Only a few more days of work until the nice long awaited weekend is here.
Since changing jobs, I have noticed that I have lost some weight I think mostly due to actually being busy at work and not having a lot of time to snack on food because I am bored. I actually bought a couple shirts this past week and need to take them back because they seem to be too big. I will at least try on the smaller size and see how that fits.
Anytime I am a minute late, the running joke at work is that I am going to a concert that night and will not be in to work. This is because I saw two concerts within two weeks and both were more than a couple hours away from my house and in one case, in another state.
I saw a mortgage loan guy this past week and found out that it is free to apply for a pre-approval online than seeing someone in person. I was told if he did the paperwork for me, it would cost me $55. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but whatever. I will do that this weekend which is the first one in a month where I do not have anything planned out of town. This should just be a nice relaxing weekend.
And now it is time to go to work.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Insurance claims
I know I have told Dad this story already, but I might as well tell it here instead of calling everyone.
Everyone knows last year I threw my back out days before going to see Alice in Chains play in Milwaukee. Within a few weeks of that problem, I found that my insurance was all messed up and the insurance company wanted to take back all the money it paid for services that were done 18 months before then.
Well, the hospital was going to work with me and negotiate a new price once everything was taken care of. I called in the spring and early in the summer to see what the status was, and the lady said nothing has come through yet, but will get to it so my credit will not be screwed up by this situation.
Last week I received a phone call from the hospital saying the system crashed recently and as far as they are concerned, I do not owe anyone any money. So because of a computer crash, I saved a few thousands of dollars because I could not get my insurance correct in the first place. Good news for me. Bad news for the hospital.
Everyone knows last year I threw my back out days before going to see Alice in Chains play in Milwaukee. Within a few weeks of that problem, I found that my insurance was all messed up and the insurance company wanted to take back all the money it paid for services that were done 18 months before then.
Well, the hospital was going to work with me and negotiate a new price once everything was taken care of. I called in the spring and early in the summer to see what the status was, and the lady said nothing has come through yet, but will get to it so my credit will not be screwed up by this situation.
Last week I received a phone call from the hospital saying the system crashed recently and as far as they are concerned, I do not owe anyone any money. So because of a computer crash, I saved a few thousands of dollars because I could not get my insurance correct in the first place. Good news for me. Bad news for the hospital.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Been awhile....
Well, it has been awhile since my last post, so here goes the happenings.
I have placed another $35 in that account and downloaded more than two songs since the last time. Thanks to John, I went had to get the entire catalog of Spoon songs and discs. (You owe me $10.)
I went and visited my sister, BIL, and nephew James (who will know my name one second, and then call me Uncle Dave the next but I still love the kid) over a too short weekend. It is always great to see my sister and her family in KC or wherever I would need to go to see them. While there she was not able to talk me out of standing in the rain to try to get Alice in Chains to sign a poster. However, we did get to the see the following:
a. We got to see a guy who sells Alice t-shirts play four songs and only one really being good;
b. We got to see Alice in Chains play a concert and have her best brother take her to a REAL concert with REAL good music. (Dave took her to see Poison, case closed.)
c. We got to hear a plethora of people complain about how tall the Clark/Kugler combination is in a general admission show.
d. We got a complimentary disposable rain poncho compliments of security working the Alice in Chains show while standing in said rain.
e. and We got to see the driver's of the Alice in Chains buses wave as they drove past us while standing in said rain heading 900 miles to the next concert which was according to the security, in Buffalo but was actually in Denver, CO.
My nephews are super smart. While one is in Indy thinking he is standing in Berlin talking German, the other one in KC is able to do word math problem/logic. When Karen and I were about to head to the concert, James was all excited to be going to the show too. When I told him they were sold out, he was not happy. But, he was able to figure out that if I had two tickets and I was going to use one of them, he could easily use the other ticket for his own personal use and also see the show. How does a 3+ year old know this? This should not be. Now I need to try to be smarter than him again.
