October is Halfway Over

October is halfway over, and I haven't put anyone through a wall yet. Yesterday, I returned to work at 5PM and was greeted by the sight of a tour bus in our parking lot, backed into our Fall fundraiser 'will-call' tent. The tent was canted at an angle, but no damage was done, and nobody was hurt. I tapped on the bus window and explained the situation to the bus driver, who pulled up a couple of feet- no harm done.

Last night, our organization sponsored a 'Moth-esque' storytelling event at another site. The organization had received a grant to foster literacy and the storyteller's art, and this event was attended by a lot of our mucky-mucks... the President, the head of HR, and a couple of Vice Presidents were all in attendance. I have to note here that this was the first nighttime event at this site in eight years, and nobody 'scouted out the terrain' beforehand to see what the current conditions are. Needless to say, the parking lot lights weren't functioning. The event manager who was there called me to note that my subordinate, who was scheduled to be there, was nowhere to be seen. I sent him a text message, and he replied that he was in a hospital emergency room (he's okay now). Murphy, as they say, was an optimist.

I was stuck working the Fall Fundraiser, so I called another subordinate, who was having his first night off in two weeks, and explained the situation to him. He told me that he was just about to have the first beer of the night, but that he'd forgo it and save the day. This particular co-worker is a ball-buster, but he's got your back when the chips are down. Suffice it to say, I love the curmudgeonly snarker. He's also a big flashlight nerd and perhaps the best dumpster-diver I've ever encountered... he's actually made a pretty penny salvaging discarded objects and selling them on the internet in the ten years I've known him. He just happened to have a big inflatable emergency light tower that he fished out of a dumpster on site when the organization discarded it. He showed up with his big inflatable light tower and saved the day on a night when all of the organization mucky-mucks and some high-profile guests were in attendance. That's what I call a major coup, and the crowning glory of it all is that he had been scheduled for forty hours this week, so the four hours he put in were overtime, so he made time-and-a-half. Afterwards, he stopped by on his way home to bust my hump... did I tell you I love the guy?

Tonight, in comparison, was pretty low-key. The weather was gorgeous, there were no crashes in the parking lot. There's one potential wrinkle in this fantastic evening- my curmudgeonly, day-saving co-worker called me to inform me that his copy of the master key broke off in the lock of a door that has been a recurring problem- last year, one of the IT guys broke his key in the lock of this door. I might have to drive up to the site in order to lock up any other buildings that may be unlocked. I have to e-mail our boss in order to tell him that we need a new key and a new cylinder and, hopefully, new hardware for the door so this situation doesn't recur. Should he make the call, I can drop off some of the ice-packs that arrived last week.

Two weeks from now, things will get nice and quiet on the job. My standard line is that my job is cushy, except when it's not, and this month I am earning my keep... we all are.