August 4, 2001
The last few days have been going really slow for me. After this week I'm really worn out from all the office work and all the lifting that I did every afternoon this week. The week was so so. The biggest story this week is happening at work still. On Thursday people started noticing silver paint spots on their cars. Then they remembered that Commonwealth Edison power had been painting their fences around the substation across the street. The spray paint they were using drifted over and got on the cars and the building. Everyone's car something on it, even mine that was parked on the far side of the building. Now people are filing claims. I might if I can't get the paint off. I tried several things, none of them worked up until today when I got some rubbing compound. Even though I had to work at one little area for a while it did come out. Before I go any further I want to see what Com Ed is going to do.
It mainly got on the hood and passenger side doors and windows and the roof. Today's temperatures were not as hot as they've been lately. The dewpoint came down and the humidity left. Today I went to Racine to do some grocery shopping with my parents. The new 4 lane Green Bay Road finally opened part way. I was really weird driving on it for the first time. Seemed out of place. I got my first three Rhode Island quarters today. The face is of a sail boat and in the background a suspension bridge. I'm not sure what it called, but it's a neat design. Vermont and Kentucky are the last two for this year. The whole 50 quarter state set won't be done till 2008.
Well I stayed up late last night and then got up really earlier. So I really tired now.
G'night....G'Day
11:30pm
August 9-10, 2001
Over the past few days I've been really busy that's why I haven't been updating as much. Things are getting done though, both at work and my own stuff at home. Yesterday me and my grandpa went through everything at work that we weren't going to keep and made a note of getting rid of it. And that's alot of stuff. I was looking at some of the dates; some products go back to the seventies. Also yesterday was our last day of the third heat wave. It went out like a bang too, with a temperature of 97 and a Real feel temperature of 106. The breeze helped a little though. I felt sorry for every construction worker I went past in my car. Even my Blazer's A/C couldn't keep out all the heat. I've been parking under the dock where the shade is. So it's not so bad there. After work yesterday I tried to register for a class at CLC and I couldn't because there student log in service was down. I haven't been able to get in, for about 10 days now. So you guessed it I have to drive all the way out there tomorrow and figure out what's going on with everything. Hopefully there will be someone there that can answer my question.
During the storm that rolled in at 7:15 pm this evening, I got to wash the back of my car that was parked in the garage. I had plenty of water gushing off the roof to fill a 25 gallon bucket in a minute- fourty-five seconds! I got soaked though. That's was alright, I was acting like I never saw rain before, because it hasn't rained to much amount in the last two months.
Today I got up more refreshed due to the window being open. I love having a nice cool breeze blowing in when it's time for me to get up. At work today everyone was in a good mood due to the cooler weather. Talking about alot of work. Today I had to break apart three metal desks that were welded together. So I had take it outside at smack it apart with a ten pound head sledge hammer. It took for one hour for each piece! The noise did travel inside and one lady didn't appreciate all the noise. I had to get it done some way and it's not possible to do it quietly. That's what I said to her. And she just said to quit as soon as possible. Real serious like to. No one else was complaining. There's more to do yet!
Me and my friend Chris went to see Jurasic Park III. It was really good. A nice ending to the trilogy; they might make another, I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised. That story could go one for a while.
I just looked outside and the evaporational cooling is at work creating ground fog with a stary sky. I think it 59 outside now. A big difference. But this is the way I prefer the weather to be. Cool and dry like so many times I 've said that.
11:47pm
August 14 & 15, 2001
I'll tell you the last few days has been something else. You learn something new everyday. I hardly know what to say first. Well yesterday morning is a good place I guess. lol... The day started out with Mike finding out about my trick that I set up the day before after he left. I don't know why I thought of it at the last minute but I did. There was a stack of empty paper boxes; about 30 on the table in back of the table he works on. I decided it would be funny if he accidentaly knocked them all over. Anyways I had to get him back somehow from the day before when he surprised me with a loud BOO that I wasn't expecting. Well I rigged up a string attached to his tape dispenser that he pulls out of the shelf. The other end was anchored to a stick of styrofoam that supported the stack of boxes at one end. The other side was a box that I pushed as far as I could, just enough to keep it there. And as soon as I walked in the door yesterday; CRASH! He didn't see my contraption and all the boxes went all over. It was pretty funny. After that I got work. Me and three other guys at work started moving presses that were bad or one's that we didn't use at all. That was exciting jacking 1 to 2 ton presses up inch by inch and then pushing and shoving them over to the press graveyard about 30 feet away. Plus they were all oiling and it was hard to get traction when pushing them. We moved a total of four yesterday and five today.
