Tales from the Workplace, Trucking Edition, Part XII

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I am posting stories from my job, because I think they're funny.  I've done my best to disguise my company name, even the industry, and to keep the people I write about and even some details of the situation anonymous.  If you know me, and know where I work, please don't include details in your comments.  I'll have to delete your comment and reconsider posting these stories.
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We've incurred charges from trucking companies for "helping" to unload our trucks before.  Apparently, the drivers get a little extra pay for this, so they can be pushy and/or disingenuous about this service when talking to our customers, and make it sound like since they're standing around anyway, they'd be happy to help unload.  Then we get a surprise fee on our freight bill.

So we added a note to our bills of lading, right above where the driver signs to accept the load, saying that they are NOT to load, unload, or handle our product at all.

Then the other day, we get an invoice that has an unloading fee on it.  I called the freight company, and the billing person said that her supervisor wouldn't let her write off that charge, since the customer signed for it.  Sure enough, on the bill of lading, just above our note about the driver NOT being allowed to unload, someone had hand-written "driver unload" and signed.  

I asked to speak with the billing supervisor, and told her that whether the customer signed off on it or not was moot--their contract is with us, and our "contract" states that they may NOT unload.  Even if our BOL didn't have that note on it, they should be calling us to authorize any action that was going to add a fee to our bill, and especially since we DO have that note on there, they should have called (and, of course, didn't).  She did agree with that, and agreed to remove the charge, but suggested I call our customer anyway to figure out what happened, which I planned to do anyway.  At the very least, I was curious whether it was the driver's idea or the customer's.

So I called the customer and asked her what had happened that day, and she said she honestly couldn't remember.  But she was surprised that they (the customer) were supposed to unload the load themselves.  Now, we do have two types of customers--private customers that can afford to buy an entire truckload of our product at once, and stores that resell it to private customers who can't (or would rather not) buy an entire truckload.  This was a store.  Their entire business model is to buy and take delivery of large shipments and parcel them out to shoppers in smaller increments.  Weird that they feel it's not their job to handle these large loads.

So it's still not entirely clear whether she ASKED the driver for help, or he offered it, but she did take him up on it (though the driver never contacted us or his company, so that's on him).  I let her know that if she wanted the driver's help in the future, she'd need to let us know so we could authorize the freight company to authorize the driver to help, but that we'd be passing the charge along to her if she did request help.  

She said, "Fine, I'll pay the fee this time, but I won't be ordering again.  Your product is too..." now, what's an adjective I can use to stay anonymous?  The chocolate analogy doesn't really work here, but let's just say that she said the product is too brittle.  Softer is better, but of course the product can be TOO soft.  But in general, being too brittle is seen as a bad thing, industry-wide.  We have a few types of products, with varying degrees of brittleness, and at first I assumed she was complaining about the dark chocolate, as it does tend to be the most brittle.  But no, she was complaining about what she called "vanilla."  Now, we do sell white chocolate, but there wasn't any white chocolate in this load, so I was confused, but once I asked her the color of the packaging, I figured out that she was referring to our milk chocolate (not even close to "vanilla," but it (along with the white chocolate) is one of our SOFTEST (in a good way) products!  She said, "that's what your sales guy says, too [um, yeah, because it's a quantifiable thing, and we quantify it in two ways, both of which say it's nice and soft, but apparently you know better], but all I know is what my customers tell me, and I'm constantly having to take the stuff back because the customers say it's too brittle."  I said that's really odd, as our dark chocolate IS known for having that problem occasionally, but the milk chocolate she got (not white chocolate like she keeps saying) NEVER has that problem, and pretty much can't due to our manufacturing process.  She did say that the chocolate doesn't go to the usual type of customer our product goes to, but another type (let's say our typical customer is someone who's going to use it in candy, and she sells this product to ice cream people).  But still, brittle is brittle and soft is soft, and I don't know how they can say our milk chocolate is brittle, but whatever.  

So apparently my call about the unload fee was the straw the broke the camel's back on this unhappy customer, and we probably won't get any more orders from them.  Sounds like it's good riddance anyway, though.  Ugh.

Smith Rock

Shar has some new (and likely temporary, until they sell their current house and buy one nearby) boarders at her house, and they wanted to go for a ride today, so all four of us went for a ride today.  Shar asked if we were up for the Smith Rock loop, warning us that there was a "sketchy" piece of trail, and we'd have to cross the river twice.  Arya is NOT good at crossing water, but I said as long as Holly and Graham didn't mind a potential river-crossing lesson taking up a bit of time, that I was game for it.  Apparently they were, too, so we loaded up all our respective horses into our respective trailers, and made our way to the trailhead.

We tacked up and set off, and had to walk through a parking lot then along the road behind more parked cars to get to the trail.  We were about halfway through that experience when I realized Arya was doing GREAT.  We saw all sorts of people with all sorts of equipment, had cars moving past us a couple times, and saw a couple dogs, and she did great through it all.  Barely even blinked.  What a good girl!

We got to the trail, and it turns out it's the same trail most people walk down to get to the river and a lot of the climbing.  It was interesting taking our horses down the paved (first with asphalt, then with concrete) trail, with a bunch of tourists, but again, the horses did absolutely great.

Shar in front on Flash, then Holly on Ace (the grey horse, who is 24!), then Graham on Emma in front of me and Arya

We looped around on the trail at the bottom left of the photo

After a bit of walking along the river, we came to a sign that said "horses ford here."  So apparently we had to cross the river.  This is NOT Arya's strong suit.  I followed the horses in front of me right up to the edge of the river, but then Arya put on the brakes and said "Uh Uh."  I tried a time or two to get her lined up and pointed into the river, but by that point the other horses were most of the way across, so Shar said to just wait and she'd come back for us.

