The End of the Blog

I have gone through my life doing things I shouldn't be doing.  I always have.  I seem to enjoy it.  I enjoy being sneaky--seeing what I can get away with.  I've gotten in trouble time and time again for saying things I shouldn't be saying, doing things I shouldn't be doing, or not doing things I should be doing.  I keep pushing and pushing until something under me snaps and I find myself in serious trouble.

What usually happens is the same sort of thing that happens when you're speeding in your car.  You might do something occasionally (but deliberately) and get away with it, but later, when your guard is down--WHAM!  It comes outta the blue.

I see the same thing happening with this blog.

When I first started it, it was a rebellious and reckless challenge.  I wanted to photograph things at work (forbidden!), mock people at work, and document rampant stupidity at work.  I also knew I had an instant audience by letting certain people in on it from the start.  I saw it as a fun challenge... A place where I could showcase the workplace we are immersed in on a daily basis.   I started it I was cautious and made sure I didn't have anything that could be searchable directly by name.  During that time my guard was up.  I was nervous about it.  Lately, my guard is down and I'm plodding along with no trepidation it seems.  Anything is fair game.  Not only do I take pictures at work, but I've taken pictures of The Brothers themselves!

Then it hit me.  I have a lot to lose by openly criticizing and biting the hand that feeds me.  You'd think a guy over 55 years old would know better, but yet I continue to do the same things.  I've gotten away with it so far.  If they found out what I was doing, saying and documenting I would be drawn and quartered.  No mercy.  I'm pretty sure I would lose my job.  I've already sent plenty of ripples through the LaCroy space/time continuum by stealing their secretary and marrying her.

So, without fanfare, I will pull the plug on it this weekend.  I'm not saying I will stop taking pictures or whatever, but it won't be a public forum like this blog.  Maybe I'll just roll out an occasional email with a picture or two in it as I see fit.  Come Monday this link will no longer work, so if you want to copy anything here, now's your chance.

It's been fun!

Bzzz... Hard on the Job

So, after being gone for a whole week Bzzz was back for a whole day today.  As some of us know, being at work for 8 hours is hard on you.  Actually working during that time is really hard on you.

The fact that I snapped this picture through a dirty window, and had the camera set on high ISO (which means grainy) so I could get it without the flash both translate into one thing:  Horrible quality.  Even after fixing many of its problems, it's still a bad picture.  But hey--it gets the point across right?

Kick off the shoes, kick back the chair, and pick up the phone.  After all, you're still on the clock!

Snippets of Wit

So Bruce L. dropped in to see us on Wednesday.  It was good to see him.  (Note to self: Stop by Home Depot some day and pick up some brown paint color charts.  That way I can gauge his progression toward becoming a Cuban immigrant next time he visits.)

I was at the sink Thursday morning.  Ai was there also, and he says to me: "I see... yesterday... Brucescardi here."

As often as they happen, I should keep track of the many witticisms that pop up at work.  Not surprisingly, many of them come from Jim Minor.

Here are a couple of examples:

(Bzzz was gone all week, and Marty nearly so)  "I guess Marty's gonna have a talk with Bruce about his attendance..."

(After walking by the empty desk where Derek used to sit, he noted  "You know, it's taken quite a while, but Derek is finally doing okay."

Easy Come, Easy Go...

I'm not sure what Derek was actually hired for.  I figure he did a nice sales job on Phil, delivering such a nice interview that Phil had no choice but to brand him a job.  Phil hires some people with a "you'll do for now" attitude and others are held in high regard.  It's like he has dreams of great things from his new hire.  I know Derek was good for surfing the web and trying to make it look official.  I have to hand it to him though:  He surfed the web all day every day for quite a long time.

I'm thinking he actually came to the end of the internet and Phil told him to go outside and play.

He came in this morning as usual, but left not long afterwards.  From what I heard, he was going to leave to go to work somewhere else.  Also, I guess when he gave his notice, Phil told him there was no reason to stay two weeks and told him to leave right then.

