July the Fourth- and Fifth

So, a little more 4th of July before I tell you about a simply wonderful return to work.

A beautiful night as we headed off to our observation spot

So, today was, as I told Laurie, "an amusing collection of never-ending minor disasters".  After getting through the usual crap to "start" a week- like extremely slow computer response from our fabric issuing system, three attempts needed to fire up the cutter computer, changing a worn blade for one that really wasn't much better-  we started reaping the whirlwind of picking up a bunch of the crap Missouri is too incompetent  is too overloaded to do.  First, I was given a cover that I could not tell who the customer was on- which is not a good thing when it needs a heat transfer label (AKA customer logo) put on it.  We eventually determined that it was an offshoot of another one of their customers, and of course we didn't have the logos in house.  This realization was followed within moments by another cover from the same outfit.  And not only, like the first, did it refuse to even scan INTO the issuing screen, but it had no less than 3 different markers on the system- and I had no idea which one they wanted.  And they wanted it in our ungodly blood red, which I describe as, "This is one that the wife orders, and the husband opens the box and asks what the hell is wrong with her."

Meanwhile, my partner over at the Haney had another one that wouldn't scan- and it was because of a unique twist on an old problem.  You see, sometimes we have to add non-woven patches (think fuzzy tissue paper) or fabric patches (which could be on the main marker except MO wastes so much fabric they put them on separate markers to cut out of their scrap), or even vinyl patches.  These will appear on the system as A markers (main body), B markers (non-woven), or C markers (patch or vinyl).  Well, this thing had A,B,C, and D markers- a main body, a set of similar-but-smaller panels, a logo panel BY ITSELF, and two fabric patches.  Needless to say, our bosses provided no explanation because THEY had no idea what was going on.

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The moon kept watch on us

During the day, with traffic on the Plex road, he tries hard to walk on the road.  At night with the gates closed, no, let me walk as far away as possible.

Holy streaking lightning bug, Batman!

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So it turned out that this new "innovation" was a new, TWO-TONED cover, with smaller panels to be sewn on top of bigger ones.  And guess what?  The second "tone" fabric was- all together now- not in house.

Then our one competent canopy sewer got pissed off at our packer and apparently quit.

Then we got a list a page long, but only four marked covers had to be done.  We were told they were SmokerCraft covers, and our floor boss gave the non-woven and vinyl to my partner to do.  But it turned out NONE of them were Smoker, and one of them wasn't on the system at all.  After getting the big boss, we found it actually was an ancient cover belonging to (our biggest customer), a design that we call a "whale".  And whales were mostly designed back in the day when somebody thought it was a good idea to use a description as a name rather than an item number- which is why it didn't show up.  So I asked the office to get me the descriptor so I could find it, and they did  Instead of the simple 33563A, it was S200-ERP-2012.  And IT wasn't on the system either.

Also, my partner got several of these hand me down markers that for whatever reason turned the marker on our screen from what should have been a simple rectangle with a couple of lines drawn for patches into a virtual porcupine with tons of lines that, as it turned out, neither drew nor cut.  But we couldn't tell that from our end.

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Scrappy at our chosen observation point, just south of the Alumni pond.

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Yes, there was more, but you get the idea.  So let's get back to this fireworks thing.  Actually, there were shows going on at the same time and after at virtually all points of the compass.  Just to the southeast, on Coliseum Blvd East;  one on St Joe just a bit more north, along with another far to the north; due west on the other side of the Holiday Inn, in the addition south of Dwenger, I imagine; at least two great displays from our neighbors in Woodlands of Riverside or Papermill Bluffs; a couple of shots that were definitely in the Fart University parking lot (and thus verboten under PFW's "do not offend the insurance gods" policy); and an awesome fusillade of mortar blasts that were either PFW north or Canterbury Green.  And with the exception of the sound-only Canterbury side, ALL of them were as good or better than the official show- until you get to the  grand finale:





And believe it or not, there in the pitch (except for the moon) darkness, we had a bicycler go by.  And just before the grand finale, something ran into the grass by the south canal, and scared the crap out of both of us.  And I poured flavored water into my shoe.  All in all, another fabulous Fourth.