another day has passed

After seeing Judy and Trinity off for Portland very early, I managed a little sleep the rest of the night (it is hard to sleep when she is not next to me) and drove into the restaurant around 9:30 with my grandson in tow.

I found one of the cooks out back and he looked quite hot. "Everything OK?", I asked. "It is suffocating in that kitchen", he said, "I don't think the main fan is working." I wondered why in the world someone hadn't called me....I mean the cook on the line was to new but any of the others should have in the least. With his help, I climbed up on the roof and fixed the fan belt on the exhaust fan and handled that somewhat messy problem quite quickly.

As I walked into the main part of the diner, someone handed me my dvd player. The swing crew the night before had knocked it off of the pie case and broke it. I pulled the one from the back room up and it didn't want to work. So...I opened the back up that I had just bought from Walmart and it wouldn't work either. frustrated, I gave up and decided to stop by a shop later and pick one up.

I called the insurance company for my house who had sent me a cancellation notice the day before to apologize for the over looked bill that was probably somewhere on my desk...who knows where...I do remember seeing it. After going through the automated system and having it hang up on my twice, I finally got a person but didn't realize that the main room had filled up and had to truncate the call to help out on the floor.

People were sitting at dirty tables quicker than I could buss and I am pretty fast. To top that off, some of the food was not going out as fast as I wanted it too and I am sure that my frustration was showing. Looking at one ticket, I saw no drinks and the word "Marion berry", just written in the middle. When I finally got the waitresses attention, she said...."oh, yea, do we have any marionberry pie.". "I am sure that we do, but I will check." I found a Marionberry pie and brought it back to cut it. "Oh, no!", she cried, "Don't cut it yet, I am not sure if they want any." I took the pie back and began setting up plates on the pass bar. A few minutes later, I heard, "Have you cut that pie yet. These people are waiting on it." With dropped shoulders, I went back and retrieved the pie and cut off a slice.

By now, it was 11:30 and I had to get ready to take Jayden to soccer camp. In the mean time, I had emailing back and forth with Shelly (the movie producer). I was trying to get a second show for Thursday as the first one had sold out just hours after the paper hit the stand on Saturday. She was not able to get ahold of the person from McMenamins. Having not eaten anything yet (wait a minute, don't I work in a diner?!), I scooped up a bowl of Jimmy's Beef Stew off of the buffet and heading towards the counter, was stopped by the cashier who had a paper in her hand. One of the dishwashers wanted a $50 draw. "Not till I can be assured that she has it coming.", I remarked. Then I sat down and wolfed down the stew while discussing the situation with Jimmy. He was going to give her the draw whether or not she had it coming or not because he said he needed her to work. I started to lecture that most other places don't give draws at all but just ended up saying that I was not going to give anything that had not already been earned. Before I could find out the info, he had given her fifty from his wallet. My time was up and I quickly grabbed up the grandson and off to camp.

After dropping him off, I drove down to Mcmenamins and they gave me the cell number of the manager that we needed to talk to. I was able to reach him and discover that their was no chance for anymore shows on Thursday night. Maybe in the future but not at this time. Disappointed, I called the cashier up to have her start calling the names on the list and letting them know that their would only be one show. She had over 70 on the list by now and there were many more who said that they would be coming in early to get a seat in the first show.

I started her calling the people and letting them know. As I talked to her three or four groups and individuals came in for tickets. The cashier told me that this was the way it was all day. An email from Shelly said that she was sure that there will be enough room, but I was looking at many more people than tickets. At one time in the afternoon, I talked to three groups at the same time. One of them was close friends with Shelly's grandparents and had known her since she was a child.

The next few hours flew by and before I knew it, it was time to pick up Jayden from Soccer camp. I picked him up and drove to BiMart to look for a cheap dvd player. I found what I thought would work but all of their dvd players were up on the top shelf. I went over to the desk to find a lady deep in conversation on the phone. She turned away from me as I approached so I figured it was up to me to get the player. They were right above the TV displays. I checked to lower shelf and it was stable and I tried stepping on it and reaching one of the players. They were packed too tight but one was a jar off to the left so I shifted my foot that direction. Unfortunately, the bottom shelf did not go all the way to the wall. It broke off and they had a unstable shelf holding up their largest 30plus inch normal big heavy bulky set. The shelf came forward, my foot slipped off and the set came down on my toe. Smoke poured out of the back of the set and employees were there in seconds. (I guess that is one way to get help). The phone talker got off of the phone and immediately got the ladder out. "All I wanted was a dvd player", I explained. Fortunately, they didn't charge me for the busted TV and I said nothing about my bruised toe (still hurts). I left BiMart with a little less pride however.

I took my dvd player that had boldly written on it that it worked with jpeg pictures of which was all I wanted it for. I hooked it up in the diner and turned it on. It would show pictures but only if they were in one file and since mine are in many files to organize them, I quickly saw that this would not work.

Barb (swing cashier) was on by now and in one of her rare moods. She began complaining that their were not enough tickets for all to see. "I know", was all I could say. "Something needs to be done.", she said. "I know", I returned. "There is a ticket left in the envelope with a mans name on it.", she said. "I know", I explained. "There is no number on it to call him.", she said. "I know"..."Your wife did that." she informed. "I know"...this time, I retreated and walked away.

Later as I walked by her station, I noticed that the cinnamon rolls had not been wrapped yet. "Hey Barb, remember to wrap the cinnamon rolls.", I told her. She threw her arms up in the air. "I don't have time for it this instant!", she complained. "Ok, when you get the chance.", I calmly countered. "I Know!" she states, "I never forget to wrap them!", she angrily complains. I remind myself to stay out of her way figuring that it must be that time of the month or something.

I remember Jay having one just like the one that was busted so we went to his house and swapped out with him. Jay had been playing in the backroom while I ran out to my house to try out a old dvd player that I had there. Coming back in to the diner, the waitresses were busy and I started to tell Barb that Jay and I would be back shortly but decided that I would be better off just going.

After retrieving the dvd player from his house. I get a phone call from a waitress in somewhat of a panic. "Do you have Jay with you!", she said, "We cannot find him." I then realized that I should have told someone...anyone that I had picked him up. The whole place was in a panic looking for him. Arriving back at the diner, we put up his dvd player and it worked....problem finally solved.


But now the afternoon was gone and it was time to take Jay to soccer practice. I took him down to the field on the south side of town and called his mom to let him know that he was there and when to pick him up. I was looking forward to a very rare occurrence. The house to myself all evening long. I had the night planned out in my head. A good movie, a little Chinese, and a cold beer. I figured I would probably fall asleep on the couch before the movie finished.

My daughter answered but informed me that she had class that evening and that she had worked it out with me weeks ago for me to watch Jay. Dejected, I ran a couple of quick errands including taking the dvd player back to Walmart. I then returned and picked up Jay from practice.

Meanwhile Barb calls me to inform me that the dvd player is messing up and that one of the customers in upset because he thought I was going to save him a couple of tickets. I called a friend who I thought had bought too many tickets and he had a couple to spare. "I was going to scalp them outside.", he joked.

Jay and I decided to make a night of it and plan a sleep over. We picked up pizza, Root Beer, and a movie. Neither one of us made it through the movie. He is now asleep on cushions on the floor and me...well you can see where I am at. Just trying to wind down after another typical day at the diner.

BTW, the cashiers felt that there were a couple hundred people asking for tickets....the dvd player was working the last I looked at it ...and I got my insurance paid sometime during the day, I think.

gnight