What a difference a day makes...

What do I mean? Well, I mean this:

24 hours ago, I have every reason to expect that I will be spending most of the next 4 to 6 weeks overseeing an IDG storeroom at a Stanley manufacturing facility in balmy Cheraw, SC (God's country).


12 hours ago, I have every reason to expect that I will be spending most of the next 4 to 6 weeks overseeing an IDG storeroom at a Stanley manufacturing facility in balmy Cheraw, SC (God's country).

11 hours ago, I receive a phone call from my "sort-of" boss at Honeywell in Greer, telling me that Belmont is unhappy that I am helping out in Cheraw while still on the training budget. Apparently, the powers-that-be think that as long as my salary is coming out of the training budget, I should actually be in training, or at least working at a site where training has occurred in the past. Apparently, what I've been doing in Cheraw does not constitute training, even though I feel like I have learned quite a bit in the past week and a half. Truth is, what Bill took me through last week was the closest I've gotten yet to an actual structured learning experienced. That's all to his credit, by the way. He was a good teacher. Too bad, then, that it's him that got shipped back down to the sand hills.

Obviously, I'm glad to be back home for what I hope will be a good long while. That said, the way IDG management has handled this whole situation truly irritates me. I'm frustrated at how I've been jerked back and forth, at how Bill has been jerked back and forth and back again, and at how the area manager for eastern SC seems uninterested in looking after his own back yard. I mean, I find it kind of sad that the area manager overseeing the Cheraw plant called me today only after I had received a call from a site manager in Greer and after Bill had physically arrived. And the site manager in Greer called me so that I wouldn't get freaked out when Bill showed up out of the blue this morning. Everybody knew about this change yesterday, but the folks in Greer didn't call because that's the responsibility of the area manager, and the area manager didn't call. Until this morning. After everyone had given up on him and just contacted me themselves. So, again, I am a little frustrated with the jerking around.

Still, I'm glad to be back in a place that increasingly feels like home. Glad to come back to Honeywell knowing that I'm the guy who did everything he was asked to do without complaint. Glad to have a brain full of new knowledge and a little bit more confidence. Glad to be able to sleep in a bed that doesn't hurt my back. Glad to be back with my little dumplin head of love...

Back from Cheraw/ back to Cheraw

I still haven't found the river park. There's supposed to be a river park somewhere in Cheraw, but I haven't found it. Actually, I haven't even found the river yet, even though it is the GREAT Pee Dee River. If it's so great, why can't I find it?

It's really hot in Cheraw. It's warm in the mornings, hot by noon, nuclear by 4 PM. Luckily, we usually have thunderstorms in the late afternoons, which tends to cool things down a bit.

The fact is, though, that I haven't spent much time outside anyway. I get up at 6:15, get ready, have a quick breakfast, and get to the Stanley plant by 7:15. I work until lunch, usually between 1:00 and 1:30 in the afternoon. After a 30 minute lunch, I return to work and stay until 5:30, sometimes six. Last week, I had help. This week, I'm on my own. Monday- Thursday won't be too bad, but Friday is week end and month end billing. I only barely know how to do week end billing. I have no clue how to do month end billing. Bill's supposed to come back by Friday to help me with billing, and I truly hope he's able to do so, but his home site in Greer is having its own problems, and they possibly need him there worse than I need him in Cheraw, so I guess we'll see how that works out.

Tomorrow, I will have been an IDG employee for 5 weeks.

Chauntelle is planning to come to visit me this week. She may come up as early as Wednesday, depending on whether she picks up any work this week. We're planning to spend next weekend in the eastern part of the state. Next Saturday, Chauntelle's old friend Maggie will be coming to Cheraw to visit her parents, and we will be seeing her then, which will be pretty cool (Chauntelle hasn't seen Maggie in at least 6 years). Sunday, we will be standing in line for the Borg Assimilator at Carowinds. It's good to have something to look forward to.

Anyway, here's how I am. Happy to be in South Carolina, thrilled to be Greenville when I'm actually in Greenville, doing my best in Cheraw, where I will probably be at least through 8/11, maybe longer. All I can do is my best. All I can do is hang in and rise to the challenge.


Still, it does kinda suck.

Gnomes are our friends...