You Clean It

 So earlier this spring corporate decided to implement a restructuring of the leadership positions in the stores. 

Their goal was to try and streamline things and make it more clear who was over who. 

But honestly...I'm not that impressed with it overall.

In any case. 

This change meant that I had to officially reapply to a management position. Go through the whole online application and interview and everything ... and if I didn't then I would consider myself 'let go' when the new management positions went into effect.

So needless to say. It was stupidly stressful.

In any case. 

I kept a job! Still remained a manager!

But one of the sticking points has been that I'm now the 'same' position as one of my other managers....

And our work load has not been equal. 

Which makes sense because my job experience focuses more on taking care of the animals...and theirs focuses more on the product and getting it on the shelves.

The irritating thing has been that this manager has shown no initiative to learn how to do the petcare aspects of their job. 

Which has left me in charge of it.

As our current positions has us in charge of the stock of the store. Making sure the shelves are filled. Truck is worked properly. Inventory is accurately accounted for etc......but it also covers the petcare standards. Making sure that the animals are properly set up in their cages and that everything that should be in their cages is in there and that the cages are kept clean and good looking etc. 

Which means we're in charge of the cage cleaning.

Which is kinda stupid that the managers are now in charge of cleaning the cages.

But whatever. The petcare associates are supposed to just focus on the general opening/closing of petcare and helping customers.

While on the bedding change days me or my other manager should be cleaning cages....unless neither one of us is there then the petcare associates would then do the bedding change.

Which we did switch one of the bedding change days to a day that I worked to ensure it would get done.

But out of the 3 bedding changes 2 of them are done by Me and 1 is done by associates because that one takes place on Sunday when myself and my fellow manager don't work.

Regardless. I've asked a couple of times now when the other manager was going to be trained on at least the two other bedding changes that I've been doing. Since they usually always work the One day and occasionally work the 2nd day. 

And it's often been a "Oh this thing is the focus. This other thing is due. Next week for sure!"

I had kinda resigned myself to the fact that they were never going to learn how to clean the cages because everything else would always be considered a higher priority.

But I got surprised today.

As it was the reptile bedding change.

And my other manager isn't usually scheduled to work today. 

But they were.

Which was weird because we had 3 managers in the store before it had opened....

When usually it's 1 to 2 people.

I hadn't thought much of it.

But our Manager over us was like "Hey Sarnic, Teach Manager how to clean the reptile cages today." 

Which.

!!!!!

FINALLY.

I was a little nervous about it to be honest. Because while they've been with the store for years....petcare is not an area they have much familiarity with.

But they did rather well with the bedding change. Did much better than I had been expecting. 

So yay!

It definitely gave me a bit more confidence in leaving the to do the bedding change on their own in the future. So hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me.

But *fingers crossed* that Monday I'll be able to show them how to do the Bird Bedding change as well. 

It may have taken most of the summer.

But I'm glad that we're finally making progress in doing actual training in the areas that we're not familiar with.

Because it was getting irritating that it felt like I was the only one teaching and learning as I try to adjust to my new role and figure out what I still need to be worrying about and not worrying about. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Buy It?

 Had an interesting experience today. 

As I took my car to the dealership today to get an oil change at their shop. 

As my car decided a few days ago to give me the "Service Soon!" warning.

Which was a bit irritating because like...the sticker in my windshield said I still had a good 500 miles to go before I would need one but whatever.

I'd been hoping to wait until the end of the month to get my oil change done.

But I tend to get annoyed with notifications that constantly pop up and don't go away.

Hence making the time today to go get my oil changed. 

Which was fortuitous as on the drive over I got "Low windshield wiper fluid" notified as well. 

And they top that off for free. So yay for that timing! 

In any case.

Went to the dealership I bought my car from to get the oil changed because 'perks'

And while I was waiting for the oil to be changed. 

I received a text message. 

That basically said: "Hey! We see that you just brought in your car to get serviced! Your model of car is in high demand right now. And we'd love to buy your car! Text back Yes to get an estimate!"

O.o

o.O

What?

I mean I drove through the lot to get to the Mechanic aspect....the lot was filled with cars....

Granted I wasn't paying attention to the year each car was if they were new or pre-owned.

But like. 

What?

I mean I've only had my new car for a little over a year. 

So yes it's still in overall good condition. 

But I know that the value of cars depletes rather quickly once it's bought and taken off the lot.