I think he was hired as some sort of "maintenance manager" or something like that.  You know, a person that would coordinate repairs, upgrades, upkeep, and the like.  I know he never did those sorts of things.  I guess he fancied himself a research technician.  For someone that spent as much time on the computer as he did, you'd think he'd be able to type with more than one finger on each hand wouldn't you?  Not so.

I'm glad he's gone.  Not because he wasn't a nice guy--he was.  I just hate to see our bosses paying someone good money to do nothing when it should be going to people that deserve it.

I wonder how his son-in-law, B.M.O.C. will fare without him?  It might be kinda lonely having to talk to only us working men for a change.

In one respect I'm sorry he's gone.  You see, there is one thing that I always wanted to hear him say.  There was one line from the classic Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of the Moon that I wanted him to do live and in person:

"I don't know... I was really drunk at the time..."

He had the exact voice and accent.

Pre-Christmas Antics

'Twas the last day of work, and all through the shop,
 the weirdness started early, with no sign it'd stop.

It was a day when everybody's favorite Irish food restaurant, McDonald's, was offering 2 for 1 Eggamuffins.  When I came in and offered my extra to TJ, he laughed and said, "I brought a whole bag of 'em in with me this morning!"  I didn't have any trouble unloading my extra one, but it took me 3 tries to find a taker.

Yeah, it was a little different at work on Friday.  It got off to a pretty early start too.  For over a week there has been a couple of long strands of plastic packing pillows sitting idle.  You know, those ones that companies put in the box when they ship something way too small to you.  Anyway, we were waiting for the perfect opportunity to put the two strings of them under Ben's tires when he backed the trucks out in the morning.  Friday was it.  While it didn't go quite as planned, it was fun.  Marc went running around behind him and put a string behind his left rear tires and I took the right.  I then stepped back and tried to capture the event on video.  I came out pretty bad, but at least you can get the idea.  When you see him stop after the first few pops, Marc (who was on that side of his truck) said he mouthed the words, "WTF was that?"  Marc was laughing and motioned him on so he could complete the stupid stunt for you readers.  Pretty silly huh?

I wore my annual "one day a year" Harley Santa t-shirt, and of course also had my garish, red Santa hat too.  This year I was surprised to find Scott C wearing one.  He cut quite a picture wearing it with his "doctor of tooling" lab coat as you can tell from these pictures I sneaked when he wasn't looking:

We, of course, also had a sighting of the rare and elusive Elainedeer.  Her rack is unfortunately starting to show its age.  I mean her antlers of course.  The lights on poor things won't flash any more.  Oh well, they still look perky don't they?

She is seen here proudly posing on one of the 'new' anti-fatigue mats that came from the Seattle Aero auction a few days back.  The color-coordinated fingerless gloves are a nice addition don't you think?

I guess while I'm one the subject of festive attire, I may as well insert a shameless self-portrait (yes, I had to take it myself... how pathetic is that?) of myself here too eh?

The weirdness seemed to come and go throughout the day.  I did have a one of those "lightbulb moments" at one point when I saw Marc sitting in Bruce's old chair talking to Bzzz.  I whipped this sign up real quick and reached in, taping it to the file cabinet next to where he was sitting.  After we got a couple chuckles out of it, I felt it was better served where I snapped this picture of it a little later:

The day was complete when The Brothers handed out the yearly Christmas bonuses.  Nothing says thank you like a piece of cured pork, right?  I managed to get shot of Bernie and Elaine sharing a mirthful moment as Phil handed a check out to Richie behind her.  I wonder how much trouble I'd be in if they would have seen me take this shot?

Merry Christmas!

Clutter and Sale Wages

It's been a long time, but it was bound to happen again.  Actually, given the state of the economy these days and how many businesses have fallen in their tracks, I'm surprised it hasn't happened many more times than it has.  What am I talking about?

Phil went to an auction.

