Perpetual Ruminations

Sunday

What a beautiful day! It hit sixty degrees, lots of sunshine, and very little wind. Tomorrow is suppose to be a little cooler, a little windier, and some rain, but still, pretty nice compared to the weather we have been getting since November. The rain will clean things up, so I don't mind at all, and it's a nice change from freezing rain, sleet, and snow. That's what we have been getting since the beginning of March. Also, a little wind is nice to dry things up now that the snow is all but gone. The rain will help bring the frost out, and that will dry up a lot of mud, too. Then, Tuesday back to some very nice weather again. Well, if the weather forecast is correct, it hasn't been very accurate at all lately. I think they have dice they roll and call out what ever weather is face up!

I worked today, as is normal for Sundays, but we also started providing double coverage today. That required some adjustments to the schedule, but I still start at the same times, but will stay later if needed. Normally Sunday is a short day, and I get done at noon, but now I have Rhonda coming in at eleven, and if it's busy I stay on until it slows. Next Saturday also has double coverage, then it switches to Sunday, Monday, Friday, and Saturday from that point on until some time in the fall, usually Labor day. We split up the hours some, but I took most of them, so I will work eleven to five on Sunday, my regular shift on Monday and let Chris pick up some extra hours, then Friday I pull a twelve hour shift, Saturday I pull eleven hours. Of course, that won't kick in full force until mid May or later. For now, it's on a, "As needed," basis, so I may have to juggle things around a bit on the schedule depending on what is required.

On the opposite side of these long shifts is the bonus for all the extra. I get more hours per week, and I get three days off each week. Unless of course, I have to fill in for someone. After last summer, I'm planning on really enjoying any time off, and three days should provide me ample time to get caught up on a lot of reading, reviewing, and writing. I also want to get out and do some touring on the bikes and some camping. My wife and I started riding bicycles a few years back, and were for a while doing about ten miles or more daily, or almost daily. We did make a few longer trips, the farthest was about fifty miles, maybe just a little more.

Last year we didn't get a chance to ride at all, or do anything for that matter. We barely had time to keep the grass mowed. It was a terrible year for having any free time, being short handed at work and needing to cover so many shifts. Every time I hired another guard and finished their training, I lost someone else. Some of the new trainees didn't pan out, and some of the old crew just up and quit. Of course, they were all getting pretty close to losing their jobs for lack of doing things right, missing work, and a few other infractions. But, it worked out, instead of having to fire them, they quit and saved me the trouble. I only had to let two of them go one my first day as supervisor, and the other at the start of last summer. He was a pretty good worker, but had a few little things he just couldn't correct.  I warned him numerous times, but then in the end, he had a big infraction and had to be removed from the site.

We were set up to have six guards from spring until fall, five the rest of the time, but as it worked out, we pulled half the summer with three, the other half with four. Right at the end of the fall season, we finally put on our fifth person and had a full crew up to the first of December. Then we had one person quit, but it wasn't too bad pulling the winter shifts with four, and we put on our fifth around the end of February.

Instead of needing six people this summer, we should be able to get by with the five, since everyone is able to pull extra hours if needed. Last year I had two people who had other jobs, so they were very limited when they could work, and one was also very limited how much he would work. He only worked Saturdays and Sundays, and only the first half of each. Of course, the first half of the day is the slowest part, so it wasn't very much work for him, but the person working the afternoon and evening had the busiest time of the day and worked their butts off. He worked another full time job and told me he was a supervisor over their. He could only work the weekends as a result. My wife worked with a person who also worked a second job at the same place and new this guy. She revealed the truth that this person was just another worker, no supervisor at all, and he only worked four days a week, not five.

I don't know why he felt he had to be dishonest, but he did. I had already come to realize he wasn't a very honest person anyway, and this kind of indicated that he wasn't cut out for security work, so when he had to quit for health reasons, I wasn't disappointed. I was a bit surprised to find out he wanted to come back to work for us again, however. He was gone for almost a year, never filed any paperwork with me, didn't keep me updated of anything, and then showed up a couple of weeks ago to see if he could have his old position back. He still only wanted to work the weekends, the same shifts, and must have thought I would just cut out someone else's hours so he could have them. He never did come talk to me about it, just left a message a couple times.

Well, it's time to finish this entry and relax for a little while before turning in for the night. I have to be up at three again tomorrow morning, but then get three days off.