heard of the first reports for a "real" snow in the north cascades tonight. i have long ago come to the conclusion that i will, in fact, die without snow. just thinking about it without having it gives me a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach that i could only describe as longing. sure summer is fun, but given the choice between summer sun and winter snow, i would choose snow in a heartbeat. i have always been fascinated by it, floating to earth in fluffy little crystals. blanketing the earth in a pristine white blanket, soft and harmless. while at the same time anyone who's witnessed the destructive force of an avalanche can give testiment to its obvious lack of harmlessness. i will never by choice live anywhere where it doesn't snow at least in the winter. many of my fondest memories involve snow.
thats me jumping from the 2nd story balcony face-first into the snow :D
thats jess from a different spot (though she did jump from the higher one as well ;)
now that summer is officially over, my thoughts turn to winter again. *sigh*
Monday, October 6, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
autumn has arrived
well it finally feels like fall. a few weeks ago i smelled cold for the first time, but the "good" weather hung around for a while still. leave are now departing the trees, the faint to sometimes strong winds are getting colder. yesterday was our first real good rainstorm. strong winds and heavy rain really made me wish i had a wood stove. even had to break out the wool socks for the first time in a long while. september snuck by really quickly, or at least sneakily. makes me look forward to winter (as i always do) and hope we'll get some decent snow days.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
not what brown does for me, but what i do for UPS
"write more on our blog!!" "hey! you should post some stuff one your blog!"
*grumblegrumblegrrr*
here's whats "news" for me
so i am officially certified by UPS to be a shifter. for those who don't know: i work and the bellingham UPS sort center (thats where all the brown trucks come from every day) my job title there is Fueler. as the trucks come in with all the shtuff the picked up throughout the day i make sure they get unloaded (which entails me driving backwards between other trucks, usually with only a few inches to spare on either side)
fuel them (yes all near 50 of them) and park them for the night. they all have their specific spots they need to be in to get loaded up for the next day so i need to make sure they're all in the right spot.
i have faily recently been half-promoted. along wiht being the fueler, i am now the backup shifter. they shifter does the same thing as the fueler (but without the fueling) only with the BIG tractor-trailors. not BIG big trailors, ours are only 37ft long
(i think, may be shorter than that) the Feeders (the guys who drive them out on the roads) usually hook up to drag 2 trailers at once (in oregon they'll go 3 long O.o ) 
but i only have to deal with one at a time. anyways, as the trailers get unloaded (we unload an average of 6 trailers along with all the trucks every night) the empty ones need to be moved to make way for the next ones. they come in periodicly during the evening but can only fit in the unload 4 at a time (there's 7 doors, so its [trailer] [empty door] [trailer] [empty door] [trailer] [empty door] [trailer] to give room to manuever. at the end of the night it fits 7 package cars to be loaded for the next days deliveries) i also park empty trailers on the other end of the building to be filled (after being sorted) 
and sent off to wherever. these are the tricky ones because: A) you're driving a very large thing backwards. and B) some of these spots require parking 2 trailers side by side with 3-5 inches between them. oh and did i mention that that 5 inches is on the side you can't see from the driver seat in the tractor? but i'm apparently pretty good at it :P
here's the really cool part. current fueler pay rate: $11. shifter pay rate: $20 !!!!!!! and shifting is (in my opinion) easier than fueling because there's so fewer things to deal with its much less hectic. so easier job, double the pay... :D
i shifter for 2 weeks a wee bit ago while the normal guy was on vacation so i got pretty good at it, the shifter trainer observed my shifting tonight and said "good job" so now i'm 'certified' whatever that means. i think it means that if i accidentally hit something i don't get fired.
