Is it just me . . .

Thanksgiving at the Courthouse. In Moonshine Country.

I realize tipping has changed over the years and I have learned a few things I did not know. I guess it is proper to tip the person who does your dog's hair the same as the person who does your own hair. And the lines have become fuzzy on the who, whom, and who the hell needs to be tipped. But today threw me for a loop.

My new since mid-June Ford Fusion would not start this morning. It was odd, the remote start worked and then when I tried to start it with the key the engine would not engage. Now even though I am supplying make the car go parts-I had not a clue why the bitch would not start. So the dealership sent me a flatbed and an offer to ride in with the driver if he was not too weird. That should have been my first clue.

Just how does one ascertain how weird a person is while said person is hooking your car up to a flat bed truck. All I saw was a guy in a sweatshirt flipping and flopping on the cold cement in very cold and strong winds hooking chains to my car. I said to myself, another job I would not want. Well he says hop in and off we go. Then he hit a bump I have never before seen in the road and he almost hits the roof of the cab as he is not wearing a seat belt.

Now the story begins. He tells me he is in tremendous pain and almost did not come to work today. A while back he was picking up a car on the freeway and another car struck him. He was off for a few weeks and healed up but this accident messed with his sciatic nerve. Now he is in constant pain. But the only money he makes is from commission and TIPS. And he is an engineer and he can't find a job. He is a mechanical engineer and that was his mistake because he can't use CNC machines and such as he did not study for that in his engineering classes. And he was offered a job out west making 95,000 a year plus all the bennies and a free house and they would pay to move him out there and he turned it down flat because that meant he could not see his kids. He tried to talk the mother of the kids to move out there with him and she flat out turned him down. That is because she knew he was weird. And he is an engineer like I am 20 and dating George Clooney.

I was just discovering the weirdness of this dude. I tried to escape as soon as the flatbed stopped at the dealer but he was calling me back to give me my car keys. I felt somewhat safe as there were now witnesses.

So I did not tip him because my fairly almost brand new Ford car failed to started and the dealership sent a tow and gave me a loaner. Where in this picture am I supposed to tip this dude. If it was a AAA call for a flat and he changed my tire, yea I can see that tipping would good. A broken car under warranty? I think not. But it started me thinking what is up with all this tipping?

Jinxed

Do not ever compliment me at work, about my work, about my company. Never.

Because exactly minutes -times the generosity- of the compliment I will be up shits creek without a paddle. Guaranteed, every time. Thanks, buddy.

Today the three headed dog manager called me over for conversation and complimented my company on the outstanding turn-a-round of the last few months. FIE on you devil dog. Do you not know what this means? The gates of hell will crash.

In my job, atta-boys are good for 5 minutes and the rest of the time you are fixing, explaining, hiding, or just pulling your hair out to make the customer happy. And trust me they are never happy. Happy people mean people who are under-worked. Happy people can be let go because they are not needed. They are not working if they are happy.

This is why gregory the worm is so valuable. He called me in today to express his need for data on a problem I never saw. Okey-Dokey. Got the worm his data. Data shows the part to print. He wants an improvement. His improvement involves a mean shift. This is shoot from the hip engineering to correct the last shoot from the hip cheap ass change that is not working. He said he wanted a nom/max shift. I said sure, put it in and email I will get you a response on what we can do. He sent an email asking us to target nominal, which I just spent the last 20 minutes telling him "that is what we do". WTF.

Funny of the day, Plant Loco closed down food services and now has trucks that actually roll into the plant and sell food. Like the old-time catering trucks that went from plant to plant, these are on-site in an exact location. I cannot find them. WTF.