Bleh

NOTE: Fiwa clued me into the fact that if you take down a post it still shows in Google Reader. I took this down last night because it was so negative. Also when Jay commented he didn't razz me so I knew it must really be bad and I do love to get razzed by Jay.


Bleh. It's a good word for my day. Woke up with a medium size headache that will only stay at bay with ample Tylenol. Annoying.

The major frustration of the day is my weakest tech. He's a total slacker and coming from me that saying alot. The guys been out sick for most of the month. He's got serious health issues. That wouldn't be so serious if he'd take care of himself. He takes his high blood pressure meds. sporadically and then he's surprised when it puts him into a tail spin. He's on meds for anxiety as well. He's been EKG'd twice in the last two weeks now and the Doc's have found an 'abnormality'. I have no idea what that means.

He's called in a few times this week wanting to go to work as he's running out of money. I've already paid out all his vaca time. He's sounded so whacked out I said there was nothing to do. I don't even want him in our van in that kinda shape. He called yesterday literally in tears because he's broke and wants to work. He was talking like he had a mouthful of marbles. I told him to come in this morning and he could ride with the junior tech and help out. Basically making up work for him.

He no-showed.

I called him at 1/4 after 8:00 and woke him up. He sounded completely strung out. I lost it. I'm not proud of what I said. I want to just go pick up his van because I don't want it in his possession. The problem is he's relative of a family friend of our business partners. We've been down this road so many times it's ridiculous.

If I could find a good replacement I'd insist we fire him. I've been looking online myself and had agencies looking for months (we do HVAC if ANYONE knows ANYONE) no luck so far. I'm just sick of dealing with it.

It's been kinda a shitty day for a few of us. Some of my nearest and dearest bloggers have been having a pretty crappy Thursday as well.

Pity party, table of ?

I got a service call from a cafe that's a tenant of one of our big customers. He called this morning at opening, to say their exhaust fans weren't working. Which would mean they wouldn't be able to stay open. We all eat there frequently and know him well. I pulled Jr. tech. off the job he was on and sent him over. It was fixed in about an hour. The bill came to $112.00. After Jr. left the manager of the cafe called me and asked if he could make payments on the bill. It kinda set me back on my heels. This is a going little concern and he's that strapped ? Things really are getting tight out there. I told him to just open a tab for our guys and let them eat it off. I felt so bad for him.

Alright - that's enough of that. Before I sat down to write this (read: dump this on you dear reader) I was trying to focus on the positive.

I came up the road below our house after work and found the normal gaggle of neighbor kids playing in the street. As collected the mail and newspaper they came running asking if they could come play with the goats and chickens. They are the most beautiful, smiling youngsters. Well mannered and bright. It makes me a bit nervous having them up here with out their folks. I've tried talking to the parents before but their Ethiopian immigrants with limited English. They tend to smile and agree a lot. I don't think they have a clue what I'm saying. I've told the kids no before because I'm concerned about the liability if they got hurt up here. Tonight I needed their bright shiny faces. It did help my spirits a lot.

So maybe that was the ying and yang of the day. I'll just focus on that.