Change is a Coming

 There's a sort of exhaustion that hits where literally the only thing you can do is go to bed. Because like....there's not really any higher brain power going on. There's no energy to think. No energy to type. No energy to read. Barely any energy to watch something.

And it always catches me off guard when I get those 'super exhausted' days. 

Especially when they happen on days where I got enough sleep.

Like you kinda expect the super exhausted crash out after getting like 2-4 hours of sleep the night before.

But the nights where you get a full night's rest?

It's really weird to feel the deep exhaustion set in at like 7pm and the want to just crash in bed fighting with the night owl tendency to stay up late. 

I suppose the crash out yesterday wasn't fully unexpected. 

As it was our Truck Day.

And working product, lifting heavy bags, moving things around the store for hours on end ... it's tiring. It's exhausting.

So I'm always a little more tired Tuesday nights, but even then....last night felt a bit more extreme. 

And I'm sure there were a ton of contributing factors that just...weighed in on the exhaustion levels.

The first being me working a slightly longer shift. 

Like half an hour extra at work shouldn't have made that much of a difference, especially because we had truck basically done half an hour before I was off so I wasn't really doing much in the last half hour. 

But I also think the mental and emotional stressors were a bit higher yesterday as well.

Why?

Because it was one of my other manager's 'last day' at work. 

So I think there was a lot of back burner stress in my mind because like "Do I know everything they know so we can function without them? Am I missing anything? Will I be a good replacement if I get promoted for that position? Have I learned what I need to learn? What happens if I can't find the thing?" And of course all the background "They're never gonna do this and never gonna do that." and "I won't be able to ask them this or that or this or that."

Though they did tell me if I needed help that I could still contact them with questions. Which is sweet though I'm gonna try to not do that. 

Kinda not a great look to ask the person who left the job about the job lol. But at the same time they've kinda been a savant in their position so they literally know 'everything' that it's hard to 'teach' everything. 

It's also hard because it's unknown if this is a permanent goodbye or not. 

As the manager is stepping down as a manager to go back to school. But may come back to be like a part time worker if the school work load isn't too crazy for them.

But we won't know that answer for sure for a couple of weeks. So who knows.

Still. 

Gonna be weird having them gone as they've been in the store nearly as long as I have. 

In any case. There is all that background emotional stress going on while also trying to get the truck worked as quickly as possible because yesterday was the last day for this manager who usually helps to finish the truck today with what we don't get done the day before but wouldn't because yesterday was their last day....

But there's also other stressors that I shouldn't be stressing about but am stressing about because that's who I am as a person apparently.

Like money is always an issue and with me taking the new management position with the stupid management restructuring that corporate did, I also took a slight pay cut as well. Which while not the end of the world...has also left me not liking the state of how my finances are either.

It doesn't help that corporate is being stupidly tight fisted with hours and making it difficult for us to be scheduled a full 40 hours a week because we DON'T HAVE THE HOURS to do that. 

Not when we've been cut at least 80 hours each week compared to the same week last year.

It's nearly impossible.

But HM said that our DM said in their weekly meeting that all managers should be scheduled at a full 40 each week. Which would be great! Because more money! 

But is BAD because corporate isn't GIVING US THE HOURS to schedule the managers full time. NOT without TAKING AWAY those hours from associates. Like in order to get all the managers up to a full 40 hours each week we'd have to take away just under 30 hours a week from the associates. 

Which they're already working shorter shifts and less days as it is. 

If we cut them any further it wouldn't surprise me if they'll start looking for other jobs.

Because it's rather hard to survive if your job is only sceduling 3ish shifts a week and those shifts are like maybe 6 hours. 

People can't live off of that.  And if people can't live off of that they're gonna start looking for work elsewhere. 

Which is stressful. Like even if the managers get up to a full 40 hours that doesn't mean we'll be able to have more time to do our Manager tasks. No. Those hours will be spent doing the tasks that the Cashiers and the Petcare people should be doing but aren't because we don't have enough hours anymore to schedule them the full day. 

It's stressful.

