it needed was fulfilled....

Who knows. It's not like I haven't been trying to eat more food and such this past week to see if intaking more nutrients would help....

Yah....bodies are weird. So weird.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Work Mode

 There's a thing about me being at work.

And that's the fact that I tend to get into "customer mode" where I expect every person -besides coworkers- I encounter at work to be a stranger needing help. 

And while I do get in my 'regulars' at work. 

I don't usually expect people I actually know outside of work to drop by and visit.

And if they do drop by, said people usually give me the heads up that they're coming. 

But when people I know outside of work drop by unannounced.

There's a high chance that I won't recognize them right away.

I mean I didn't recognize my own brother once (like 7 years ago) when he dropped by the store. Soooo yah...I can get extremely worked/customer focused and not immediately recognize that I know the person I'm talking to as someone I actually know.

I had that happen today.

Where an old manager of mine dropped by work to see who was still here and to say hi. 

And like...it's been a while since I've seen this person. Probably over a year? Who knows. Time is weird.

But I didn't immediately recognize them because they had a beard this time and the last time I'd seen this manager they'd been clean shaven.

So like....I wasn't expecting a visit, I was well into my work shift, and I was also dealing with a migraine.

SO yah.....I was a bit slow on the draw on recognizing them and probably wouldn't have realized they were one of my old managers if they hadn't been like "What you don't remember me?! I'm hurt!" and I actually took the time to 'look' at them so I could place how I knew them

*exhales*

Yah. Work survival mode was on high then. But thankfully it only took me like a split second to realize just who was talking to me and that it wasn't just another customer.

SO yah.

We had a good but brief visit because of course the moment someone wants to just chitchat with me is the moment when six customers need my aid all over the store. *rolls eyes* 

Still. It was nice to see them and chat briefly.

Hopefully next time I'll be a bit quicker on the recognizing bit. ^^;; heh.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Empty

 Another chip, another blow.

Today my bucket found another hole.

A drip. A drop.

Takes everything I got.

To smile. And pretend.

That it's okay. It'll soon end.

Where's a patch? Where's a hose?

Who knows when the leaks will close.

So here I go, and toil away.

Hoping my bucket will be filled today.

Yet the sun has set. The bucket's dry.

I huddle in my room, and silently cry.

For where is the water I desperately need?

To nourish my own growing seed?

Gone to others. Gone away.

Nothing's left for me this day.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi 

The Wrong Number

 Ah. The irony.

You see. I've been complaining off and on like the entire week about the fact that people -different people- keep texting me at like 7 freaking 30 in the morning and startling me awake and therefore triggering my stress response which tenses up my muscles which then triggers a migraine that I haven't been able to get rid of for days now.

And so last night I was like "Woot! Day off tomorrow! I can totally rest."

And my head manager was like "Yes! Rest. Relax. Don't even think about work tomorrow. Turn your phone off or something."

Which...I didn't turn it off.

I did place it on the floor where I would be less likely to hear it go off. 

But I ended up being wide awake at like 6 am so didn't really sleep much anyways.

Which was probably a good thing.

Because guess who texted me at like 8 this morning?

Yep. 

My head manager.

*shakes head*

There was an issue with this morning's safe count. In that the manager who counted was off by a little bit.

And when they pulled the documents from last night...the documents they pulled didn't match what they were seeing in their own count.

So head manager was texting me to see why it was so 'off' between last night and today.

The reason?

Opening manager was looking at the wrong document. They'd pulled the wrong one. One from last month's counting instead of last night's counts.

It was easy enough to see...mostly because I noticed the signature on the bottom of the paper wasn't the right one. As I had had my new manager do all the signing of the documents last night when I was showing them how to do all the money related stuff.

And their signature wasn't on the bottom of the page.

So yah. Easy fix. Find the right papers.

Double check the counts.

And yah. They ended up finding what was wrong so yay.

*shakes head*

Still funny.

But oh so frustrating.

That head manager told me to not worry about work and then proceeded to worry me about work first thing this morning. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Manager in Training

 It was another day of me technically being alone as the closing manager.

I say technically because our newest manager was also scheduled to work tonight.

But they haven't yet been trained in all the manager duties. And therefore can't really be left alone to watch over the store just yet

Which was tricky.

Because again...I didn't have a midday manager. 

As technically I was originally scheduled for the midshift. But because my other manager switched today's shift with the cashier's shift yesterday....

I ended up switching my shift back a couple of hours so that I could be the closing manager.

Which on the one hand. Still really grateful that switch happened because trying to work yesterday had been soooo difficult. 

But on the other hand....it's not fun being the only manager in the store.

I mean, I've adjusted to it and it doesn't stress me out as much as it did in the beginning anymore.

But still. I do like having my fellow managers to rely on.