and! tonight (or tomorrow morning however you look at it) i will be shifting for the pre-load (the ones who load up the package cars get all their volume from trailers that come ine from wherever, hence they need someone to mover trailers) this is from 1:30am to about 7:00am as a part time worker i get overtime after 5 hours. overtime=time-and-a-half. also, if i work at the shifter pay rate for an hour during my day i get the shifter pay rate for my ENTIRE day regardless if i'm actually shifting or not. so! i will work the pre-load tonight, and when i come in at 4:40pm to do my normal job, i will be getting paid shifter pay over time, aka $30 an hour. this makes for a very happy Reed.
in the not-so-distant future, the regular shifter will be going to new zealand or something for 3 months. that leave me to be the shifter (he said he's gonna try and get a leave of absense, but doesn't know if it'll work) so i get to work the same hours i normally do (maybe a little longer) get paid twice what i normally do, and have a much less stressful day for at least 3 months.
gonna try and save up for a new desktop computer, hopefully one that can play WoW competantly.
*grumblegrumblegrrr*
here's whats "news" for me
so i am officially certified by UPS to be a shifter. for those who don't know: i work and the bellingham UPS sort center (thats where all the brown trucks come from every day) my job title there is Fueler. as the trucks come in with all the shtuff the picked up throughout the day i make sure they get unloaded (which entails me driving backwards between other trucks, usually with only a few inches to spare on either side)
fuel them (yes all near 50 of them) and park them for the night. they all have their specific spots they need to be in to get loaded up for the next day so i need to make sure they're all in the right spot.i have faily recently been half-promoted. along wiht being the fueler, i am now the backup shifter. they shifter does the same thing as the fueler (but without the fueling) only with the BIG tractor-trailors. not BIG big trailors, ours are only 37ft long
(i think, may be shorter than that) the Feeders (the guys who drive them out on the roads) usually hook up to drag 2 trailers at once (in oregon they'll go 3 long O.o ) 
but i only have to deal with one at a time. anyways, as the trailers get unloaded (we unload an average of 6 trailers along with all the trucks every night) the empty ones need to be moved to make way for the next ones. they come in periodicly during the evening but can only fit in the unload 4 at a time (there's 7 doors, so its [trailer] [empty door] [trailer] [empty door] [trailer] [empty door] [trailer] to give room to manuever. at the end of the night it fits 7 package cars to be loaded for the next days deliveries) i also park empty trailers on the other end of the building to be filled (after being sorted) 
and sent off to wherever. these are the tricky ones because: A) you're driving a very large thing backwards. and B) some of these spots require parking 2 trailers side by side with 3-5 inches between them. oh and did i mention that that 5 inches is on the side you can't see from the driver seat in the tractor? but i'm apparently pretty good at it :Phere's the really cool part. current fueler pay rate: $11. shifter pay rate: $20 !!!!!!! and shifting is (in my opinion) easier than fueling because there's so fewer things to deal with its much less hectic. so easier job, double the pay... :D
i shifter for 2 weeks a wee bit ago while the normal guy was on vacation so i got pretty good at it, the shifter trainer observed my shifting tonight and said "good job" so now i'm 'certified' whatever that means. i think it means that if i accidentally hit something i don't get fired.
and! tonight (or tomorrow morning however you look at it) i will be shifting for the pre-load (the ones who load up the package cars get all their volume from trailers that come ine from wherever, hence they need someone to mover trailers) this is from 1:30am to about 7:00am as a part time worker i get overtime after 5 hours. overtime=time-and-a-half. also, if i work at the shifter pay rate for an hour during my day i get the shifter pay rate for my ENTIRE day regardless if i'm actually shifting or not. so! i will work the pre-load tonight, and when i come in at 4:40pm to do my normal job, i will be getting paid shifter pay over time, aka $30 an hour. this makes for a very happy Reed.
in the not-so-distant future, the regular shifter will be going to new zealand or something for 3 months. that leave me to be the shifter (he said he's gonna try and get a leave of absense, but doesn't know if it'll work) so i get to work the same hours i normally do (maybe a little longer) get paid twice what i normally do, and have a much less stressful day for at least 3 months.
gonna try and save up for a new desktop computer, hopefully one that can play WoW competantly.
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