April 24th, 1998

gods what a day...*laughs*

we finished up Hobart Bay herring the other day, yes?  so yesterday and
today we returned to doing  the 'projects' that we were doing before
being so rudely interrupted by fish...my project was/has been painting
the metal on the van dock...there is a four foot high sheet of steel
running along the wall so forklifts wont drive through the wall into
holding five or just gouge up the wood that makes up the wall, so posts
around the holding five door so forlift drivers won't smash into the
door on their way in and tear it off its runners, there is eight steel
ramps connected to hoists that we can lower into vans thus connecting
the vans to the van dock and allowing us to load them,  inbetween each
ramp is a steel pole that holds that side of the roof (actually the
floor of the box loft and then the roof) up...all this had to be prepped
and painted.

That SHOULD have been a very mellow tranquill groovy scene, quiet,
peacefull, simple....it was anything but!  These 'projects' HAVE to be
done as soon as possible so Scott sent Pete (there are two Petes, cool
pete, and uncool pete...I got the uncool one...*sigh*) out to help prep
the metal...so yesterday this bozo invades my happy world with an air
hose and a needle gun...a needle gun is like a little jackhammer, and
along with making a god awful noise it strips rust and old paint off
things...sooo, no stereo that day, earplugs and headphones and I could
STILL hear him!  Dust everywhere....*sigh*    so, I zone out in my own
little world and start working on the ramp farthest from uncool pete as
I can...the day drags on...suddenly pete is in my face all excited!  I
peel off the head phones and pull out the ear plugs...'huh??'

well when he started to needle gun the poles that hold the roof up the
paint peeled away quickly,,,then the rust started to chip away, and then
ZZSSIPPP the needle gun went right through the pole!  basically it had
rusted out from the inside,,,I KNEW those poles were rusted out,,,,I had
mentioned it some seasons before...well anyway yesterday ended with a
flurry of people and maintenance guys buzzing around...I was very happy
to get out of there and also very happy that pete would be doing halibut
today *grin*

So...I go in this morning expecting it to be a little mellower than
yesterday,,,I mean, it HAD to be, right?? *giggles*  first off Scott is
telling me I gotta get the metal on the wall dried off...(the freezer
behind it makes the metal  sweat and there is one spot where a forklift
driver gouged a hole in the wall on the Inside of holding five (which is
all wood...never could figure that out *grin) and the metal gets soooooo
cold the sweat freezes into ice...Scott tells me to go get a space
heater from Dan and put it next to the wall to warm it up and dry it
out....space heater,,,okay, I'm thinking little electric heater yes?  or
maybe a little gas on...small, mellow.....*bursts out laughing!!* our
shop guys don't think 'mellow' *giggles* they like to make cannons in
their spare time, ya know? no, the space heater Dan wants me to use is
this big massive incredibly noisey forced air kerosine burning smoke
belching monster....already I missed pete...*sigh* then Larry comes out
with grinders and welders and stuff to work on the rusted out
poles...sort of,,,*laughs* hey shop guys are human too, everything went
WRONG for Larry today, the house jacks that were going to hold up the
didn't work, other things broke elsewhere in the plant that he had to go
and fix, arc welder blew up...Then they fired up the packing room
*giggles* just a handfull of people but still....

AND, just to drive me batty, anytime mellow and tranquill even ACTED
like it might happen some 'boss type' (from lowly leads like Alan and
Marcel and Raul to middlemanagement types like Scott and Tim all the way
up to the bigwigs Patrick and Carry themselves) would come and either
chit chat because they are bored and are above helping me paint, or just
stand behind me and watch me work....I hate it when that happens
*giggles*   I do GREAT (better than GREAT, I AM A GOD!) when no one is
peering over my shoulder...but soon as some boss type is leaning over me
and breathing down my neck that's it, I got eleven left thumbs, ya
know?  I miss/drop/spill/smash/whatever would be most embarassing at the
moment/blow it.  *laughs*

the day crrrreeeeeps by...4:30 comes by and I'm begining to think I
might actually make it when both Patrick and Carry stroll onto the van
dock,,,Carry ALWAYS has that 'inspection' appearance about him,  and
Patrick...well, no matter HOW nice and polite he is to me, he scares the
hell out of me,,,first off his like five foot forty inches tall...I kid
you not, Alan is like six foot two inches tall and Alan does NOT look
down on Patrick *giggle* so physically he's just a big guy, ya know?
Add to that the fact that he is my Lord and Master and can fire me on
the spot just because he feels like it...sure sure, there are 'rules'
and shit, but the reality is he can fire me and THEN if I got the money
and resources to fight it we'll see if he broke the rules...WORSE than
firing me, he could send me to the cannery, or make me work with Judy
*shudders* doing sujiko...or anyone of a number of fates to sadistically
twisted to mention here...So Patrick comes Straight At Me, and calls me
name "Torb!"

My heart skipped a beat,,,he hasn't said anything to me since....Tanner
crab? last feburary or some such...Quite A While...

