h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I loaned my bike to a guy.
So far he hasn't brought it back.

Looks like I'm going to be doing some walking next week.

I might have a little fun getting to a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, also.

If he doesn't return the bike this week, I'll have to break down and buy the new one I've been needing for four months.
The one I've been riding has been breaking spokes because the front and rear wheels are out of true. The bike mechanic has straightened them several times but there is only so much he can do with the rear.
The bike just had two new tires and tubes installed.
I had to walk home from work last week one day because the day before I found that I had a slow leak in the front tire and a flat in the back.

Uvula picked up my bike while I was sleeping on Tuesday and took it to the shop and paid to have the tires fixed. I still owe her for that.

I had a bank glitch again, or rather I had a me glitch with the bank last week, which cost me $181.00. It involved some debit card transactions that took a while to process and one fast cash atm thingie that I knew I would get charged for. There were four fees of 26.00 each.
The bank clerk I asked to explain the whole thing for me noticed from my receipts that I was being charged atm fees. He refunded those, all of 6.50.
Thanks, guy.

An inconvenience store clerk well-known to the community and an ex-co-worker of the Willendorf Rabbit was shot and killed last Wednesday at five in the morning, during the same shift the W.R. was working, at the opposite end of the same street. If it weren't for a hill, the two stores would almost be within site of each other. The police have brought in two suspects. If the deceased gentleman had been following protocol, then there would have been less than $40.00 in his drawer at the time of the robbery.

The W.R. was very distraught and tearful about the incident.
I learned this in an email from her. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity for me to comfort her in person. I did the best I could... and I'm not sure that was enough.

Oddly, I am soon to be employed at the same inconvenience store that the W.R. works at. She has wanted this to happen for many months and I think she and some of the other employees who know me have been pestering the manager, whom I know very well.
For the time being, it will only be part time on the weekends, perhaps one night a week.

Monday after next, I have to go to class for most of the day in order to get trained. A couple hours after that, I have to go to my regular job. Ho-hum. I better get a lot of sleep during the weekend before that.

I also better have a bike by then.

My back is feeling a little better. I got rid of one of my telly-watching chairs because I figured out that it was causing me to slump. Instead, I have a cheap parson's bench that Uvula paid way too much money for from a naked furniture store. She put it in layaway and paid $300.00 for it over a few months, all without telling me.
I could have bought the stupid thing as a kit still in the box from China for 1/3 of that and put it together myself.
That never occurred (this word never looks right to me) to her.

Enough for now.

Oh, the Environmental department of our factory tried to catch fire the other day and I discovered it. Well, one of the water burners really did catch fire, but it didn't spread. All it did was spread an acrid cloud of white smoke throughout the Die Repair department.
Anyway, several dozen other employees had been wandering back and forth near the door to these departments for most of an hour. I smelled something weird, standing next to a very smelly washing machine, and working with very stinky oily metal scrap. The smell I smelt was a new note in the symphony of olfactory filth that I work in. So, when I was done with my task for the moment, I went to investigate. And thus the fire was discovered. Not knowing exactly what to do, I looked about and saw a set up man and told him to go get my evil supervisor. He nodded and walked away.
Frustrated at the lack of activity, I looked across the machines and fifty yards away across the noisy factory was my evil supervisor's office. I could see his shiny dome through the plastic in the door.
I took a breath and called his name with a Drill Sergeant's roar.
It only took once. His head popped up and then he and the new lead man were out that door like chinese firemen (apologies to any chinese firemen who are on the site, but they would have been a credit to your team). Within seconds, they had surveyed the scened and the new lead man, who used to work in Environmental, seized a fire extinguisher and applied it to the proper points.
I went about and adjusted the industrial fans in order to help the smoke go elsewhere.

Then came the sad part. Over the next couple of days, three higher ups thanked me for dealing with the fire. I thought it was part of my job. I was told that others had probably noticed it, but didn't do anything because it was not "their department".
Very sad.
The plant had burned back in 1996. I wonder whose department it wasn't, the?

'If he doesn't return the bike this week, I'll have to break down and buy the new one I've been needing for four months.' I hope he does bring it back - and I hope you get a new one once you can afford it.


'Uvula picked up my bike while I was sleeping on Tuesday and took it to the shop and paid to have the tires fixed. I still owe her for that.' Good for her!

'Oddly, I am soon to be employed at the same inconvenience store that the W.R. works at.' This sounds much less physically dangerous than working at the foundry (ignoring the chances of being shot, of course).

'I was told that others had probably noticed it, but didn't do anything because it was not "their department". Very sad.' Yes. Well done you.

Nice Uvula picked up your bike.
Maybe the first time I have heard she did something for you.
Goodluck getting wheels quickly again.

I hope your back is improving in the meanwhile.
The walking may be more healthy for your back. Dunno.

Good grief amazing people stand by and let a place burn!
The place sounds dangerous enough as it is.

I always hated the "it's not my job" attitude.
It has it's place but taken too far in the name of apathy or laziness is grossly incompetent and often dangerous to somebody, no matter the job.

It's been raining most of the night and it seems to have stopped.
It's 6:43AM.
My clothes are on the line.
I'll have to rummage through what I have in the mess of the bedroom.

This is the beginning of one of the longest days I've had recently.
I have to go get paperwork from the inconvenience store manager after 7 and then go over to a store that has an office attached to it to take a class from 8:30 to 4:30. Then I have to go to work.

I won't astound you anymore with tales of my amazingly uncooperative co-worker. I'll just say that Friday evening was more of the same.
The next time I'm face to face with my evil supervisor, he has some 'splaining to do.

I spent almost all my paycheck on another used bike, albeit a much newer and nicer and more comfortable one, on Friday.
I didn't ride it to work because Uvula gave me a ride and dumbbutt gave me a ride home.

The inconvenience store manager had to call my work to verify employment, so I don't know if that got back to my evil supervisor.
I haven't seen him in over a week, so the opportunity hasn't arisen to talk to him.

I'm not looking forward to working in an inconvenience store again.
I'm not looking forward to the W.R. training me.
I'm not looking forward to working seven days a week at two jobs.

I guess I am looking forward to eventually working two blocks from the house... if that ever happens.

I just don't know.
I'm making 9.00 at the foundry and they are only offering 7.50 at the inconvenience store. I'm getting normally 48 hours at the foundry and they have a limit of 40 at the store...
I just don't know.

Uvula has made noises about the possibility of us living in the same house again so she can save money on bills...
I don't think so.
As the W.R. said, Uvula just wants me to pay as much of the bills as I can while she continues to ignore her debts and builds up new ones.

And I'm not ready to share my space with someone else again.

If Uvula gets so far gone that Shnooks suffers, then I'll let Shnooks move back in. That is an obligation.

But living with Uvula again?
No, thanks.

'And I'm not ready to share my space with someone else again.'

Yes, I can really sympathise with this.