Quality in Moderation

What a week. The parts I hand carried in Tuesday to band-aid the Plant Loco system issue worked great. So why did they not obsolete the old parts and ask for the new parts? Because they are disorganized and cheap. So what happens Friday when you get yet another audit call. Gregory the worm when confronted by a person higher on the food chain decides to order all new material. Problem is it is Friday and this is the lowest production run vehicle in the world. Well, there are no extra parts. And no extra people to make the parts. Why? Because your orders are so low and we don't have people sitting in the lunch room until we need them to make parts. And we are not Walmart. And I get lectured by the materials supervisor that I did not mark the parts as new level. Well they are not new level. We did a mean shift and when the Plant Loco engineers did nothing it came in as a normal shipment with mixed parts. Not my problem dude. Until I had to sort it out as they guys can't find their ass with both hands. So I am jumping hoops to help people who awarded the new vehicle to Korea. Who do you think is gonna jump your hoops next time? Just remember 5 or 6 weeks on the water and customs at Metro when you pay for air freight. Cost save my ass.

Back to my real life, passed inspection with the city on the hot water tank, leak fixed in the laundry room, window fixed on the back door. Only the dishwasher still remained a problem. Guy said he had to pull it out and take it to the shop. This is the guy that urged me to hire him for water tank. When I come back into the kitchen he is still working on the dishwasher. I ask about the pulling it out for the shop repair. He can't get it out. I tell him there have been no changes since it was put in. He does not believe me. WTF. Now he thinks it is a limit switch. He has to see if he can find one. Do not use the dishwasher as it is a hazard without the switch. And don't touch the door as it is held on with one screw. WTF? What happened to the other screws? And now I can open a cupboard drawer that I could only open before with the dishwasher open? So with only the dishwasher fucked up I thought I could have a quiet Sunday morning and just finish up a few odds and ends.

Sunday morning with the papers and the crossword from the NYT is my favorite time of the week. I keep hearing noises and convince myself there is no problem. My house is haunted but ghosts don't hurt people. It is probably thunder after all it is raining outside. Old houses creak and groan. It is normal. Just then there is a tremendous crash and I can no longer pretend all is normal. I think there is a gang outside my family room with a battering ram. As I look out the doorwall at this biggest limb of a tree I have ever seen on the ground I see a possum with something in his mouth running across my patio.

Call the handy man and try not to cry. The tree limb dented my gutters and popped a tumbled Ohio blue stone slab out of the ground. Thankfully it did not take down the wires or the roof. While the handyman was checking the roof he noticed the squirrels frolicking on the roof so he followed them to the little vent in the peak where they chewed through the wood slats and appeared to access the attic. Upon checking the attic thank goodness, and God, I have wire mesh between me and the nest the little fuckers built. So tomorrow he will clean the gutters I paid to have cleaned in November, cut up the tree limb, fix the attic thing if he can find the wood, and get me a price to have the damn tree cut down. Because guess what? Opossums live in trees and hang by their tails. And I do not want a possum in my family room while I am watching TV. Now that I have Comcast on speed dial. Sorry Big Daddy, that tree is a goner.

Shanghai shopping

Big Daddy got a present for Miss Donna when we go to New Orleans. It is a copy of a Cartier necklace. I cannot wait to see it. He went to the Cartier store and yep, it is very similar.

Mr. Rooter

Mr. Rooter won the hot water tank replacement for the bargain price of just under $3,ooo US dollars. And yes that includes permits. Ouch. New pipes and fireplace liners. What a disaster. Took 8 hours. And the dishwasher still does not work. WTF. And the dishwasher guy said the water tank guys were a rip-off. U Cool ice maker making funny noises, oh yea, I forgot to turn it off when I went to China. Defrosted it and am waiting to see if it will make ice again. Watered the plants and am waiting to see if they come back. Gotta fix this before I leave again in March.

Finally feel like I am back on track at home.

Work email is sending messages of email too full and I still have to do the PDP. Barbie is still pissing me off mentally and the leech is not my favorite person right now. Supposed to build S2 next week and we will see just how this is going to work. Let us see what Fed Ex brings us tomorrow. Good friend in the department was offered a transfer to Chicago as some southern plant wanted the guy fired for taking bribes back at their plant. She did not agree with the fact that they were wrong, so she is not their friend. Quality is Job 1, not job 2. What part of "you are part of the problem" are these auto plant people not getting? And you don't have to pay taxes on your insurance policy? Thanks Nancy and Harry!

Meeting new appliance repairmen

Well to bring you up to date, Barbie is still whacko and screwing everything up and she is now back on the upswing to piss me off. Dishwasher repair guy coming back tomorrow and now we get to meet the hot water tank replacement guy. And the pharmacy changed my prescription to generic and told me in broken English it should be fine. What country am I in. And Obama is not going to tax union health insurance policies? WTF.

Barbie stole all the auto tickets given to my plant and then reluctantly gave me 4 back. She gave them out to people who do not and have not helped us in the past. The person who threw her off the line. No tickets. The operator who had her thrown off the line, no tickets. What is this woman thinking? She hides from me and screws up everything she does. Plant Loco does not like her and this is not good if she wants to keep her job. And I checked with PC 35% of the vehicles produced are sold. Working 9 hours a day plus Saturdays to stockpile vehicles with gasoline going up. Good move.

