Thoughts from the Ass End of the Night, volume XX

 Not really an insomniac's post.  Just staying up a bit.  I've had my schedule jiggered and fucked.  I'm closing all week.

We had a co-worker quit somewhat unexpectedly Thursday.  Walked out.  Left us hanging.  Quickest way to fill his shifts without upsetting the apple cart was for me to move to his closing shifts.

I say "somewhat" unexpected.  I won't name names, but he'd been acting increasingly erratic for about a month, a month and a half.  Increasingly aggressive.  Increasingly complaining.  Solid employee, good guy.  Almost a complete personality change in six weeks.

Drugs?  I think it crossed all our minds.  Either introducing new (likely illegal) ones to his system, or removing (likely prescribed ones) from his system without knowledge or consultation with medical pros.  It's speculation, but given the abrupt nature of this change, I think it's a valid thought process.

I dunno.  We're going through a remodel.  Have been since late April.  The biggest part of it's done, but we've had to do two show stores in the past six weeks or so.  Extra stress.  It's not fun.  And the end result will mean a minor change to my duties, as well as the duties of the other managers.  These changes involve a department the manager in question was very, very uncomfortable with.  I think that had some to do with his decision to leave, as well.

I'll miss him.  And not just because I'm having to pick up all his closing shifts this week, and a large portion of them until we get a new Evening Manager hired.

------

What else is new?  

I read and recommend Omar el Akkad's What Strange Paradise.  For Christmas, Shyam bought me a membership to a Book of the Month (or every other month) from Powell's  out in Oregon.  This was this month's mailing.

I won't say too much, because doing so would spoil a tremendous novel.  I'll just say that a couple narrative choices that were nagging at me became clear by the end.....

------

It's September 21.  The regular portion of the baseball season is nearly done.  Last Friday, we hit a Chattanooga Lookouts game, my first since 2019.  It turned out to be the last of the the Lookouts' season, weekend rain washed out both Saturday's and Sunday's games.

We made it to one Smokies game all year, too.

Our schedules, combined with some medical stuff going on in families, it made 2021 tough to get out.

Truth be told, I'm getting a little worn out with my work schedule.  Not having free time to go do stuff outside of work has been a concern for all of the nearly 20 years I've been with the company.  This year, with Covid, the Remodel, staffing difficulties and all the personal shit we've been dealing with, it makes you feel like the only reward for hard work is more hard work.

------

While I'm writing, for the first time in a couple months, can I recommend another book?  This one, a cook book....

I ordered this mostly as a gag, but I've ended up getting more mileage out of this cookbook purchase than any other I've bought.  Mostly because it starts with a simple base (even I can cook a burger), but has a handful of interesting twists and ideas.  Plus, with our having a vegetarian in the house, I've been able to substitute both Impossible and Beyond burgers with ease into the recipes (Impossible seems to work a little better, it's a difference in percentage points....).

Tonight's dinner was A Good Manchego is Hard to Find burgers.  Grilled shallots, manchego cheese, fig jam.  This is the second time making these particular burgers (I had to substitute a plain yellow onion, as we'd used the last of our shallots for dinner this past weekend).  They turn out tasty, and a it's a switchup from the routine.  There are five or six burgers we've tried from this book, and I think the next one will be a Creme Fraiche/Blueberry mashup....found some Creme Fraische at Chattanooga's new Trader Joe's, which I visited for the first time today.

------

Anyway.  That's the blog post.  Maybe I should get back in the habit of doing this, because I feel a little better having written it.  It used to be an every day thing.  First post I've done since July, though.  We'll figure it out, I reckon.....