By Trent Rosser
The other day I had a really bad day at work. It got me thinking, remember how I said that we need to accept the bad days? What I was saying is that if it was not for the bad days, how could we possible appreciate the good days? We all have bad days and we all have good days. The day I had earlier this week, was worse than bad. It was horrendous.
It started out simple enough, it was payday so I, like most people on payday, was ready to be at work. Up early, 5AM, to get ready. Get cleaned up, fix a sandwich for lunch, and notice that the mayo is almost out. I scrape the bottom of the jar and was able to make one ham sandwich with mayo. My stepson Michael and I work together, and I know that he likes mustard, so all should be alright. Reach into the cabinet for chips, and there is none. Oh well, I will eat a big supper, I really don’t need chips. Michael gets up and gets cleaned up and makes him two sandwiches as I sit and relax on the front porch drinking my morning Dr. Pepper. Michael comes out to relax before the start of the day with a cup of coffee and I put my sandwich in the lunch box along with his 2 sandwiches. I put my candy in one side pocket and my cell phone in the other side pocket. Just to clarify, the side pockets on the lunch box does not zip up. Finally, it is time to take off to work. I throw away my empty can of Dr. Pepper and grab the lunchbox along with my large refillable cup. At 6:45 that morning, we pull away from the house. We stop at the local convenience store to fill up my 52 ounces of Dr. Pepper that should last till lunchtime. Can you guess what happened next? Yep, out of Dr. Pepper, so I had to settle for a Coke.
Finally, we made it to the yard. This is where we store the heavy machinery, tools and the work trucks that we will use for the day. We parked Michael's truck and went to jump in the work truck. It was then that we noticed that some heavy blockades were still on the flatbed truck and needed to be taken off. I put the cola and lunchbox in the corner of the truck and jumped in back to lift the blockades off. Unbeknownst to me, there were also some rollers that I did not see. In my defense, it was dark and there are no lights in the area. I stepped on the rollers and almost fell back off the truck. I would have hit my head on the tank of the water truck next to me. I instinctively kicked my foot to catch my balance and ended up kicking the lunchbox across the yard. This is where the zipper less pockets come into play. Through the corner of my eye I see candy and phone come flying out. I see my phone hit and shatter into 3 pieces. The front, the back and the battery. I jumped off the truck and pick up the lunchbox and the candy. When I picked up the front of the phone, I could tell where it hit a rock from the corner of the phone. The corner is peeling back a little and the glass is shattered. I look around and find the back and the battery. As Michael is still getting the truck ready, I put my phone back together and turn it on. Yep, you cannot see anything. The bottom half is white and a blue and a red line going from the top to the bottom. The rest is completely blacked out. Good news, the sound still works! So now a broken phone and I need to buy a new one. We can barely afford the electric bill, how are we going to get a new phone? I put the phone in my shirt pocket and will deal with it later.
Michael finally gets the truck ready and we are ready to go to the job site. Michael and I have a system going. When we arrive at the yard, either in the mornings or to drop the truck off in the evening, he unlocks the gate and I lock the gate when leaving. He pulls the truck out the gate and I pull them together. As I snap the locks closed, I feel something on my arm. A very, very large spider! This thing was huge, it had to be at least a foot long and just as tall! I seen the brown on it and knew it was the deadly Brown Recluse (In reality, I’m sure it was just a regular size field spider). I immediately did what any red blooded, grown man would do. I jumped, swatted and did the ninja spider dance! I thought I knocked him off me. The phone comes flying out and breaks into 3 pieces again. Are you kidding me? It's not even 7:30 in the morning.
The rest of the morning went ok. I ended up in a ditch with a shovel, I was covered in mud and dirt. When lunch came around, I had to go do an errand and drop some of the mud, I grabbed my sandwich to eat on the run. Halfway there, I bite into my sandwich and nothing but mustard! A mustard, ham, and dirt sandwich. YUCK! After I emptied the truck full of mud, I felt something on my arm again. Guess who was back. That same damn spider! This time he took a bite out of me! It stung bad. Yep, I knew it, I was going to die! I did the ninja spider dance again and knocked him off, but I could not find him to kill him. Lucky spider! After 4 more hours, (But seemed like eternity) the work day was over. It was time to put this day behind me!
Again, we all have bad days, and they are there to ensure that we appreciate the good days. If you are having a bad day at work and believe that it must be the worst job possible, you are mistaken. There is a company that makes rectal thermometers, on the back of the package it says, “Human tested for accuracy”. That is a job that I don’t want.
