Christmas Train Wreck

[jhiggins]

Rant on

Well today is our scheduled pot-luck luncheon. Usually the Cambodian girls bring in curried dishes and huge heaping platters of spring rolls. The Greek ladies bring in spanikopitas and baklava. There's lots of food. Casseroles, stews, chili, beans, gosh there was even fondue!

Did I get any? Well... yes. LEFTOVERS!

We have four machines that encode the little account numbers on the bottom of your check. One has been down all week, pending parts. Then today, RIGHT BEFORE LUNCH, the other THREE all crap the bed. I have been scurrying about feverishly all dang day! I feel like the whack-a-mole, and my boss is wielding the mallet.

To top it all off, the OEM company that supports parts for these machines is off for the next two weeks.

So guess who has to spend their weekend making parts for these?

Least I get paid for it, but I can't help grumbling about it.

Rant off.

Do I have a moral to this story? Yes I do. Baked beans, hot or cold still produce the same deleterious effect. Now all I need is some Maalox before tonights festivities at home.

Peace on Earth, and good will to you all!

 

[indian george]

Yes, there is a god. When we were up to our butts in snow and you where Basking in the Sun of the Caribbean. So Suffer.

 

[RokJok]

And God did look upon the metalworker there
breathing the pure and rarified air
and thought "I shall show him how much I care
by removing from him the time he calls spare."

So, though the tables were loaded to breaking,
He did set the machines to terrible shaking
so the worker's heart in his chest started quaking
at the din and racket that they were making.

As the appetizers started on their scheduled rounds,
the suffering presses redoubled their roaring sounds
with parts scattering across concrete floors in quick rebounds
to gather in remotest corner shadows in tumbled mounds.

The plates were passed with their overflowing serving
as the press's back sagged in its defeated curving
and the worker saw his holiday time off, so deserving,
disappearing in the smoke and din so unnerving.

And as the plates were scraped and polished clean,
the dutiful worker toiled in the belly of his machine
with thoughts how his God must surely be mean
to make him miss the meal only peripherally seen.

But for our working man, let us shed not a lonesome tear
though he missed the festive gathering that was held so near
that he could smell the culinary fantasies oh-so-clear.
For his overtime stocked his shop at the turning of the year.
--------------

Merry Christmas to you all.
-- Greg --

 

[John Andrews]

I and several other officers are working regular work schedules this week and next, but we had 25 POUNDS of great roast beef catered in to us, plus a huge potluck tossed in. I am gonna get fat! We have enough to eat for several days, so we are making the best of it. Just load up a plate, nuke for 2 minutes, gorge, and go back on patrol. The installation is DEAD over the holidays, except for a few hunters. So, no details, just boring patrol duty and eat, eat, eat. Next week, same thing, but I think we will have to get something else catered in, or maybe, fried squirrel?