She did, and she suggested the same thing I'd been thinking--I hop off, and she would pony Arya into the water using the lead rope (I normally leave it behind, because I can use a the reins to clip to the halter if/when necessary, but we'd purposefully brought the rope along on this ride for just this reason).  I hopped off, she snugged Arya up on a pretty short rope, and headed toward the water.  She actually went in with very little coaxing!  Yay, Arya!  Shar circled back around toward me.  With the side she had Arya on, and the side of the river I was on, I was gonna have to mount up on the "wrong" side, if I was going to mount up while she was still in the water.  I've only done it once since getting Arya, and that was with the mounting block.  Arya was a bit lower than me (in the water, me on the bank), but not that much.  Plus she was a step or two away from me.  I tried, but couldn't get my foot in the stirrup at first.  Shar scooched Arya's butt over toward me, and I was able to, but it was still scary mounting up that way, knowing I could easily end up in the drink.  But it went fine, and I got on and even got my feet in the stirrups while Shar waited patiently for me to get situated.

She kept Arya on a short leash, and we headed across the river.  It wasn't very deep, but clearly had large round slippery rocks, as the horses would slip and stumble a bit once in a while.  Rather exciting, but it went fine.  Toward the other side, Arya put her head down toward the water a time or two, but I was worried about her wanting to roll, so I didn't let her drink.  I probably should have, in hindsight...

After a successful water crossing by all four horses, they got a bit of a break to graze (well, Ace and Emma got a LONG break since they crossed so well the first time!), then we were off down the trail again.  The trail was relatively level and smooth as it followed along the river, and there were a little bit fewer people, so we trotted a bit.  There were some low-hanging branches we had to avoid, though!  A tall girl on a tall horse is VERY glad she wears a helmet!  There was one branch so low I had to bend over all the way against her neck, and it still brushed my shoulder blades!

All along the trail, we kept meeting people, some with backpacks, some with dogs, and except for one dog that really wanted to chase the fun horsies (who Arya gave some side-eye to), she did great!  She looked and was curious, but I assured her I saw the strange humans, and we kept on going.  There was even a guy who was carrying folded-up pads on his back, a BIG cube-shaped package.  Ace was really curious about that, but once he sniffed and deemed it safe to pass, the others, including Arya, just went right on up the trail, no problem.

Then the trail started climbing and climbing.  We went up and up and up.  We came to a narrow stretch of trail with steep hills going up one side and down the other.  Then the narrow trail got steep itself.  And rocky.  There was a spot where the trail split--the uphill side was rocky, but more level, and the downhill side was smooth and flat-ish for a bit, but ended with a steep rocky climb back up to reach the main trail.  Shar had warned us to follow her on the uphill section, but Arya didn't listen, and I steered her too late, and we took the downhill section.  Climbing back up onto the main trail, my legs were so far back in order to maintain a vertical posture overall, and her hind legs were working so hard to climb the rock, that my heel made contact with her thigh or hind knee (stifle) or something.  Luckily not hard--I doubt she even noticed.  She was SUCH a trooper on that stretch of trail, and when I was over, I asked Shar if that had been the scary part she warned us of, and she said it was.  It really wasn't THAT bad, but probably because of all the hype, plus the fact we'd done other sidehill trails so I'd had some practice.  If she took me on that early on, I would have been MUCH more scared, for sure!

Soon after the scary stretch, the trail dumped out onto a double-track dirt road.  It was still really steep, and the horses were huffing and puffing, but it was much safer.  :-)  We rested the horses occasionally so they could catch their breath, and maybe so the humans could take some photos, too.  :-)

The cars parked all in a line on the right side of the photo are a couple hundred feet above the lowest point of our ride--they're on a plateau above the river bed.

The zig-zag trail to the left of the photo is Misery Ridge, a popular (and aptly nmed) hike.  Not for horses.  :-)  But we came from the river below it, around to the right, then up the road at the right side of the photo.

Panorama--click to embiggen

Holly and Ace led the march up the hill--Ace just ATE up the hill!  Shar on Flash is next in this photo, then Graham and Emma.  I'm bringing up the rear again--did so most of the ride today.

When we got to the highest point on the trail (we weren't quite at the very peak of the hill we were on, but close enough!), we stopped to give the horses a nice long break.  I loosened the cinch for Arya, took my helmet off, and even took her bridle off so she could eat unimpeded by the bit.  We all rested for a bit and took some photos.

From there, we set off on foot for the long, steep-ish downhill section, to give the horses a break.

There's a thing endurance riders sometimes do called tailing.  It's especially helpful going uphill.  While on foot, you hold the rein/lead with one hand, get behind the horse (don't try this at home unless you know the horse is up for it!), and grab its tail.  Going uphill, the horse can help pull you a bit, making it easier for the human without taxing the horse nearly as much as riding up the same hill.  We were going downhill, but I saw Holly practicing this skill with Ace and decided to give it a try with Arya.  When I grabbed her tail, she clamped it down and "glared" at me with her ears.  She wasn't amused.  Then it's like she thought it over and told herself, "Wow, humans are weird.  But if that's what she wants to do, no skin off my nose, I suppose," and she relaxed.  I hung onto her tail and she "pulled" me downhill (which was actually kind of scary when the footing got roly poly!), and her tail was quite relaxed, swaying as I swayed.  Nice to know I could probably take advantage of her help on an uphill section if I needed to.

When the trail leveled out a little (it was still going downhill, just not as steep), we all adjusted our tack as necessary and mounted back up.  Soon after that, we reached a stretch of trail Shar and I have ridden on during our other long hilly rides.  It was just a brief stretch of known trail, though, and we turned off to head back into Smith Rock State Park.  We soon spied the river again--more gorgeous views, but I forgot to keep taking pictures!  There was some more sections of sidehill, but not anything we couldn't handle after the stuff we'd already ridden today (and in the past).  We wound around under Monkey Face, and started seeing a bunch of people again.  A few times, I offered to let people pet Arya, since we were the last horse and could catch up easily enough.  There were a few spots where people were high above us at the base of a cliff, and she would kind of tilt her head up to keep an eye on them, but she handled all of this so well.