Hot water tank is dying a slow death. So I investigated and priced and someone is coming tomorrow from Mr. Rooter to give me an in person estimate. If he is within the ballpark he can do the replacement on the spot in an hour. Cost for a tank, install by a licensed plumber, permit and take away about $700.00 per Lowe's and an independantt plumber. This is insane, but then again after I am done I can leave it to dry rot or rent it. Pretty much everything is fixed or new.

Getting my new improved parts shipped to me Monday for delivery Tuesday to Plant Loco and having replacement parts shipped to my home for someone who bought a vehicle with torn up parts delivered here also. Edge should be filled with boxes next week.

3 day weekend and much cleaning to be done, more later.

Monday Monday

Comcast got both of my television sets working last night. I watched TV in the family room for the first time since November. What a wonderful world.

Now I just have a broken window and a broken dishwasher. And a yard hold.

Yep, they put the yard on hold at Plant Loco for the little problem. However engineering is fixing everything on their own with double sided tape. Hmmm. Guess they think it is not me this time.

Big Daddy joined China Eastern's frequent flyer program so he can use the lounge. Wonder how that is and if they have sit down toilets or squat holes in the floor. One thing I did notice I never saw alcohol of any kind offered on a domestic flight in China. Maybe they are afraid of the crazy wine. Big Daddy checked on the price of the wine the guy gave me and it is 800 rmb. At 15.00 US to 100 rmb, 120.00 US dollars for weird wine that makes you go crazy. Think I will restart that 50's craze of putting colored water in the very pretty bottle and putting it in the window. But I ain't drinking that shit.

Get a Grip People

Poor Barbie Girl, she had a melt down yesterday. Seems she can't pick between being a martyr and a know-it-all. Shouting at me on the phone, declaring she will have to spend the rest of her life in the yard at Plant Loco, no one returns her phone calls. What a wuss. Guess the stress got to her and if she was smart she would figure out why I am still here. Maybe the boss doesn't trust her to handle the plant? And if no one calls you back wouldn't you start to wonder why? And your boss never takes your calls? Hmmm.

Gregory the worm wants someone to explain Catia and design to him. I kinda thought they taught in Engineering school. Maybe not.

Well what started ole Barbie off on her rant is that I did not go to the plant and hold her hand. I had other things to do. Talk to the new dishwasher repair guy about why my dishwasher still does not work. After $350.00. He actually asked me if I thought the other guy (let go by the way) put the bad part back in instead of the new one. Did I see him take the new part out of the box? Now he thinks the other guy may have screwed up the wiring. Needs a schematic. And my washer is not worth fixing. So much for Maytag, so I had to buy a new washer. Whirlpool. All the repair guys say Whirlpool is the best and they should know. They are delivering it today. So next week maybe a used TV and the broken window fixed will leave me without repair chores for a while. Until it warms up.

Did not get to the store this weekend so I am out of reading material and running low on food. Shopping tomorrow and gas up the car. In this cold that is not fun. And it is supposed to snow. Yuk.

This is just not right

This week has been crazy and I am still jet lagged.

Tony's Transportation is not world class and does not have a plan. How these stupid fucks think they are going to continue selling vehicles is beyond me.

Freezing here in Grosse Pointe and most of my stuff is still broken.

More tomorrow when I have a brain, and a list of all the stuff that is broken.

And I miss my dog.

This is too cold

Shanghai warming up and it is 6 degrees here. Nuff said.

Have to go to work tomorrow and if they think I am going outside to look at shit they are fucking crazy.

Happy New Year

I never believed in jet lag, thought it was made up bullshit. Never had it before and did not have it going to China. Learned a new lesson. Yes, it is real. For 2 days I have had no brain and no functioning parts. Just kinda in a daze waiting for something to happen.

Feel normal today and went for the hair repair and then grocery shopping. I made sure I had enough to survive when I got home, but no veggies-fruit-eggs-bread survived that long. Was ready to go to town. Town was 14 degrees and that is just too cold to party around town. Or shop. Or load and unload groceries. I almost froze and gave up on the rest of the errands after the food.

Good news: had a house when I got home.

Bad news: the television I believe is broken. the dishwasher appears to still be broken $350.00 later. The newspapers continued to deliver and thanks to a kind neighbor I have a huge box of papers in the back yard. I still have no mail and will have to brave the Mack Avenue parking disaster to visit the post office and find out how I can bail out my mail. And I still need to deal with the broken window and sharp glass still kind of attached.

Well, I get to go to work Monday and find out if I still have a job.

By the way, flight home had no extra security-there were some Chinese chicks running around with wands-looked the were auditioning for a Broadway Musical, barely touched me. Young man pawed through my carry-on and then asked "water bottle" when I said no I was good to go. Newark had less security than expected compared to old regular security and no one-and I mean no one-got off their stool to look at shit. They just sat there and said put all your big electronic shit in a separate container. No searches, no wands, no pat downs and no professional people. Chumps talking to each other. And Newark airport is filthy. Makes New Orleans look clean and that is a challenge. And since I am bitching . . .

Continental Airlines, what a fucking farce. First Class, 2B. Shittiest service ever and worst food ever. 1 bottle of water for a 13 hour flight. (I snagged-and I mean grabbed it and ran- a second one after a bathroom break in Business Class). For breakfast service I declined the crappy food and asked for coffee. Guess what? In First Class you cannot get a coffee refill. WTF. Never, ever, ever, pay for First on Contintental, worst service in the world.