The weather has been pleasantly cool over the past four days. Seventies in the day with fair weather cumulus and fifties at night. Today it rained at bit, only about .5".
Today was an exciting day, more then yesterday. The day started with me getting up at 7:35am. I wanted to get to work earlier to help with moving the presses. First I got stuck with doing time sheets. Actaully I offered to help out Walt get caught up. Those stupid envelope came back finally. All of the 101,600 I counted. Well 46,000 good ones came back. On closer inspection they weren't all good, AGAIN! My dad come out and sees some bad ones. He gets really irritated and goes to my uncle and tells him. He called them right away and complained to them. They say there nothing wrong, but there clearly is. Also they refused to pay me. So I stopped were I was in looking at them. Tomorrow my grandpa will deal with them. There going to get a earfull.
What else today...hmm... O gas prices skyrocketed 28 cents to 1.70 after a refinery explosion in Gary, IN. The jump took place in a time period of three hours! Yeah that's a big jump. Also this morning I heard about a bunch of different kinds of sharks were hanging out off Tampa Bay. Tampa news were filming them as they were swimming around in this one area. Some big 10 foot hammerheads too. Few Great Whites. I wonder what's attracting them to that spot?
I set up another contraption today after Mike left. I has to do with a string tied to a broken down box to two boxes of peanuts on top of a light. I'll tell more about it tomorrow if he falls for it.
Well I better cut off the typing for tonight. Getting late agian
12:05am
August 17, 2001
Altogether today was really funny at work. Work was fun today. I'll get right to it. At about 10am my Grandpa asked me to clean off the old stock on top of two rows of shelves in the shipping dept. My dad said get the Shop Vac and vacuum up all the dust. And there was alot too, about an inch. First i got the boxes down, then Dave helped me put the vacuum on top of the selves. The top is strong enough to support everything, so I wasn't falling through. I turned it on and started cleaning. My back was turned to the vacuum part. I hear a faint sound, like someone yelling stop! I looked around about 10 seconds later and I see all these papers flying of the top of the next selving unit. I immediately hit the off button and look down to see papers stuck everywhere, about 100 of them. The air from the vacuum was causing a back draft and it did that. It was funny each sheet was flipping off one by one. Mike ended up picking them all up while I continued. After I was done with that my dad said get a bucket of water and the mop. So I did and I started mopping the top off. It looked really good, so I went to get my grandpa and tell him that he could start putting the good stuff back. I came back about 10 minutes later and dave is sitting at his desk in the warehouse reading a magazine. I say whatcha doing? He said I came out hear because it smells like smells like wet socks in the next room! I said, "What?" He said when you get that wood wet it smells like that. I go in there and the smell is almost overwhelming. I open the dock doors to get a brezze in, it helps a little.
Dave suggest's some Pine Sol. Guess what none there, anyway it was time for lunch, so I said I go home and get some and bring it back. I came back with it and poured it in the bucket and smelled up everything with Pine SOl. Ok that was alot better. Now this is the funny part. I was standing up there trying to figure out what to do next. Standing up there I could see everyone in the plant. Well Walt and Mike Hudrick come over from the press area. Walt first asks me what the hell I was doing up there!? I told him and he said, "O." And then he asked where there might be some extension cords. I said I don't think we have any of the size your looking for. He said go down to Leader hardware and get three. I said jokingly go get them yourselve Mike said I'll ask your dad when I see him. Well there just standing down there and watching everyone, it was almost break time. Walt starts looking at the ceiling looking for extension cords that might be hanging down. Then I remembered the boxes of styrofoam peanuts in the boxes with the string attached to them. A surprise for Mike not him. The boxes were up high and on top of a light. I though naw he won't see it then I thought I hope he doesn't see it! Just about 5 seconds later he points and says, "What the hell are those boxes on top of the light up there, what the..." And then he see's the string. What's up with the string too? Now Mike or Dave can't see them up there. Their like what are you talking about Now mike Hudrick sees them. Walt's looking at the string and following it down. He said that doesn't belong up there, what the hell! He walks around to the rack of broken down boxes. He traces the string down to a certain section, he starts pulling on them one by one. I start laughing, he looks over and says, do you know anything about this? I shake my head yes! He finds the one with the string attached. Walt says, What this do? I said, "pull and find out!" He does and both boxes come down peanuts and all both him and mike get covered in them. The static in them was even more funnier. I start laughing my head off. And then everyone start laughing. Everyone thought it was really funny and clever. This is such a good story that it's going in my funny stories section also, so know one will miss it. After the work day was done I went to the bank. Fetticinni was the dinner tonight with a Italian salad.