This one hit a little closer to home than some do because it was one of our customers:  Seattle Aero.  I don't know any details, and it really doesn't matter.  All I know is, Phil sent Derek and Martimus down the road with the truck and this is what they brought back:

You can never have enough file cabinets when you work in a place that can never have enough paperwork stored in boxes in back rooms.  You can also never have enough very large plastic bins that may come in handy some day.  Of course, you know why Marty is bringing all these down here don't you?  Of course--for me to forklift up to the upstairs auction storage facility.  They also brought back a half dozen homemade workbench things I forgot to get a picture of.  I'm sure they'll show up here in a picture someday though--probably in whatever place they actually get used (if they ever do).
Funny thing:  When they went back on their second trip they brought back mostly a bunch of chairs, and it turns out almost half of them weren't even ours to pick up.  Oops!  Driving the truck to get the stuff was probably the most useful thing Derek has done in months.

This is the time of year when we fall victim to the hourly rate "fire sale" slave labor requirement.  That glorious time when all the employees are required to work 10-hour days for straight pay.  I hate that.  It's like we get a 3-day weekend for each of the two holidays and get punished for it.  This is the first year I've ever seen a specific listing of names though.  I'm sure it's the direct result of placing a computer and printer within reach of Bzzz.  I wonder how many days it took him to type this up:

Last night I ended up staying to 6pm.  As before, I felt I got a lot of work done, but there was no indication by looking at my inbox.  It was unchanged.  It was the first time since I've worked there that I can recall seeing both a 6 o'clock start time and 6 o'clock stop time.

At about 5:30 I was talking to Dave Cogburn when one of his second-shift workers went walking by on his way back to the CNC area.  I don't know his name, but he's an older guy with snow-white hair.  Nice guy.  Anyway, he was carrying his lunch bucket and his coffee thermos back from the lunch room, and with every swing of his arms he was sloshing coffee out of his thermos.  It was obviously not even close to being tight.  He was so oblivious that had Dave not hollered at him he probably would have made it all the way before noticing.  Funny stuff.  Poor guy though--probably ruined his whole evening losing most of his coffee...

Overdose!

I've been doing my job of receiving clerk for quite a while now.  Like all of the jobs I've been given during my time at LaCroy, I took what was handed me, and I tweaked and massaged it until it worked better--basically both personalizing it and making it more efficient.  I used to wonder if I was the receiving "manager", but I soon decided that if I were a manager I would most likely be able to send my own emails to vendors instead of relying on Dale to do it for me.  It's very embarrassing.  Many of my problem-solving emails start out something like, "Hi Dale, we have a problem with the order we just received in from ABC.  Could you contact them and ask them..." blah, blah, blah.  You get the drift.  No, even though I manage a lot of things, I'm far from a manager.

The workload at my position is subject to some pretty wild swings.  Some days I get hammered and some days I have to find things to keep busy on.  Yesterday was a little different though.  I think the most items of raw material I've ever gotten in during one day is somewhere around 10 or 12.

That number got thrown out the window yesterday.

Not only did I get 24 P.O.'s worth of material in during one day, but they were all from one vendor.

When I finally got them all signed and entered, it was time for Dale to do his part:  Marrying them each up with the job they were supporting.

Then he stuffed my in box:

I finally left there last night at about 5:40pm.  Amazingly enough, I even outlasted Bernie... But only by a couple minutes.

I didn't even make a dent.

Colorful Characters of the Past - Part 2

When I start thinking about people that have worked at LaCroy and how unique they were it makes me sorry that I didn't have the pleasure of experiencing them all personally.  Here are a few more that I did have the pleasure of observing first-hand.  Yes, it's time for Color Characters of the Past: The Sequel.

