Feeling a Bit Waspish Today

October is our busy month at work. I don't know the exact figures, but I would have to guess that our October visitation rate equals that of the rest of the months combined. Accordingly, I sent an e-mail to my boss, the various site managers, and our event production team leaders requesting an inventory of our first aid supplies. Before we open for the season, I put together an order for first aid supplies, and my boss arranges the purchase. Predictably, we were running low on chemical cold packs and additional small self-adhesive bandages would be necessary. We also had a request for sting and bite pads because the local wasps and hornets seem to be more aggressive than usual this time of year. Last week, my boss received the supplies and dropped them off in my office so I could divvy them out into three care packages, one for each of our principal sites. Last night, I brought one of these 'care packages' home so I could drop it off this afternoon on my way to work at my usual site. My plan was to bring the other package of supplies to the third site after clocking out at 9PM tomorrow.

Sundays in October are usually a wash for me- with my ultra-busy Saturday schedule, I typically don't even think about waking up before noon on Sundays in October. Today, I got a call from one of my subordinates, whose fiancée also works for the organization. She was working this morning, and a volunteer helping out the day shift was stung by a hornet. The one first aid kit that everyone knew about was in a locked building, and no-one who had a master key was on site at the time. I don't know what went wrong with the scheduling, because someone with master-key privileges should be onsite at all times... fall staffing is always a complex situation for us. One of our contractors knew that an upstairs window in the building was partially open so that cables could be run from a power source in the building. He pried the window all of the way open, and climbed into the building to obtain the first aid kit, setting off all of the motion detectors in the building. My subordinate's fiancée called him, they live less than a half-mile from the site, and he was able to travel to the site, reset the alarm, and inform the local constabulary that there was no emergency.

Being a conscientious man, he called me to inform me of the turn of events, and I audibly groaned, "Sheesh, there are two-hundred 'Soothe-a-Sting' pads sitting in my office, and I was going to deliver them on Monday night." Murphy's Law, people, is a thing. At any rate, even if these supplies had been delivered, they probably would have been locked up, and the same situation would have occurred. Tonight, I am sending an e-mail to all of the mucky-mucks to suggest that we keep a small first-aid kit (an ice pack, some bandage-strips, a couple of antiseptic and bite-and-sting swabs) in one of the tents that we use for the big outdoor events. I don't mind getting that '3AM phone call', which in my case is an 11AM phone call... it goes with the territory, but if I can avoid any needless emergencies, I will certainly do so.

It's the first weekend of October, and we have a single bee-sting and a burglar alarm activation... it's going to be a SPECTACULAR month.