Because it feels like corporate is doing their best to take us down to pandemic staffing again and THAT SUCKED.

Like I don't remember what amount of cashiers we had. But it literally was the six managers, me and one petcare person. And maybe one or two cashiers. Like we had NO ONE. If ONE person got sick we were basically SCREWED because we didn't have anyone else to bring in. 

It sucked. Big time. 

Like cutting 3/4s of your staff is a stupid and horrible thing to do especially in the middle of a pandemic. And I don't like that the trend with hours seems to be forcing us to go in that direction again. Because it. is. not. fun.

It's just more stress. And more upset customers because there's no people to help them. 

*exhales*

So yah.

No wonder I got home from work and basically just wanted to pass out.

It was an exhausting day on multiple levels. 

But the one bright side of the day is that the manager who's left told me that out of everyone in these tore, if we were hiring internally to replace them, that I would be the best person to replace them.

Which is high praise from them. ^^;;

They later went on to say that I caught on quick in the last couple of months learning how to do all the stocking tasks and that I've been doing really well with all my tasks.

Which again is amazing.

Because until that point I had no idea if they thought I was good replacement material or not.

I mean I hoped I would be. 

I went into my current position with the expectation that I would be learning how to do this manager's job so that I could take over for them when and if they decided to step down. As I wasn't as familiar with the stocking aspects of the store so a few months to learn the ropes would be helpful and help me ease into what I need to know for the position.

So to hear that the manager thought I would do well as a replacement was one less stress on my shoulders at least. Now to just pass through the interviewing process when we hold that and hope that I get the position. *fingers crossed* 

But yah.

It was an exhausting day. 

Exhausting enough that it triggered a migraine towards the end of my shift that trying to go to bed early did not help......but at least the Nurtec made it go away so yay!

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Priorities

 So usually on Monday's we have a routine in the mornings. 

That mostly involves me and another manager going through the front half of the store counting holes on the aisles. 

Aka. Looking for empty spots on the shelves and scanning the tags below them to make sure the spots are actually supposed to be empty. And if they're not, double checking that inventory isn't hiding elsewhere before adjusting the numbers. 

Which is semi interesting because like, I'll also scan areas with low numbers too. Places where there's only one or two on a shelf when I know there's usually more of the item. Or I'll scan items that I've found to be higher theft items in the past.

And it's interesting to note the ... idk trends? Trends in like what items are consistently not right on the shelf. 

Which begs the question of.... was it stolen? Or did the DC send us the wrong amount?

Like we were supposed to have 2 large 40 gallon tanks of one particular type on the shelf. I could only find one. 

So does that mean one didn't arrive on the truck when it should have? 

Or does it mean that somehow a customer managed to walk out of the store with a 40 gallon tank without paying for it?

Who knows. 

In any case. 

Every Monday we do these scans first before the store opens so that we can ensure that our truck can be properly replenished in the next week or so. 

....Except the First Monday of the month.

Because then we have AD that we need to set.

Because new sales need to go up and therefore those need to be set first before the store opens and once we're done with those then we can go back to our normal Monday tasks.

Which its pretty easy to figure out priority.

Ad first. Scans second.

And like....I reminded my other manager of this this morning when we were getting ready for the day.

"We need to get ad done first. I'll take petcare, you just need to do the back wall area and then we can do scans after that point." 

Only....other manager....didn't do that?

I think they may have been trying to do both things at once? Scan and set ad? Because I could see the ad in their cart. But I could also hear the beeping of the scanner meaning they were doing their scans as well.

Which didn't make sense to me.....

Like the obvious priority is to get the ad done first. Scans second. Because while the scans for this section should be done today....we can also do them throughout the week. While ad definitely needs to be up on the first day of the sale so that customers can know what deals they can get while shopping in our store.

May main thought is...is that this manager doesn't particularly like doing ad. 

They usually take 3x as long to do ad compared to others.....

Though it's hard to tell if that's just them or if it's on purpose.

As most tasks seem to take longer than they should for this manager.

So who knows for sure.