Subwoofer Steve - Steve had a voice that reminded me of one of those electronic voice boxes that you see some people holding up to their throat when they need to talk.  You know--the people that have lost their own vocal chords for whatever reason.  Subwoofer Steve had a voice so low I really had trouble understanding him.  I used to tell people you can always tell when Steve was talking because everybody's car license plates were rattling and buzzing in the parking lot.  I think all those years of smoking coupled with a voice box that must have been the size of a pony keg created his unique sound.  Word on the streets has it that he would occasionally be seen sneaking a snort from a container he had in his tool box.  I remember one time when TJ answered a call from him in the morning--explaining that he wouldn't be in to work.  Like TJ said, "I could tell he wasn't at home--you could hear people talking and glasses clinking."  It's pretty bad when you call in sick from a bar at 6am.  What's even worse?  More people there with you doing the same thing.

Chuck/Sharon - This is far and away the most colorful character a shop could ever hope for.  So which is it?  Let's start with Chuck.  Chuck was the one of the quietest people I have ever met.  Whenever I saw him in the lunchroom he had is face stuck into a sports page.  I'll never forget that day when a few strategic employee meetings were called around the company to explain the wondrous event that was about to take place.  As the LaCroy boys so eloquently put it, "You all know Chuck [whatever is last name is] that works in the CNC area.  He's been gone a few days and should be back Monday or Tuesday.  When he does return his name will be Sharon."  You could have heard a pin drop.  Nobody was smiling.  All the minds of the attendees started racing at a thousand miles an hour at that very moment.  Even though our eyes glassed over momentarily as our thoughts went awry we kept the poker faces and listened.  After all, this was suddenly no boring meeting!  They went on to explain--in no uncertain terms--what would and would not take place upon his/her return to the company.  Having something like this happen within their company is one thing that I'm sure they never expected in their wildest dreams.  They are a couple guys that study and plan for everything.  I'm sure they never planned for this.  When Chuck/Sharon finally did come back very little had changed.  A little different hair, a little fingernail polish, and two little boobs.  All that on a physique that was already a little strange to begin with.  Now that I think about it, if the boobs were any bigger than little they just would not have even fit.  I know Elaine was less than thrilled to have to share her ladies' restroom with him/her--even if there was a newly installed lock on the door.  Sue said when it came time for some employee form they had to fill out for Chuck/Sharon she and Bernie couldn't decide what to fill it with.  They left  both boxes next to male and female blank on purpose so the broker would have to call them and ask about it because they didn't want to have to choose.  After discussing it over the phone, apparently, neither did the broker.  Chuck/Sharon didn't stay a long time after that.  I think he/she found another job closer to home, which is what most people that leave LaCroy say (It's a popular exit strategy).  Anyway, the lock on the ladies' restroom door is all that remains of that time--a time when the Brothers LaCroy had the current day and age slap them right upside the head.  For a brief time it was like the company had relocated to Seattle's Capitol Hill or San Francisco.

Justin the Welder - Justin was one of the strangest people I've ever seen.  I didn't get a chance to know him, and I'm probably the better for it.  He reminded me of Baby Huey.  He was a big guy but he didn't act it.  He danced to his own drummer.  He lived with his mom, and didn't care about working.  I believe he literally would have worked for free--he loved welding that much.  Many times he wouldn't get around to picking up his paycheck.  It's like he didn't care if he was paid or not.  You might see him wearing garish shorts, tall socks, and brightly-colored Converse-type tennis shoes.  He'd blow in whenever, hide in the back doing his welding, then blow right on out again a few hours later.  He was provided many opportunities to do other things in the shop so he could get in a full day of work, but he always declined.  "I really just want to weld." he'd say.

Stay tuned:  There may be a Part 3... You never know.

The Weekly Recap

You can always tell it's December around LaCroy, but only in one specific place:  Elaine's "office".  It seems to be a little enhanced with a few addition items this year.  I think we should call it the Massey Mantel.

