Working at Burkle's

NOTE:

Before I actually begin this post, I want to let you know that this is all part of my website, which has been up for quite a long time with no traffic. So briefly check out my other BLOG, the Far Turn News to see what I am up to. It sure would be nice to actually get some traffic, and start using the Forum as a place to discuss things that are related to our little neck of the woods, as well as some issues that are pertinent to horsepeople on the Track in general. With that in mind, here's the url for the site. Please navigate it a bit, with the understanding that it is, as we sometimes say about our horses, stuck in neutral at the Chute.

If it gets a little traffic around it, maybe it would find its motivation. Not only the Forum, but the other departments I have planned (which are linked, but which have no content yet.) Once you see them, you can get an idea of what's possible in them.

OK: First, the Video (I don't know how to embed it from youtube, so the quality might suck- I'm uploading directly):

Anyhoo, yesterday as I was finishing up, Ed leaned out the door of the new establishment and let me know I was gonna be working. Here's the terms of my employ, just BTW:

1) You work only when I need you (you can't count on having work, or any specific number of hours per week.)

2) You work only when I am here (You MUST adjust your schedule to fit into mine when you do have work.)

3) Your job consists mainly of:

a) putting up with a constant barrage of claptrap, balderdash, and requests for the latest gossip

b) listening to a single, repeated line from the same song (or advertising jingle - my choice, a different tune each time you are here, but the same one for the entire bloc of time you are here)

c) replying at all times whenever you hear "Liiiiiiiiizzzzzziiiieeeee.........answerme......"

d) Listening to my stories

e) Replying "yes you are indeed," when I tell you I'm brilliant.

Other tasks include:

a) stocking shelves and marking prices

b) unpacking and counting stuff

c) wearing me on your shoulder while I scrutinize every little thing you do, while explaining how I have already figured out the best way to do it

d) Choking on dust.

e) Avoiding sweeping, except for when it's absolutely necessary

f) When doing the absolutely necessary sweeping, combing through the pile to retrieve any screws, rivets, useful scraps of leather or shipping labels with the Burkle Turf Supply address on them.

So I do actually work when I'm there, but it's more like Work, Interrupted. What it comes down to is really about half the work and twice the pay. And I meant that; it's a great job! Doing it isn't as fun as telling about it, but: you couldn't ask to work for a better boss, really.

I don't have any specific hours. Usually hollers at me to tell me he needs me, which is when he expects an order in. It's my job to get the stock out of the boxes, price-marked and placed on the shelves. Lately I've been putting in about 6 hours a month, so I wouldn't call it lucrative even though the pay isn't bad. Stock prices keep going up, and even though gas is cheap again, and even after saving millions of dollars in fuel costs by routing the trucks to avoid left-hand turns, UPS shipping has never gone back down after going up.

Add to that the change in racing days for the season - four more this month, a half-dozen in January, and not many more in February; everyone will be too broke to buy anything, so why pack the shelves?

So yesterday there actually wasn't that much to unpack; I don't know how I managed to blow four hours there cuz I only emptied five boxes, mostly Numotizine that's been sitting there since the end of October. I guess it was filling out the bad check complaint packets from the Sherriff's office in Lisbon. We spent more time discussing how to fill then out than actually writing. That was fun, even though I didn't have a stool to sit on and I had to sit on the counter above the cash drawer and use a crappy ball point pen.

Oh, yeah, we did accounts payable. That's fun, but not as fun as sending out accounts receivable. Accounts receivable always brings up the great stories behind the bad checks we filled out the forms for yesterday.

Wow, it's already time for me to go to my first job. It's raining like heck out there, too. I wonder if I'm gona have to do anything. Perry Kerns was supposed to bring 4 horses in for after the break. I hope he doesn't, because by the sound of things outside I'll have soaked all my raingear by then.