But it's mind boggling and very irritating when I say "Hey we need to get ad done first." that ....they don't do ad first.

Like why?

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Just Thinking Won't Change Anything

 It's probably because I'm the type of person that doesn't really do change. 

I set things up the way I like it and rarely do I switch things around. Like maybe on occasion I'll rearrange my knickknacks and such. But change in general....it's something that rarely happens. I like where I'm at so why change things about it?

So oftentimes when change comes it's after I've thought about it for a while....or I'm dragged into it kicking and screaming. 

Which is why I have one roommate that consistently just...boggles my mind. 

Because she's constantly changing things. Reorganizing. Rethinking. Redoing.

Like she rearranges her room every 2-3 months. It feels like every time I open her door her bed is in a different spot. 

And I just....don't get it.

The last time I moved furniture about was like twoish years ago and that was because I'd been given a few furniture pieces when Daddoo was getting the childhood home ready to sell and I needed to make room for what I could fit here. 

But that was still little things. 

My bigger furniture pieces?

Have not moved.

Mostly because the way my room is designed it doesn't make sense to place the bigger pieces elsewhere. But also because I like where they're at so why change it?

In any case.

It's not just like rearranging furniture and such. 

It's mind boggling.....because this roommate is also constantly stating that they're "rethinking their life." 

Which makes sense in a way because where I live there's a strong. "Get married. Get a House. Have Kids. Get your Dream Career." culture. 

And like if you're not doing those...you're a failure.

And like...I suppose roomie is feeling that pressure a bit more.

Though with them recently getting a new job....I kinda thought they'd be done with the 'rethinking their life' motif for a while. 

Since the last time they were rethinking their life was when they were trying to find a job that would give them stability and more hours.

Which they did find. They found a job that gives them a nice 9-5, weekends and holidays off, stable pay, and also benefits.

Which in this economy is kinda the dream right now. 

But not for my roomie.

Because the job isn't in the career field that they're wanting. 

Even though the reason why they were looking for a new job in the first place is because the job in the career field they wanted and had wasn't giving them the hours that they promised and therefore wasn't giving them enough money to like...be able to afford rent and groceries and such.

And like I get it.

If you go to school for a certain things....you kinda want to get a job in that field.

But at the same time. I also feel it's important to have stability and sometimes you have to have a job that 'pays the bills' for a while first. 

And roomie has only had the new job for like 3 months.

Which is barely any time at all in the job field.

So I don't quite understand why they're already back at looking for another job in their field.

Like I get wanting to keep an ear to the ground and an eye open for opportunities.

But I think my focus would be to stay long enough to get my funds and savings up to snuff and to feel stable. 

But I'm not my roomie.

And my roomie seems to be very much into the "I'm doing something wrong because I haven't accomplished the checklist of life to be considered an actual adult." 

But also like at the same time.....this is a literal cycle they go through.

"I'm rethinking my life."

Yes you're THINKING. but what are you DOING.

Because thinking doesn't GET YOU ANYWHERE if there's no ACTION. 

And it seems like when my roomie does take action...said actions last only a day...sometimes up to two weeks before they stop.

So like.... what's the point?

Why not just be satisfied with where you are now? Why not take the L on the checklist of life and maybe go seek the checklist of happiness instead. Find things that MAKE YOU happy.

Yes it sucks to not be married.

Yes it sucks to not have your own home.

Yes it sucks to not have the job you wanted.

But at the same time. Life never turns out the way you plan it. So why not try and find ways to make life more enjoyable and enjoy what you have now?

*exhales*

We'll see if anything comes of this round of 'rethinking' that my roomie is doing.

I don't think their job is gonna change at the moment since they've had it so short a time ..... 

But you never know. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Stay Wet

 It's kinda weird how things can work one day and be dead the next without like....any indication that they're dying. 

On Wednesday I took advantage of my roomies both being out of the house to do some laundry I'd been neglecting. 

And everything functioned as normal for me. 

Wash load was normal.

Dryer load was normal.

Thought nothing of it. 

And I had thought that my roomie had done laundry like later that same day or the day after?

