Homework for the Overactive Brain

Today's Quote--"Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to me..."

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

 

But first...A few things I've been meaning to write about...

1. Okay, it really sucks that JP was so summarily discharged. However, I know she'll be able to pick up the pieces of her broken heart, find her sight once again unimpaired, and move on to bigger and better. Or at least something. Hey, retail is hiring for the holiday season...

2. As many of us girls discovered on top of our hill (SUA)...walking in a skirt in high winds really is hard. So I say kudos to Sammi for attempting it in nearly gale-force winds. :D And of course I'm super glad you're oki doki. My relatives live in Naples...they lost some roof shingles and a fence around the pool disappeared. But they're okay too.

3. So I'm probably going to be taking the bus to work. Talk about life reversals...ED the bus girl has a car and a liscence...and I'm taking the bus. Strange but good. Just as long as she figures out which way the one-ways go. ;)

4. Ann...Are you still alive? Can anyone confirm it?

5. anD...Love is something we all search for. And you know us...your good girlfriends (and ex-wife) will testify that needing (because it reaches a point where it's not even wanting anymore) to be loved and to share your love with someone else is downright painful. As it says in "The Mulan Rouge", the greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return. But the time in between sure is painful. Don't lose hope, though, he's out there waiting for you. It's hard to believe, harder to wait, but like our good friend ND said, no prayers go unanswered. It just takes a while for us to be in the right space sometimes. Anyway...I'm chanting for ya. :D

6. Alli...Hugs! And yes, I've been weakened by 4 years in Southern Cal too...But it's getting a little better.

Right...so on to me. :D I took the Sears stock-girl position. Filled out paperwork yesterday...will get orientation sometime in the next week...and will hopefully start soon after that. I'm really excited about it. Kinda crazy, but I am. Now I just need to make this seasonal position last for 3 years. Think I can do it?

Voted today. There were a few initiatives that I wanted to vote for...but they had all those little annoying add-ons that made it shitty...so I had to vote no. I want health insurance reform just like everyone else...I just don't think anyone's come up with a solution yet. *sigh* And I'm probably going to regret approving all those tax hikes. But what can I say, I'm a Democrat and I like government programs to help people...like keeping libraries open and enough fire and police on staff to keep the city from burning to the ground or ripping ourselves apart (think Batman Begins). Right...so I don't make enough money to matter anyway...and there are bunches of other people who vote too...so we'll see.

Anywho...Ed's been put on flat-rate. Freaked him out...a lot. His manager chose a really crappy time to do it to him...Flat-rate depends on how much work you can get done...but it's almost the dead season when there just isn't any work TO do. Which means Ed'll get paid minimum wage, unless he can make more with his flat-rate hours.

For those who know about as much about mechanics as I did before I met Ed...Flat rate is paid based on standard hours for every job. So an oil change is worth like 5/10 of an hour. So if Ed did two oil changes he'd get paid one hour. It doesn't matter how long it actually takes him to do it, for Ed I'd say 2 oil changes might be about 40 minutes. So you can see where mechanics can make a lot of money...if they can do the work in half the time it pays flat-rate...they can work 40 hours a week and get paid for 80. The problem is that around here there isn't enough work in the winter to make the mechanics more than minimum wage. There might be 3 cars total in the shop in a day...and there are 8 or 9 mechanics. Ed tells me they spend the winters watching movies. Literally. They sit in the shop, turn the lights down, turn up the TV volume and throw on movies all day. They just don't have any work to do.

Ed as a youngster hasn't quite perfected the rape-pillage attitude the other mechanics take with their flat-rate hours (and he's not quite as fast as them at getting things done, either), so even if it was busy, he might not be able to make 40 hours a week flat-rate. But with the lack of business in the winter, putting him on flat-rate now is really cruel. So he's freaked out because he's going from getting $9/hr for 45 hours a week to getting $7.25/hr for 40 hours a week. And let me just ad...his bills are scary. A whole lot scarier than mine!

So we're going through that. Even though I have a job now, unless I can make sure I've got some permenate income...we can't move out. *sigh* So we'll so how things go there. :D

GL 3:58 PM