So Ernie goes to work for the Dark Side, and we're thinking things will just keep getting better and better!
Nothing ever gets better on the Dark Side. Darth Vader lied! Luke, Luke come to the Dark Side.....
Oh yea, the year the company I worked for closed up shop for good, Ernie actually took on a second job! His Great Aunt ran a retirement center of sorts, and the place needed lots of repair work. So, while he was still working for Valvoline, he took his Great Aunt up on working for her during his two days off each week. This was in 2003.
You'd think by now we'd have been smarter with our money, right? What he made in 1 year working 2 days a week for his Great Aunt could have purchased our well TWICE.
*shakes head*
Hindsight: 20/20
What's more, his Great Aunt decided she needed more help up there, and hired me, too! She paid me to mow her grass, and she paid me waay more than was necessary. Once when I went to do the yard, one of my friends went with me to help. Her idea of helping was picking up 2 sticks and watching me bust my butt....and still wanted some of the money!! I pushed myself to get that yard done that day, and didn't take enough breaks for water, etc. Ended up having a mild heat stroke. My friend had to drive us home.
So, back to the Dark Side....lasted a whole 2 weeks....and they lied!
Ernie shows up for his first day of work, and they put him to the Garden Center! WHAT?!
Ernie asked what happend to the Asst. Mgr position and the Manager that hired him told him he had to learn the ropes of all the "peon" positions before he could take the Asst. Mgr. position.
Oh snap!
HUGE HUGE HUGE pay CUT not a raise, a CUT!!!
What's worse, HE ONLY WORKED TWO WEEKS!!
Have you ever heard that other countries think that America is the Big Satan??? My mom used to tell us that, that foreign countries hate Americans and that we're "The Big Satan".
Walmart is America's "Big Satan". *disclaimer, this is my own opinion, I didn't read it on a fact sheet anywhere, I came up with this on my own! tyvm!*
I'm sure poor Sam Walton is a turning over in his grave....spinning faster than the Earth's rotation on its axis, I'm sure!
So Ernie is now under Big Satan's employ. He soon found out how rude the people he worked with were. He had night shift. Have I told ya'll Ernie looooves the night shift??? He worked nights when he was working the dairy farm, too.
Ooooh the Dairy Farm! I could tell you stories about things that went on there that shouldn't have gone on there because you know I shouldn't really have been there....memories...lemme tell ya....hmmm.....
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Um, ok so he worked the diary farm while we were dating. He quit because we were getting married and moving out of state shortly after. LOVED that job....Oh not that I worked it, but they sold us calves at a steep discount...like $25 a head....
oh and raw milk!
Yum.
Dairy Farm was Ernie's first job, straight out from his principal telling him "you're not graduating because we figure you need 5 more credits, sorry we didn't figure this out sooner than 2 weeks before graduation......." and that would be why he doesn't have his diploma....
So worked the dairy farm from '88 to '98 when we moved to Tennessee.
Cow poop is the BEST smell!! That's real country air, folks, and a whiff of it brings back some m e m o r i e s.....the door to the parlor was always cold tho, and don't ask how i know...figure it out....
He'd come home covered in cow poop, 'cuz those ladies don't care what you're pumping out of them, when they gotta go, they gotta go!
First time I saw him breed a cow (the farm paid to have him schooled/trained on AI and pulling calves, etc.) I was like- WHOA! I think we need to re-think things here, because anything you can fit your arm into.......................
Construction was his best job as far as pay goes, but when it came to benefits/health insurance/bonus checks/vacation/senority/etc, the Dairy Farm was the best job he ever had. AND it was only 5 miles from our home!!!
He actually went back to work for them for a few weeks when we moved back to Ohio, before he went to work for Valvoline.
k, Walmart=Big Satan....
Ernie seemed to like the job OK, but he was frustrated with their lack of knowledge with the plants in the garden center...mainly, they forced him to over water. He tried to explain that they would die, etc.
They heard: wah wah wahwahwah wah wah
The last night he worked, not the last day of his employment, but his last worked night, his manager told him to stock push mowers that were still in their boxes on a top shelf.
They told him to use a scissor jack that he wasn't licensed to operate to help lever them into the air. He was then to lift them from the scissor jack to the top shelf.
He told the manager it was a two man job, that he couldn't life the boxed mowers without assistance. Go find someone to help they told him.
He asked a couple co-workers from pets and sporting goods...not our department they said...and they didn't give him one of those support belts they usually give employees to *protect their backs* when lifting (I don't think the utility belts work anyway).
With no help, Ernie went on to other stocking and his watering, etc. The manager came by Ernie said roughly around 6 am, an hour before quitting time. He yelled at Ernie for not having those mowers up. Ernie explained why they weren't, and his manager told him to get them up or he'd be fired.
