pyratwilly

Journal for this day past, the 18th of June, in this foul year of Our Lord 2003 anno domini.

So just as things seem to be rolling along at a nice even pace, however slow that pace may be - shit comes to a grinding halt.

I had a relatively horrific day yesterday by my own standards.

First at work- I worked the long shift (10pm to 12 noon) and of course, I'm still training the new guy. Except at this point, I've got nothing left to train him on. The majority of nights, my job is maybe a maximum of 6 hours of actual work, even though I'm there for 11 or 14 hours. So I figure, this putz has been watching me do what I do for the last 2 nights, go on, pitch in and lend a hand. No. He watches me. I actually have a significant amount of work to do, due to the intake of a new resident, and standard paperwork that's been piling up for a week. And I've taught him how to do all this- but no, he decides to follow me like a puppy dog and watch everything I do. By the end of the night I wanted to scream, "Either give me a hand, or get the fuck out- because there's no way we should be paying you for watching me doing my job any longer when you could be (and should be) helping. You're going to have to do this on your own in 2 days, let's see how you do!" Oh yeah by the by- so far this guy has messed up everything he's touched. AND- he can't even read his damn email because he's so computer illiterate that I had to explain the mastery behind the concepts of "double-click" and "caps-lock vs. shift". I'm sorry, but if your resume says "computer literate" on it (and his does) you ought to be able to operate Outlook with little to no help. This guy can't even get past the username password screen. We also got a new kid yesterday as I mentioned above, and I feel really bad for him becuase I know he's going to have a rough time and probably hurt someone. The lowdown is that he weighs probably 250lbs, has Tourette's Syndrome, and an IQ of 75. His main issue is anger management, and his main anger trigger is being made fun of for the head and arm tics that are caused by his Tourette's, and the occasional blurted (accidental) swear word. And who better to make fun of him for having Tourette's than a bunch of anti-social kids? It's only a matter of time now before some kid sets him off and if it's one of the little ones, he'll crush them. It's going to take at least 2 or 3 of us just to restrain him. Sigh. This will set the tone for the rest of the day. Sic passim.

After work I go have lunch. Uneventful, food was as I expected, (sports bar) and I ate alone.

After lunch I decide it's time to go to the grocery store. On my way, (ironically enough) just as I'm passing what has to be the sleaziest car dealership in town who's having a ONCE IN A LIFETIME MEGA SUPER ULTRA OPPORTUNITY SALE!!! THIS WEEKEND ONLY!!!! I hear a pop and my check engine light comes on, and I lose power steering. I manage to navigate the now crippled Pyrat ship to the driveway of this dealership and before I can so much as put it in park, there's a salesman knocking on my window asking what I'm looking for today. Long story short, by the time the tow truck shows up to take me to the service guys I trust, he's already about half way through selling me a 2001 Accord- very nice, but about $20,000 (by his shyster estimate) more than I can afford. Fucker.

The day turns up on the ride to the service place, the tow truck driver was really cool. He threatened to shoot the car dealership guy if he didn't stop running alongside the truck trying to talk to me. I need to get into the business of repossessing cars. That dude makes like $300 per car! And you could do like maybe 6-8 cars a night! Not to mention it's an easy way to get a permit for concealed carry handguns. Yeeaaahhh. Picture Pyrat with a Desert Eagle. Bad news...

At the service place I'm waiting for them to figure it out. I'm watching Crossfire on CNN which is ok because the left dude is decimating the right dude. I need a shower, I've been awake for 22 hours at this point, and it's like 95 and humid outside. The service guy informs me that it took them $125 so far to find out what was wrong - a belt came off, and some bolts holding my power steering pump to the engine block came out and sheared off clean with the block. So now we have to drill the block to get the bolts out, replace the bolts, and the belt, and see if that's all that's wrong, or if there's more. So far we're looking at something like a minimum of probably somewhere between $250-$300. And infinite possibility for skyrocketing from there. Damn. The only good news in this is that my Dad is the coolest man on the earth and has agreed to cover this for me so I can still go to Portland, and if the car gets too expensive, then instead of selling my sister's car, I'll just take it. That's cool to still have a car, but man would I hate to be the guy driving a Neon. I'm a mean-ass Pyrat! (in a Neon). I think Coop stickers would refuse to adhere to the Neon. Probably my TooL stickers too. Hopefully it doesn't cost too much to fix the Pyrat ship and all goes on as planned.

Then I go home and go to sleep - sic itur ad astra.

As to today- my car's still at the service place and I'm waiting for them to call. I've got today off. Then I work the whole weekend straight. But it's the last weekend I work. Ever. And yesterday was the last 14 hour shift ever. At least, 14 hour SCHEDULED shift. Oh yeah, and I'm going to screen my calls, because I know that car dealer's going to call this afternoon.

I'm going to enjoy my day off now. Sic Semper Car Dealer!