Hey Produce Man!

Hello fellow bloggymabobber peeps!  I know, it’s been a long time since I wrote anything.  Let me tell you about the week or so in this installment of The Commissary Diaries.

A lot has been going on.  I have had my hours increased at work and I’ve been really sick.  It felt like the world collapsed on me.  I woke up, went to work, came home, fell asleep and repeat.  I had no time to do anything.  I didn’t even grocery shop.  I was living off of deli made sandwiches and protein bars.

I am having a hard time trying to recall the past few weeks in my head now.  It has been all a blur.

I got sick the day I had to man the self checkout registers* for 8 hours.  The one thing that really sticks in my mind was this one customer telling me she was just getting over the flu and a sinus infection.  I think she touched me or I was a little to close to her when she was talking.  Either way I figure got her cooties.  Since that day my head has felt as if it is 3 times it’s normal size (and I have a big head to begin with), my nose won’t stop running but yet it’s always clogged, my legs are weak and my lower back hurts as if I’ve been carrying a refrigerator all day.  Did I mention the frequent sneezing jags and liquids shooting out of both ends?  You’re welcome for the visual (if you didn’t have one, you do now).

I’m not looking for a pity party from ya but some hot chicken soup would be gladly accepted and appreciated if sent my way.

*Side not on the self checkout registers: There is nothing self checkouty about them with our customers.  I would say 90% of the customers are morons and should not be allowed to use them.  I proposed a test for all customers and if they don’t get a specific score they are restricted to only have other people ring them up.  Of course I was laughed at.  But I could have eliminated most people with my first question.  If you’re curious about the question, here it is: Have you ever successfully checked yourself out at our self checkout registers without any assistance?  That would constituted an immediate 95% failure off the bat.

A lot has been going on a work.  Not that you care and don’t worry I won’t give you the step by step story.  A few weeks ago we closed the store down for 3 days to do a reset of all the shelved items (that would be approximately all 20,000 different sku’ed items).  It was a total cluster F#@&.  Needless to say we are still reeling from the poor leadership of the change.  And of course since we reopened customers unload their dislike on us poor innocent cashiers.  There is no one for us to tell cause no one cares.  So, whatever….

My supervisor recently left for a new job in a different agency.  Right before that she denied my leave to go to my best friend’s wedding.  I’m beyond PO’ed.  I got this story about how she knew she was leaving so she passed it off to the person that is replacing her.  Meantime, two other people had submitted leave for the approximate same time and she approved theirs.  So no open bar for me at my buddies wedding.

I do have some good news though.  Out of the dust always rises the Phoenix, right?  Well, sort of.  Prior to my supervisor leaving she had to give everyone their “yearly” performance reviews.  Keep in mind I have only been there for 4-5 months.  I asked why I even received one since I have not been able to experience everything possible within that 1 year time frame.  “Oh, it’s just standard procedure that we do this regardless of your tenure.”  I call Horse Ish!  Well I didn’t receive a poor review just not an extremely great one.  I was rated as average or according to their terminology “Fully Acceptable.”  Basically that means no raise or bonus right now.  It’s all good because I know I’m a good employee.  I out work others around me on a daily basis with no desire to brown nose the bosses (like the ones who received bonuses and raises).  There’s more to the story but it’s all just a rant on my part.  So I will spare you the drama.

On to the rising Phoenix!  Yeah, about that no raise and no bonus……I got a promotion instead.  You now know the new Produce Man of the base commissary!  If this were a true promotion there would have been a substantial raise and actual GS level increase.  But since it’s just a move it is only a prestige thing for now.  In the future it could become an all around true promotion.  Either way, I now get to feel up your fruit before you buy it. 🙂

Oh and I’m also feeling much better now.

Thanks for stopping by and reading.

The Pursuit For Legs Of Steel

Oh my goodness!  It’s been 7-8 weeks now since I last ran.  And that was because I broke my ankle , not because I’m lazy.  Well, I am but that is not the reason for not running.

Yesterday I had one of my well deserved days off from work, the world, getting up and rushing around.  I did get up super early though.  It was only because I wanted to get a good jump on the day.  I had plans….big plans.  I wanted to run today!  But first I had to take my wife’s car to get the emissions done so I could get the registration renewed.  I was off to a good start.  I medicated and watered the dogs successfully and had a great breakfast.  I even remembered to take a shower!

Keys, wallet, and phone in hand and out the door I went.  I jump in the car and take off to the emissions center.  I knew exactly where it was (I told myself).  It was only 4 miles from my house.  30 minutes later I said to myself I have no idea where it’s at.  I felt so lost I had to pull over in a parking lot to look up the address.  That’s when I realized I drove a good 15 miles in the wrong direction and had to laugh at myself.  Idiot!