Words can't describe how pretty this ride was, and I can't believe I didn't take more photos!  We got back around most of the way back to the trail back up to the cars, and saw another sign telling horses to ford the river.  We turned, went down a steep hill, and got to the bank.  We were still pretty high above the river, with only a steep little gully going down into the river.  Holly even asked if that was where we were supposed to go in.  Yup, apparently so.  It also looked a little narrower, and therefore deeper, here.  Shar headed in with Flash, and Arya started following pretty much on her own, so I took advantage, kind of cut Graham and Emma off a bit, and stuck Arya's nose to Flash like glue.  She hesitated, and was actually quivering at the thought of going in, but between being thirsty and following Flash, she went in without much ado.  She put both front feet in, paused, and plowed the rest of the way in.  Holly and Graham were close behind us, and all four horses went right across.  It WAS deeper than the other crossing, though--we all got our feet wet!  I was SO proud of Arya for going across without having to be ponied and without much hesitation, even!  She got to graze for a little bit as her reward.  Then we hit the trail again, got back up to the main trail, hiked back up the concrete and asphalt and onto the road, and posed for pictures in front of the sign before heading back to the trailer.

Happy much?  :-)  Well, the horses don't look too amused, but they're TIRED.

When we got back to Shar's, I took Arya over to the water trough, and she drank for quite a while, even after Flash left.  I took her over to where her fly mask was so I could put that on her, and she drank some more from that trough.  Then she went and found a nice patch of dust and dried poop to roll in, then drank some MORE.  Oops, guess I didn't let her drink enough when we were actually IN the water!  Flash rolled, too (though he'd already rolled earlier when Shar first let him go), then Goodwin rolled.  Then we saw Graham hosing Emma off, and Arya and Goodwin actually walked over toward the fence to watch.  That was pretty funny.  :-)  I've been meaning to see how Arya does with getting hosed off, but oh well.

I left, went home, had some Mexican food with Nathan for dinner, then painted the hoof boots sparkly purple.  This color:

No more horse riding the rest of the week.  I plan to exercise by "wogging" on Tuesday (though weather may make me change the day), and spend the rest of the days this week packing for our first ever endurance ride we'll actually be riding AT this weekend.  We'll arrive Friday night to get the horses vet checked and attend the ride meeting.  I plan to walk Arya around and then ride her around at camp to get used to the hubbub a bit, but no more than a mile or two.  Then Saturday is the big day.  Shar will leave an hour earlier than me to do the 25-mile Ride, then Arya and I will set off on the 10-mile ride.  Sounds like Graham and Emma may join us, plus there will be plenty of other people I "know" from Facebook and probably even from our mock endurance ride a few months ago.  Watch this space!

Vet Visit

So today was vet day for all the ponies at Shar's place.  (Well, two of hers and the one of mine, not the baby or the other boarders.)  But first, we cleaned out the stall we were going to use for the teeth floating, then I wanted to shave Arya's brand so the vet could read it if she wanted to be sure she was signing the right BLM paperwork (in order for the prior owner to officially take ownership from the BLM, and then be able to officially transfer ownership to me, someone official (like a vet) has to sign off that the horse is in an appropriate facility and being taken care of.

First, I got her mane out of the way.  Cute pigtails, Arya!

Ready to attack with clippers.  She eyes me warily.

All done!

The first set of clippers didn't cut her hair at all, and the second set had a guard on that barely let it trim any hair, but luckily Shar has THREE sets of clippers, and the third time was the charm.  After all the futzing and false starts, she didn't mind the actual clipping at all.  Just as I finished up, the vet drove in, and Shar hadn't gotten her horses out yet, so by default, Arya got to go first.

We discussed what she's eating and the vitamins she gets, which the vet says are fine.  We discussed what vaccines we should do and when.  Then the vet took a peek in her mouth, and declared her teeth quite good.  She pulled out a file and filed down a couple sharp edges, but said they weren't bad at ALL, and that was all she needed.  Arya didn't LOVE having someone poking around in her mouth and filing down her teeth, but I rubbed her face (which she loves), and it seemed to calm her a bit, and she settled down.

However, since she didn't need to be sedated, I'm on my own for cleaning her boobies now.  Gonna have to actually get her used to it myself.  Oh well.

The vet signed the BLM paperwork and we chatted a bit while Shar fetched her horses, then Arya's part of the appointment was over, just like that.  Easy-peasy.

Flash wasn't so lucky--his teeth were bad enough, and his demeanor non-easy-going enough that he got the drugs.  It's so funny to see a "drunk" horse.  Their eyes droop, their lower lip droops, and they stagger if they try to walk.  When they propped his head up on the padded stand, then propped his mouth open with the speculum (yep, similar tool to that one), at first Flash wanted to protest, but he just couldn't bring himself to care enough, and eventually kind of gave in and just napped.

Flash, still not sure about what's going on.

All done!  Just gonna take a little nap now...

When his teeth were done, his down-below got a little groping (checking for a "bean" in the end of the penis), then he got to go sleep it off out in the round pen, and it was Goodwin's turn.  He was even less amused at all the harassment, starting with the shot.  But he, too, got over it with a little help from chemistry.  Once HIS teeth and private parts were done, he joined Flash out in the round pen and we settled up with the vet.  It all went by much faster than I'd expected.

Goodwin's turn!

So I fetched Arya from where she'd been tied to the trailer, and compared her brand to what it should be, based on her registration number and the cheat sheet.  It matches!

The first symbol means she was captured on US lands, the next part after that is the last two digits of her birth year, with the first on top of the second, then the next two digits indicate which state she was gathered in, and the last four are unique to her (within the birth year and state, of course).

