Just one day

It was just one day. But it hurts like hell.

I was on some super-fast presses again today. Four of them - the night shift, which is made up of more experienced operators, was only working on three presses apiece. Actually, three systems, not presses; each system is made up of two presses, two metallizers, a bonder, an inspection machine, and an unloading table. Each stage could have about a gajillion things do wrong with it. And today, each stage of each of my four systems did have something wrong with it.

I also had a buttload of stamper changes. I used to be lousy at those, but now they've become routine. Though the one at the end of the day did not go smoothly. I wonder if the night shift guy was ever able to get that stamper to work.

It was a busy, busy day. How busy? Well...

(You may want to skip the bit in invisible text if you don't want to be exposed to details that might be considered "too much information.")

Every morning before I go to work I have the same breakfast: A big bowl of Weis Markets brand Crispy Rice cereal (sorta like Rice Chex) with a sliced banana and milk, an apple, a glass of fruit juice, and three mugs of coffee. I settled on this breakfast after months of experimentation and determined that it gave me adequate energy to keep going for up to fifteen hours (I eat breakfast between 3:30 and 4:00 in the morning, and there's no guarantee I'll get to eat again until I leave at 6:00 at night), and it doesn't make me want to vomit when I get to work, like, say, hard-boiled eggs do. (No idea why that happens.) On the drive in to work I drink a half-liter of water.

Upon my arrival at work and getting my assignment for the day, I take a break to discard some processed fluids. This is around 5:50 AM. Then I need another break at 6:20 (like clockwork), again at 7:00, and then again at 8:00. And...well, that's it. If I don't eat any food or drink any water for the rest of the workday, I don't need to use the facilities again until the end of the day when I go preemptively before leaving the building at around 6:10 PM.

Some days I don't eat any food or drink any water for the rest of the day. Today was one of those days, a relentless kaleidoscope of production, tests, alarms, and stamper changes. Needless to say, I was a little cranky towards the end of the day. And a lot sore.

It was snowing when I left work. The snow turned into rain as I made my way south. I decided to stop at Wal-Mart to pick up some half-price Christmas ornaments and extension cords. That didn't take long, and I was soon on my way the last nine miles to my house.

As I entered Nanticoke, the snow started to come down more heavily. Heavily enough to cause many accidents in the last few hours, according to my mom's police/fire scanner.

That wasn't the only news to come out of the scanner. Shortly after I sat down to dinner, a report came in of a structure fire a few miles to the east - "smoke showing in all windows." It sounded bad, and it was; the building became an inferno, and at least one person died. Four hours later, fire crews are still in the process of wrapping things up.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. I'll be going to a quiet - i.e., alcohol-free - little party down the street, and I want to make more of my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to take there. (Most of the triple-batch I made last week is gone, either eaten or given away.) It also sounds like I'll have quite a bit of shoveling to do in the morning. We'll see how it goes.

Make the most of the last day of 2007!