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So I finally got a new job through a friend of my mom's. He has a landscaping business, but also does the cleaning of the local Wally Worlds' parking lots, which is what I am doing. This weekend was my first weekend. Now, we have two trucks that run every night, one with the sweeper attached to the bed of the truck and one with the sweeper pulled behind on its own, attached dolly. The all-in-one truck was in for repairs, so I was trained on the dolly one. Nothing too bad, I already knew how to operate most of the equipment (sweeper is gas powered with an over sized lawn mower-esque engine, gas powered industrial leaf-blower, and of course, pick-up truck) so it wasn't a real extensive training night. My co-worker, we'll call him Jay, pretty much showed me how to punch in (I actually have a time-card!) and write down the start and end times for each business. We spend about 2 hrs at each Wally's, making sure to clean up any and all trash from the parking lot, loading dock, and sidewalks. We also do this at night, which makes it way easier to clean, since most of the lot is empty.
Ok enough backstory.
List of items found while cleaning
-dirty diapers (everywhere!)
-mcdonald's cups, full and empty
-baby wipes (clean, thankfully)
-cigarette butts galore!
-several large twigs and what could only be spears from the tool marks around the points
-beer cans
-beer bottles
-milk jugs
-oil and antifreeze containers
-sanitary napkins (both new, empty packaging, and *gag* heavily used)
-various forms of paper including reciepts with credit card numbers, price tags, newspaper ads, etc.
And where was all of this located? A few feet from every trashcan in the lot and by the entrances. and, sadly, the worst part of the lot was the employee parking lot. Now, it all could have been blown there or been from customers parking there, but when I watched four employees begin to leave, they all tossed whatever trash they had on hand out onto my newly swept pavement, laugh, and leave.
Not looking good for these guys.
We're going coon racing!
I was lucky enough to clean the east side Malmart here in our lovely city, which sits right next to county fair grounds, and guess what was this weekend: The Coon Dog Races. Pretty much it is an annual event for all rednecks in the area to bring out their coon hunting dogs to race, as well as shop for more hunting gear and get drunk, of course. they are messy to say the least. Lots of beer cans and bottles flung hither and tither. This also means a lot of golf cart traffic (because rednecks apparently can't walk the very short distance between their campers and Malmart, which is a VERY short distance, if walking. Longer if driving.) We watched at least 6 carts go past in nearly in hour, many of them swerving from drunkeness, since this was about 1:30, 2AM. One of them was so overloaded with drunk teens, they nearly toppled over as they sped down the hill from the fair grounds to the parking lot. Sadly, since the traffic only covers the fair grounds and parking lot, they can not get pulled over and justice is not met. *sigh*
Second night, terrible time
Last night was my second night working. Originally, I was going to ride with my boss that night, but he had been at the coon races all weekend, trying to sell hunting gear and was tired as hell, so he let me go out on my own. Everything was great until I make it to the east side Malmart. First, a bunch of kids try to bribe me for a ride around the lot in the truck, which I refused (insurance reasons, of course). they grew angry and started emptying all the trashcans in the lot. They made it about halfway across the lot until security came out and told them to leave or the cops were getting called. Now, it's a very cold, windy night, which means all of that trash is blowing around and hard to catch. Greeeeaaattttt......
Then, to make matters worse, when I stopped to pick a long piece of plastic sheeting from the paddles of the sweeper, I had to shut it off. When i went to restart it, the pull cable snapped and I went flying right into the back of the truck. Hurt like a bitch, but no permanent damage. so, I had to call and wake my boss up at 2:30 in the morning to help me fix it. We get it fixed (kind of, had to keep the sweeper on until I was done there and at the last Malmart because the pull string would not recoil, thus could not start it again), I go along my merry way when I get stuck in a corner. I'm half turned into a corner of the parking lot, and there is a car straight in front me, so I can't turn out. I thought I could, but didn't want to risk damaging the car, so I tried to back out. Now, I have never backed any form of a trailer or dolly before, so I was having some difficulty getting the dolly turn the right way. As I'm switching between looking in my side mirror and swiveling around to see behind me, I feel the truck or dolly hit something. I figured it was the curb that was behind me, so I shrugged it off and did the back and forth thing until I was finally free. the motor on the sweeper dies not long after. I go back to investigate and see that the motor is dented slightly. I am puzzled until I see the massive dent in the rear fender and I put two and two together. My first solo night out, and I f*ck both the sweeper and the truck up. I was pretty much in tears when I saw this because A) I still had one more Malmart to do and it wouldn't start B) it was already almost 5AM, I was exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open C) I broke my boss's rule #2: Don't hit anything, which I am sure includes our own sweepers!
I didn't want to wake my boss up again, so I went to the other Malmart, explained to the manager what was going on. She was very kind about it, said it wasn't a big deal since we had someone coming out the next night any way. She even gave me a cup of coffee from the employee area to keep me awake back to the shop (go her!). So I return to the shop, empty out what was in the sweeper, and do my end of shift paperwork. I left a note, explaining the dents and the motor's death and said to let me know if I needed to pay for the repairs. I said I didn't blame him if he didn't want me to work for him anymore, which I know is extreme, but I was distraught and exhausted all at once. I didn't know what would happen.
