Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 02:45:58 -0500 From: Charlie Ford Subject: My Work Week This week has been a pretty good one, I have worked my buttocks off, and I just donıt have as much of that body part as I used too. Soon itıll look like I have rental property in the seat of my jeans. Manpower Temporary gave me what I asked for. A job in a warehouse that allows you to push some physical limits, sweat a bit, and make what at times seems like Œnot enoughı money to do it. Last Friday, Chris, a woman from Manpower in Milbrae (just north of San Mateo) called and said she had a job for me, but only for one day. I asked if it was better in atmosphere than the last gig they sent me out on, she explained that this would be a good place with good folks around, she promised this. I said ³O-TAY! She gave me the name and address and some instructions on how to get there. I was to be there Monday morning at 8:00 am. I had a job for a day and that was a good thing, not really great, but good. These days I find myself thinking in terms of tanks of gas, not how many payments I have to make. I figure I am operating while on the road at around twenty dollars a day at bare minimum. That is a tank of gas, and some food. With one day I can travel close to three days, barring no unforeseen circumstances that would impede that progress, like a breakdown. I need all I can get, and you guys know that. : ) On Monday I showed up in my best worn out jeans, knowing basically what I was going to be doing and worrying more about the fact that I hadnıt done it in so long. The questions that created that little bit of Œnervous anticipationı were cycling in my brain. What little I have. I was worried that my body just wouldnıt respond well to the weight itıs muscles were about to address and overcome. I moved bravely to the front door and into the office sporting a glistening layer of ³stress sweat² on my forehead. I have to admit, ³I was nervous² and I wondered how I would cope with physical labor to come. I met a lady in the office and she introduced me to the warehouse manager, Jim. He immediately moved me toward the warehouse moving at a good clip and explaining in detail as he walked. He quickly introduced me to the other folks around about, none of which I immediately remembered their names and filled me in as we went along, working our way toward my first task. The details were not to technical so I was able to retain them each and everyone with reasonable accuracy. I was too, ³unload these 22 lb. boxes from this trailer that is 60 foot long, and while doing that sort them into two different styles on these pallets stacked by the door². ³Pull them inside the warehouse and further instructions would be given when I was finished with the trailer². He smiled, walked away, and I started stacking boxes. Still feeling the nervousness of being in this unfamiliar setting. But all the while wanting to satisfy by doing a good job. they say the first phase of behavioral dynamics is the forming stage. The shrinks mostly associate this to groups. I think it happens in individually as well. When a person, at least in my experience, is thrust into a new setting of almost any sort their is a tendency to try and make the best impression they can as rapidly as they can. We then tend too move to the storming phase, norming phase, performing phase, and in most cases an adjourning phase. Each phase has its own personality and a person portrays certain behaviors according to each. But this was no time to be thinking about such psychosis pertaining to human behavior, of which I have been a student of most of my life. I just like that stuff and I have a name for being good at it I am proud too say. I stacked one pallet, and as I was about to walk out of the trailer for the pallet jack sitting just inside the door, and Jim came out onto the loading dock with a tall skinny guy with brownish red hair, a pale complexion, and a face as sharp as that of Abe Lincoln. He introduced Paul, the Œother guy from Manpower that would be doing basically the same thing as I. After giving, even more brief instructions, to Paul, turned and walked away, disappearing into the darkness of the warehouse, leaving me to fill in the details. Paul looked at me. I told him what I thought we were supposed to do. He turned and started stacking boxes on two pallets according to style. We talked as we worked. Paul is from Ireland. I donıt mean of Irish descent, I mean from Ireland, Dublin to be specific. He has been in this country four years. He speaks in a very soft but strongly accented Irish tenor voice, and sometimes speaks so quietly you have to ask him to repeat the statement. He has been doing warehouse work a good portion of the time he has been in America. He has been doing assignments for Manpower for at least a couple years. That is how he makes his living, by doing temporary labor jobs. He is one of the best I have ever labored beside. We seem to both enjoy working as a team with good purpose in mind. I like that kind of partnership and teamwork. In fact everyone in the warehouse works as a team. Jim (the warehouse manager), Canaris (the lead warehouse technician), Craig (second technician with tenure), Paul, and Darlene (the pricetag technician) are all great to work with. They astound you with their knowledge of this concrete catechism filled with loads and loads of cardboard boxes. They are a small but tight group that work together for the company, the community, the state, nation, and the world. At least that is how I see it. : ) The first day Paul and I unloaded three regular size trailers, and one shorty trailer of goods. The goods are shirts that are made overseas and sent back here for distribution to stores such as Mervyns, Target, and Walmart. The owner of the company has the stuff made all over the world, like Bangladesh, India, Burma, and other countries where cheap labor can be secured readily. I donıt care much for that fact, I would love to know it was all made here, but I guess there are some valid reasonıs why it is not, like maybe the rising cost of labor in America, and the descending cost abroad, but I am not in the questioning mood at the moment. I need to raise a stake, and this is my