Perpetual Ruminations

Sunday

Tonight I'm in here kind of late again. I was also an hour later getting out of work, then after I got home. It was just kind of a crazy Sunday for some reason. It was also pretty hot out, very humid, and a very tiring day.

Sundays tend to be a bit slower and calm at work. The morning can be kind of busy, but as the afternoon passes it gets slower and slower. Not today, however. Today it was busy right from the start. Not super busy, but pretty steady; enough so that I couldn't get my morning routine done right. First of all I open the outside doors, then do the paperwork and logs. After, I go down and fill the stapler and check the string and flags at the flagging station.

This morning I got out to the guard house and set the stuff down to wipe the counter off. I just barely had the stuff set down when a vehicle pulled up, with returns. I had to hurry and check the return forms, log the first one and then while the guest filled it out, count them and record the numbers. By the time I got that done, another guest was at the gate and another coming up the road. I got one scanner set up, got my radio and earpiece on, and then had to check the first persons vehicle as they left the yard.

Then, another vehicle was at the in gate, and by the time I cleared them to enter, another was coming out. It stayed like that through the morning, and by the time Rhonda got to work I was feeling tired and ready for a break. But, I had not had a chance to fill the stapler or check the flagging station, yet. It was a bit slower at the moment, and only two or three people in the yard, so I hurried down to fill the stapler and check everything. Then, it was hustle back up and help Rhonda out, let a few more in, and then take a quick bathroom break.

It got busier, three or four vehicles would come in at a time, then a single one or two would show up as a couple left, then it would seem like it was going to slow down a bit, as we got the yard emptied out, and another group would come driving up the road. I don't think there was a time all afternoon that the yard had less than three vehicles in it. This would be normal for a Saturday, but not Sunday.

Sunday afternoons tend to get slower and slower, and by the time five o'clock rolls around, it's pretty dead. It stays that way through the night, with only a handful of vehicles for the last three or four hours.

This weekend was just backwards. For one thing, Saturday was busy but not nearly as busy as a normal Saturday. There were a few times I thought I would not have to stay the entire shift. But, then it would pick up and I would stick around for a while. It did this all through the day, but by five o'clock, it was pretty quiet and I clocked out a few minutes early. It never did get busy enough to really need two people working, but with our long hours, it was nice to have two. Besides, I never knew if it was going to pick up, so I kind of had to stick around until it got closer to the end of my double coverage shift.

Today, I anticipated it to be even slower. For one thing, it was cloudy and a pretty good chance of rain and thunderstorms. Secondly, if Saturday was slower, then it only was expected that Sunday would be slower yet. That's just the normal pattern. Thirdly, not very many people start their projects on Sunday. If anything, the majority of the people coming in usually are picking up one or two items to finish up the weekend project. Of course, there are also some returns that come in, as people finish their weekend projects and have a little bit of material left over. But, by late afternoon, things are slowing down as everyone wraps up the days activities and get home to get things ready for another week of work.

Today, however it was more like a Saturday. Many of the guests were getting large orders through the entire day. We had a few returns, but not many. Yesterday we almost ran out of return slips. Yesterday we had a lot of people that made two trips to get things hauled, because of weight and not having enough cargo space, but today there were only a few returning customers. Smaller loads yesterday, larger ones today. It was like the two days of the weekend just got reversed. I know most of these people were not needing to get this stuff to start working in it today, and may not get a start on anything until next weekend, now. Sure, some of them will work through the week, doing a little each night after they get home, some were finishing up projects, and stuff. Some were just the regular Sunday guests. Some -- but the rest were Saturday shoppers a day late.

It's been kind of a screwy spring and summer, weather wise and work wise. I imagine the two are related some odd way, but there is more involved, too. I don't know what it is, but something is bringing the cooks out of the woodwork. For example, I had one guy come in to the yard, cussing and saying that our gate set-up is the dumbest thing he ever saw. I politely explained that it was the same set-up as all Menards stores have. He cussed another string of them at me saying he knew that. But you don't have to drive twenty miles to get to the gate at other Menards.

I didn't bother to explain that it wasn't anywhere close to a twenty mile drive, I just told him they had to move the entrance when they added the garden center on to the store, and this was the only access available. He slung another foul load of profanities at me, then said they could have come right down the side of the store, right there. He was pointing to the side of the store, and I nodded, saying that would have been nice, but Target wouldn't let Menards tear up their parking lot to make an entrance to the yard. He hurled a few more obscene remarks my way and something I could do with Target and their parking lot. He then drove into the yard, picked up his board, and came back out again.

Most of the people are pretty good, a few need some manners, but there are those who just make a person clench their teeth to keep from saying the honest truth. For some reason, there seem to be twice as many of these coming through the yard nowadays.