While the boys slept off their drugs in the safe confines of the round pen, I turned Arya loose to mow down some of the tall grass around Shar's place (with her blessing and at her request).  Then I spied one of the cats and had an idea...

Arya was busy eating, so barely even noticed, and the cat was unsure at first, but then realized this was a nice warm fuzzy place to sit, so he stayed there a while, actually.

Combo Ride

Shar and I decided to add something new to Arya's and my repertoire--a combo solo/joint ride.

Shar and Flash took off around 5-ish and hit the trails hard, getting some good speed going.  I work till 5, plus Arya and I are more in the "rest" phase before our ride next weekend so didn't need to ride as hard as they planned, so I showed up at her house around 5:30, caught Arya, tacked up, and was in the saddle by 6:00, starting out on a solo ride.  We planned to meet up out on the trails at some point and end the ride as a joint ride.

It was funny--I made a quick restroom break before mounting up, and Shar's husband was in their house, so when I knocked on the door and asked to use the bathroom, he was like, "Oh, you missed the ride with Shar, huh?"  So I told him we actually planned it this way.  :-)

As we were riding out the driveway, Arya was not too sure about this whole "riding past the trash cans" thing, but even before we were completely out the driveway and even with the trash cans, she either realized they were fine (we often ride on the night they're set out, so they're not foreign to her), or she realized acting scared of them wasn't going to make me turn around and call it quits, and by the time we turned next to them, she was like "whatever."  Silly girl.

As we rode away from the house, she was very "looky," but I concentrated on my breathing (and singing along with my music, and soon she was relaxed and sighing and groaning out her tension as well.

We passed the house with the previously-noisy-but-lately-eerily-silent dogs, and while they barked the last time Shar and I rode past, they were silent this time.  Weird.  Just about then, we saw someone ride by the perpendicular road ahead of us on a chestnut horse.  It occurred to me it could be Krista, who lives nearby, so I hollered "Hi," but no response.  Arya was very interested in this other equine ahead of us, so she perked up, and we trotted to the stop sign and checked for traffic.

We turned in the direction the other horse had already gone, and Arya was on high alert.  Then the other rider kept going straight, while we needed to turn left.  Arya disagreed with me about turning, but did so without much fuss (so much progress from the ride where she didn't want to leave the "home" block!).

We trotted and walked down that block, turned left onto the next block, and walked once we were next to the pasture where this cute bay horse sometimes runs right up to us.  This time, the lady who lives there was in the pasture with the horse and a dog, scooping poop.  She commented that we were having more fun than she was.  Yup!

When we got past the pasture, I paused to give Arya a treat for doing so well so far, especially past the horse, lady, and dog, and we were immediately swarmed by bugs, mostly mosquitos.  Ugh.  So we headed down the hill, but of course not very quickly, which meant still being swarmed by bugs.  Ugh ugh ugh.  Arya wasn't a very big fan, either.  I'd actually sprayed her with fly spray before tacking up, but I hadn't gotten her face, or myself at all, and the bugs realized that.  Ugh.

As soon as we got to the bottom of the hill, we started trotting.  I'd been so proud of myself and her on our last ride--me for trusting her not to go tearing off with me (not that she's ever shown a sign of doing so, but fear isn't always rational) and riding her with a loose rein, and her for not taking advantage of that.  But since we were solo, I wasn't able to relax quite so much, but I did fairly well.  She protested my clinging to the reins a few times, but mostly we were in agreement about how fast to go.  She also shied sideways a couple of times and came to a dead stop once or twice, but we survived.

We got to where the trail kind of lets out onto a dirt road.  Normally, the trail parallels the dirt road for nearly the entire way, with maybe one little spot where it makes more sense to ride on the road.  However, they just graded the road, and apparently widened it a bit, which cut out some parts of the trail where it was closest to the road.  So we needed to get off the trail and onto the road, then ride along the road a ways.  The equipment had left tire tracks with a diamond pattern, and apparently Flash and Arya thought it looked like the world's biggest snake laying on the side of the road, or something.  I could see Flash's hoofprints dancing all around the area, and Arya was all snorty, too.

We also came across a plastic bag, which had apparently spooked Flash so bad that Shar came off (but landed on her feet!).  Arya stopped dead in her tracks and snorted at it.  I let her look at it, made her face it, and made her take a step, then let her think it through some more.  She decided it wasn't too bad, and went on past it.

I texted Shar when we got to the spot we'd agreed I'd text from, and then my phone accidentally dialled her as well, so we were able to communicate where we'd meet.  Arya started acting up at this point, really wanting to trot, so I tried to keep her to a walk instead, so we made slower progress than we otherwise might've.  Just about when we started being able to trot again, we spied a familiar chestnut horse in the distance.  Arya saw him too--her head went up, her ears went forward, and she was VERY curious who it might be.  She didn't realize it was Flash until she got close enough to smell him, I don't think.

We started to turn around for home, when Shar said I should see if she'd be willing to continue the direction we'd been going, away from home, while she and Flash kept going the way THEY'D been going, toward home.  Well, that sounded challenging, so we gave it a shot.  Arya didn't WANT to head that way, but after a little convincing, she did, and even trotted a bit.  So I stopped her and tried to reward her with a little carrot treat, but when I turned her head toward me to get the carrot, she was like "Oh, I get to go toward home and toward Flash now?  Score!" and had no interest in the treat.  Oh well.  Turning toward home was treat enough, I guess.

We all trotted toward home, but Arya got pissier and pissier as I tried to hold her back to maintain a little space behind Flash, and at one point even threw in what was either a canter stride or a tiny buck or something.  Uh uh.  This is where she gave me so much grief on our last solo ride that I had to get off and ended up walking all the way home.  I asked Shar to please walk, and she did.