opportunity to do that Even if just for a day. Paul and I worked hard and unloaded the first truck in one hour and twenty minutes. We shared the load and matched each other stride for stride. I think I was driven by that will to compete that I have had most of my life. there is no damn way anybody is going to outwork me. It is a matter of pride, and although I donıt have much of that deadly sin, I donıt give in easily when it comes to work or play. I think this may be why that now as I sit here and write this I feel like every muscle in my body is stretched to itıs limit. It is now Thursday and the soreness is pain and pleasure all at the same time. I feel pumped, not to be mistaken with buff. I still have a bulge around my midsection that would rival many, but I feel invigorated and tired all at the same time. The first day we had two other guys come in from Manpower. They were not to efficient, they walked around and looked as if they were ³Lost in Space². I am sure one of them was, he mustıve burnt him one on the way. He smiled the whole time we were sorting the unloaded pallets. Paul and I were asked to stay on through the end of the week and maybe through Monday, the other two guys were released after their first day. Paul and I unloaded a truck in approximately an hour and one half. These two guys unloaded one in two and one half hours. They were nice enough, but seemed to have very little initiative about them. They would wait and get the instructions when they came rather than seeking the out. Paul and I just impressed the hell out of the boss, so we got the bonus round. After Monday there have been only two more trucks to unload. Other than that we have been graduated up to sorting and as of late to pulling orders. The boss says that we are the most efficient help manpower has sent to them. I took that as an extreme compliment. Damn, for the past four years I have sat on my derriere in front of a computer and stared at a screen. That or in some leather chair trying to act like I was a bearucrat with power. Now I was making the grade as a warehouseman. This week I have worked hard enough that my body reminds me that I have worked. It is just as much a workout, as it is ³work that produces². In this case the product is money. I had forgotten what it felt like to feel this good. I am not a person that tends their body like it is sculpting. When I was in college I weighed in at roughly 300 lb.. For the past several years I have hovered at my most comfortable weight of 260-275. I am 6.4 and carry it fairly well but have started the slow middle aged process of sagging here and there. Nevertheless, this week I have worked out, and have regained some of the muscles long since lost to the comfort of the easy chair. Physical labor doesnıt pay much. may wage for this workout is $6.50 an hour. You get two 15 minute breaks, and a half hour for lunch. These go by all too quickly as you only have time to drink a coke at break, and sough down your food at lunch. Paul and I have both agreed that a 45 minute lunch would be much more in order. A person could eat and have time for it to settle and return to work soon enough to avoid the after lunch blahs that are associated with the last 15 minute period. At least that is the theory. The sorting we are doing for me is the most boring part of the job. We pull boxes off pallets and stack them on other pallets all laid out according to style number. Often during the day we get to break away from this required boredom, to enjoy the rush one gets from loading a shipment going out to one of the customers, many of which are in small town America. By coincidence I ran into a shipment going to Blanchard, Oklahoma, one of the more interesting little towns I visited but have never posted to the list. I will one of these days, I have it written down. To sum it all up, I am enjoying my new career as a temp laborer. it will all to quickly come to an end sometime next week and I will start to prepare for my departure. I have had the pleasure to meet Dan Kane, another listy, and one who did the Inuvik last year. In fact I have met his wife and his children as well. We all sat and had Kentucky Fried Chicken together the other night. I have enjoyed his company in this new world, although I think I have talked his ears off. : ) I tend to do that these days for some reason. I am planning on driving to Hollister for the Comet watch next weekend and look forward to meeting several more of you. It will be good to sleep in The Mothership again. She is enjoying a good rest, and all seems to be running very well. I did have a temp sensor problem and have since rigged a cure until I can afford to buy another. I would also like to attend the ³swapmeet² in Santa Cruz coming the first of April. There is not a whole lot I need, but I could get some extra stuff. I may or may not be here for that. I am starting to feel the urge to move on and continue my adventure. For some reason listening to my feelings on this trip have worked so far. On this trip I have tried to be guided by impressions and feeling more than appointments. Every now and then that traveling fever has overtaken me and told me to move on with inquisitive notions about the next sleeping spot, or little town. Wanderlust.........what a wonderful thing to be guided by. It makes you feel a little like Woody Guthrie must have felt. I am poor as hell, and wonderfully refreshed. The products of the week: The satisfaction of doing my job well; the easing of stress; new acquaintances to appreciate; new stuff for my diary; re-kindled skills; and making several new friends that share the same traits as I do. Itıs been a helluva week at sea. At the moment I only have ten dollars and some change, in a week I get paid and am expecting more money to come in the mail from a car I sold. hehehehe, man look what Iım gaining satisfaction from these days???? I am broke and gaining in every way possible. Life is good here in San Mateo! Thanks for tolerating my ramblingıs, Charlie Ford "79" Transporter, dressed for the road The Mothership The"Turning 40 Nostalgic VW Service Tour, and Search for the Beginning of Wind". http://www.armory.com/~y21cvb/charlie/charlie.html "Wider still and wider.....shall thy bounds be set"