Think Before You Smoke Dummy…

  “I hate to get on to you. You’ve done so well, but you don’t need to be smoking as you bring the carts in from the parking lot,” my supervisor told me this morning.  “Smoke off to the side of the store near the oil change area. You’re doing an awesome job, though.  That’s my only complaint with what you are doing.”

“Sorry!” I replied, feeling like crap. I am so sensitive – really a perfectionist at heart. I can’t take much criticism.  “I just wasn’t thinking. It won’t happen again.”

“It just looks bad,” my supervisor said. “Remember you are representing the store and you are usually the first Wal-Mart employee customers see besides the greeter.”

Work was routine other than that. I trained the new guy – a big bustling black guy named Quentin with a speech impediment.  I just about couldn’t understand what he was saying, but it grew easier over time.  We are going to be the disability crew at Wal-Mart.  Me with mine.  Him with his.  I handled the grocery side of the store which is usually busier and got him to handle the other slower sundry side as I call it. He did an awesome job and I bragged on him many times during the day.  I felt the encouragement was necessary just like my coach did for me my first day.  I have come to the conclusion that he is mentally not quite right like me as well.

Work was pretty slow, though, which made the hours seem to pass so much longer. I felt bad for Quentin who didn’t have a lot to do his first day. He spent much of his time sitting on my milk crate outside the store looking like a lost puppy.  The carts were just not piling up very fast or at all today.  It was easy to stay caught up.  I found myself spending most of my time today inside wandering the store and looking at the various products for purchase to pass the time. Wal-Mart has a dizzying array of things for sell inside.  I spent a very long time in the electronics department salivating again.  I am such an electronics aficionado. I marveled at the flat screen LCD televisions for awhile.  I also took a long time to compare all the different cell phones, their features, and service plans thinking of buying one soon for my yard care business.  On my break, I walked up to Arby’s and got the number 19 special just like Charlie and I always do.  The novelty of buying my own food with my own money still hasn’t worn off. 

My supervisor finally let me and Quentin go early.  She kept expecting things to get busy, but they never did.  I was glad to clock out for a change.  It had been a very long day since 8am – a day of wandering the inside of the store aimlessly.  I bet they got nuts after we left! lol I hope I don’t get a phone call to come back in this afternoon.  I am worried about my hours already as far as my disability is concerned.  They are slowly accumulating.  My first paycheck should be pretty good!

The Thawing of the Ice…

Dad is warming up to me after being cold as ice for days.  He was in a much better mood this morning as far as I was concerned.  He is treating me like a human being again.  He was asking me trivia questions saying we are such total geeks.  He is always surprised at what I will know.  I have always been fascinated by so many various topics over the years. I consider my brain a sponge – soaking up knowledge.

“What were the two capitols of the confederacy?” he asked me this morning as we sat at the kitchen table eating biscuits and bacon after our medication ritual.

“Richmond, Virginia and Montgomery, Alabama,” I replied.

“I knew you would know that!!!” dad exclaimed excitedly. “You are such a history geek just like me!  Your brother said you would know it when I asked him.  He didn’t know it and he’s the doctor!”

“When I was in college at Montevallo, I would sit for hours in the library reading about the confederacy and the civil war. Piles of books would surround me,” I told him.

“I asked that same question of your mother a moment ago and she said Washington D.C.!” he said laughing.  “That was the capitol of the northern states!”

We both laughed jovially.  My dearest mother.  You can ask mom about her grandmother and she will say, “I don’t know” like she never knew her and they were very close and dear to each other.

“Your mother was a school teacher for over twenty years and should know that!” dad said good heartedly and poking fun as mom walked into the kitchen to get a diet Coke out of the fridge.

I am off of work tomorrow and it is going to be nice.  I am not going to mow any lawns either I don’t think. I’ll say that and then I will.  I have to trim that man’s shrubbery, but it won’t take long.  He’s my main benefactor these days and I don’t want to let him down.  I have been thinking of hitting the mill village with my push mower and mow the small lawns there for $5 dollars each.  I am probably taking a complete day off, though, as far as mowing lawns is concerned.  I feel I deserve it after working so hard all week.  Although, I don’t know what I am going to do with myself after being so busy for so many days.  I will probably spend lots of time in the park smoking cigarettes and listening to AM talk radio. Anything to not be stuck at this house all day with nothing to do but the Internet.

BTW, I bought that printer for printing out blog posts for George.  He is going to be elated.  He will get to read exactly what I am doing these days.  It was such a small thing I could do to make life more pleasant for my jailed best friend.  I’ve already got several posts in the mailbox with the flag up.

Well, I am off to go watch some trains and then drink my sunset brews in the park.  I hope the trains are running today.  I saw an engine switching cars on my way to work this morning and it excited me.  I’ll write again later tonight!