It was recent. Because it seems like she's ALWAYS doing laundry....which I still cannot comprehend how and why she manages to do at least 2 loads a week. It's crazy.

In any case.

Today I heard her starting laundry AGAIN.

Which....I'd thought she'd done laundry recently....like maybe last night even? The days blur together. But it was RECENT as in AFTER I did my load of laundry on Wednesday.

And maybe she forgot it yesterday and was finishing it up today.

But she ended up sending a message to the group chat....that the dryer wasn't working.

It doesn't turn on.

Just makes a clicking noise. 

And like ????

But I had just used it? 

It was working fine?

No issues?

I feel like she literally had just been using it and it was working fine? No issues?

So like....what changed so suddenly that the dryer was like "Yah no. I'm done." 

Who knows. 

I certainly don't.

And luckily we have another dryer in the home as our place has two laundry rooms one upstairs and one downstairs so it's no big deal if one dryer isn't working at the moment.

But it is still weird.

Like I feel like there should have been more signs that something was about to break. 

But then again it could just be age. We got the dryers used and we've lived in the house for nearly a decade now. So like....they're old. It wouldn't be surprising if they just....gave out.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Quick Visit

 I took a parakeet to the vet this morning expecting to drop him off for a recheck.

As we'd taken this parakeet in a little over a month ago to get his nose looked at. As the nair--nostril was looking...well deformed. 

Which the vet confirmed it was deformed and that the bird would be more prone to respiratory infections and would be best if he had access to water to bathe in constantly and to have a weekly misting as well just to help the bird stay cleaner as he'd been looking a bit more oily. 

In any case.

It was any easy enough "here's the solution adopt him out." situation.

Except the vet had also taken a stool sample and while they didn't find anything specifically wrong in it they were concerned about the consistency of it and therefore wanted us to wait a month and bring the parakeet back in for a recheck on the stool just to make sure he was healthy.

Hence my visit today.

So I came in expecting to drop the bird off and leave and then come back a few hours later to drop him off.

That didn't happen.

Instead after about 15 minutes of waiting to be seen. The vet himself came out into the waiting room to look at the parakeet. 

He was like "Oh the nair looks good. The vent looks good. The stool in the cage looks like it's all good. Have you noticed any issues? No? Cool. You're good to go. Bye!" lol. 

I mean I don't mind quick vet visits. 

It's rather nice to have a quick visit where we don't have to plan time out later in the day to go get the bird again after the vet checks on it. 

So it's nice to just show up and get the bird looked at real quick and then be back on my merry way.

Now to get said bird adopted out to a loving home. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

It's a 10 Year--No 25 Year Storm

 We had quite the storm hit the area last night.

One of those ones where it blows up upon you fast and hard. The winds are roaring. The lightning and thunder is flashing. The rain is pouring hard enough against the windows that you have to check to see if it's hail or not that's hitting them.

...It was hail at one point. But not the entire time.

And then like 20 minutes later the storm is gone. Roaring on. 

I hadn't thought much about it beyond concern for my roomie who was coming back from an event she'd been at. So I'd texted her to warn her about the storm. How heavy the rain was. That there was hail. To be careful driving.

I didn't think much more about it after that though.

We've had heavy rains before. 

... ... ...

But not heavy rains after a recent fire on the mountain above my home. 

I had heard a ton of sirens earlier on. 

More than normal. That lasted longer.

But I kinda chalked it up to bad accident.

Because like... I live in an area where there's an intersection that likes to have accidents.

I also live above a neighborhood that gets a lot of domestic calls.

I also live near an easy access to the highway...where more accidents happen.

So like sirens aren't out of the ordinary.

So yah I didn't realize anything was out of the ordinary....

Until my roomie got home and was like "Hey, did you know that the bottom of our street is closed?" 

Which.

Huh?

She wanted to know if I'd received any alerts about a disaster ... which no. My phone had been silent. 

But she had had to find an alternate route to get home because our normal way was blocked off. No access whatsoever. 

It took a bit of midnight sleuthing on the Internet before we discovered that there had been a mudslide. 

