Dating in Blue

So every week we get in a shipment of various types of bugs.
Like crickets, mealworms, waxworms, red wigglers, night crawlers, fruit flies, superworms, and recently hornworms.

And as a way to keep track of when each shipment of bugs comes in.
We take a marker, and date the bug containers.
That way we can ensure that our older containers are sold before our newer containers.

Otherwise we'd probably end up just selling the most recent containers and the older containers would just sit in the back and die off....

In any case.

As I was busy with other tasks in the store,
My coworker took charge of dating and putting away this week's bug shipment.

That's what she was working on when I went off to take my lunch break.

And when I got back.

She informed me that she'd put away the crickets and such (as we don't date those)
but hadn't touched any of the containers of various worms.
She'd just left them in the back for me.

Why?

Because she'd been unable to find a marker to use to mark the dates on the containers.

O.o
How could that be, when we had plenty on the podium. They couldn't have all disappeared in the half hour I'd been gone on lunch.

So I asked her if there weren't any on the podium.

....Apparently....
She hadn't realized we could use those markers to mark the containers.
Why?
Because she'd thought we could only mark the containers in with a black marker.

And the ones we keep to write stuff on the fish bags and cricket bags....are blue.

It's funny....
Because we haven't used black markers in ages. Like at least a year.
As we'd switched to Blue markers a while ago.

I don't understand why she thought it had to be black....like we used to use black markers....before the head manager decided to switch us to blue.....so maybe that's where she got it from....

Obviously I need to have her date the bug shipment more often....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Scrubbing

For the past few months....since like last year (so 5 months now?)
I haven't been able to scrub tanks with both my hands.
Because my left arm has had problems that I don't want to make worse by putting it in fish water.

So I've had to scrub with just one hand....when I have to scrub.
Usually I can get away with not scrubbing tanks because I have other coworkers who do it for me.

But today....
My coworker was being overly paranoid.

As she doesn't want to get the same problem I have.
-Which in all honesty, was a rather freak thing, the wrong set of circumstances colliding in the right time.

And it's not like it's a common occurrence. It's the first time it's happened to me in like 4 years. So not common.

But she had injured her hand while she was cleaning cages today.
-A task that took her five hours for some reason when it was only like a 2 hour job. *shakes head* Granted it was her first time doing that particular task.

In any case. She'd cut her hand.
So when I gave her the task to scrub the tanks.
Because I didn't want to have to scrub them one handed....

She didn't do it.
Because she didn't want to catch the same infection I did.
-Which was from a burn not a cut. *shakes head*

Which I can understand.

What I can't understand....
Is why she didn't just use her other uninjured hand to scrub the tanks.

Why she thought it was alright to have me scrub tanks.
When she knows I have a problem with one arm where I can't scrub tanks or risk my infection coming back (as its still healing). Which would mean that I would have to scrub tanks....one handed.
*sighs*

Which I did.
But still. Still I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one who thinks of more than one solution to a problem in my dept.
Honestly, why couldn't she have scrubbed tanks with one hand? Did it not occur to her? Did she not think that she could? I mean it's a lot easier to scrub tanks when you can switch between hands, but its not impossible to scrub with just one. *shakes head*

Coworkers.....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Broken Lock

So, I came in to work this morning and noticed that our reptile cages looked slightly different.
Mostly in that a cage that had had an 'empty' sign in it yesterday....no longer did.
The glance told me that a couple of snakes had been moved around.
Though I didn't find out the reason why until when the manager who'd worked last night came in for his shift.

He told me that the bottom locks on the cage (because that bigger bottom cage had two locks on it so you can access it from two different locations.)
Were broken.
They couldn't get the locks to twist at all, to lock the cage back up.
So...anyone could just slide open the door and take the snake.
Or...the snake could possibly figure out how to pull open the door from the inside and escape.

So they'd moved it into a different cage until they could get the locks fixed.

O.o
This was....odd because those locks had been working just fine the day before and the day before that....