But then we found the trail that goes up a rocky hill and spits us out onto a gravel road at the top of a cliff, paralleling the route home we were currently on.  Once we got up that hill, Arya wasn't on familiar trail anymore and wasn't pissy, so we played some leapfrog games.

Shar and Flash passed us cantering, while we just walked.  Arya wanted to speed up, which wasn't surprising, but a little check with the rein reminded her that WE were just walking.  Then we passed Flash (us trotting, them walking).  She's gotten good at this game--the first few times, she did NOT want to pass him, but now we just trot right on by.  Good girl!  They passed us at the canter again, we trotted past them.  Then they cantered past while we trotted.  On the right side (we usually pass each other on the left, just as a car would pass a slower car).

We trotted while they trotted, and we each rated our speed to be able to pass each other.  Arya actually did SO great at this, I was shocked.  I just had to THINK "slower" and she'd slow to a slow trot and let Flash pass.  I had to think "faster" plus squeeze just a little, and she'd speed up to a nice clip and pass Flash.  She did SO great.

Then I said the real challenge would be SLOWING to a walk while Flash pulled ahead of us, so we tried that.  Not so successful, so that'll be something to work on.  And of course it'd be more of a challenge with strangers, and especially at a real ride with all the excitement in the air, but she's doing great at the leapfrog games with Flash.

We got home, and I got to put my brand new fleece seat cover on my saddle--I had one just for my bottom, and I just received one that covers the whole seat plus all the way down the fenders.  Fleece is great for both hot weather and cold, and provides a little padding as well as sweat absorption.

Then I tried Arya's brand new fly mask on her.  It fits great, but looks pretty stupid and makes her look kind of like a ninja.  :-)  (The halter wouldn't be under it while out in the pasture, of course.)

Does this fly mask make my head look stupid?  Sorry sweetie, but yes, yes it does.

Then both the ponies got a little treat--grazing in the front lawn area:

Friday--VET VISIT!  Not sure if Arya's ever had her teeth done, so we're getting those checked, and done if necessary.  And if it is necessary, I'm gonna clean her boobies while she's "drunk" on the drugs, then hopefully maintain it from there (she's not a fan of me messing with that area).  We'll get some bloodwork done to see if she's got too much or too little of any vitamins and minerals in her system, and discuss vaccines, but the most exciting part is the vet will (hopefully!) sign off that she's well taken care of so I can send in the BLM paperwork to make her officially MINE.  Woo hoo!

Tales from the Workplace, Part XII

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I am posting stories from my job, because I think they're funny.  I've done my best to disguise my company name, even the industry, and to keep the people I write about and even some details of the situation anonymous.  If you know me, and know where I work, please don't include details in your comments.  I'll have to delete your comment and reconsider posting these stories.

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We have an employee whose spouse frequently calls here, usually to ask the employee to call home.  To be fair, the employees who work in the production area of our company are welcome to carry cell phones and use them on their break, but can't hear them ring while working due to the noise of the machinery.  So if the spouse needs to reach the employee urgently (and they do have kids, so it's possible an emergency crops up now and then), the only way to do so quickly would be to call the main office.  Fine.

But the spouse ALSO calls in the afternoon/evening to ask when the employee is getting off work.  To give the benefit of the doubt, I could see where every once in a while, someone might REALLY need to know what time to expect their spouse.  But in most cases, they'll be there when they get there, right?  And the spouse calls sometimes multiple times a week.  Seriously.  It's like the employee isn't trusted to come straight home and not get into trouble on the way, and believe me, there's no way the employee is having an affair AT work.  It just rubs me the wrong way as a person, and if the employee's co-workers knew how much the spouse called, the employee would probably take a lot of ribbing here at work.  I try to be discrete when notifying the employee of the call--just radio to come to the office, and only explain why once the employee gets here.  

Well, today the production employees have the day off.  Not enough orders, not enough material to package, so the people who make the material are working, but the people who package and load the trucks have the day off.  The employee in question is in the latter group, so is off work today.  We received a call from the spouse, asking when the employee is due to come to work today. 

Now, if the employee actually worries that maybe they're misremembering and were supposed to come to work at some point, then the EMPLOYEE would call us, right?  So this really seems as if the employee is sitting at home, not getting ready for work, and the spouse asks why.  And the employee says there's no work today.  But the spouse doesn't believe the employee and CALLS in to ask.  Who DOES that?  Does the spouse not think about potential consequences for the employee when undermining the employee to the employer like that?  Ugh, I feel so bad for the employee--clearly they are not trusted at home, and obviously the spouse is rather controlling.  Ugh.

Tales from the Workplace, Trucking Edition, Part XI

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I am posting stories from my job, because I think they're funny.  I've done my best to disguise my company name, even the industry, and to keep the people I write about and even some details of the situation anonymous.  If you know me, and know where I work, please don't include details in your comments.  I'll have to delete your comment and reconsider posting these stories.
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There's a trucking company we haven't used in a while, and the boss couldn't remember why, so he called them up to see if they'd do a load for us and what they'd charge.  The rate was reasonable, so we confirmed with them that they'd pick the load up at 8:00 Tuesday morning and deliver it to southern California at 8:00 a.m. (hard deadline of noon) on Thursday.  Since we don't already have empty trailers from this company on our lot, it'd be a "live load"--we fill the trailer while the driver waits.  (We normally fill the trailer long before the driver shows up, then he can just "drop and hook"--drop the empty, hook up to the loaded trailer, get weighed, and be on his way in 15 minutes if the weights are legal.)

Well, believe it or not, the truck wasn't here by 8:00 a.m.  In fact, by 2:00 when it hadn't shown up, we called them.  Oh, the truck broke down.  It'll be there tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.  Thanks for telling us!  Oh, and will the load still deliver on time?  They said it would--they were going to relay the trailer (one driver hauls it to the Bay Area, another driver with plenty of time still allowed to drive picks it up and takes it the rest of the way, so the trailer itself keeps moving, even though there are laws keeping any one driver from driving too many hours in a row.)