Landslide? It seemed to be mostly made of mud. 

But regardless. 

The draw where the fire had happened a couple of weeks ago?

Yah. The sudden heavy rain fall did not help all that loose ashy soil. 

I saw a report that 1" of rain and fallen in like that 20-30 minute period. 

I later saw news reports that our street had flooded with water up to 6 inches high in some places.

Regardless. Debris, Mud, and Ash had come flowing down from the mounting into a berm and over and into a Construction patch that lead directly into a Church...piling mud up to 5 feet high against it's walls. 

Some other houses experienced slight flooding in their basements I heard.

But the church took the brunt of it from my understanding. 

And two of the main roads in the area got covered in the mudslide....some leading all the way down somewhere on State affecting that road as well...though they cleared up that street a lot faster than they did the other two roads. 

I was told that they moved 960 truck loads of debris today from that muddy area of the Church. Over 13,440 tons of debris. 

They had hundreds of volunteers and a lot of construction equipment over there working to help clear up the mess. 

The poor church building is going to be closed for the foreseeable future. 

There is the obvious landscape damage, but there's also HVAC, Electrical and apparently some Structural Damage as well. 

Which is kinda crazy.

Crazy to see how much can come down from the mountains when you get a heavy storm and there's no vegetation up there anymore to hold the soil in place because it all burned. 

Luckily we're in a bit of a lull here with the storms. 

But there's definitely more of a concern now that this will happen again whenever the next storm hits.

Though hopefully it's not as crazy.

We're told that this storm was a 10 year storm. But with the burn scar on the mountain it exacerbated the problem and turned it into a 25 year storm sort of problem. 

Overall I'm just grateful that it didn't impact our home. And it barely affected us roomies. I mean we did have to detour from our usual routes to get to work as the main road was still closed this morning. It didn't open up again until after dinner time....and is set to close first thing again in the morning so that the construction crews can continue working on clearing more of the mud away.

Hopefully tomorrow they can get the roads fully cleared enough that we don't have to worry about any more road detours. Though I expect the cleanup at the church is going to take a bit longer.

Overall I'm just grateful that no one was hurt and everyone was able to stay safe. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

So. What Do I Owe You?

 I have to say. 

I'm glad I don't have to deal with billing in my job.

Like the closest I could get is if a grooming customer doesn't pay for their groom. But we just call them and are like "Hey you didn't pay." and if they still don't pay then we put a block on them to prevent them from grooming with us again and call it a day.

But today I decided to drop by the doctor's where I had gotten my CT and MRI scan done when I finally decided to go to the doctor about my migraines a few months ago and they recommended doing a CT and MRI to make sure there wasn't anything going. 

There wasn't.

Which is annoying to get tests that show that there's nothing wrong with you that you then have to pay for. 

Said tests were done in May.

And after like a .... couple of weeksish? I got billed for what I would need to pay for the CT scan that insurance wouldn't cover.

Easy peasy. Paid it right away. Didn't like paying it. But paid it right away. 

And I expected the MRI bill to come pretty quickly after that.

But....it's been radio silence. 

So it's just been hanging over my head.

And I was like....Okay.... maybe the MRI just takes longer to go through insurance? 

I mean I've had an MRI done before where they didn't find anything. But that was done way back when I was in college and I was still on my parent's insurance. So like...no idea how long it took the bill to come through.

I'd kinda put it on the back back back back burner.

Until I'd recently got notified about my dental related claims. 

So I went into my insurance website to check that out. Since I have dental and medical under the same insurer....I was like "Well let me look at the medical stuff too." 

and Medical.....medical showed that the insurance had processed my claim for the MRI....way back at literally the same time the CT scan was processed.

But I hadn't received the bill.

Tried going into the patient portal for my doctors to make sure I hadn't missed an email there....

And nothing. It didn't show I owed anything.

So like.... confusion much?

Like the insurance site gave me the option to pay what it claimed I owed the doctors.....but the doctors had never billed me....and like I didn't want to pay something I didn't owe. 

