"Keep a Journal: How else are you going to get a good look at who you were?"

Friday, May 16, 2003

Amazing...

My wife watched - and enjoyed - a Tom Clancy movie.

"The Sum of All Fears".

Honestly; every time I put "The Hunt for Red October" in the machine she rolls her eyes - tsk! "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger" don't thrill me that much. BTW, "Red October" is one of the few examples I can think of where the Movie was better than the Book. The book was BORING...you hear me, Mr. Clancy? Stick to writing screenplays, Tom.

Had to cancel plans to go to Matrix Reloaded with KWY. Will probably go next week...in costume. The Asphalt Gods gifted me a pair of Foster Grant Ironman designer sunglasses and I just got a new pair of black jeans to go with my black SAS shirt and black Brogans - all I need to complete the ensemble is a cheap black cotton trench coat, or maybe a black-on-grey checked overshirt. Yeah, I could pull that off.

The sunglasses fell off the roof of someone's car, and since they didn't stop to retrieve them; I did. I was too far away to make out a plate number, otherwise I'd have tried to return them. They are very nice...mirrored lenses with gloss-black brass frames. I haven't been riding much this week, with the weather and our new automotive acquisition.

Mom in Law and Pop in Law gave us their old car.

It's a 1992 Chrysler Dynasty (Die?-Nasty??). Currently needs a thorough cleaning of the interior AND the fuel injector system. We priced out the Injector Cleaning at about 200$; the interior I will take care of myself. I need to visit our Local Library in the near future and figure out what and how I can DIY and diagnose the systems on this car. I have done so for every vehicle I have ever owned and driven. Dynasty has a cracked windsheild, which L sez we will replace when - and if - we get ticketed for it. Sounds to me like she's tempting fate.

Work drags onward. We are slowly - oh so painfully slowly! - digging out from under the mountain of screwups caused by the triumph of expediency over common-sense and organized action. We are on downtime from about next week to the middle of next month, so hopefully we will get all the various problems straightened out in time for the Summer Bump - whereupon we will have a whole NEW set of problems to deal with. As the Spring Rush winds down the guys are taking their vacation time (hey, I did the same myself) and one or two of our crew are on loan to the Annex for the big SHUTDOWN...yeah, like THAT's ever gonna happen. We have been a little shorthanded of late, and are finding that work is getting priority based on which department has any ROOM to put stuff. Our floor management are all too aware how backed up we are with outgoing merchandise - and how we are barely keeping up with incoming volume, even though it has been reduced somewhat. Upper management is also aware; but they have an umpteen dozen OTHER worries to attend to. My stress level stems from the fact that although it is impossible for one person to hold the contents of an entire warehouse in his head; I find myself trying to DO just that, insofar as troubleshooting our ongoing Lost Inventory problems. I have had several half-formed suggestions to make about how procedures could be changed to improove the situation - but I have NOT had time to sit down and rationally think them through; and I am certainly NOT going to put them forth to Management without a little pondering FIRST.

Was a little outraged to hear that the Rolling Stones want 10million$ to put on a "free" concert in Toronto. Mega-City Management corp. (aka Toronto City Hall) wants to whack the good taxpaying citizens of The Big Lemon to foot the bill. Ten Million Dollars!!! Bread and Circuses are so EXPENSIVE these days!