Another interesting nugget I have found in the past month:
Parking at Wrigley: $20
Parking at Midway airport: $12/day.
Parking at a concert in KC: Free.
Parking in downtown Indy parking garage while eating dinner than walking 8 blocks to the show and walking back 5 hours after parking: $3.
Does anyone see the differences in prices? I parked at Navy Pier once and think I just made my last payment from that time 10 years ago. A 5 hour stay at Navy Pier cost me $25. The Chicago public school system needs to get there money by buying valuable parking spaces in the town and then just charge people to park there. That would solve a lot of problems.
Last night I went and saw Tori Amos play a concert. This would be considered a little different from seeing Alice in Chains play twice in the past month. She was awesome as I would have expected. She can do things on a piano that I know I would not be able to do just like I witness with the great guitar players I have seen over the past 15 years. The only glitch is when they had problems with her microphone for her voice and the piano for about 30 seconds and then all was good after that. The one thing I have noticed is that I don't know all the names of her songs (or any of Spoon, Meat Puppets, Modest Mouse either) because I placed my iPod on shuffle and never really learn the names of the songs, just know this is a Spoon song or Tori song by the sound and keep working or whatever. I had to go to her website to know which songs she played.
The other change that has happened since the last time is that I barely go to sleep before the sunrises in the morning. Since my last post, the second shift scheduler quit working for Pratt to get a job closer to his house, more money and more responsibility. Since then, I have started my shift exactly 12 hours from when I began my shift before. I am usually working until 2am and going to bed about the time I would have woken up to go to work before. We transferred another person in from inside the plant and he will begin his training this coming Monday. I would have to guess I will be working second shift through the remainder of the year until he is trained and can handle working by himself at night. He should probably begin working with me the following week to get the handle of working at night and the responsibility of it all. It will be hard for me since I am also still learning the position, but it will have to work or I will be working nights still.
We had a great month at the company production wise and set records in total tons of paper consumed (20000 tons), total square foot produced, the lowest trim percentage ever for a month (2.74% between two corrugators), the most square feet produced in a 8 hour shift (4 million), and total boxes made within a day (10.5 million square feet). We are the biggest corrugated box producer in the country. 99.9% of the paper we use is recycled except for a few customers that require virgin paper.
I was stressed out with this new job 4 short months ago and was nervous about the choice I made leaving the last place for here, and now I think I made the best choice. I could not have been able to do it without family for supporting me and talking me through the whole process. It took about a little over two months, but I really am starting to feel more comfortable in the position.
I might even take some classes in excel, powerpoint, and access. I know a lot of little things in excel and can figure out how to make a spreadsheet work for me, but I always could learn more about the tools. I introduced my boss to a macro for the first time this past week and he mentioned that I have a job as long as I want. I created a macro to do a couple of things which will take a total of 1 minute which took him 30 minutes to do before.
After being in downtown Indy this past weekend, I really wish I was able to find a job in the area because I like being close to the city and seeing shows while still being in a small town atmosphere. It is great leaving for a show and not having to leave 2 hours ahead of time because of the possible traffic problems on the expressway. That is because you do not have to take the expressway to get around in the town.
That's it for now. If you don't hear from me in awhile, please host the Dundees for me. Think of Stanley.
I have placed another $35 in that account and downloaded more than two songs since the last time. Thanks to John, I went had to get the entire catalog of Spoon songs and discs. (You owe me $10.)
I went and visited my sister, BIL, and nephew James (who will know my name one second, and then call me Uncle Dave the next but I still love the kid) over a too short weekend. It is always great to see my sister and her family in KC or wherever I would need to go to see them. While there she was not able to talk me out of standing in the rain to try to get Alice in Chains to sign a poster. However, we did get to the see the following:
a. We got to see a guy who sells Alice t-shirts play four songs and only one really being good;
b. We got to see Alice in Chains play a concert and have her best brother take her to a REAL concert with REAL good music. (Dave took her to see Poison, case closed.)
c. We got to hear a plethora of people complain about how tall the Clark/Kugler combination is in a general admission show.
d. We got a complimentary disposable rain poncho compliments of security working the Alice in Chains show while standing in said rain.
e. and We got to see the driver's of the Alice in Chains buses wave as they drove past us while standing in said rain heading 900 miles to the next concert which was according to the security, in Buffalo but was actually in Denver, CO.
