Land or Water?

I had a customer approach me today asking if we had any turtles.
Which...honestly...I can see why they would head over to the fish wall if they're looking for aquatic turtles...because there's water all over there....but really...why they never look in the reptile section...I don't quite know. 

In any case.
I asked them in return if they meant Land Turtles or Aquatic Turtles.
Because people usually refer to either one as Turtles...even if the land ones are Tortoises so I have to double check to make sure I'm showing them the right turtle they're looking for....even though they're in the same spot. The Tortoises's cage being right above the Turtle's cage. 

And the customer was like "Land." 
So I was like "Alright." 
And I lead them to the turtles and pointed to the top cage -which had bark and such in it designating it as the Tortoise cage and said "those are the land turtles." and in case the customer actually wanted the aquatic turtles pointed to the cage below it -which had water and rocks in it. and said "these are the aquatic turtles." 

And the customer leaned in and was like. "Which one is which?" 

To which....I had a moment of confusion. 
Like...isn't it obvious which one is which?
The top cage doesn't have water, the bottom cage does have water. 
So it should be obvious that the top cage is for Land Turtles and the Bottom cage would be for Aquatic Turtles....unless you know the person didn't realize that the bottom cage held water?
*shakes head*

In any case.
I had to repoint to the cage and go "This is the land, this is the water." 

All in all....
Very weird exchange as the customer was more concerned about the size than anything else...and kinda just left afterwards... *shakes head*

Just a weird exchange for sure. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Squeak Squeaken

So while I was in the middle of putting up sale stickers for my department, I heard this odd high squeaky noise.
Which....I immediately realized wasn't a good thing.
There's a certain series of sounds that you grow used to in my department...or at least I grow used to, and so it's always jarring to hear a sound that 'doesn't belong.'

But I wasn't sure why I would suddenly be hearing this sound when I hadn't just moments before.
The only big difference was that my coworker had been gravel vacuuming some of our fish tanks, and now had put it all back. 

I could hear the sound originating from behind our fish wall.
So as soon as I finished the page of sales that needed to go up.
I went to investigate.

And quickly found the source of the sound.
The squeaky noise was coming from our Goldfish sump.
Which is basically a large holding tank that holds water for our feeder goldfish tanks.
And that sump...was basically empty of water.

What had happened?
My coworker had been gravel vacuuming the feeder goldfish tanks...and had done too much of a thorough job.  
Because the goldfish sump....it has a limited water supply that does not refill as quickly as the main water system's sump refills. 
So if you take too long gravel vacuuming...the water levels within that sump drops quickly...and doesn't refill. 

Which means that the motor running the water through the pipes...is basically running dry.
And therefore causing the squeaking noise. 

The solution was simple.
Fill the sump back up with water.
And the squeaking immediately stopped.

What I find interesting though....is that my coworker too heard the squeaking noise...wondered what it was...but didn't go investigate to find the source....
I wonder why that is...
Why did they not think to figure out where the source of the noise was coming from?
*shakes head*
No idea....

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Fresh Coat

I drove into work today and was met with the oddest sight.

That of my work building...half painted. 

Instead of it's white and blue striped exterior....
The bottom half the building was now a light sandy brown color. 
Which wasn't bad lol. As that color reminded me of redrock country.
So I liked it....and once it's entirely painted I may like it even more once the color scheme is all sorted and such.

But still....I was randomly confused as to why our building was suddenly getting a makeover.

And when I asked to manager in charge why the sudden color change....

He told me that apparently we had an open work order....from 2012...to have the building repainted.

O.o 
2012.

Like that was 5 years ago guys....why now did they decide to actually paint the building?

Well apparently the work order was put on a hold....
Until there were like...funds? to actually paint the building?

I dunno.
For whatever reason.
The order was delayed.
Until now.
When corporate finally gave the go ahead to paint our building.

Took them long enough lol.
I wonder if that means that they're going to do the other changes in the store that I've been hearing about since I started working there....