Wednesday, guess what, no trailer by 8:00 a.m.!  I'm sure you're shocked at this point.  We called at 9:00, and the driver was "about an hour out."  Except not, because he actually arrived at 10:30.  And surprise, surprise, didn't know anything about breaking down.  Heh.  (To give the company the benefit of the doubt, it is possible they sent us a different driver than the one that had broken down the day before--it's not like they're good at communicating what's actually going on, considering they can't even be bothered to communicate that they'll be DAYS, and not just hours, late.)

We got him on his way in less than an hour, so then the wait begins to see if he arrives on time.

Anyone want to make bets?

Thursday morning, the customer calls to ask where their load is, so we check in with the freight company.  They claim the truck broke down (same truck, different truck?  probably doesn't matter, as it's probably not true in any case.  sheesh!).

My boss sent a nastygram to the freight company, but I'm not sure how good an idea that is, since they still have our load in their possession...  They called the customer, then called us back, and said they'd deliver at 4:00.  Considering the customer had originally told us they couldn't take delivery after noon, that's kind of hard to believe, so our sales guy called them to confirm that they had, indeed, said that that time would be okay.

At 5:00, the other two guys in the office were both literally walking out the door when the phone rang.  I was going to be staying late to print some personal documents (with permission), so I went ahead and answered the phone.  It's our customer, saying that the driver not only hasn't shown up, but hasn't called and he's heard NOTHING.  Surprise again.

We called the freight carrier, and based on what I overheard of one side of the conversation, the person answering the phone wasn't a rocket scientist.  They said the driver was 8 miles away (which in southern California could still mean a significant amount of time).  They first said they couldn't give us the driver's phone number, then they did give it but said he wouldn't be able to answer because he was driving.  Sure enough, no answer.  We called our customer back, and he had had to send his crew (who would be able to unload the truck) home, so they're going to turn the truck around if/when it arrives and tell the driver to return at 7:00 a.m.

I got into work at 8:00 and asked my boss whether this load had delivered, and guess what?
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It actually did!!!  Can you even believe it?  But I guess we've been reminded why we haven't used this trucking company in forever, and I'm pretty sure we won't be using them EVER again.

The stupid, it burns

Presented without comment, except to say that this is in a FB group about horseshoeing:

Henderson Flats AGAIN

I'm glad Shar is so patient with me.  I wanted to ride this same trail AGAIN, for the third time, in the same direction, just to be able to compare our overall speed as well as how Arya did on certain sections, etc.  She was like, "Whatever."

So I went to her house, we gathered up the ponies, and loaded them into the trailer.  I'd already put my tack into her truck the night before, so that was a step saved.

We arrived at the trailhead, unloaded the ponies, and tacked up.  I got done before Shar, which might have been a first, so I went ahead and mounted up.  For once, Arya just stood still.  I adjusted my stirrups, stretched a little. etc.  She did want to graze (the hazards of parking near the grass!), but mostly she was very, very good.

We set off, walking for the first 10 minutes, then we started trotting, even on the slight downhills.  Arya did pretty well.  She let Flash get ahead a little bit, but not as much as she had last time.  If anything, I had to slow her to a walk to rest MY legs.

We got to a spot that was a nice uphill section, and Shar asked if we wanted to try a canter.  I agreed, and we cantered.  I wasn't even nervous to start the canter, not nervous when she sped up just a bit, and not nervous after it was over.  Woo hoo!

We did great at trotting all the flat and gently-graded stuff, walking just on the steeper uphills and downhills.  Here's a video from a section where we walked down a long hill, including the views from the trail.

Here's a video from a trotting section, so it's VERY shaky, but if you can stomach it, it also has some good views, plus the trail itself is just really pretty.

As this trail breaks out of the trees, it's also about to head up a long steep hill, so we stopped and let the dog drink from the river and the horses graze a bit.

Of course we walked up the long hot hill.  Arya seemed to chug up it a little faster and steadier (no break) than last time, but it's hard to say, of course.

Then we got to a relatively flat section with mostly sandy trails (though there are a few rocky spots).  This would have been a great spot to trot a bunch, but Arya kept stopping (usually in the shade) and not wanting to go.  We were pretty sure it was just a normal-tired kind of stopping, and not a scary-tired kind of stopping, but we didn't want to hurt her or push her too hard, and there was still a ways to go until the water trough, including a long rocky slog uphill in the canyon.  So we only trotted a little on that whole section.  Arya had gotten into a big head-tossing snit in this area the prior time, so maybe she just hits a wall at this distance, or maybe it was just a coincidence.

We got to the gate, and Shar did me the favor of opening it again.  This time we DIDN'T make the wrong turn up the crazy steep hill.

I didn't think to take many photos (or videos) in the canyon, and maybe it's for the best, as they wouldn't be all that scenic anyway.  But it's cool to ride through anyway.  Here's one photo:

In the canyon, there's a tiny little rivulet.  Last time, Arya was VERY worried about it.  This time, she was merely annoyed by it.  She made it clear she didn't wan it touching her feet, but she didn't jump it, and she didn't even complain TOO much about having to cross it multiple times.  I'm pretty sure she didn't let her feet get wet, though, so there's that.

No sooner were we clear of the little tiny creek when we came upon a mountain biker.  Shar was ahead of us, so he saw her and Flash and stopped and got off his bike, which we let him know we really appreciated.  Arya was a bit curious, especially as he started moving, but she didn't freak out at all.  Letting her sniff all over a bike at Maston the prior week paid off.  :-)  Plus, she's just easy-going that way.