So like....odds are high that they would not offer me enough money to even pay off what I still owe on my car. 

So unless they were offering me more than the current value of my car. Or like offering to let me switch my current payment plan to a new car or let me just get a new car right out?

Yah. Not likely.

More than likely it's just a way to make me spend more money because I'd have to get a 'new' car and said 'new' car may be more expensive than what I got my car for originally. 

So yah no.

Like thanks for being willing to buy my car. 

But also like No?

I'm not the sort of person to whimsically just switch out my cars at the first opportunity.

With bigger purchases I tend to use them until they break.

I'm currently planning to keep my new car for at least 20 years.

I mean I had the Tracker for 23 years before selling it.

I'm expecting to keep my current car for just as long if not longer. 

It's so random though.

It has me curious.

Like how high is demand actually? 

Are people really buying cars that quickly?  I didn't notice many people in the store looking at cars while I was sitting around waiting. And I assumed the couple other people I saw inside who weren't workers were people who too were waiting for their car to be finished with whatever they were doing. 

Regardless.

At least I got my oil changed!

And everything else looked good according to the dude I checked out with. So yay! Yay for doing well so far with my new car!

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Visiting

 Met up with a cousin I haven't seen in a while today.

Like years. Has had two kids since I last saw them a while. 

Which was awesome in being able to see them.

But also so weird in that it feels like no time has passed but at the same time seeing how much time has passed.

Still.

It was a fun visit.

Instigated by them randomly posting last week on Facebook. "Hey! Just drove into the State! Anyone here wanna meet up!" 

And then of course was the added complication of figuring out everyone's schedules. Seeing which days and times and locations would work for everyone. 

But in the end it was so worth it.

Was able to eat delicious food.

Socialize.

Meet the littles. 

And just enjoy a bit of cousin time.

As we don't get as much cousin time anymore now that we're all adults with jobs and lives and families and such.

So being able to meet up, if only for a couple of hours, was so nice.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

All My Ducks in a Row

 Soooo back in like .... May? Yah May. 

I finally got all my ducks in a row from like two years of crazy (and maybe beyond that) to actually go to see a Doctor about my Migraines. 

Mostly because they had gotten much more worse and much more constant.

Like literally I was getting a daily headache it felt like.

Though it was hard to tell if it an actually headache or like irritation at work with the radio chatter.

Regardless. I was getting headaches nearly daily. 

And the nuclear migraines were reaching the point where I was throwing up nearly every time I had a nuclear one. 

And the nuclear ones had reached a pain scale that Excedrin was NOT touching.

Like I literally burned myself on my neck from taking too many showers in a row/putting heat packs on my neck to try and soothe the ache away.

Which if I'm hurting myself...that's a bad sign.

But finally in May I had the time off from work and all the other crises in my life settled to the point where I could tackle the migraines issue.

Since the migraines I've been dealing with since like...what?? High School? It's a well known beast I've had to deal with. So dealing with it has been on the back burner for a long time.

I figured the best way to start out would to get my blood work done.

Since I haven't had an official panel done in like.....ever. 

Just to see if there were any visible issues/deficiencies going on that I could tackle.

Especially since I had two family members recently diagnosed with Anemia. I figured that more than likely I was low on iron in my blood and that I would need to fix that.

So I finally got to the doctor.

Got blood work done.

But also got a CT and MRI scan done as well.

Good news the CT and MRI came back normal so woot! Nothing wrong there. 

But my blood work?

Good news is my iron levels were normal.

Which is impressive because like...I don't eat a lot of red meat. So I've always kinda thought I'd be low on them.

But I wasn't!

I was low on a couple other Vitamins though. 

In a bad way. 

I was low on my Vitamin B12. Being at 143 ....when the normal low side of low is like 213.... 

And I was very stupid low on my Vitamin D. 

The normal low side of low is 30.

My levels when I did the blood test.....showed that I was at 8.

EIGHT. 

Yeesh.

And surprise surprise. Being low in EITHER ONE can contribute to more headaches. *shakes head*

So my doctor told me to get some vitamins for the D and B12 and start taking a specific dose daily to get those levels up.

But also prescribed me a Migraine preventative medicine. Topiramate. To also take to see if that could stop the migraines from coming or being as bad. 

Which good news!

It has helped a lot! 

With the combination of vitamins and meds my minor headaches have all but vanished and if they do occur they tend to be over and done with within a couple of hours. 

It's been amazing. Like I've encountered so many situations at work where I keep thinking "Wow. I'm annoyed. If this had been before I took my RX meds I would have had a migraine by now...but I don't have a migraine. I can be annoyed without getting a migraine. This is great!!" 

And if I do get a migraine...the pain levels have usually been half strength of what they have been. Which considering how much pain I've been in has been great!

It has been weird though because with the RX med, Excedrin doesn't play nice with it. So no more Excedrin for me.

Which is so crazy considering that was like my main 'go to' for trying to stop the headaches.

and now I can't take it because it doesn't interact well with it.

In any case.

I was trialing through all that the past couple of months. 

And had a recheck last month to see how I was doing.

Had another blood test to check my D and B12 

And good news! My D is back in the normal range! Woot!

But my B12? Oof. It went from being too low to stupid high. 

Like the result read >2000 

:S :S :S 

Which lead me to wonder....

As in the couple of weeks leading up to the recheck appointment...my headaches had started increasing again. 

I'd first chalked it up to being off routine. Because I'd had a Family Reunion I was in charge of, Daddoo was in town visiting, a couple days on work and then another long weekend off for my birthday.

So like my normal schedule was all screwed up. So I figured that may have contributed to the headaches.

But with the high B12? Yah...maybe that was the cause.

As I've been off the B12 for almost a month now and the headaches have once again decreased again.

So definitely need to watch how much B12 I'm taking to make sure my levels don't get too high again.

But with that recheck I also learned something else. 

Because with headaches if they're normal headaches...they should go away if you take Tylenol or Advil.....

But if they don't....then it's a Migraine and I need different meds to get rid of those.

So the doctor this time gave me a couple trial meds to try....

And I ended up getting a RX for one called Nurtec.

And oh wow is that RX AWESOME.

Like I've used it a handful of times now for those migraines that will JUST NOT GO AWAY.

And it literally will get rid of the migraine within the Hour. 

It's been just....wow. 

Like Today.

I ended up with one of those nuclear feeling migraines last night. The ache behind the left eye the tension in the neck. One that would leave me miserable for hours on end and recovering for another two days afterwards.

And while the pain was lesser at a 5-6 scale.

It was much stronger than the 1-2 pain scale I've been dealing with.

And like. The Nurtec took it from a 6 to a 0 in like an hour.

I had ENERGY.

I could go out and DO THINGS.

Which considering I had to go to work at 5 am this morning....it was really good that it took effect before we opened for the day so that I could focus at my job and then go do things after work.

And I'm just grateful.

And kicking myself for taking so long to go get checked out to see what's been going on with me.

Because it's exhilarating to be able to take medicine for a migraine and have it actually WORK and for me to be FUNCTIONAL soon after it takes effect. 

I'm sure there's still going to be tweaks down the road as we continue to figure out how everything is working.

But I've been much happier and have found much more energy this past handful of months than it's felt like I've had in years.

Which is probably half the reason why I've started blogging again honestly.

I actually have the energy to WANT to write and BE ABLE to write a bit again. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Extra Fuel Found

 I do have to say that there are many things I love about my new car that I've had for over a year at this point.

And one of them is the gas mileage. 

Like...city wise it's eh. 

Like the new car is techy enough to tell me about how many gallons of gas I have left before I really need to refuel. 

And it feels like I burn 10 gallons just going back and forth between work.

Probably due to all the stupid lights I hit that I have to stop at and then go from. 

But on highway driving?

Oh. So worth it getting the new car.

Especially in situations like today.

Where I drove around the lake to see family.

And When I left my house my tank said I had 330 miles left. 

And by the time I finally got back home? It said I had 350 miles left.

*laughs*

I drove my car well enough that it was like "Oh hey, you actually can drive you car FURTHER than we first estimated! Good job!" 

It was an amazing thing to see.

To feel like a little bit of magic was in the air.

Because like. The drive to see family was about 40 minutes. 

And in many retrospects I'm used to my old Tracker where driving that far would put me down a quarter tank if not a half tank depending on the wind that day.

But to drive To my family. Then run a dinner errand. AND THEN head back home? 

Like I did a good 2ish to 2.5 hours of driving...and my tank still reads as FULL.

It's SO AWESOME!!!