The weather was very pleasant today to. Upper 70's and sunny for the most part. Tomorrow it's going to rain though.
August 21, 2001
Today was my second day of classes at CLC. I had to work my work shedule around too. So everyday I work from 7:30-11. And it only on Tuesday's and Thursday's that I go back to work at 2:30pm. I'm taking three classes, Chemistry, Pyshic's, and CAD. But my CAD class does not start till October so I have a while before I start that. The first day I was able to get the best parking place in the whole parking lot. Boy was I lucky. I've never done that and never will again during the first week of anything.
Today was an exciting day at work. As I 've mentioned in past days me and my dad have cleaning the shelves in the the shipping room. The stock is on bare wood shelves. When you get the wood wet it smells like smelly socks, not kidding one bit. Well I didn't put enough Pine Sol in the bucket of water the first time. And after ten minutes of washing the tops of the selves blocks the smell started to form and drift out in all directions. Within twenty minutes everyone within 100 feet could smell it. So while I rewashed it, Mike took our giant fan and put it by the source and blew the smell towards the open dock door. The smell gradually decreased to a minimum at 4 o'clock. After I got back from classes today I picked up another bottle of Pine Sol at Jewel Osco in BeachPark. Tomorrow is going to be more of the same. If I put enough Pine Sol in it won't be as bad. But it is kind of hard to judge sometimes what will happen. The garbage situation at work is growing more probomatic each day. We topped capacity yesterday and now we've had to take out some broken boxes and light bulbs. And left the smells stuff inside of course. If it does stink like smelly feet again were going to half to point the fan towards the warehouse because it's supossed to be warm and wet. We don't want to make the air conditioning bill really high!
So that's my story for today. I will say though they finally paved part of Adams Rd, the road I go down everyday to get to CLC. So now only part of the road is bumpy.
11:24pm
August 29, 2001
Hello again! I know it's been awhile since I last wrote. The first week of classes are always hard to get used too as well as my new sleep schedule. I'm starting to get back to normal and smoothing things out. Now I get up at seven get to work at 7:30. On M,W,F I don't go back to work in the afternoon, I only stay till 11am. But on Tuesdays and Thursday's I come back due to a short chemistry class. Right now it looks like physics will be the most hard and time consuming homework-wise. Chemistry looks more interactive and fun.
Today was a good day all around. I got up at 6:45am. I woke up too a chilly room. I looked at the thermometer and it read 53 degrees and it was like 65 in my room. I realizes too that I left the car out of the garage will the windows all down. When I went out there, the car was covered with condensation in and out. I had to turn on the heater and de-fogger to get rid of the moisture. That will wake you up in the morning. Traffic was unusually bad today. Dave from work had to go through 40 minutes of traffic instead of a normal drive time of 20 minutes. He described one stretch of Green Bay Road in Kenosha like Wacker Drive in Chicago. He said remind me that I live in Kenosha, not Chicago! Today Mike Hudrick left the company. He's moving to Arizona or actually he already has. He was just at work this week cleaning things up. He was the head of the engraving department. He will be greatly missed by everyone. Mike was always fun to talk too. Now I'll have to talk over e-mail to him. :)
Right now there's a bunch of crickets chirping outside. There kind of noisy that why I mention it. It's been a 17 hour day for me almost I better get a shower and to bed before I fall asleep here.
Write more later. Another funny story coming too!!!
11:08pm