A lemon of a day

“Okay, tell me what’s going on.”

“Ha! Where do I start?”

“How about the beginning? All stories have a beginning, you know.”

“Okay. Well.
Actually, the day started out pretty good. I got up, scheduled a couple of haiku, caught up on some comments, got a really good idea for a flash, then I did my payday ledger balancing, and I got out the door a half hour before I had to clock in. I was able to stop for gas and beverages before work, I clocked in six minutes to seven, I got all my ducks in a row and I got to the morning meeting. It couldn’t have went more smashing.
I found that I was already set up to run two sheets of 250 – that’s the half-inch steel sheet – that would last me three hours. Plenty of time babysitting the machine and analog blogging, right?”

“Sure.”

“Well, that’s where it started. The machine stopped working right before first break, about three-quarters through the first sheet. Maintenance came and started looking at it, started tearing apart the plasma arc unit to figure out why they couldn’t get a main arc at the torch. Lunch time came and went. I started to hold out hope that the machine would stay down all day and that I would actually be able to leave at 3:30. Then second break came and went. It was looking like a reality! Then at about 3:05 the maintenance guys had replaced the torch head. It seems as though this torch head which was just replaced two weeks ago has a mysterious short that causes the arc to burn holes through the consumables. Then the machine works, and now I have to work until 5:30, right?”

“Right.”

“So I’m okay with that, I’m actually kind of okay with the fact that the machine is back up. It’s very important because we only have four cutting machines, and there’s always at least one down with an issue. If we never catch up I’ll never have a break from these ten-hour days since there’s nobody for me to train to be an alternate operator. Then I find out that somehow last week I scrapped out a 24-part order – six sheets of steel, essentially – because somehow the machine used the wrong punch to punch these certain holes. Not a huge deal – in a year and a half, this is the first time something like this has happened. But I can’t let it happen. And it screwed up my mood. Add to that the fact that I’m overworked to begin with. I just remembered something that probably would have helped my defense. The plant manager knows me by name now. My right arm hurts, it feels like I fractured my forearm – my radius or ulna or something. My right leg hurts, it feels like I pulled a muscle in there. The ball of my left foot hurts, it always feels broken. So does my right thumb. I still have to go in tomorrow, possibly hear about these scrapped parts – what if the plant manager comes by and tries to grill me about it? I really don’t want to deal with that. I’m overworked, undermedicated, and I’m friggin’ tired. Thankfully I have Thursday and Friday off.”

“Dude, seriously? You have a four-day weekend?”

“Yeah, unless they ask me to work Saturday. But I’m not going to ask them!”

“You have a four day weekend. Tomorrow is your Friday already. Think about that. You have something to help your defense. Think about that. If the plant manager comes to you, you can tell him about that.”

“That’s true.”

“Not to mention, it’s the first time this has happened, and they’ll probably let it slide. Think about all the spectacular screwups the other guys have pulled. It could seriously be worse.”

“Right. . . “

“Dude. You have Thursday and Friday off. What are you planning?”

“Getting inked. My surf tattoo. Probably a whole bunch of writing, and maybe I’ll get up the gumption to run. Go out trick-or-treating with Karisa and Delaney, relax, get some reading done, a whole bunch of writing – did I mention that already? Totally looking forward to that.”

“Too bad about the monthly What If? challenge, though. . . “

“Well. . . we’ll see what I can pull off. The original plan fell through, but I’m open to whatever happens.”

“It’s got to be in tomorrow.”

“Well. Crud.

You know what?”

“What?”

😀 “I’ve got a four-day weekend coming up. It’ll all wash out.”

“You know that’s right.” 🙂

This post was prompted by today’s Daily Post prompt.