Soon, we arrived at the water trough.  Arya and Flash drank their fill, then I had to pee, then we let the horses graze a minute.  I took Arya back over to the trough to see if she needed any more water before we hit the trail again, and the funny thing is, she stepped RIGHT into the puddle/mud around the trough.  So water only bothers her when there's no motivation to get into it.  Sheesh.  I also gave her a splash with some water from my water bottle, to see whether she minded, and she was totally fine with that.  Next step, sponging, first with me on the ground, then from the saddle...

We hit the trail again, and this time picked back up with trotting wherever the terrain allowed, including a few downhill spots.  She doesn't do very well trotting downhill, and in fact, refused to even trot downhill the last ride.  I asked Shar to help me with my technique (I'd been using the saddle horn to help me stand in the saddle so I didn't bank down onto her back, which meant I was kind of hunched forward, but Shar recommended I try leaning back more).  Sure enough, when I leaned back a bit more (probably really just vertical) and posted (but forward-back, not up-down, so I didn't bang down onto her back).  The trail alternates between winding through sparse trees and breaking out into the wide open.

There's one particular switchback with very steep, sharp corners at both ends.  Here's Flash and Shar on the second corner:

And a video of us going down it, including a bit of a slip of Arya's hind feet.

The first time we did this trail, I was scared to death, especially when her feet got kind of close to the edge.  The second time, I didn't love it when her hind feet actually slipped over the edge, but otherwise was pretty okay.  This time, I was comfortable enough to take photos and video while we did one of the scariest parts.  :-)  However, Arya's feet were just trimmed the other day, and this whole section is really rocky, so her feet were getting kind of ouchy by this point.  So her little pea brain told her that getting off onto the edge of the trail would feel better, not realizing that not only were the rocks bigger and pointier there, but that there was a HUGE drop-off into the valley if she were to slip.  Her hind feet slipped a bit over the edge at one point, and at another, her front feet did, too.  Yikes!  But mostly, it was absolutely fine and I wasn't scared.  Woo!

When the trail flattened out a bit (but still downhill) and got sandier instead of so rocky, we started working on trotting again.  But my thighs were KILLING me, and I could barely trot for a minute before needing a rest break.  Shar said trotting downhill is harder, so we're going with that.  :-)  Well, and all the trotting the night before, and all the trotting in the first part of today's ride.  So yeah, I guess it makes sense that my legs were exhausted.

On the home stretch, Arya and I were both pretty tired, so when Flash trotted out ahead of us, and Arya didn't seem in any hurry to catch up, I let her keep walking and let them get ahead of us a bit.  Then I asked her to trot, hoping she didn't bolt to catch up.  Her ears were very forward and she was looking intently for the glimpses we caught of Flash through the trees.  But even though I encouraged her to canter, she was tired enough that she just stuck with the fast trot she was doing.  (Oh, I left them out of the stuff above, but we did a few other canters in the ride, including one I hadn't really asked for, but I didn't freak out.)

Anyway, so Flash was way ahead, and Arya didn't even want to canter.  We caught up, then let him get ahead again, and this time she did canter.  Woo!  She was a perfect lady about it, too.

I realized that the entire ride, the absolute "worst" behavior/issue she had was a little bit of head-tossing (which I've learned to mitigate by not letting her eat the dry, stiff bunch grass that gets all stuck horizontally next to the bit and she can't swallow it, which frustrates her) and the stopping at about halfway through, which was probably warranted after all the trotting we'd done.  She'd seriously been SO great.  And I felt absolutely confident.  Which meant I was relaxed and not holding a death grip on the reins.  Which meant she felt free to be relaxed and confident, too.  It was SUCH a good ride.

In anticipation of doing a "real" endurance ride (well, the 10-mile ride won't really count, no matter how many times I ride it), I'd made a mash with her breakfast pellets, water, and a bit of salt.  I was curious whether she'd even eat it, and if not, wanted a chance to buy/try other stuff.  Well, I needn't have worried.  She TORE INTO it.  And WOW, she's a messy eater!  She and Flash took turns, and it was funny, because she slurped the stuff up like it was food, while Flash daintily stuck his lips in and sucked the liquid up like it was water.

When the ponies had pretty well emptied the bucket, we set them to work cleaning up the fender:

As if that wasn't enough of a treat, we also let them graze a bit before taking them home and turning them loose in their pasture full of grass.  :-)  The Shar and I treated ourselves to dinner out--we earned those calories fair and square!  SUCH a good day.  I felt really good riding my horse, and other than the initial butterflies I've just come to expect, I was never once worried about anything she did.  She was GREAT.

TRYING to speed it up

So far, all our rides have been well under the overall pace one needs to maintain in order to "complete" an endurance ride.  (There's a time limit, and if you come in later, it doesn't count as an official completion in the record books.)  Neither Arya nor I are super fit yet, and while getting fit, you're only supposed to increase one thing at a time, either distance, speed, or (some say) terrain, but not more than one factor at once.

Tonight, Shar and I rode in her neighborhood, on a route that is VERY familiar from all our night rides, and not very long, so we tried to increase the speed.  Shar and Flash probably had a speed that would have been fine.  Arya, however, didn't seem to mind lagging behind (though she WAS easier to speed up when Flash was way out ahead than when we were right behind him), so we'd just get a little further behind every stride.  :-)  Plus my legs got tired FAST with all that trotting, so I took more walk breaks than I probably should have.  So we have our work cut out for us, finishing in time.  Luckily, the first ride we're doing is an "intro" ride, so there's no time limit.  I have a self-imposed time limit if I'm going to be able to do a second loop (most ride managers let you, and they let folks do it at this same ride last year) with Shar and Flash (they're doing a longer ride, but their last loop is the same as the intro ride's only loop).  It won't be the end of the world if I finish too late to be able to do it at all, or have to do a second loop alone instead of with Shar, but if/when I move up to 25-mile rides, I NEED to finish in time or the ride will be a "waste" if it doesn't count.

