wow, we're making the big time...
Interesting....
Our night crew chief, the one with rather large marriage problems, has been transferred to another store to replace another chief, who used to work at our store, because, as word would have it, he is recovering from an operation on his (I'm not making this up) balls. He will be out for at leset a month and maybe longer.

Remarkably enough, we are doing just fine. All the stock get on the selves and people are in a good frame of mind. For the first time in a long while, we had another "pot luck' chow time tonight. I made chill, which went over well.

Got an email from a student in California about doing a research project on third shifters. I did not mention this to my fellow workers as I do not want to suggest that my interests are any more or less than the ones they hold.

I found out last night that Lee, of the frozen food department, will be on vacation next week. Thus explaining why I'm working Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Friday nights.

But on the good side, we get a raise as of midnight tonight when I check in. For parttimers, that's another 25 cents an hour or two bucks a day.

So when I went to the library today I was told I have fine of two dollars. There goes the raise.

Saw Bill today at The Dutch. He's an old third shifter and told me that third shift workers, according to an article he read, can expect to live five years less than other workers. But I'll bet we get into few traffic accidents.

Not to sleep. Got to take over Frozen, if I live to get there.
- posted by Peter Roberts @ 1:34 PM 6 comments

 
I'm missing a Christmas party but it's 200 bucks
They kept things rather tight lately. Keeping the hours up and the number of employees down. Which under normal circumstances would not be all that bad but my part time job is starting to cut into my full time life. Aside from the fact that I've not been able to do the things I should be doing, like updating the site on a regular basis, having sex with my wife and enjoying the day and evening, now I'm missing Kath's Christmas party. Oh well, off to Rye tomorrow to see Dorothy. I'll tell you about her later, if I get some time.

- posted by Peter Roberts @ 1:01 PM 0 comments

 
"It's hard work." from Bush during the debate
What the hell did you expect, Mr. President, when you went after the job in the first place and then thought that starting a war would be such great fun.

Bush must have used this line a dozen times during the debate, suggesting he had nothing else to say worth listening to. That poor bastard. My heart just bleeds for him. "It's hard work".

I can tell you about hard work George. Hard work is throwing a few hundred cases of stock on the shelves from midnight to 8 in the morning and getting home dog tired to receive my monthly reminder from the IRS about sending in some more cash for the fools in Washington.

My wife can tell you about hard work. She's got to make damn sure that the few hundred sick and old people that rely on the VNA to be at their door to clean their toilets, shop for them, bath them and help keep them alive all are served regardless of who calls out, is sick or is stuck with a broken down car. That's hard work. She comes home dead on her feet.

Yea, lots of people have had to live their whole lived doing "hard work". There are tens of millions of them. They didn't have an oil daddy to guide them alone. None of them owned a baseball team. They just worked hard-year in and year out-and if they were lucky, real lucky, maybe they got to spend a few of their last years with their feet up in Florida.

Teachers know about hard work Mr. President. Cops, nurses, dirt farmers, the guys who pick up our trash on Tuesdays, truck drivers-even the kid who gets the shopping carts left in our parking lot in the driving rain-they all know about hard work, Mr. President.

But none of them started a useless war. None of them gave billion to rich friends. None of us made our country look like a bunch of fools. None of these hard workers have tried to make a bad war, that's getting worse with every passing day, seem like a bed of roses. We just sweat in the summer. Freeze in the winter. Wonder if the paycheck will keep the lights on for another month and hope to grab a few days off, if we can find a few extra bucks.

You're a spoiled brat, Mr. President. You've never had to really work, hard or otherwise, for your entire life. The trouble is, you don't realize it or don't care.

Yea, it's hard work George. You've got a job for now, for now. Be happy with that and stop the bitchin.






- posted by Peter Roberts @ 3:44 PM 0 comments

 
Reflections on being up for fifteen hours at 2:30 pm
It rained like all get out while we were at lunch last night and got darn cold. Of course we've got it some what better than the folks down in Florida but I suspect that come January they will still think they are better off in the warm sun than we are as we survive our cold winter snows.

Over lunch there was some brief conversations on the upcoming election. While support for Kerry is some what mild, a number of my co-workers have taken up the flip flop line from the right wingers that sit in the White House, the thinking went along the lines that Bush is a failed president. As one said, if things are screwed up now have four Bush years, think how bad they will be after four more. I thought that comment hit the mark.

We had a large load last night and I'm dead tired. But I am getting better at throwing the stock in grocery. Everyone else on the night crew has at least five years more experience in throwing the stock than I do so naturally they do it faster. But each night I learn a little more about the thousands of things American buy to keep themselves happy and content, how big they are, how many go on a shelf and the best way to present them to the customer. What a stupid country we are. We buy all this crap and then wonder why we're overweight and in rotten health.

So I get home and deal with my two lame computers. I using the lap top now as I had to download and upload some copy for the sight that this one could only take as the desk top was very ill. Every once in the one this one decides to call it a day, I never know when, which mean that everything I've done goes down the toilet.

I slept for a while then went down to the Dutch for a beer and read the newspaper. (they get the Wall Street journal there and while I know they are a bunch of right wingers, they write well and I like knowing what the other one percent is doing and thinklng-if that's the right word)

So in comes Rev Dave and Peter from Church. I've been spending a lot of my waking hours doing church stuff and today I didn't want to talk. They seemed to understand that when I begged off their invite to join them. I just wanted to have my three beer, read the WSJ and veg.

The Yankees play a double header today, starting at four. I may make the first few innings of the first game but that will be about it. I'm doing frozen tonight at 11:30. Right now I'm going into the kitchen to do the dishes from last night-this is part of an effort to give Kathy more time to herself-as Kathy gets home in about an hour and I've an estimated work time in the kitchen of just shy of that.

So how the hell was your day?










- posted by Peter Roberts @ 11:35 AM 0 comments

 
Nowhere Left to Flop (washingtonpost.com)
Nowhere Left to Flop (washingtonpost.com): "KrauthMr. Krauthammer,

I enjoy reading your views nearly as much as I enjoy throwing the baseball for our black lab.

He, like you, has a consistency that is, well, nothing less than astounding. Day in and day out, he will go for the ball until my arm is ready to fall off. And like him, I can always count on you to keep going after that darn ball, however misplayed, even if your efforts might be better expended elsewhere.

Why? Because, until now, he has said everything conceivable regarding Iraq. Having taken every possible position on the war, there is nothing he can say now that is even remotely credible.

Your memory is failing again. (you really should see a doctor)

Campaign 2000 on the evils of "nation building"
USS Lincoln...Mission Accomplished
"We found the Weapons of Mass Destruction"
Later, the Weapons of Mass Destruction don't matter because we've got the evil one.
Before the war, an immediate danger to the country. (from the resolution sent to Congress)
Iraq's oil will pay for the war.
They will welcome us with open arms.
We don't need more troops.
We need more troops.
There is a direct connection from Iraq and 9/11
There is no direct connection with 9/11
We don't need a 9/11 commission.
I fully support the 9/11 commission.
The insurgents are just a small band of Sadam loyalists.
Oh, heck, we just went over a thousand GIs dead to the small band and there is no end in sight.


If these are not flip flops, then the phrase needs to be redefined.

Sir, if you are proud of this man and our country, please say so and explain your reasons. I served in the real Army and I've never been more ashamed to call myself an American.

I grow weary of Bush's dizzying contradictions --

Peter J. Roberts
New London, CTammer"
- posted by Peter Roberts @ 11:56 AM 0 comments

 
Ten nights in a row and they wanted more
There are two reasons why I've not written anything here, or anywhere else, for more than a month.

First, the computer crashed and I lost everything. I mean four years of emails, a play I was writing, (never did that before) and tons of work on just about everything. I had to reinstall the entire system and it took a while to get over the fact that thousands of hours of work had gone up in one huge electric storm.

But the other reason has to do with work. Last night was the first night I've not worked in the last ten. That's ten days in a row. This is my part time job, remember.

We had a guy who was promoted to full time status and sent to our store in Cromwell. He was the "senior" part timer and he's not been replaced. Others have been on vacation so they've been adding more days and hours to my work week. That's good on payday but there is an obvious down side. Time.

Had the days been rainy then it would not have been too bad. It is ease to sleep on rotten days. Put the blanket over the window, set the clock and crash. But on nice days, and we've had a string of them, the backyard and the waterfront call. The days are getting shorter and we all know that winter's bleak, dark days are not far off. So I sit in the sun with a cold beer and a book and try to hang in until I just have to go upstairs and asleep. I get between five and six hours of sleep which is enough most of the time. But over ten days, that just isn't enough.

I was suppose to be off last night but they called to see if I wanted to go in. Foolishly I said yes but when Kathy got home and took a look at me we both agreed that it would be better to have a smaller check and a healthier Peter. I called them and said I would not be able to come in. I think I did about ten hours of sleep last night and I'm off again tonight. Too bad because today is suppose to be cloudy and rainy.

The talk over lunch for the last few weeks is about sex and Bush's guard duty. Everyone thinks he was a wimp then and hasn't changed much since he did his heroic service. It's easy to tell others to take the hill. Just has the Veep.
More on all this later. Now off for a run.




- posted by Peter Roberts @ 3:16 AM 0 comments

 
OK, I called out on Monday
...but tonight I'm working. The hard part is it so darn nice today and I really don't want to go to bed so I can get up around ten. Of course, the upside of this is that for years and years, on beautiful days like today, I was in an office wishing that I could be outside enjoying the day.

I see that the numbers of people without health insurance is up again. And people wonder why I do what I do.


- posted by Peter Roberts @ 4:35 PM 1 comments