Thankfully we had more coverage tonight than we did yesterday.

Thankfully it was a slower day so I didn't have to interact with people, because yah...still got the stupid migraine though it's moved behind my right eye now. XP bleh.

But it also gave me the opportunity to do a little bit of unofficial training with my new manager. Showing them the ropes on how to use the registers and count the tills and such.

So yah.

Overall good day despite the migraine. And my new manager did rather well in the store. 

As I did have to leave them to fend for themselves while I took a lunch break. But the store didn't burn down in that half hour so woot! lol

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Migraine Woes

 I ended up with a major migraine today.

Like a nuclear one.

One that interfered with my ability to actually well...work at work. 

Which you know it's bad if I can't go to work. As I've worked through many a migraine. But this one? Yah...it was probably triggered by stress. Because yah...constantly getting worked up early in the morning is. not. fun. 

And like I tried to head it off before going into work.

But nope. Work stress triggered it back. 

Work stress made it worse.

*exhales*

And I'm extremely grateful that one of my other managers ended up switching shifts with the cashier today. Because my midday manager ended up leaving an hour or so into their shift for health related reasons as well.

Which would have left me as the only manager for most of my shift.

Which would have meant that no matter how crappy I was feeling....I would have been the only manager on duty. Which meant I couldn't just leave. 

BUT.

Because one of my other managers switched shifts.

It meant that they were here. In the store. Present. For like the entire evening.

Which was great because by like...idk 4pm? I was so unfunctionable.

Like the migraine had gotten to the point where I felt like throwing up any time I tried to stand up.

A sign of a nuclear migraine for sure. 

And trying to walk around, talk to and help customers, and like...be in the store for another 5 hours in that sort of mindframe?

Yah no. Wasn't gonna happen.

I needed to go home. To rest. To sleep. To do something to try and get the migraine to go away.

Which I was reluctant to do because if I left it would mean that I was just leaving my other manager as the cashier, and my petcare person in the store.

Two people. For the closing shift? Ha. Not a good idea. Especially when we hadn't yet been hit by the dinner rush or anything.

Thankfully though, my morning opener for petcare was amazing and chose to stay a few hours over the end of their shift to help support the store.

Which allowed me to go home.

Where I took a shower, put in a movie, and crashed for like 2 hours. 

And by the time the movie ended...I was feeling much better. I mean...I still wasn't 100% because the migraine was still present, but at least it was more manageable. I could function through it at least.

And I knew that the last couple of hours of us being open could get rather crazy.

And not knowing how long my morning petcare person was planning to stay....

I chose to head back into work to help support during the last little bit that the store was open.

Thankfully it wasn't too crazy. Surprisingly I managed to time it well enough that I got back to work only like half an hour after my morning worker had left for the day.

Meaning my manager/cashier and petcare person were only by themselves for like maybe half an hour in the store.

Which was good. That we were able to have the coverage and such.

And I managed to help out wherever I could.

Though by the time the store closed my migraine had begun to get stronger again. So I was more than grateful to finally head home and crash.

But yah.

Yah for things working out so that I could go home.

Because I don't know if I would have survived otherwise. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Startled Awake

Okay. I'm guilty of this too--though in my defense when I text people early in the morning it's because I know that they are usually already awake.

And maybe people are still thinking that I work morning shifts.

Maybe they're thinking I'm already awake.

After all for most of my work career. My shifts have started in the pre-dawn hours of the day.

But with the pandemic and cutting of hours and me becoming a manager.

My shifts have changed. 

They're no longer as early they used to be.

And maybe the fact that people have been isolated for most of the past year. That they haven't had much contact besides what you can get through technology...maybe time no longer has a meaning to them. They don't realize that because they're awake...doesn't mean that everyone else is awake too.

And like....it's been bugging me recently.

Because growing up. I was always told that you don't contact people before 9am or after 10pm unless it's like an emergency.

And because of this mindset...it's hard to not wonder "What's wrong?!" when my phone goes off super early in the morning.

Like. Obviously something has to be wrong if you're texting me before the sun is up.

And maybe I'm just sensitive to noise.

But like....for the past couple of weeks....like nearly every day....people have been texting me before 9am. Before the sun rises. and startling me awake.

Which is sooo annoying. Soo frustrating. And it's triggered more than one migraine from me waking up and stressing over issues that really shouldn't be stressing me and probably wouldn't have if I'd been awake already or like well into my day when said text was sent.

But noooo.

I haven't been able to sleep well for a while.

And I've basically reached the point where I'm tempted to leave my phone in a different room when I go to bed just so I can have some peace of mind and be able to actually rest. 

Unfortunately...my phone is my alarm clock for waking up for my shifts that I do have scheduled in the morning...