My nephews are super smart. While one is in Indy thinking he is standing in Berlin talking German, the other one in KC is able to do word math problem/logic. When Karen and I were about to head to the concert, James was all excited to be going to the show too. When I told him they were sold out, he was not happy. But, he was able to figure out that if I had two tickets and I was going to use one of them, he could easily use the other ticket for his own personal use and also see the show. How does a 3+ year old know this? This should not be. Now I need to try to be smarter than him again.
Another interesting nugget I have found in the past month:
Parking at Wrigley: $20
Parking at Midway airport: $12/day.
Parking at a concert in KC: Free.
Parking in downtown Indy parking garage while eating dinner than walking 8 blocks to the show and walking back 5 hours after parking: $3.
Does anyone see the differences in prices? I parked at Navy Pier once and think I just made my last payment from that time 10 years ago. A 5 hour stay at Navy Pier cost me $25. The Chicago public school system needs to get there money by buying valuable parking spaces in the town and then just charge people to park there. That would solve a lot of problems.
Last night I went and saw Tori Amos play a concert. This would be considered a little different from seeing Alice in Chains play twice in the past month. She was awesome as I would have expected. She can do things on a piano that I know I would not be able to do just like I witness with the great guitar players I have seen over the past 15 years. The only glitch is when they had problems with her microphone for her voice and the piano for about 30 seconds and then all was good after that. The one thing I have noticed is that I don't know all the names of her songs (or any of Spoon, Meat Puppets, Modest Mouse either) because I placed my iPod on shuffle and never really learn the names of the songs, just know this is a Spoon song or Tori song by the sound and keep working or whatever. I had to go to her website to know which songs she played.
The other change that has happened since the last time is that I barely go to sleep before the sunrises in the morning. Since my last post, the second shift scheduler quit working for Pratt to get a job closer to his house, more money and more responsibility. Since then, I have started my shift exactly 12 hours from when I began my shift before. I am usually working until 2am and going to bed about the time I would have woken up to go to work before. We transferred another person in from inside the plant and he will begin his training this coming Monday. I would have to guess I will be working second shift through the remainder of the year until he is trained and can handle working by himself at night. He should probably begin working with me the following week to get the handle of working at night and the responsibility of it all. It will be hard for me since I am also still learning the position, but it will have to work or I will be working nights still.
We had a great month at the company production wise and set records in total tons of paper consumed (20000 tons), total square foot produced, the lowest trim percentage ever for a month (2.74% between two corrugators), the most square feet produced in a 8 hour shift (4 million), and total boxes made within a day (10.5 million square feet). We are the biggest corrugated box producer in the country. 99.9% of the paper we use is recycled except for a few customers that require virgin paper.
I was stressed out with this new job 4 short months ago and was nervous about the choice I made leaving the last place for here, and now I think I made the best choice. I could not have been able to do it without family for supporting me and talking me through the whole process. It took about a little over two months, but I really am starting to feel more comfortable in the position.
I might even take some classes in excel, powerpoint, and access. I know a lot of little things in excel and can figure out how to make a spreadsheet work for me, but I always could learn more about the tools. I introduced my boss to a macro for the first time this past week and he mentioned that I have a job as long as I want. I created a macro to do a couple of things which will take a total of 1 minute which took him 30 minutes to do before.
After being in downtown Indy this past weekend, I really wish I was able to find a job in the area because I like being close to the city and seeing shows while still being in a small town atmosphere. It is great leaving for a show and not having to leave 2 hours ahead of time because of the possible traffic problems on the expressway. That is because you do not have to take the expressway to get around in the town.
That's it for now. If you don't hear from me in awhile, please host the Dundees for me. Think of Stanley.
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