There are lot of moments when I wish I had video rolling as a particular even unfolded.  You know, "shoulda, woulda, coulda" and all that.  Earlier this week one of those events unfolded.  I was working late (lots of O.T. this week but that's another story) on one particular afternoon--Tuesday I think it was.  As most people know, it's a lot quieter when the day shift folks go home after 2:30.  At about 3 or 3:30 or whatever, I heard someone raising his voice.  I strained to listen.  I didn't have to strain my ears to much though because it was very easy to hear: "...you don't tell me to shut my mouth... My mother doesn't even talk to me that way!  YOU DON'T TELL ME TO SHUT MY MOUTH... MY MOTHER DOESN'T EVEN TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!!"

Like I said--I may have the verbiage wrong because I didn't get it down right away like I should have.  Anyway, it turns out it was 2nd shift Pat screaming at Bzzz.  Why?  I have no idea.  I just suffices to say it was a potential situation that got a lot of interest from everyone there.  Almost everyone started moving in that direction in case they had to break something up.  Bzzz walked away, and Jim walked Pat out the door and talked with him for a while.  It was pretty intense.

The new CNC machines are almost ready for running.  Since my last update, almost everything had gotten finished by B.M.O.C. as amazing as it sounds.  The power, the air--all done.  The power wasn't totally complete, but was apparently close enough.  The wiring was run up to and into both transformers but wasn't hooked up yet.  I don't know if the Haas setup guys hooked it all up or B.M.O.C. did, but it got done.  The guys were there all day yesterday setting things up.  Adjusting, leveling, tuning--whatever it is they do.   Here's just a bunch of random shots I snapped during their work:

I guess there is a part actually ordered for the green forklift--used of course.  I have no idea (and probably neither does anyone else) if it's going to fix it, but at least they ordered something for it.

The van got a couple new shoes.  After much rotation (the spare in Bruderer room and spare in the van got rotated into use somehow) it ended up with new tires on the rear.  Les Schwab wanted us to get the ball joints replaced and an alignment done (insert huge laugh here).

I forgot to mention several weeks ago that The Incredible Hulk left.  It's been at least three weeks since the steroid kid was shown the door.  Lots of other guys have left too, but as I've seen before:  I can't keep up.  Most of the time they just fade away.  I know one other guy that "faded away" was the CNC guy that always had the messy hair and never talked.  CNC guys:  Gotta love em!

The Hoarder Mentality

It's funny what kinds of things people hoard.  It's also funny when you consider the reasons people hoard.

I can understand it when someone is out on their own in a remote location and they hoard things.  They pretty much have to stockpile everything they can think of just to exist.

Sometimes people just like accumulating things.  It's the thrill of the hunt.  They want to beg, buy, or steal every variety of every item in their stash just to say they have them all.  It's a variation of the 'collector mentality' I think.

Then there are the people that think that the bottom could drop out of the supply chain at any moment.  "The end of the world is coming soon, so I'd better make sure I have enough to last me in case of emergency."

Then there is Bzzz.  He loves lamenting about how hard it is to get things from the top of the supply chain when he needs them.  Each time he has to fight (he calls it fighting, but we know it's just over-dramatization) for a roll of tape, a new Sharpie, or anything stupid like that, he turns the whole ordeal into a source of story-telling.  One of his favorite items to rant about is the ordeal he has to suffer through when he goes in to get some more band-aids.  Oh, the humiliation!

Even though he still goes in and begs for a 'few band-aids' whenever he needs them (which is often when you have a shop environment), imagine my surprise when I happened to glance into his desk drawer when I walked by it the other day:

The funny thing is, those are not the ones he begs from Bernie.  They are his private stash.  His accumulated hoard from the others around him.

Maybe he just likes variety.

At any rate, when anarchy eventually comes, and the dollar is worthless, the government is in shambles, and food is in short supply, people will use ammo for money...

...and they'll contact Bzzz when they need a Band-Aid.

The Weekly Recap

What a week at LaCroy!