Ernie said he put them up by himself. Six of them. Each weighing 80 pounds (estimated) and he had to lift them over his head to get them on the shelf, while standing on a scissor jack that he was not licensed to operate.
The styrofoam block thread lead to the mention of bean bag chairs, which led my mind to a-wandering to another time from mine and Ernie's earlier years....
Before working for Big Satan
Before Valvoline
Before Construction
Before Kids
Before er well during the Dairy Farm Era...
Hmm...that's what we'll call it, the Dairy Farm Era......
We had our new home. Big, beautiful double-wide trailer...that reminds me of a song...and we did have polyester curtains and a redwood deck.....
anyhoo...beautiful home...three bedrooms, two baths, huge garden tub in master bath (loved that tub! you could drown a horse in it!), laundry room, livingroom, family room off the dining room separated by double french doors....built in entertainment stand along the entire wall of the family room....a garden tub in the master bath big enough to drown a horse in....built in china cabinet in the diningroom, huge kitchen with a center island that was just perfect for rolling out doughs for cookies or kneading bread....and did I mention the huge garden tub you could drown a horse in????
We were so particular about our home. NO ONE wore shoes on the carpet, period! Didn't care WHO you were! You came in the back door, and you removed the mud traps...no if ands or buts...do not pass go do not collect $200 if those mud traps were on your feet...
We were picky. Pickiness didn't get us anywhere, especially not when we had to move and the home was sold.
Here's a random thought:
The people you surround yourself with at anytime in your life influence things in your life greatly. And sometimes, the people you allow yourself to be surrounded by surround you by people you don't want to be surrounded by.
So back to Big Satan....Walmart...
That last day Ernie left work and came home...instead of going right to bed, he mentioned needing laundry washed. So we got a load together. He bent down to pick up the basket of his clothes, and next thing I knew, he was on the floor!
He was crying and in a lot of pain, and couldn't move~and no, he hadn't even lifted that basket of laundry!
When he was finally able to get up, it was straight to the ER. He was given a shot for pain and a 'script for oral pain meds and told to "take a couple days off" because he'd strained his back and to "follow up with his dr."
That's when we did something we never really worried about doing....we sought out a family physician.
The Dr. said it would be weeks or months before Ernie would be able to return to work, because he'd pulled his back muscles and they needed time to heal.
Ok, Big Satan *seemed* to be understanding when I took the statement I had in hand from the doctor. The manager who hired Ernie sent me home with a stack of papers that he said were "medical leave of absence forms" and if Ernie signed and filled them out, it would protect his job and hold it for him until he was able to return to work.
Ernie signed and i turned them in for him.
Two weeks later his manager calls and "lays him off" because "work is slow" and they don't have "any work for him" anymore. But they'd "call him back in September". No mention of his back, nor the medical leave of absence forms which they claim they "never had any" for him, even tho I turned them in personally.
Ernie started seeing the dr. quite regularly for his back...first a Chiropractor who just made it worse by giving adjustments for a herniated disc...a disc that was herniated into Ernie's spinal cord....switched dr's I don't know how many times....he was just in pain all the time....Finally get the Dr we have now, and he tells Ernie to file his SSI/D claim.
Later he gets the crack pot lawyer who didn't help him. That lawyer got the bright idea that Ernie qualified for workers comp. He took on Walmart, and of course he lost. They refused to pay out worker's comp, because they claimed the back injury was due to a combination of birth defect (he has an extended tail bone) and having been run down by a cow during the dairy farm era when he was 19.
I mean, wow!
Yea, he was run down by a cow at age 19, flipped under a gate, scrapped up his back pretty badly, but he didn't miss a DAY of work after it. He went home, showered, returned to work and finished his shift. Showed up at his scheduled shift every day after and didn't even see a doctor for his back then.
Shoot, his boss had to force him to leave his shift the night he cut the tip of his finger off. Ernie caught his finger in a gate, took the tip right off, but his work wasn't done, so he wrapped a towel around his hand and went back to work. Boss man comes in sees the blood and asked what happened. his boss almost passed out when he saw ernie's finger! hahaha
Off to the ER, stitched it back on. NO biggie.
But, yea, Big Satan Walmart said that the cow tromping all over him was the reason his back was hurt, no matter that it was now 15 years later.....
I'm taking a break from sharing this morning. I do have more to tell/share, but today, I'm jammin' to my favorite tunes....Uh...Bon Jovi lol....and doing some extra cleaning....
OH OH OH!!
I gotta tell ya'll about an idea I had, ran it by some county employees today, and they think it's a great idea but think a church should head it up....
SOOOOOO I'm going to talking to some of my Church Family to see if we can organize this sumpin' sumpin'......
And when I take a break a little later today I'll spill more details....because I'm hoping it's something that will become catching and spread out to other communities...etc etc....