So I decided to continue waiting....

Until today.

Because I got another notification about when I went to the dentist for my cavities last week....

And still no notification about the MRI. 

So I was like. Well I have the time today and the energy today. So I went by the facility to talk to the billing department just to see what was going on.

Because I had no idea how much I would owe for sure. 

And I didn't want to have the bill suddenly sprung on me if I could help it. 

I also didn't want to have my bill sent to collectors and get hounded for that. Especially if I'd never been notified.

I don't even know how long they wait before they start hounding you for bills.....

In any case.

When I got to the office both receptionists were on the phone with customers who were also trying to figure out their bills....

But from what I overheard both receptionists were dealing with customers who had bills that had actually gone to collectors. 

Which. Oof. 

That sounds like a nightmare. Like apparently the collectors charge interest on the bills.....which is just cruel in my opinion. Like there's a reason why the bills were probably not paid yet. But like one receptionist was saying one customer owed money to them from like 4 years ago. 

But it sounded like the one receptionist was having a better time with the one customer compared to the second receptionist. 

They kinda looked and sounded like they were two seconds away from throwing the computer. They were on the phone with the same customer the entire time I was there. And it kinda sounded like they probably had had to explain the same thing multiple times to the customer. 

Which basically boiled down to "We don't have contact with the collectors. We can't access their information. They can access certain things but don't have power over other things. No you only owe us this amount of money. The interest is owed to the collectors. We don't get the interest money. The collectors do. If we got the interest money WE would be the ones charging you interest and WE would be the ones hounding you for the money the Collectors wouldn't be involved at all."

So yah. I did not envy them that phone call because it just sounds frustrating. On both sides. Because I get not wanting to have to pay more money than you have to....but seriously if the bill has been unpaid long enough to get the collectors on your back.....that's...not great either. 

In any case. 

It does make me wonder how long they wait for a bill to remain unpaid before sending it to collectors. I'm guessing it probably depends on the facility. But who knows. 

Needless to say I was a bit nervous. 

Like I'm pretty sure not paying any bills for like 3 months isn't long enough. 

But it made me all the more eager to make sure that I got my own payments squared away so I would no longer have to worry about potentially owing money for the MRI. 

So when the first receptionist finally got off the phone. I explained my situation. That I hadn't received an MRI bill yet and just wanted to check in and see if I actually owed anything yet or not. 

Turns out. 

I didn't. 

O.o

Why?

Well. 

After insurance I owed a certain amount of money. 

Which surprisingly was only like $80. 

Considering the CT scan I ended up having to pay like nearly $300..... 

It's kinda crazy the difference in how much you owe depending on the procedure with insurance. 

In any case.

I technically owed $80. 

But before the procedure they had had me pay like a $50 fee. 

Which went towards the $80. 

Bringing me down to $30 owed. 

BUT.

I had also paid like a $30 fee for the CT scan? 

(I remember paying a copay before the procedures but don't remember the cost for it. Just was like "Okay makes sense I need to do a copay) 

But then I also paid for what I owed for the CT scan after insurance....without taking into account the $30 I'd paid beforehand. 

Which left me with an extra $30 credit....

Which they had already kinda in their computer system used to cover the rest of what I owed for the MRI scan. 

So the receptionist was like "They kinda already just assumed that $30 was going to the MRI which is why you never received a bill because they already considered you squared away, but here let me make it all official and move that officially over." 

And walla!

So turns out. I didn't owe any money for the MRI. 

YAY.

Like annoying that I had like 3 months of back burner stress that didn't need to be stress.

But yay that I didn't have to spend MORE money at the moment.

Even though $80 is a lot better than like another $200-$300 that I had been expecting. 

Though it does make me wonder like....if I never went back to that doctors place again and I still had that $30 credit....what would have ended up with that $30 credit? 

Would they have just ended up keeping my money? Or would they have eventually sent it back to me with a "oh hey we charged you too much. Oops?" 

Somehow I think it's more the former rather than the latter. *exhales*

In any case.

I'm just grateful that I didn't owe any money. So yay! 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi