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Here it is, my weekend off and I have been up for an how already. My parents are coming out this afternoon and we are going to have our Thanksgiving dinner today as I will probably not make it home on the real day. Chris has to work this morning, so I got up to make sure that he was awake. Damn, I think I will pull an Eric and go back to bed until the sun comes up.

Since I am working so close to home now I seem to be sleeping later and later. Apparently I must need it, but I sort of enjoy that time in the morning to blog. I also use that time to balance my checkbook and just take plenty of time to wake up. Perhaps I can attempt to go to bed a little bit earlier and that will help out. I finally seem to be over the bronchitis, but my bosy is probably still trying to recover. At least my ears don’t feel like I am on a plane anymore.

I was informed the other day that I have to be at a meeting in Anniston, Alabama at 5pm on Tuesday after work. On election day. What the fuck is up with that? I feel the need to protest. That or leave my boss by herself mid morning while I go vote. That may just be the ticket.

Finally seem to be getting over whatever crap I have had the last week. I am taking an entire drugstore every day in the attempt to rid myself of this shit and it seems to be working. Hell, I even had a breathing treatment last night and am currently working on coughing up the other half of my lung. Perhaps another smoke will do the trick.

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Originally uploaded by rmiles.

Fall festival

My days off have finally rolled around, and none too soon. I was off last Sunday of course, I think I have worked 48+ hours in the last three days though. Business is really exceeding my expectations so far, and I hired extra people just in case, but they are so fucking weak I am having to stay there anyway. I left shortly before 11pm last night.

My lovely wife made me a doctor’s appointment for this morning and apparently I have severe bronchitis. I ended up spending most of the entire day in a non-moving position on the couch. Hell, I didn’t even get up to go smoke. I did manage to go get the girls this afternoon, because I though that we were going to be late getting my son to work. He just got dropped off on the way home, so that worked out well.

Technorati : Sickness, Work

I don’t know what time I will get home tonight, so this may be my only post for today. We are going to officially open for business at 2pm, but we will actually start serving at 10am or so. All of the city muckety-mucks have been invited to eat for free, along with the fire department, police department, and everyone where I bank. Limited menu of course. A few of us are going in at 7am to get the last bit of prep done that I couldn’t do Saturday. Some of that stuff just doesn’t sit well for two days.

I get to drop Ruth off at daycare as well. That will be kind of cool. Her school is about 150-200 yards from my new store, so I will start dropping her off every day, which should save my wife a bit of time in the morning.

Technorati : work

It’s funny. I don’t really appreciate the daytime until I have been stuck inside from dark to dark for awhile. Not that it’s going to get any easier for me for awhile. I do get to see the outside occasionally, while driving from one store to the other, but that is about it.

I think that I am going to have the new manager do the drawer change in my old store for the next couple of nights though, so that I can spend some time at home before the store opens. My boss is off today and tomorrow thank god, so even though I will be running the district, I won’t have to deal with that. The last couple of weeks as I have spent more time in the new store, she has been pretty pissy about it. I know she understands what I have to do, I think she is just pissed off that she is losing me and getting a new manager in return. That will give her two brand new managers out of three, which is pretty difficult, and we are getting ready to go into the holiday season.

One thing I thought was pretty fucking hilarious that Dax will understand, maybe some others will, has to do with my P&L. We have certain target overalls that we have to hit each operating period They consist of food cost, operating (asswipe and stuff), payroll, and management payroll. Due to various reasons including my extremely high sales (low targets) and the number of people I had to have because I had more seats, I NEVER hit my overall target in my old store. Not in the 42 operating periods that I was there. The closest I ever came was being out about .3 which is somewhere around $150. The new Guy that has been there decided that HE could “hit” so has been working all kinds of doubles, sending people home early, working 3rd shifts and basically doing the shit that I absolutely avoid like the plague, because I hate doubles. We got our P&Ls in yesterday, and he was out .5

Damn, he was pissed. I had been trying to tell him for weeks that he needed to concentrate on getting the hell out of there, and beefing up his staff. The more sales he does there, the more money he will make in other bonuses. You make your money in that store from sheer sales volume, not from great profits. He acted like I don’t know what the fuck I am talking about. I think he gets the point now, or at least I hope he does. I work a lot of hours when necessary, but working 80 hours a week just to cut payroll is suicide in the long run because it runs off your people, and then you are left burnt out.

I have spent most of the last two days in the new store getting it ready. The health inspector came today, that was pretty much a non-event. I won’t get a real score for five or six weeks and then they will come in and do a real inspection.

I spent most of the day today setting up and breaking in new equipment and then spent the evening with my boss going over schedules. I only have about 25 holes in the schedule, so it could be worse. We have pretty much hit critical mass and if I don’t open now, I will start losing more people than I can hire because they have to work somewhere and can’t sit with their thumbs up their asses waiting on me.

I will spend most of tomorrow and tomorrow night doing training classes and making sure everyone knows the things I am anal about, then Saturday I will spend the day prepping some of the stuff that will hold for a few days.

We open on Monday afternoon, I guess I will feed the people that work for the city from 10-2 and then open the doors to the public at 2pm.

Of course I am still running my other store until Saturday night, so that has been a big pain in the ass to keep going. I’ve only been there for five or six weeks, don’t want to be there, and pretty much don’t give a fuck if it burns down right about now.

Technorati : work

There is a sign in front of a local church that I pass several times daily:

Halloween or Hallelujah!

Heaven or Hell!!

I just want my fucking candy bars. Keep the rest.

Technorati : Religion

The weekend has been pretty nice but unfortunately it had to end. I may take a couple of days off work later this week since I open the new shop next Monday and all I seemed to do yesterday was sleep. Shortly after my brother left yesterday I lay down on the couch for awhile. Woke up two hours later. Still I went to bed around 8pm last night. Damn I have become a lightweight somehow.

I did manage to get someone’s computer fixed last night, and although I am pretty technically proficient, I have never really attempted to burn a DVD other than for data backup, so I recorded a show to DVD, and it works. woo hoo. Holder goes to school on my daughter’s birthday, which actually happens to be Tuesday, and will take cake volcanoes and give a lesson. The show was “The Magic School Bus Blows It’s Top” which is about volcanoes, so I guess they will be watching it as well.

Today and tomorrow will be my last productive days in the Carrollton store (productive as in actually working on the floor and cooking) as long as everything goes well. I still have a ton of stuff to get done before the week is out. I’ve got to schedule a meeting up there with the health department, and get my bread and produce deliveries set up as well. I have at least three interviews this afternoon, hopefully I can set up a few more, as I still need about ten more people, 20 according to what my bosses want me to hire. That’s probably about right since several of the people that I hired will only be good for a couple of weeks.