So I snap to and raise an eyebrow wondering what's gonna hit me
Now....and he fires off a bunch of questions about black cod and vans
and what's in that van there and how much is upstairs and a whole bunch
of questions that by rights are ALANS responsibility to know (that's why
Al's paid the big bucks! and I only get shit wages...) and that during
the summer I WOULD know the answers too...but these past months I've
been in a deep dark freezing hole all alone for the most part stashing
herring...I have had absolutely nothing to do with shipping since Tanner
crab...and Alan went out as a herring technition (they sample the fish
to determine egg quality and quantity as they are caught)  for this last
little bit we did, and...tada, that's when this black cod that Patrick
was asking me about was processed, frozen, packed and loaded into a
van....*sigh*   ONE of the people that worked on that van was Steve
Toth,,,who they fired some days ago so we can't ask him....asking Raul
or Tim...well, you'd be better off asking a wall...*giggles*

So, I gave him and Carry some ballpark figures, (because, after all, I
AM a God, *wink*) and then begin to verify my answer...I went over
Steves tally of the van (a horrible mess...*sigh*)  then peeked in the
van to double check that whatever Steve wrote down was more or less
correct, then off to holding 12 to do a quick in freezer tally...Did I
say it's been raining all day today and that I'm painting things
outside?  not actually IN the rain,,,but with the wind and all I was
pretty damp by 4:30 *giggles*   I tally up all the black cod that's up
there (most of it is from last year) and recall that there was a little
bit of 'emergency' room left in holding five...so I went in there and
sure enough there is some more black cod and other things in
there...then I peek through our log book to see what vans we've shipped
and to where for the year (THAT little gemstone was my idea...years ago
when I first started working with Al we'd get Somebody from the office
calling us up and asking" do you remember that van you shipped last
month that had such and such in it?"  LAST MONTH???? during the summer
'last month' could be over 100 vans ago...fuck no we don't remember
that! *laughs*   Thus our log book came into being.....Since I have to
buy the bloody things myself they are My logs although over the seasons
people have learned that we keep it and are sometimes just a bit too
familure with it...*grrrrr*)

So, I put all the information together and made a little list and went
off to find Patrick to give him Exact numbers...it was 4:40 then (toldya
I'm good *wink*)

So I head up to the office, and it's pretty full of bosses and
secretaries and important fisermen and what not,,,they are all pretty
much just chit chatting, putting in the last 20 minutes of their day
before going home, 'sucking clock and slacking off ' is what it's called
when we grunts do it *grin* they were, um, having a meeting *laughs*

I find Patrick kicking back in a chair, Carry is there, the
fleetmanager, Shelly(payroll secretary)  Dave Spodobalski, (safety
manager....I think he's still safty manager *giggles*)  there were a
Bunch of people up there, *laughs* and the thing is, I Know them all,
sorta, okay?  but even though I've been here nine seasons now there are
STILL people that work here that I Don't Know Their Name.  *grins* We
don't hang out or work together, so what's the point of remembering
their names, ya know?   Needless to say I DON'T hang out with the office
folks much....

Well, Patrick is sorta half serious half jokingly chastising one of the
secretaries for using the company computer for messing around on the
internet...I pop in real quick and give him my note with the revised
numbers and tell him what's on the note so he doesn't have to read the
bloody thing and am just starting to back out and get the fuck out of
Dodge when one of the secretaries asks me " hey, you have a homepage,
don't you?"

And that was that, the whole fucking office was now focused on me..."was
it hard to learn?" "how long did it take?" "what's the address?" yadda
yadda yadda....YIKES!  Suddenly these people that I want nothing to do
with are suddenly being all buddy buddy with me!  Only they are just
sucking clock,,,,I Still have tools and paint stuff to put away, lock up
the packing room, basically close up shop...so I answered all their
questions and incouraged them to give it a shot, all the while slowly
making my way towards to door...finally I escaped at 4:55...I got
everything put away and buttoned down and managed to punch out at
5:07...*grin* just barely made it...*laughs* a lot of people would have
waited that extra minute (seven minutes before or after the start of
your shift is cool, eight minutes or more though and you entered the
overtime zone, and there is a 'no o.t.' rule right now....oh ya, we can
get a little overtime, if it's necassary, but it's frowned upon, and
5:08 just looks soooooo bad on yer timecard, ya know? looks like obvious
clock sucking....
 

home...and a shower...and a couple hours sipping coffee and dumping my
day onto you guys has helped a lot though *grin* thanks....

still, not so sure I like the idea of all the big wigs poking around my
site, ya know?  I built the bloody thing to get OFF this rock, to get
AWAY from these people...to ESCAPE...I don't mind one bit that you guys
read my pages and learn about me past, or peek at the pictures I drew,
or enjoy some of the art I like, YOU people out THERE can know these
things, tha's groovy....and I KNEW people here would find my pages
sooner or later...people like Tim and Scott and Al and Brad and Jeff and
all,,,tha's okay, they work WITH me, they know Some of that stuff
already...but not the big bosses, and not ALL the big bosses,,,, and not
ALL the big bosses ALL at ONCE, no, I never really planned on that at
all...*laughs*   It will be intresting to see what they make of my site,
if indeed they actually DO go and poke around it that is...It's funny, I
even WANTED people to visit the place from time to time, did some
advertising for it and everything,  but this?? *shudders* gives me  the
willies.

Well, I think I have the weekend off people, *dreamy sigh* and I'm ready
for it...got a lot of things that need to be done but maybe bump into
some of you then, who knows?

I've already taken up too much of your time now though, sooooooo

again, thanks fer letting me ramble atcha fer so long,,,I Really need
that.