But yah. Definitely feeling the need to disconnect from being 'reachable' for a bit. As it's getting old quick how often people wake me up.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Going Back To Normal

The Walmart by my work got rid of their 'directional' signs in the aisles. 

You know the signs where they say "Enter Here" Or "Do Not Enter" to try and make it so their aisles were just one way...

Yah. They're gone at the store I shop at.

Which...it makes sense with people getting the vaccine and the state mask mandate ending and such---you know how the 'pandemic is coming to a close' that it would seem kinda silly to keep up the 'one way' aisles (when a bunch of people couldn't follow those directions anyways) as social distancing becomes less of a 'thing' to have to work with. 

But it was...kinda weird...I'm not sure how to feel about it after having those signs on the floor for like a year straight.

Like in many ways it was freeing. 

To not have to worry about looking at the floors and making sure that I was going down the aisle in the right direction.

It also helped to relieve the tension/irritation felt by witnessing other shoppers ignoring said signs and going down the aisle the 'wrong way'

Plus it made shopping..maybe a little quicker? I mean I didn't have to play ring around the rosie in order to get to the item I wanted.

But it was still stressful.

Having people approaching you from either direction.

Having people come near you and hover within six feet.

It was especially stressful when the individuals who've chosen to ignore the 'Masks Required' signs and wander around without masks....

Still.

Despite not liking being near maskless people.

It was nice to be able to just kinda...shop. And not have to think beyond the 'is the item I want down this aisle' sort of thoughts.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Need a Leash?

You know how people got (and still get) offended about being asked to wear masks?

Well...

Today I had a customer come into the store...without a mask on...which has been a rather common occurrence since my state lifted it's mask mandate. People think that since the mandate is lifted that they can completely ignore the signs saying "Mask Required" that are posted like...everywhere in our store and walk around.

Which they're able to do because our DM has directed us to basically have masks up front and keep the signs up but like...not to push anyone about wearing a mask beyond maybe telling them that we require masks in the store and direct them to the ones up front. 

In any case.

I actually wasn't approaching the customer today in regards to their maskless face.

No since the mandate ended I haven't really brought it up because a) I'm tired of being yelled at and b) I'm tired of the stress that comes with approaching said anti-maskers.

No.

I was approaching this guy in regards to his dog.

Why?

Because said dog wasn't on a leash.

And funnily enough...we require dogs to be leashed or contained in the store.

So either they have a leash...or you have the pup contained in a cart or in a carrier or something.

You can't just have the dog running around willy nilly for a variety of reasons but overall it falls under the category of 'safety' we don't want that dog getting hurt, or any other dog, creature, person getting hurt in the store because someone couldn't control their little fuzzy child.

So I asked the customer if he had a leash for his dog as they're required to be on a leash in the store.

and the dude was like "He jumped out of the cart."

Which funnily enough...the cart -our mini verson- that he'd grabbed has this nice "DO NOT PUT ANIMALS IN CART" sign on it that he too chose to not follow just like all the "Mask Required signs"

Said small carts have those little 'do not put pets in here' signs on them because the sides are much shallower than our regular sized carts and therefore make it super easy for animals to jump out of said carts and possibly hurt themselves in if the pet parent isn't paying attention. 

I was like "Okay" Cus I wasn't going to bring up the fact the cart clearly said "do not put your dog here." on nor was I going to bring up that "hey masks are also required here." 

No.

All I said was "Okay, but just in case the dog jumps out again, can I grab you a temporary leash to wear?" 

Because again. Dog needed to have a leash or be contained in some manner and the cart obviously wasn't going to do that since the dog apparently already jumped out once (if said dog was even in the cart in the first place)

But like...it would be easier to just have the dog on a leash and you hold said leash so doggie can wander around without wandering around too far from the owner....

However...the dude didn't take a leash.

No he legitimately picked up said puppy and walked right out of the store without another word. 

Like dude....I didn't say you couldn't have your dog in the store. Only that you needed to have a leash. And that I could go grab a temporary one for him.

*shakes head*

I thought he was just taking his dog back out to the car to leave it there and then come back to do shopping. But nope. Dude never reappeared.

And it just...like reminded me of the whole 'anti-masker' issue we've been having.

People don't like being told they can't do something.

And while we occasionally get the customer that gets upset at us for not letting their furry child have free reign of the store....

It wasn't something I had paralleled to the anti-maskers until today.

Like...it was a similar response to "Masks are required to be worn in the store, I can grab you one." Where I've had customers just leave. 

But with a dog.

Like dude. I was just asking you to leash your dog.

I wasn't even bringing up the fact that you should be wearing a mask as well....

*shakes head*

Got to wonder what he was thinking. Because I can't see why what I said would trigger him to just pick up the dog and leave....

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

-Sarnic Dirchi