Anyway, we trotted earlier, longer, and later in tonight's ride than normal.  We took fewer and shorter walk breaks than normal.  Though we did have a relatively long walk next to the llamas as it was not only next to those weird, scary creatures (though Arya gave them one look then was over it this time), but also a steeper downhill grade than I'm comfortable trotting her on right now.

When we got to a section that went from flat to a gentle uphill to a bit steeper uphill, I decided I was ready to try a canter.  On purpose, and not even just "letting" her canter.  As we got closer and closer to the appointed spot to canter, I did get a bit nervous.  She started trotting faster and faster, even as we passed the mark.  I thought of just letting her keep trotting, or even letting her trot faster and faster until she cantered on her own, but I'd told myself I'd canter at that telephone pole, so I gave a little squeeze and she cantered.  I concentrated on leaning "back" (probably still sitting up straight, but my inclination is to hunch over, so it feels like I'm leaning way back), and we fell into a nice rhythm.  Flash was still pulling ahead of us (this horse really IS like a semi), so at one point, Arya kind of pushed her head down and engaged her hind end a bit to speed up, which made me nervous since it kind of felt like she was hunching up to buck.  But all she did was speed up, so I sat back, reined her in, and she slowed back to a nice rocking canter.  By that point, Flash was slowing, so she also slowed to a trot, and another successful canter was over.  We took a walk break the rest of the way up the hill, then went back to our pattern of trotting a lot and walking a little.

We even trotted right up to the last corner before getting "home," and Shar decided to push Flash on a little faster, including doing a little cantering.  At first, Arya was happy to let him get ahead.  But eventually the combination of Flash getting more and more ahead of us, Flash cantering away from us, and a dark barking beside us resulted in Arya trotting MUCH faster and really wanting to canter, but I reined her back in and we went back to a nice calm trot.

As we walked the last leg back to the house, I pulled out my phone and checked our ride stats on Endomondo.  Only 4.7 mph average (well, 4.63 by the time we finished walking home).  Granted, we we likely will be faster at a real ride, but still...you can't just average 5 mph when on a short ride, because you have to account for water/snack stops (for the horse AND the person!), stopping to adjust something, and probably needing more rest breaks toward the end of the ride.  So yeah, we still have a bit of work to do.

Tomorrow, we repeat the long hilly ride we did a couple weekends ago, from Henderson Flats.  We don't want to overdo it, but we're gonna shoot for a faster time than last time (more trotting in places we walked last time--there are plenty of places on that ride that NEED to be walked, so the hard part will be trotting the LONG stretches where it's possible).  My thighs are already quite tired from tonight, so we'll see how that goes.  :-)

Tales from the Workplace, Part XI

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I am posting stories from my job, because I think they're funny.  I've done my best to disguise my company name, even the industry, and to keep the people I write about and even some details of the situation anonymous.  If you know me, and know where I work, please don't include details in your comments.  I'll have to delete your comment and reconsider posting these stories.
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My company receives solicitations for donations ALL the time.  Probably because we do, occasionally, donate.  The latest one is from the local high school.  Of course when the envelope's return address said "Local High School Senior Graduation Committee," I knew it would be a letter seeking a donation, but I had no idea how beg-a-rific it would get.

At the top, the letter says (and I am quoting exactly, punctuation included, just not copying their stylized font): 

Class of 2015

Graduation Celebration

"Just Write the Check Campaign"

Yes.  They are begging for money, and calling it a "Just Write the Check Campaign."  I mean, can it get any more offensive?  "Send us the Damn Money Already Campaign"?  "Write a Check and No One Gets Hurt Campaign"?  Seriously!

It goes on and on about how they're planning a celebration without alcohol, and the school won't pay for it and blah blah blah.  They say "approximately" 200 young men and women will be graduating.  First, I didn't know the school was that small, and second, they can't pin it down any more than that, because this high school has one of the lowest graduation rates in the entire state and graduation IS still a couple months away, after all.

Anyway, then they explain what your tax-deductible "gift" (oh, but at the bottom of the letter it says that the tax ID is available "upon request," so they don't even tell you unless you ask--WOW) will cover.  They're spending $85 a HEAD on a non-alcoholic party.  What?!?!  How can they possibly be spending that much if they're having it at the school and it's staffed entirely by volunteers (the latter is stated explicitly in the letter, the former isn't, but if they have to ask for donations to host this party, shouldn't they keep the costs down as much as possible?

THEN, at the bottom of the letter, there's a circular seal-like image that says Class of 2015, followed by what must be their class slogan:  "You wish you were us."  (Yes, with the quotation marks.  They're also around the phrase "thank you for your consideration" at the very bottom of the letter.  I'm surprised there isn't more mis-use of quotation marks, to be honest.)  Wowie.  Just...Wow.  I don't remember my class slogan, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't as obnoxious as that one.  

This whole letter just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  But I'm not the one who makes donation decisions--I'll put it on my boss' desk, and I look forward to hearing his comments about it.  :-)

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Update:  We (I drafted, boss signed) ended up writing a letter to both the school principal and the person who signed her name to this letter, complaining about the wording and cost of the party, basically.  Weeks went by, and we didn't hear anything.  I even asked the boss the other day if he heard anything, and nope.  Then this morning, he received a call from someone he's pretty sure was the woman who wrote the letter.  She wants to send a STUDENT to our office to talk to him.  Um, what kind of cop-out is that?  She doesn't want to get yelled at, so she'll send an innocent teenager who had nothing to do with it?  Or even if the teenager did write the letter. SHE is the one who signed it.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.

He brushed her off somehow, and ended up getting a call from the principal's office at the high school, and they made an appointment for the vice principal to come to our office to discuss it.  That appointment ended up falling through (no fault of the school), but my boss did receive an explanation that the lady had permission to use the school logo but not to write a letter with that kind of tone, and they'll talk to her.  Or something.