making a schedule that works

Well, the mountain is done for another year. Today was the last day of a good season. There is still plenty of snow on the mountain, but it is hard to interest people in going skiing at a smaller mountain when people have green/brown lawns in the city. I know for them is costs a bunch of money to turn everything on and its hard to have employees sporadically. They had 100 plus days which for them constitutes a good season. The owner has a vacation planned too, soon.
On the work stage, we are a trying to head off a crisis before it happens. As I mentioned in the last blog, our team is one employee shorter, and another is going to get his hernia operated on this week. He will be out on disability for 2-3 weeks. And we have to began sharing ??? with another team for a few months, another guy that we have been using. He, though, got hired a few months ago as a rover type person and the change will be good for him. We contacted a couple of part-time people, who would be happy to help out for the money and we're lucky that they're available. So, this week we're going to try to put a schedule together for next month. I hope that we can cover the service, have days off and still do sales. After last week, our team's overall morale is not great, the team cohesiveness is just not there. I think a good team get together and a schedule that works should help.... I'll let ya know.

Greif and death

That's kind of a morbid title I know, but it will work I guess. We had a team member of ours, a work mate, pass away on Wednesday evening this week. He was in his mid fifties. He had gone into the hospital on Monday, I think, and Wednesday evening he was no longer with us.... The doctors didn't even think that he was going to make it through Tues night, but they hoped he might become more stable to move to a bigger hospital. But that never happened. I worked with the guy and went to a meeting with him on Friday last week. I didn't sleep very good Wednesday night and I kept pondering how life can change in moment and how you don't know what tomorrow, tonight or a couple of minutes from now will bring. To me this situation just reinerate's this. I'm sure that on the weekend he wasn't thinking about spending time in the hospital. I know in the morning on September 25th I wasn't clued in at all to what the afternoon might bring or the weeks to follow. Ya just don't know....
Our manager said he was going to stop taking team pictures, no matter how good they were. After the last three, someone has gotten hurt, died or left the company. Those certainly are not very good odds, I guess. Our labor force is a bit better right now compared to in the fall, so I suppose we will make do. The jury is still out on that one.. For the mental well-being of the group we will keep our eyes and ears open to see if their might be somebody new out there.
This gentleman, I know, was concerned about me when my life status was unknown and I am doing my best to do the right things for him. So Dennis, we are going to keep going forward today and in the future. And its been a pleasure knowing and working with you. Later.................

meetings

It was a busy week.....but now it's over and it went fine. It's always a good thing when you tie up a bunch of unfinished business. Yes, I generated a few new work jobs, but yes I can handle them. I have enough contacts in the company, so in theory I don't need to go it alone and even if I do there's lots of support.
One of the important meetings I was in this week, I felt I made a good impression. That's sort of a self promoting statement I know, but. It was a meeting that I was invited to participate in with the movers and shakers of that farm including a couple of bankers and the nutritionist. I presented an evaluation of the numbers from their cow database and I was able to show numbers to support my position. It was a good feeling to do a good job. The people who where involved will be involved in projects in the future.
I did the sking thing today and it was good. Now that the season is winding down I am feeling better about being there. It still tires me out sooner than it used to, but that's just time. On to another week.

computers

Well, stuff changes. I've got really used to the laptop that our company gave me to use, but like me it had a few quirks. The battery didn't last very long, it had a key that was only sometimes connected to the keyboard and most important the hinge on the screen side of the computer broke. I don't know why, but it broke. It still opened, if I was careful, but it was time for them to change it out. Fortunately I live close enough to the service center, so on my day off I went there and they swapped them. They moved the files over and a few are in different places, but so far I haven't not found anything that's not there. That's kinda funny, I haven't found anything that's not there? This one's got a bigger screen and it doesn't seen to have any quirks! I asked my wife if that would work on me too. If she just brings me to a service center and they will switch me for a new model with no quirks. LOL Well, I am going to start some physical therapy on my pinkie this afternoon. The doctor is already happy about the movement I have in the last joint. He was not very confident after he pulled out the pin, because it had been out of joint for 3 months. I think I am going to get four visits. But everything takes time.