Guess we'll see. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fear Factor

I often (it feels like at least twice a month) have customers come into the store to buy bugs for a 'fear factor' sort of event that they're doing. You know where they either have to 'eat a bug' or stick their hands in a dark box (filled with bugs) that sort of thing.

I had one of those customers today.
Doing the 'stick the hand in the box' side of fear factor.
Where he wanted to get some mealworms...but they ended up being too tiny.
And so he went for Superworms -which are like ...well...super big versions of the tiny mealworms lol. 

The notable thing about this particular thing.
Was that I opened each container of superworms he was going to get, to make sure that there were superworms in there. (as once in a blue moon there's one that comes to us missing the worms.) 

And he was like. "It's funny, I'm using this as a fear factor, but you're handling them easily without any qualms. I guess that means you can get used to anything after a while." 

lol.
Which is very true.
What scares one person may not scare another....
And definitely experience and long term exposure with working with the bugs at work has definitely desensitized me to them. lol.
Not that I was sensitive at all to them in the first place....I grew up with a brother who enjoyed catching bugs and I would often join in growing up....so I never really had problems with handling the bugs. lol 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Decisions Decisions

I had a woman come into the store with her two kids.
They were there because her oldest child -a boy- had earned $8 and wanted to buy a fish.
Which I had to gently direct them away from our fish wall and to our betta fish when they said that they only had a bowl. 

But it was rather...interesting to interact with this woman.
Because she always sounded so surprised/amazed at everything.
Her breath would get all high and breathy, her eye brows would raise and her eyes would widen. 

Really...I couldn't help but think this particular customer has been around little kids for too long. Because it was the sort of reaction that you'd give to young kids. 

In any case.
It was quite the experience to help her.
Because she was rather indecisive on what she actually wanted to get for her son. 
A big fish tank for the angelfish he wanted.
A small bowl?
A small fish tank?

Her decision would also change with each new bit of info I'd provide.
Because what she'd want to put in the bowl/tank/etc would prompt me to give more info.
Like putting live plants in a bowl isn't a good idea because they don't handle the constant water changes well. 

She must have changed her mind a half dozen times.

Thankfully she finally settled on a BettaFalls tri tank. That could hold a betta in each mini tank, provide flowing water to prevent water changes, and that would allow her to have her live plants. Because she super wanted those. 

Hopefully it all works out for her. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Wrong One

I came into work today to see my coworker working on doing the bedding changes.
As they were in first and I was in second for a weird switch up.
(it's always weird to come in second in the mornings. I'm almost always first.) 
In any case.
I noted right away...
That my coworker was working on the wrong bedding change.
Today was supposed to be Reptiles.
But my coworker was pulling out all the stuff from the bird bedding.

So as I walked by to clock in, I paused long enough to point at the Reptiles and mouth "Reptiles today." before I went to clock in.

Yah....my coworker wasn't happy about that....
lol though they took it rather well.
Mostly they were confused as to why they thought it was bird bedding day in the first place.

*shrugs*
Maybe they got the day mixed up.
I do that on occasion. 
Especially when I've been away from work for a couple of days. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Language Quiz

I was scrubbing tanks when a young boy (like 7yrs old?) came up to me and asked me. "Do you know Spanish?" 

I was like "No. I only know a little." 
-Because I took Spanish in Jr. High but that was like...forever ago. 

He then was like "What do you know?" 

I shrugged. "Colors, Numbers." 

lol. 
And the kid started quizzing me.
"What is Rojo?" 
Red. 
"What is blue?"
Azul.
"What is green?" 
Verde.
"What is Pink." 
...uh...somethingRojo?
"Rosita." 
Oh. And yellow is amarillo right? (sorry if I spelt that wrong.) 
"Mhmmm" 


lol It was the most random thing.
And so weird to be quizzed by a child.
But it is good to know that I probably remember more Spanish than I think I do.

-Sarnic Dirchi