Red Ring Tupperware Party, Autumnal Equinoctal Edition (24)

LV Moose wrote in post #17969346
Thanks, guys. He's the cutest little critter. I wish we didn't live 7+ hours away

better than a 7+ transatlantic flight away.

my wee boy gets to see his grandparents one every other year.

don't complain about a short drive

LV Moose wrote in post #17969101
My wife and our newest grandson, one week old.

His cuteness comes from Papa Moose

Hosted photo: posted by LV Moose in
./showthread.php?p=179​69101&i=i193702558
forum: The Lounge

Hosted photo: posted by LV Moose in
./showthread.php?p=179​69101&i=i181840221
forum: The Lounge

Everybody say "Ahhhhhhhh"

Nice child Moose, hard to believe he has your DNA.

Ian Mackie wrote in post #17969457
Nice child Moose, hard to believe he has your DNA.

Whaaat? You mean he should be cuter???

Congrats, Moose.

Cute baby moose! Grandma Moose looks quite comfy and content.

I finished up this pen last night. It's made out of a two-part resin that I colored and poured. It's mostly red and gold with a touch of black. It looks brownish in the pics either because of the lighting at work, or it was my iPhone, or a combo of both. In sunlight, it's very different. It's currently inked with DeAtramentis Archive Black ink.

JSolie wrote in post #17971931
I finished up this pen last night. It's made out of a two-part resin that I colored and poured. It's mostly red and gold with a touch of black. It looks brownish in the pics either because of the lighting at work, or it was my iPhone, or a combo of both. In sunlight, it's very different. It's currently inked with DeAtramentis Archive Black ink.

Those are pure art.

As some of you may know I lost my spouse and closed my business last year, and for the past 12 months I have been wandering aimlessly trying to find a direction. While I haven't found any real heading yet, I did take a new job. Some place I never thought I would but the last few days have been a lot of fun, maybe because it's something new and interesting. I am now employed by Wal-Mart. Never thought I'd ever work for that company but life has a way of surprising you sometimes.

Traci_Ann wrote in post #17972091
As some of you may know I lost my spouse and closed my business last year, and for the past 12 months I have been wandering aimlessly trying to find a direction. While I haven't found any real heading yet, I did take a new job. Some place I never thought I would but the last few days have been a lot of fun, maybe because it's something new and interesting. I am now employed by Wal-Mart. Never thought I'd ever work for that company but life has a way of surprising you sometimes.

A fresh change can be good

I hope you find your direction!

It's funny how life throws us curve balls and you have to re-assess things to move forward. And what's wrong with Wally-mart?

gjl711 wrote in post #17972162
It's funny how life throws us curve balls and you have to re-assess things to move forward. And what's wrong with Wally-mart?

They don't have a reputation for treating store employees well. I don't know if that's real, based on hearsay, or urban legend-ish but so far they've been good to me and I like it. Maybe it's one of those self fulfilling prophecies. You believe they treat employees bad and subconsciously do things to be treated badly... aka disciplined for being a poor employee. I don't know.

The corporation could have one reputation, and the store itself be completely different. The people themselves make the difference, right from the top down.

I've worked in enough dealerships to have seen quite a range of workplace environments, all within the same structure. I've even worked in two different dealerships, under two different brands, that are owned by identical twins.

Previous places have been environments of competition, distrust, dislike, backstabbing, gossiping, fighting, and all that kind of crap. At Ford, the different departments all hated each other, with a passion. A co-worker described it as each different department is the "black sheep" department. He had been in three different ones - QuickLane, car shop, and truck shop. He was dead on, it doesn't matter where you are, everyone else hates your department and you with it. And the nutty part about it was that upper management perpetuated it. They may not realize that they do. Every month they would distribute forecast charts. Each department was listed, and it showed what percentage of the forecast each one made in the previous month. It really showed who was making money and who was not. In the last few months that I was there, my department, the QuickLane, was hitting 250% of our forecast. For two months straight, we were the only department that was over 75%. In an instant anyone could see that we were doing really good while everyone else was failing. Great way to encourage everyone else to like us.

The dealership that I'm at right now is a completely different story. It's almost unbelievable how well everyone gets along with each other. We're not completely free of tension, but that's as bad as it seems to get, a bit of tension. Yes, people have bad days and are grumpy, but no one attacks. And when someone is grumpy, you just leave them alone. The mechanics get annoyed with the sales department when they throw a pile of crazy accessories on a work order and want it all done by morning, but I have yet to see anyone not still be friendly with everyone.
I think the big difference in this place is that the owner is friendly, down to earth, and realistic.

The best part of it, is that I have not had a single negative vibe about me being a girl, working in the shop. If anyone has had any negative thoughts, they've kept it to themselves. My manager was nervous about bringing in a girl as he didn't know how the guys would react. We talked about it when I was there initially to discuss the job. He intended to squash any animosity, but he hasn't had too. We discussed it again a couple weeks ago. I made sure to tell him that this has been the absolute best work environment I've experienced, and that I really appreciate it. I've told him a few stories of past experiences. His opinion is that there's no reason why anyone should have an issue with a girl working in this trade.

Time flies when you're having fun. I'm already two months into this three month contract. The guy that's off on paternity leave has been talking about taking another three months off, but hasn't said for sure yet. My manager has already asked me if I want to stay if he does take the time off. Yes, definitely yes. Yes 100%! Why would I leave a great place?! So if this guy decides to stay home, my manager will let me know as soon as he knows. Another three months would allow for a greater chance of getting a permanent position. And I'll get a whole lot more experience packed in. They've been purposely giving me diagnostic work and other stuff that I have very little experience in. It's crazy frustrating at times, when nearly every job is something that I need to learn and work through, but they are allowing me the time and help that I need. This is the complete opposite from my experience at Ford. 2 1/2 years at Ford and I wasn't once allowed to use the scan tool. Simply because.... well... I don't really know if there actually was a reason. Other than people being jerks. Same with doing air conditioning. Once, and only once did I do A/C work at Ford. We had to pull an engine. We asked the car shop manager to send someone over to evacuate the system, but they refused for whatever reason. So I just went and took the A/C machine and did it myself. I'm fully licensed to do the work, but they still put up a stink over it. Already, in two months of winter/spring weather, I've had two A/C jobs. And been trained on the new A/C machine.

And, best of all, I get to work on trucks. Every single day. We have more trucks than anything else coming through the door. Big difference working at a rural dealership as opposed to a city location.

Traci_Ann wrote in post #17972091
As some of you may know I lost my spouse and closed my business last year, and for the past 12 months I have been wandering aimlessly trying to find a direction. While I haven't found any real heading yet, I did take a new job. Some place I never thought I would but the last few days have been a lot of fun, maybe because it's something new and interesting. I am now employed by Wal-Mart. Never thought I'd ever work for that company but life has a way of surprising you sometimes.

Good luck with the job, you'll get to see the Wal-Mart sights that the rest of us rely on the internet to see

One of our local Wallymarts is the source for many of the people of Walmart pictures, I'm sure. After 10pm it gets very interesting.

Yep, I've seen a bunch already, it's a never-ending source of amusement. Lol