Let me start out with the funniest thing that happened.  Well okay--it wasn't that funny, but I liked it as did several other folks.  You know how Bzzz has this hallowed ground outside, right?  That portion of curb that runs along the edge of our parking lot?  Of course you do.  He has determined that--over a period of many years of watching over the time cards, the calendar, and the clock--that the first parking spot is his.  The left side of that spot is apparently more sacred than the spot itself.  As a matter-of-fact, it's so sacred that he doesn't even park his car too close to it for fear of retribution from the spirits that watch over that parking spot.  He prefers to leave plenty of room between his car and the sacred curb.  One time someone even left an offering to the higher spirits of the parking spot in the form of a carefully shaped pile of cigarette parts.  I'm sure the spirits enjoyed such a lavish show of appreciation, but Bzzz was not amused.  Anyway, Thursday Bzzz did not show up at his usual time.  The open spot beckoned strongly.  I'm sure many of the LaCroy minions drove by it, their heads turning to gaze at it longingly, but none succumbed.  Until Scott Clark saw it that is.  He couldn't resist.  I'm sure he muttered, "Hey ya snooze, ya lose" under his breath as he drove it and parked.  No, actually he thought Bzzz was going to be out for the day.  Imagine his surprise when Bzzz showed up mid-morning, exhausted from the long walk he had to endure because he parked out in front of the building, facing Exotic Metals:

Clark was glib about it any time someone mentioned it, but I'm sure inside he was being eaten alive by the possibility of Bzzz putting a mental demerit next to his name.  I'm sure Bzzz spent quite a while wandering around telling people his view of the whole situation, you can be sure of that.

I was flabbergasted when the large version of the Tweedle Brothers (B.M.O.C.) started doing CNC installation work this week!  Yep, he got up in the forklift cage and strung all the necessary electrical conduit.  If that wasn't enough, he even got all the black pipe strung up in the air for air lines!  He did seem to have some assumption of exclusivity when it came to the forklift though.  Apparently, he thought that once the cage was put onto the forklift he could just leave it there.  Wrong.  His line of thinking was based on the fact that he had painted himself into a corner with it.  As you can see below, he blocked the only way he could get in or out by placing three pallets of stuff in the aisle behind him.  Luckily, only one truck showed up to be unloaded, and I had him get on the ailing green forklift and unload it.

Well, that's about all the stuff I have to report this week.  Stay tuned for more exciting stuff from the Land of LaCroy!

Tweedledee and Tweedledum

Boy, I don't know where to start with these guys.  You know--the guys formerly known as B.M.O.C. and Derek?  I think their new name should be Tweedledee and Tweedledum.  I don't know which one is which, but that really doesn't matter.

My observation:  At the rate they're going, the new HAAS machines will not power on for another six months.

The pile of installation supplies I mentioned in the previous blog that showed up Wednesday was finally opened up yesterday.  Dale was pretty surprised.  He was beginning to wonder when they would ever get into it and start working.
"They were both saying they needed it on Wednesday so they could get started!" Dale said excitedly.  "They just had to have it right then," he continued, "I didn't even get a chance to shop around!"
That kinda stuff eats at him as we all well know.

A new punch tool showed up.  Dale said, "He just had to have it."  It was $85.  Here's a little rundown.  Here's the punch, followed by the biggest of the Tweedle Brothers wrenching on a conduit box:

After all that, here is the final product.  It sort of looked like the threads were already getting ruined after only two holes:

All day long we kept seeing them doing the same sort of thing:  Work on something for a minute, then disappear.  Work, disappear.  Imagine my surprise when I saw them putting a piece of conduit on the computer saw.  They were probably thinking, "Hey, here's something we haven't played with yet... I bet we can kill a LOT of time with this!"

After they got it all set up on the saw, they spent quite a while messing with it.  I could just hear them (not really)

"How do you work this thing?"

"I dunno... I thought you knew."

"It can't be that hard."

Finally, after a good 10 or 15 minutes (enough time they could have cut 20 of them with a hacksaw), they finally went over and got Joe the shear guy so they could lower his productivity to their level.  After almost a half hour they had one cut.  Can't you just see the head lice in these next pictures?

After all that work, nothing looks any different.

A short while later, I got this:

 "What else can we buy?"