I haven't heard from him yet today, so I don't know if he's seen it yet or not, but I still feel terrible. My second night on the job, and I screw up already. Hopefully the repairs aren't extensive and I still have my job. It may only be a few nights every few weeks, but I need it and actually like the work. What could be better than just driving around in circles all night, listening to your favorite music and getting to see the weird stuff people do?
Ok enough backstory.
List of items found while cleaning
-dirty diapers (everywhere!)
-mcdonald's cups, full and empty
-baby wipes (clean, thankfully)
-cigarette butts galore!
-several large twigs and what could only be spears from the tool marks around the points
-beer cans
-beer bottles
-milk jugs
-oil and antifreeze containers
-sanitary napkins (both new, empty packaging, and *gag* heavily used)
-various forms of paper including reciepts with credit card numbers, price tags, newspaper ads, etc.
And where was all of this located? A few feet from every trashcan in the lot and by the entrances. and, sadly, the worst part of the lot was the employee parking lot. Now, it all could have been blown there or been from customers parking there, but when I watched four employees begin to leave, they all tossed whatever trash they had on hand out onto my newly swept pavement, laugh, and leave.
Not looking good for these guys. We're going coon racing!
I was lucky enough to clean the east side Malmart here in our lovely city, which sits right next to county fair grounds, and guess what was this weekend: The Coon Dog Races. Pretty much it is an annual event for all rednecks in the area to bring out their coon hunting dogs to race, as well as shop for more hunting gear and get drunk, of course. they are messy to say the least. Lots of beer cans and bottles flung hither and tither. This also means a lot of golf cart traffic (because rednecks apparently can't walk the very short distance between their campers and Malmart, which is a VERY short distance, if walking. Longer if driving.) We watched at least 6 carts go past in nearly in hour, many of them swerving from drunkeness, since this was about 1:30, 2AM. One of them was so overloaded with drunk teens, they nearly toppled over as they sped down the hill from the fair grounds to the parking lot. Sadly, since the traffic only covers the fair grounds and parking lot, they can not get pulled over and justice is not met. *sigh*
Second night, terrible time
Last night was my second night working. Originally, I was going to ride with my boss that night, but he had been at the coon races all weekend, trying to sell hunting gear and was tired as hell, so he let me go out on my own. Everything was great until I make it to the east side Malmart. First, a bunch of kids try to bribe me for a ride around the lot in the truck, which I refused (insurance reasons, of course). they grew angry and started emptying all the trashcans in the lot. They made it about halfway across the lot until security came out and told them to leave or the cops were getting called. Now, it's a very cold, windy night, which means all of that trash is blowing around and hard to catch. Greeeeaaattttt......
Then, to make matters worse, when I stopped to pick a long piece of plastic sheeting from the paddles of the sweeper, I had to shut it off. When i went to restart it, the pull cable snapped and I went flying right into the back of the truck. Hurt like a bitch, but no permanent damage. so, I had to call and wake my boss up at 2:30 in the morning to help me fix it. We get it fixed (kind of, had to keep the sweeper on until I was done there and at the last Malmart because the pull string would not recoil, thus could not start it again), I go along my merry way when I get stuck in a corner. I'm half turned into a corner of the parking lot, and there is a car straight in front me, so I can't turn out. I thought I could, but didn't want to risk damaging the car, so I tried to back out. Now, I have never backed any form of a trailer or dolly before, so I was having some difficulty getting the dolly turn the right way. As I'm switching between looking in my side mirror and swiveling around to see behind me, I feel the truck or dolly hit something. I figured it was the curb that was behind me, so I shrugged it off and did the back and forth thing until I was finally free. the motor on the sweeper dies not long after. I go back to investigate and see that the motor is dented slightly. I am puzzled until I see the massive dent in the rear fender and I put two and two together. My first solo night out, and I f*ck both the sweeper and the truck up. I was pretty much in tears when I saw this because A) I still had one more Malmart to do and it wouldn't start B) it was already almost 5AM, I was exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open C) I broke my boss's rule #2: Don't hit anything, which I am sure includes our own sweepers!
I didn't want to wake my boss up again, so I went to the other Malmart, explained to the manager what was going on. She was very kind about it, said it wasn't a big deal since we had someone coming out the next night any way. She even gave me a cup of coffee from the employee area to keep me awake back to the shop (go her!). So I return to the shop, empty out what was in the sweeper, and do my end of shift paperwork. I left a note, explaining the dents and the motor's death and said to let me know if I needed to pay for the repairs. I said I didn't blame him if he didn't want me to work for him anymore, which I know is extreme, but I was distraught and exhausted all at once. I didn't know what would happen.
I haven't heard from him yet today, so I don't know if he's seen it yet or not, but I still feel terrible. My second night on the job, and I screw up already. Hopefully the repairs aren't extensive and I still have my job. It may only be a few nights every few weeks, but I need it and actually like the work. What could be better than just driving around in circles all night, listening to your favorite music and getting to see the weird stuff people do?
Best of luck finding a much better job soon. *hug*
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