A Day in the Shop

A normal day in the shop is anything but a normal day, but I'll try to give you some highlights.

Welding in the Central Coast heat requires a strong constitution.

Nine to five? No! Michael seems to live here; Nick arrives at 5 am with Bekki close behind at 5:30; most arrive by 7 and the rest of us seem like slackers, dragging our near lifeless carcasses through the door at quarter to 8.

Sand that thing, Son!

Quiet Cubicles? If the sound of an angle grinder singing baritone while belt sanders and countless drills fill in the chorus sounds relaxing, this may be the shop for you. But somewhere over all that noise you can still hear the Bee Gees belting out "Staying Alive" on disco Thursday.

Annoying Coworkers? This makes me think of that quote from "Rounders" where Matt Damon says, "If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker." You see, I was told that "There's one in every workplace," but I can't find them here...I'm starting to be paranoid that I can't spot them because it's me.

Boring office job? Michael offered to make coffee for the office staff this morning (ok, I was the entire office staff this morning, but still). When he delivered the cup it smelled as if a bottle of Crown was used in place of water in the brewing process. "Are you trying to wake me up or knock me out?" I asked.
"It gets the creative juices flowing," he replied and went off to play with power tools, laughing like the joker in the Adam West Batman world.

You know what that is? AWESOME! that's what that is.

Lame Team Building Days? We have a pretty much weekly BBQ out back where the boss provides all the meat and booze anyone could reasonably be expected to consume in an afternoon. It's the only weekly work party I've been to that has a designated driver system in place. There are Kung Fu Fridays where our resident Kung Fu instructor gives an intro to Chinese martial arts lesson.

This plate was gone in 13.4 seconds.

The point is, coming directly from Corporate America to Wine Country is a bit of an adjustment. Everything you wanted at your old job is there and available and it's so amazing you have a sense of disbelief. Take this blogpost for instance, I wrote it and tried to run it past Michael, "It's your website man, make it how you want... you seem tense, let's have a drink."