So I went over to them.
One lock worked just fine.
The other though, was stuck.
You stuck the key in, and the latch wouldn't move at all.
But fiddling around with it,
I figured out that the screw that held the lock together had gotten a tad too loose.
Which probably caused the rest of the lock to get out of it's grooves.
And so make it impossible to move.

So, with even more fiddling, which took taking a part the lock, and getting the main piece into the correct grooves in order to turn, as well as getting the latch in the right position and then getting the screw back in place to hold it all together without getting anything out of alignment...

I managed to fix the lock!
So once more it works. :)
Which probably made the snake very happy.
As he's a big guy, like three feet spread out.
And he'd been stuck in a tank that was like...a third of the big tanks size.

So I put him back in his home.
And went and told the manager that I'd fixed the lock.

lol. He was surprised.
"How?!" He demanded. "I tried to get that lock to work and I had no luck!"

So I told him why I thought it wasn't working, and that I'd taken it a part and put it back together again. :)

Yay for me being able to fix it! :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Near Tumble

My coworker nearly died the other day.

So, along our fish wall, we have these ladders, that slide along a groove, so that we can reach into the top level of our tanks to catch fish.

Well, my coworker had gotten on the latter, and was fishing out a fish for a customer.

And unknown to her, the customer's child had taken the chain that we usually have hooked across the ladder to discourage customers and their children from climbing up the ladder themselves....and hooked it back across the stairs of the ladder.

My coworker didn't see this.
And so when she stepped down to get off the ladder.
She hit the chain, and it overbalanced her.
:S Ah!

She fell backwards.
And threw the fish/container she'd been holding away, in a desperate attempt to save herself.
So container/fish go flying across the floor.
As her grasping hands found salvation. She grabbed onto one of the side bars of the ladder.
Saving herself from hitting head first on the concrete floor.

My coworker had just nearly seriously injured herself.
And the customer....
Was upset that she'd thrown the fish on the ground! "Well, why on earth did you do that?!" She cried.
And my coworker was like "Did you not see me just almost die?" (she played nice and didn't say that but was totally thinking it.)

But honestly. >.< Some customers.
Yes, the fish had to take a tumble, but at least my coworker didn't.

And to make it worse....the evil little brat who put the chain across the ladder? Just stood there and laughed.

Obviously child doesn't fall far from the mother tree.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Achy Thumb

So, my thumb was randomly aching today at work.
And I couldn't fathom for the life of me why.
But I figured I'd just somehow jammed something under the nail, like I'd done with my other thumb a couple of weeks ago.
But it seemed like the pain was just getting worse.
So I finally took a better look at it.
And there, jammed under the nail, poking straight into the skin, was a nearly white colored piece of hay. So light it blended in pretty well with my fingernail so a quick glance would have made it impossible to see.
I pulled it out.
And ah. Instant relief from the achiness that I'd been experiencing there.
Kinda crazy how long it had been there. A couple of hours probably.
But at least I noticed it in the end. :)
And thankfully my thumb isn't aching like the other one did when I did something similar.
So even better! :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Abandoned

I don't understand people sometimes.

Especially pet owners.

Especially pet owners that suddenly abandon their pets.

A Good Samaritan, a truck driver.

Came into our store this morning.

With a cat carrier.

Inside of it?

Were two cats.

Apparently as he was running his truck route.

He'd found the two kitties in a box, abandoned in an alleyway.

Someone had just left them there.

Which is even more depressing, because they were tame, friendly, had nice good coats that showed that they had had owners who had taken care of them.

Why they were abandoned....who knows.

Perhaps the original owner died and nobody wanted to take care of them....

But whatever the reason.

There are sooo many better options than just leaving them outdoors with no food or water or knowledge of how to survive outside!

I mean, there are tons of shelters and pounds, and willing people to take in cats. Even an online ad could help!

But leaving them?! So. Cruel!

Unfortunately, the truck driver couldn't take them in.

So he brought them to us.