Car turned around and headed in the right direction I finally found the place.  Awesome sauce!  There was no line.  I pulled right up to the empty bay and the guy waved me in.  He scanned the bar code on my door and checked my VIN on my hood.  He just smiled and asked, “Did you get something in the mail saying you needed to come in?”

“Yup, sure did.  I have my registration renewal due by the end of the month.”

“Well sir.  You’re not due till December to have this vehicle checked.  Are you sure it was THIS vehicle that needed to be done?”

RUFKM!  I took the wrong car!  It was my wife’s car that needed checked not mine!

It was an honest mistake.  I never drive her car.  In fact, I don’t like driving her tank.  So I avoid even touching it.  So I drove away embarrassed and probably laughed at by the tech.  By the time I got home, now knowing where I am and directions, it was just way to hot to do a run till late at night.

What to do?  What to do?  I busted out an old leg routine I used to do back in Colorado when I would ride my bike a lot.  It had a lot of front squats, dead lifts, hack squats, leg curls and extensions.  I even threw in a bunch of KB swings to add some aerobic activity into this workout.

That routine took a lot out of me since I have been babying my left ankle for so long.  But it did hold up with the strain I just put on it.

Thursday morning:

I wasn’t goona be fooled again by this emissions place.  I was gonna look up to see if my wife’s car even needed the test before I got lost again and killed the nice cool morning air.  Ha! Their website has nothing showing that I need to get the emissions checked.  Well, there is 2 hours saved.

Medicated and water the dogs and had another great breakfast.  I checked my emails and perused the almighty interwebtube for the latest news I may have missed while asleep.  Nothing good, so enough time wasted….lets run!

If you follow my tumbler posts you can see that I was fairly excited but cautious about this mornings run.  I ended up only doing 1 mile.  I had no stamina, none!  I think it took me 20 minutes to run that stupid mile.  Best thing though is that my ankle took the pounding.  Until now…..as I’m writing this I feel it getting all twitchy and achy.  I expect that to happen for a while.  I think I will need to focus on my lower body for some time until I get back to a normal running time.

Well that is the beginning of my pursuit for legs of steel.

 

The Watermelon Experience

There has been its ups and downs with working in a grocery store.  Hopefully you have read my first instalment of The Commissary Diaries and enjoyed the emotional ride with me.  There are more great experiences to come.  Like this one.

This isn’t truly a Commissary Diaries entry because it’s not about what happens there.  But the adventure did start there.

It was that time again to do some grocery shopping.  But I had to endure a long arduous shift behind the register before I got to partake in the goodies I saw swipe through my lane.

4PM finally hit and there was still a line beyond what I could see.  Oh well, sucks to be them, I’m done.  I did however offer to stay and help get the line down but we are no longer allowed to work non scheduled hours.  Whatever!  I offered and hopefully karma will remember.

I sign out and make  a mad dash to get a hand basket to grab a few items to get me through the next days to come.  First stop is the produce aisle.  Oh so many delicious items waiting for me.  I grab my staple, apples.  I decided to try out the Honey Krisp type this time.  Not much to write home on about those…. 😦  but an apple is an apple.  I grabbed an overflowing bag of my new favorite cherry, the Rainier variety.  WOW WOW WOW!  Two thumbs up and I’ll give it two big toes up as well.

I walk around and pick at the other fresh looking fruits.  I grabbed some veggies as well, carrots – onions – peppers – yams – etc.  I walk off to grab some chicken, whole wheat english muffins and eggs.  I had this strange feeling I forgot something.  So I walked back to the produce section and there it was…….a fresh cut half watermelon.  How did I miss this?  It was only $1 too!  At the commissary a whole one goes for $6.  Who cares if it’s on its last leg.  I’m gonna eat the crap out of it tonight!

I have been working a lot the past few weeks and feel like I have been neglecting my pups.  I decided to spend some extra time with them by playing ball and giving extra tummy rubs.  Two hours later we woke up from a nap and were all hungry.  How do I know they were hungry?  They are always hungry…

I needed to do a little cardio since I skipped any kind of workout today.  Like I said before, I have been really tired from being on my feet a lot at work.  Anyway, I jump on my bike that’s sitting on the trainer in the living room and watched the first half of the Hall of Fame Game on the NFL Network.  It’s not like an outdoor ride but I can sure max out my effort and get hungry doing it.

Shower, dressed, and now searching for some food.  I somehow managed to pull Duh moment and realized I put the chicken I just bought in the freezer when I got home.  So what to do for dinner?  Chicken-sicles?  Fast food?  Ugh!

I decided to pull out all of the fruit I bought and just have a healthy big snack of fruit.  And why not end the day by sharing the greatness of it with my little buddies.  🙂

Who doesn’t like watermelon?  They even ate the rind.

Sit back and share a little something good with your family.  You won’t regret it!