Wal-Mart = sad

I hate Wal-Mart.

For those of you in close proximity to me this will come as no surprise. I don't hate Wal-Mart because I feel they are a poor corporate citizen. I don't hate Wal-Mart because they aren't union or don't pay their employees enough or give them benefits. By all means I would encourage Wal-Mart to continue doing what they are to stay in business and provide a 'product' that consumers are willing to gobble up.

I hate Wal-Mart because of their employees. I work in a service industry and I do what I can to encourage civility and courtesy to customers at all possible times. I feel that in a service industry you should try to meet a customers need before they know they have that need. That is the epitomy of service.

Today I had to get the oil changed. Wal-mart is not my first choice but many places that I would prefer to go either are no longer in existence or because they are a small business they took the luxury of closing for a long Holiday weekend. I first went the the Wal-Mart on West Shaw. After stopping the car (which contained my two children) getting out and standing by the service desk for 5 minutes all the while watching the attendant talk on his cell phone and shoot me furtive glances I departed in disgust.

I then proceded to the Wal-Mart on Ingram. A promising sign, there were people working and there was not a back log of cars. I parked the car and went inside to the service desk (with my two children) and stood for 5 minutes while the person behind the desk tried to explain to a gentlemen the difference between what he would pay for tires and for insurance and that if he didn't buy insurance now he couldn't do it later. After this entertaining exchange the man made his decision and moved out the way. The person; the only person behind the counter promptly dissapeared as I approached the counter. I waited for a few minutes and they returned and took my information.

We proceeded to peruse Wal-Mart for TWO HOURS while I waited for the car to be serviced. Wal-Mart is not my ideal place to spend TWO HOURS especially with a 3 month old and and a 2 year old with pink eye.

Finally the car was completed and we made our way to pay for the 'services' rendered only to find a line of 4 people all purchasing non-automotive related materials at the automotive counter with the same person working the check-out that had done such a stellar job before. It took this 'stellar' employee 23 minutes to ring up 4 people who were buying bath products and Christmas decorations. I finally made it to the counter and the clerk found this to be an opportune time to answer the phone that had been ringing untended during the previous 4 customters. Jack decided to voice my displeasure in a wail of frustration that I was feeling. I paid my fee and departed as quickly as possible.

The New Year

Happy New Year all. Yesterday I finally loaded pictures onto the computer from the cameras from who knows how long ago. All told there were about 300 pictures that I've slowly been trying to sort through. What I have found most amusing is the pictures of Grace and her 'funny faces'. She started making these faces after watching Yo Gabba Gabba and the Funny Faces segment.

For your viewing pleasure here are some of Grace's funny faces.

Christmas Miracles.

First, let me start with some back story.

About 5 years ago when I was an On-road supervisor in the Logan Park center I went to work one December morning and as I pulled into the parking lot I noticed all the Preloaders milling about the parking lot. I felt very uncomfortable suddenly. I parked my car and entered the building only to find that all of the lights were off and there was no power to the building. This is a very very bad thing. We have become reliant on our technology. We have a system that identifies each package and we place a label on it that tells the employees which belt, car, shelf and sequence each package should be loaded in. Without power, getting the trucks loaded is very difficult. As a result we had about 20,000 packages not get delivered that day and during Christmas this is NOT a good situation. We recovered quite well but it made for some very long days to get caught up and make sure all our customers were taken care of. What had ended up happening was that a bird had landed on a Transformer and ended up cooking itself.

Flash forward to 2008. I now find myself in the position of Preload Manager. We had a good day. As we started walking the belts to make sure all of the packages were dispatched the power went out. As a result 12 packages were not labeled for delivery. We got them out and needless to say, we were very lucky. I am very thankful for this Christmas miracle.

Welcome Home

Last weekend Sarah and Fran came to visit 'us'. They really came for Grace and I don't entirely blame them. Sunday as they were getting ready to leave they suggersted that they could take Grace with them since Riley had Monday and Tuesday off of school and they said that they would figure the rest of the week out. AFter some brief debating Katie and I decided to let Grace go.

Since Grace has been with us I have unfortunately had long periods of time away from her either because I was away on training or becuase Katie took her down to visit her family when I couldn't get off for work. The one thing that amazes me each and every time is the way in which Grace changes in such a short amount of time. Granted this time around she has been away from me for a week but in the week she has grown up a lot. She speaks more 'eloquently' she loooks taller and older. It seems silly but I'm sure that before I know it Grace will be moving out and I'll just be sad.

Zoo Boo!

This past Friday and Saturday the Fresno Chaffee Zoo hosted it's annual Zoo Boo event. The Zoo opens from 5-8:30 pm and local vendors and organizations set up tables at which the kids can walk around and 'trick-or-treat'. While the candy at the tables is the cheap stuff there are a few goodies for the grown-ups as well. (i.e. Tahoe Joes $5.00 off coupon for an appetizer, CPK free kids meal coupon).

We had debated some time ago about whether or not we would be attending based on the arrival of Jack and fortunately for us he showed up a little over a week earlier than expected which gave us time to knock the newness off of him. We arrived at the Zoo about 4:50pm and were dismayed to see a line extending well into Roeding park. As we approached the tail end of the line the gates opened and the attendees of the event flowed into the zoo like water through a dam break.

This was Grace's first trick-or-treat experience and we attired her in a costume fit for her family.

We couldn't make it more than a few steps without grace getting comments about her costume. Simple as it was you don't see a lot of 2 year old UPS service Providers. She did a great job and looked good doing it. As for Jack he just hung out in the sling on Katie and slept through almost the entire time. We made a few loops around the Zoo and Grace saw her monkeys and elephants and tigers and giraffes and zebras and then it was time to go. With all there was to see at the zoo I think grace was most excited about the large inflatable pumpkins as we entered and exited the zoo.

Whirlwind

This past weekend I packed the family up and we went on a tour of family members in Southern Nevada and Southern Utah. Most peopl think that I'm insane when I make trips like this but I think it's the best way to travel. We left Friday after I finished with work and made our way to Henderson where we were staying with my Uncle Mike. We arrived about 7 pm and ended up staying up until after 10 pm when Grace finally cried herself to sleep a full 4 hours past her normal bed time. For those of you keeping score this meant I had been up working and driving for almost 21 hours.

We left my uncles the next morning and proceeded to my aunts in Las Vegas, visited for about an hour and made our way to Logandale to see my Grandparents. We got there visited them and moved on to Overton to visit my other aunt and a cousin who had recently been released from the hospital after having open heart surgery. Visited there for an hour and proceeded on to even more grandparents. We stayed there for a few minutes and made our way to St. George Utah to visit more grandparents. We arrived in St. George about 6 pm PST stayed up until 10 pm again. Grace had us up and moving by 5 am and we were on the road back home to California early Sunday Morning.

what might you say can be accomplished with such a visit. Quite a bit actually. Sometimes great closeness can be achieved in lengthy visits and some times it can just be a lot of time spent sitting around doing nothing. Our visit was the former. We spent time with family we hadn't seen in quite some time and who we wouldn't be seeing for at least six months to come.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Really, who can pass on such a superb title for a blog. For Christmas my Sister in Law bought the wife and I the complete series of BtVS on DVD. As the weeks have past we have found ourselves watching the episodes and still find them ridiculously enjoyable. One thing that I have noticed is how many people who either had been in things I'd seen prior to Buffy or have been in things since Buffy. As an example we watched the "I only have eyes for you" episode in which a prominent character from Deadwood played a janitor who was possessed by the ghost of a high school boy who was in love with his teacher and while being possessed the janitor killed another teacher.