Even more unfortunate.....company policy is that we cannot accept in any animals that don't come through the 'official' means. -for cats that would mean the adoption groups we partner with.

I wish we could have taken them in.

They were gorgeous cats.

But instead, we had to call Animal Control, and let them know that we'd had two cats abandoned at our store.

And so off they went with Animal Control....to who knows what fate. :( Poor things.

I wish I could have taken them in. I really do. But my apt doesn't allow cats, nor would some of my roommates approve even if I could. Y_Y

It makes me wish that our store would soften it's 'no animal drop off' policy.

Especially with cats and dogs.

Because if we're trying to get homeless pets homes by partnering with adoption groups...

why can't we take in cats and dogs and then just send them over to the adoption group to ensure that they're healthy have all their shots, and are fixed?

I don't understand. :(

Hopefully the kitties find forever homes. *fingers crossed*

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Crooked Finger

I had just started to gravel vacuum some of our fish tanks as part of our daily maintenance of the store, when I heard my name from the cashier. I looked up, as more often than not, my name is said in conjunction with the other coworker pointing me out to a customer. I was correct. There was a woman in a purple shirt standing by our display tanks.
But instead of coming towards me, now that I had been pointed out to her.
She instead crooks her finger towards me in the universal "come here" gesture, and then disappears out of view. I thought she'd just taken a step out of range, but as I put the gravel vacuum down, faintly irritated that her demeanor was one of a mother calling to a naughty child, I went up to the display tanks...and she wasn't there.
What is it about customers and not being able to stay put?? If you want me to come to you, stay put. I don't want to have to spend time hunting for you all over the store.
In any case, I finally found her five aisles over, with another one of my coworkers who was opening up a hamster cage for her.
So more irritation, are you so impatient that you can't wait the four seconds it would have taken me to walk over to you and went and found someone else?
No.
Apparently she just wanted to have everyone in the store at her beck and call.
I'm guessing she was showing her son a hamster or something.
But when I got within range, she in a 'I expect you to obey me right away' voice said. "I need a bag of small crickets. The tiniest ones you have."
"Okay." I said waiting for her to tell me how many I would need to bag for her.
"The teeniest tiniest teeny ones alright?" She repeated, using the 'itty bitty' finger gesture to ensure that I understood her. Which I did the first time.
"Okay." I said.
"The tiniest." She repeated.
Obviously....she'd never shopped here before. So I finally asked. "And how many do you want?"
She gave me this surprised face. "You mean they aren't pre-bagged!"
*exhales* "No."
I mean, we do -if we have time- pre-bag up crickets for customers so that we're not always called over to crickets to bag them up. But even if we had had some already pre-bagged so early in the day. (which we didn't, that usually doesn't happen til after lunch time.)
I would still have had to ask how many she wanted because the pre-bagged ones come in different numbers as well.
"I can bag you up as many as you want." I continued.
She stared at me like I was crazy. "How many do I need? How much are they?" She asked me in rapid fire.
"They're 13 cents each, and it depends on what type of reptile you have." I told her.
As different lizards eat different amounts. A crested gecko usually only eats like 10 a week, but a Bearded Dragon could eat like 60 crickets in a week.
"It's a lizard." she said. "How long do the crickets live?"
Lizard doesn't tell me much lady. "They live around two weeks if you take care of them. Just give them food and such."
"So how many should I get?"
"It depends on how big your lizard is. What kind he is."
"I don't know. It's a lizard!"
"What kind of lizard?"
"I don't know. It's a small mountain one my son caught."
Also very not helpful. *shakes head* It could be a variety of lizards, but more than likely it was a Horny Toad as those are the most common wild caught animals to come in the store.
So I finally told her that 24 should be enough for the week. It's a nice common number for the smaller numbers.
She agreed to it.
And I gladly left the woman to go grab those crickets.
And did I get the teeniest, tiniest crickets?
No.
I gave her whatever small crickets I happened to catch.

So hopefully the lizard was able to eat them just fine.
Because I was totally done dealing with this woman.

-Sarnic Dirchi