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#Post#: 3489--------------------------------------------------
Hot Damn!
DIR By: AJ
Date: April 19, 2019, 11:09 pm
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Finished another week of 24 hour call today. As far as they go,
it was not the worst I ever had, by a long bit. I had zero calls
last weekend, but three calls after working hours during the
week. Which sucks. After working all day, to have to go out and
do it again. One call came in at 10:30 PM....From a store more
than an hour from the house. So I didn't get back home until 2
AM. Then back up at 6 for a regular days work. Fortunately, it
wasn't a real major deal. The oil filter on the Refrigeration
rack had stopped up a bit, and consequently, a couple of the
compressors weren't getting oil to them, so they shut down on
their oil failure switches. That sent a report to the CPC
computer and after 2 hours, if the compressors don't restart, it
sends an alarm to the front of the store, where it starts
flashing a blue light. Then hopefully, someone notices. Now,
this store is in what was a really small town 30 years ago, but
is a bedroom community for Houston now. The store was purchased
by a customer of ours that owns like 26 stores, all outside of
Houston proper...Thing is, he tends to keep the personnel that
were working at the store at the time of purchase employed. Nice
thing really...Except most of these folks...Have never even been
to Houston.... When he bought the store, we made a massive
remodel of the systems happen. So....
These folks have no clue how to check or restart anything. These
are farm fresh country girls and boys. So the blue light goes
on, they just call for service.
Once I got there, I was done in an hour...Not bad. But now it's
12:30 AM. I get my invoice signed...And the Gal asks me if I
want a couple of beers for the ride home....Sheeettt...Uh, No
Mam. I have to drive at least 25 miles of unlit, 2 lane country
roads to get there and home....Getting lubed up is just about
the last thing this old man needs with that facing me. I
gracefully decline the beers but take a cold Pepsi...Need a
little caffeine/sugar boost to keep my tired old eyes open. Was
a good decision. It started raining not long after I left. Made
it to the 99 tollway and not long after saw a 18 wheeler,
flipped over on the siding. Cops and EMT's everywhere.
The news that next morning reported it and apparently the driver
just had minor injuries so that's good.
Pulled into the driveway at 2AM. Washed my paws, grabbed a
handful of Glorys(Small Grape Tomatoes), and a glass of water.
Then hit the sack.
Was dragging serious butt the next day, but had to drive to
Freeport the next morning. Another CPC issue, but turned out to
be a bad sensor, fixed and gone in an hour, to the west end of
Galveston Island. Our boys had thrown up a new walk in freezer
for a small store, which does a brisk business on that end of
the island as it's nothing but beachhouses and beachhouse
community's and little else. I went to do the control wire in,
evacuate the system and then start it up. There's a local guy
that does the service for these folks, but doesn't do heavy
lifting like installs. We've done a lot of work over the last
couple of years, insofar as replacing old cases and such. I
really like the owner of the store..he's an old guy like me. He
bought a gas station here back in the early 80's and built up a
small, but full service supermarket around it. It's got it all,
fresh meats, seafood and produce, dry groceries, frozen
foods...COLD BEER. Just in a small amount of square footage.
Beach goods of course. Souvenirs, boogie boards...You know the
stuff. There's a nice little cafe next to the place, with decent
fare. Done lunch there several times. Like the natives down
there just fine. Beach people...Easy going, always ready for a
laugh, no pretense.
I like the drive to the store, coming from the west anyway. From
Freeport, the only route is along the Blue Coast Highway. Which
is a fancy name for a two lane road that hugs the coast. But
it's scenic if you like the green waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
I do not like the ride back to Houston however. First, it's a
long haul down Seawall Boulevard, then 61st street and slog
through the uninteresting part of the Island to get to
I-45..Then across the causeway and fight the awful traffic to
get to Beltway 8, then the awful traffic on Beltway 8 to I-10,
then the awful traffic on I-10 to get home....2+ hours in
total...So Thursday sucked.
Friday...Different story. Had an early call to Navasota.
Now...Navasota is a little burg, NW of me. Navasota is,
literally, 5 times as far away from my house as our office
is..........BUT...I can get to Navasota quicker than I can get
to my office in the morning...Sad...But i was done by 9AM.
Everybody else was leaving to go on service calls when I got
through. So, not in a hurry to hit the traffic going into
Houston...WTF...I went to a little Taqueria in Navasota and had
me a nice little breakfast of egg and chorizo tacos, washed down
with some damn fine coffee.
Stopped on the way back to town at the Dickey's store and
ordered what will probably be my last full set of work pants.
Got some Cargo models, with some big extra pockets for my fancy
new smart phone. Ha!
Made it back in to the office at like 1:30....Did some paper
work, called a couple of customers...Chatted up the Office
Gal...Quite pleasant. Just her and I. The other guys rolled in
between 4 and 4:30. Caught up a bit on the week and the week
ahead. Traffic was light coming home. Came home. Cooked pork
chops, some nice red potatoes and green beans for the family.
Wife's back giving her hell today. No meds until Sunday.. :-[
Got her comfortable in bed, with one of her fave movies in the
DVD player.
And now...relaxing with a scotch and running my mouth off here
to my buddies.
And that's cool. Cause I run this joint. And like everyone else
here...I can talk as long as I want...About anything I want...
;D
I'm sure if I've bored anyone here, they'll tell me to
shuttup...And I'll politely ignore them.... ;D
#Post#: 3491--------------------------------------------------
Re: Hot Damn!
DIR By: guest11
Date: April 21, 2019, 8:25 am
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Ya know, AJ, sometimes I miss working!It can suck, for sure, but
at least you can feel like you're doing something useful.
Paychecks have their fine points too.
Lately I'm staying as busy as I can trying to get ready for this
year's growing season. Got a lot of outside work to do but it's
been very wet lately so that's falling way behind. Sunny and mid
to upper 60s forecast today, but the ground is totally saturated
so I doubt I'll be able to do much.
Started a bunch of plants from seed in the house in late March.
Mostly beans, several varieties---a few other things. Germinated
pinto, black, kidney, garbanzo beans and green lentils from the
grocery store. They're growing! Plus many varieties from Seed
Savers Exchange. Alaska, Little Marvel and sugar snap peas.
Lemon Drop (cherry-size) maters.
Just changed over from T5 fluorescent lighting to HID metal
halide ballasted lighting. All is growing very well. Good thing
I kept some of my indoor growing equipment 8)
#Post#: 3492--------------------------------------------------
Re: Hot Damn!
DIR By: AJ
Date: April 21, 2019, 10:56 am
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I wrote and recorded a song with "Garbanzo Bean" in it several
years ago.
HTML https://soundcloud.com/alamojoe/bob-dylans-nose
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