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.

concerns and a neat experience

I have tried not to offend anyone here. I have really tried hard not to mention to much information on here. I am sure that I have not brought up the company name that I work for. I have not said any of the peoples names that I work with either, to keep some confidentiality. But, I will say that this is a blog and I will write about my experiences good or bad to form a journal of my experiences for the future.
My wife's wrist operation went well, with no hitches. If she doesn't lift anything too heavy or use it too much the pains ok. We both have follow-up appointments with the hand/wrist doctor on Thursday and I think for the first time ever we both meet with the same doctor about different things. Our appointments are at the same time too.
I had an unusual experience this week with the fire department. We went to a car accident during a snow storm in the early evening. I was one of the first department personal there and after inquiring with the patient about her well-being, we helped her out of the broken out back window of her car that was on its side. When she got out of the car and realized who was helping her, she gave me a big hug and said how glad she was that I was all right!!!! She was the one just getting out of a wrecked car, wasn't she. I told her the same thing I have told alot of people,"I am glad to be here to tell you I'm doing fine "and are you sure you're ok?

wrist work

The event this week is that Carole is getting her wrist operated on. The tendons are apparently rubbing on each other and are not supposed to be. The same
Doctor that worked on my finger will work on her wrist. A couple of hours, more or less on Monday and I hope her pain might go away. We will see what Monday brings. I set up a meeting with my Manager near by, during the time she's in the operating room, instead of setting in the waiting room.
Last was a challenging year for our team. We were significantly under budget for the year, but for several months during the year we were short on people... For many weeks our team members worked without days off. These were not just because of my situation, but we also had a member out for back surgery in May. There were no extra people in the system to fill in, so they more or less had to suck in up and keep working. Two new fellows were hired, but it was too late in the year to have an impact on our dollars of sales for the year. Unfortunately, I feel that there was some grief that came down on our manager and now that we have plenty of people and its a new year, that grief is coming down further. Fortunately, for us we had a good January and February is coming along ok. Our team is a good bunch of guys that work hard and I wish they didn't have to read between the lines. Right at the moment, we have one team member on vacation for a couple of weeks and we will have to work around it.

Nurse practicioner

Well, it's been an interesting few days, with a couple of highlights that I will relate here. Earlier this week, I scheduled myself an OSHA physcal for the fire department. Everyone has to have one, but there are different amounts of time when you need to redo them depending on how old you are. They came to the fire station a few weeks ago and did a bunch of people there, but I had to work that day and couldn't make it. There is a fairly long personal history page that you have to fill out ahead time, that I had them send to me so I could mull over the answers at home and not in a waiting room. I didn't answer a few questions because I wasn't exactly sure what to put down,ie;"have you ever had a seisure?" They said I had one shortly after I hit the ground, but just one and I wanted to talk to someone about my answer. The person who did the physcial was a nurse practicioner who was a middle aged man. I passed the physcal part just fine and during so, we were just talking and he asked me how I felt. I said "fine", well he said I would feel better than today in a year+ from now. I asked him what he meant and he related a college experience to me. He said that while in college he was on the boxing team and ended up in the hospital from numerious head shots. I think he said that he was out for part of a day. He said that one day after a period of time, he just noticed that some things were not bothering him any more. He hadn't noticed, but they just weren't. It was nice to talk to someone else that had a positive experience. I guess the brain is just one part of your body and it might get injuried, like any other part. I know, it just so happens that it controls all the rest of the parts. I was thinking, my tag line should be "don't hit your head".