I love my new car. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Invite

 Working in a Pet Store for over a decade at this point, I've come across my fair share of random things. 

But today does bring about a "first" of sorts. 

Which is rather amazing that I still encounter "firsts" in the store ... considering I'm approaching my 13th anniversary there. You'd think by this point I would have heard, seen, and done it all. But nope. 

Today's first arrived in the mail.

Yep. The mail.

Good old USPS. 

I walk by Register 1 and see a little pile of mail sitting on the counter...and no sign of the postman anywhere.

Because he tends to waltz in and out within the blink of an eye.

Which makes it extremely hard to 'catch him' if we need to send packages through USPS instead of Fedex. 

In any case. I grab the pile of mail because we can't have it just sitting in plain site of customers on the register counter.

And among those various pieces of paper?

Is an envelope.

Addressed in a very familiar way....but not at all familiar for a  Pet Store.

Because this envelope and the way it looks....looks like it contains a wedding invitation.

Which. Not the weirdest. 

Coworkers get married all the time. And like sometimes former co-workers will come in to hang up a wedding invitation inviting us to their wedding.

But this invitation? Was weird.

Because instead of listing a person. It just listed the store. 

"Starsmet" then our address. 

So no specific person.

I look up to see who sent it. 

And I don't recognize the names at all as any former coworkers. 

So I wondered if maybe it was one of the Influencers we've had in the store before?

Because we have had influencers in the store over the past couple of years. People with 'famous' pets who come in to shoot 'commercials' for their YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and whatever other popular social media channels they have with their pets. 

I don't know their names. Barely know their pets. I mostly avoid them because I do not want to be on camera lol. 

But nope. Other managers don't recognize the names of the people either and state the Influencers we have dealt with are already married. 

Open the envelope.

And confirm that it IS a wedding invite. 

To a complete stranger's wedding. 

We have no idea who this person is.

BUT

They were nice enough to include a little hand written note that basically said: 

"Dear Starsmet; As my Cat and I begin a New Chapter of our lives. We wanted to include you in our celebration! My cat loves your store and I love supporting your business. Thanks for being awesome!" 

Lol.

It's so random.

We all loved it. 

Like who would ever think to send a Pet Store a wedding invite. 

Especially when I don't know if they even know any of us in the store. 

Regardless my Head Manager has already gathered a Card and a Gift Card to the Store and a Wedding Collar for the Cat to wear to mail back to the happy couple lol. 

A different manager is even considering going. XD Which is far braver than I would ever be. Though seriously it would be so funny if a group of us ended up showing up to their wedding. 

Can you imagine?

Person at the wedding: So are you here for the bride or the groom?

Us: Oh, No, We're here for the Cat. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Red Means STOP

 I feel like the heat is probably melting people's brains.

That, or they just get into 'automatic' mode and stop thinking. 

In any case. 

I nearly got into a car accident today. 

Where I was running an errand after work. 

Waiting in the Turn Lane for my light to turn green.

And I got the Green Arrow. So of course since I had the right of way. I started going. 

And across from me, the other side also got their green turn light as well. So those cars started going to turn left too. 

But then this freaking red pick up truck. Who was in the regular "go straight" lanes. 

ALSO started going. 

Like DUDE. 

You may see cars moving in your peripheral. BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN GO TOO.

ESPECIALLY when I am TURNING. RIGHT. IN. FRONT. OF. YOU.

Like I lay on my horn honking for all I'm worth and the DUDE is completely clueless. Doesn't see anything wrong with him still continuing going straight EVEN THOUGH I'M CROSSING RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM AND HONKING. 

I don't think he realized anything was wrong until AFTER I had crossed in front of him -swerving to avoid getting hit and he maybe just maybe saw the line of cars ALSO turning right behind me. and MAYBE just MAYBE he FINALLY looked up and realized that HIS light was still FREAKING RED. 

*exhales*

In any case. 

My car and I made it through the intersection safely even if my adrenaline was pumping for a good five minutes afterwards. 

Didn't help that there were TWO other instances I encountered on that drive home today where I had the freaking green light giving me the go ahead to move into the intersection and here comes a car blazing through the FULLY RED LIGHT. 

Like guys. GUYS. 

RED. MEANS. STOP. 

Yeesh.

Needless to say. I didn't make any other pit stops and drove straight home because I did not want to deal with any other dumb drivers today. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi