The Longest Day

    I rode my bike to work Friday night so I got there early to beat the sun.  It's always fun to watch the sun set anyway.   One of the highlights of my day. 
    My responsibility before I start in the cooler is to stock the pop.  The other guy working last night was responsible for the water.  At nine when I punched in and Chris (the team leader) wanted to try something different to see if we could get into the freezers faster.  We were down a guy last week and so he wanted us to do the pop and water together because he thought we'd get through it faster.  I come in thirty minutes before Shelton and had most of it done before he got there.  There wasn't much let so Chris sent Shelton to the freezers and I finished up the water.   I  had just started the pop (which wasn't in really bad shape) when the milk showed up.  Fifteen racks of milk had to go into an already full cooler.  The standard rule is no pallets on the floor.  When I left on Wednesday morning I wasn't able to do much so all  I left all that they would've needed on the floor.  It was still there as well as the truck that came Wednesday night when I was off.  About ten pallets. In order to get all the milk in I had to do the daily routine of pulling all the empty racks out.  (As I was puling the milk off the dock the freezer truck was waiting in the parking lot for me to unload it)  After I got all the milk in, a co worker had started unloading the truck and leaving the pallets on the dock, I jumped on my forklift and started running the pallets out to the freezers.  Both freezers were in the same state of disarray as my cooler.  I ran what  I could in but had to leave most of it out because I needed to pull out the freight that was already in the freezer so the new freight could go in.  Since this was all freezer/cooler merchandise there was a time limit on it so I couldn't let it sit out  So before I went to lunch everything had to be inside.  The freezer stuff was easy enough.  Then it got interesting.  After pulling out the old cooler pallets,getting the new ones in, and the old ones back in  I bumped a rack of milk and two gallons fell off.  Praise God it was just two gallons and not eighty!  Hence, it was a quick clean up.  That said we had to pull out six or seven racks of eggs and milk to run the scrubber.
    I got to lunch at just before two (about an hour late).  When I returned from lunch, I quickly finished the pop, fronted the cooler and tried to get as much done as possible in the very limited time I had.  Chris left at seven am.  I left ten minutes later.  It's the longest day I have worked at this club.  On a funny side note.  You know how there are those things that happen to you in life that seem to circle back around and repeat themselves?  In 1999 I was in North Carolina, was working at Sams in Raleigh, and lived right across the street.  I left work, got home, and realized I'd forgotten my keys.  They were in my forklift, which of course was at the back of the club.  Thankfully I just lived across the street.  Fast forward twelve years. I'm digging through my back pack in the parking lot looking for my keys.  I walked to the back of the club and there they were.  In the ignition.  What a great way to end the longest day! With a walk down memory lane!  Plus, since I was off the following night I was able to enjoy a day off, some amazing weather, and just an overall awesome day!  Good times!