Guard your virgin ears, rant time

Normally I don't post about work unless I can put a funny bend to the story.  I'm gonna have to force myself today.  I won't go into all the gory details, but let me put it this way.  At 9 AM, I went into the boss's office and said, "Y'know, I put up with crap at Arden for 15 years before I came here, and I didn't think this job could EVER destroy my morale to a point where I'd want to give up..."


And it got WORSE from there.


What could make a day that bad?  Well, say you were interested in buying an expensive used car.  What is the first thing you'd do- have your mechanic look it over, right?  So we bought a used cutter- actually, we just got the Missouri plant's hand me down.  Did we get it looked over?  No.  Why?  Because a warrantee plan with the manufacturer was "too expensive".

Shouldn't be a problem though, if:

-our fellow plant lets us know upon starting this plan that we should order a new belt;
-our fellow plant advises us before hand that it has some "issues" and what they do to overcome them.

Wanna take a guess at how much of this actually occurred?  They put a sticky note on the machine with a smiley face sticking its tongue out.  That's how much.

We have been busting it helping them get stocked up for a customer who STILL managed to order them clear into OT and full-day Saturdays, and that's the thanks we got.  My sympathies for them are now minimal and eroding.

So here we have this machine, of which I just saw a similar by the same manufacturer tipping the scales at $90K, and its ability to work the last three days have ranged from DOA to sporadic at best.  They had to get a manufacturer tech in yesterday- and we spent approximately 8 months of my pay JUST on parts, and this morning it was doing. The. Same. Thing.

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With that- although I could add MUCH more- we will leave this sad tale (which BTW included me forgetting my lunch and the snack machine eating my dollar and jamming, thank you), and move on to why I decided to have Laurie drive us to Shoaff Park for a quick walk rather than availing myself of our own lovely wood.

Yesterday, in a similar vein of mind, we took a walk only to see half the Rivergreenway trail occupied by YET ANOTHER tree service cutting down YET MORE trees.  So let me just clarify with the subspecies of allegedly intelligent life that orders these actions- You actively WANT this stretch of "soon to be improved" (lol) Rivergreenway trail to erode and fall into the canal, just like the other end of it is slowly heading for a trip into the river.  Because what could be nicer than playing soccer in a culvert-ridden, sloppy economy-sized ditch?  Or is it that socceristas just don't LIKE trees?  Not of a mind to watch the game underneath the shade-giving boughs on a hot day?


No, I'll tell you what it is.  As I have explained before, IPFW thought expansion was the golden goose that would put them on the map, but it didn't.  They got overextended, and now they have to cut expenses where ever they can.  And a BIG expense they're cutting down is insurance.  That's why they dropped the heavily attended Riverfest; that's why they gave up the Independence Day fireworks show.  I'm betting it explains how they lost the Shindigz soccer festival to St Francis (another HUGE draw), and I believe it rang the death knell on the trees.  Why, you ask?

When we had the Big Wind Storm a few summers back, a lot of trees around here came down.  The next fall, our complex was cutting down big healthy trees in our yards- only reason for it had to be anything which had better than an N % chance of falling and damaging a building had to go.

Same thing here.  Cutting the trees along the Plex parking lots reduces insurance risks.  Cutting the lilac bushes along the north end of the greenway trail?  The brush at the edge of the woods by the soccer fields?  Can't have that, some reprobate might jump out and rob or rape somebody.  So why do it in stages?  If you know the end result is going to be a collection of 100' X 50' strips of grass surrounded by pavement and streetlights, just go for it.


So, Laurie, there's the trigger for my depression last night.  And maybe when the frustration and anger from work dissipates, I'll get back to it.