Running Bear's January 2024 Coffee Shop
- Thread starter bnsf971
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Imagine, if you will, working for a fast-food place, making burgers. It's a very "special" place, in that you get paid for how many burgers you make, not the time you spend doing it. The more burgers you make, the more you get paid.
This sounds good, until you realize what it takes to get your paycheck.
First, obviously, you have to make the burgers. That is to be expected. But it gets weird after that. You have to supply your own stove, utensils, and pots and pans. In order to get paid, you have to submit a bill to the company that provided the burger patties, detailing how long it took you to handle and prepare them.
Then, you have to submit a bill to the company that made the buns, with the same info.
Then, you have to submit a bill to the company that provided the cheese slices, because not everybody gets a cheeseburger, so the production cost will be less. Of course, somebody will want double cheese, and you have to bill the cheese company for that, as well. Then send a bill to the lettuce and tomato farmers, and the paper company that makes the wrappers you put the burger in. If any of those entities decide for some reason (or no reason) not to pay you for a burger, the fast-food place deducts that money out of your check.
Then, there is a person sitting in their living room going over the bills you sent out, and if they decide you charged too much, they'll also take that out of your pay. Sometimes, they get carried away, and deduct money for burgers you never even made. And you need to spend at least a couple of hours a week, unpaid, tracking all these bills, and make sure they get submitted properly for payment.
THAT is how I make my paycheck working on RVs. I bring it up because the last two weeks I averaged half of minimum wage doing it. And for that, I had to provide my own tools and equipment, and work 87 hours. I have to submit to the individual manufacturers of every appliance I work on, and hope they pay me. The company I work for technically doesn't pay me a dime, I have to live on what the other manufacturers decide to pay me.
This sounds good, until you realize what it takes to get your paycheck.
First, obviously, you have to make the burgers. That is to be expected. But it gets weird after that. You have to supply your own stove, utensils, and pots and pans. In order to get paid, you have to submit a bill to the company that provided the burger patties, detailing how long it took you to handle and prepare them.
Then, you have to submit a bill to the company that made the buns, with the same info.
Then, you have to submit a bill to the company that provided the cheese slices, because not everybody gets a cheeseburger, so the production cost will be less. Of course, somebody will want double cheese, and you have to bill the cheese company for that, as well. Then send a bill to the lettuce and tomato farmers, and the paper company that makes the wrappers you put the burger in. If any of those entities decide for some reason (or no reason) not to pay you for a burger, the fast-food place deducts that money out of your check.
Then, there is a person sitting in their living room going over the bills you sent out, and if they decide you charged too much, they'll also take that out of your pay. Sometimes, they get carried away, and deduct money for burgers you never even made. And you need to spend at least a couple of hours a week, unpaid, tracking all these bills, and make sure they get submitted properly for payment.
THAT is how I make my paycheck working on RVs. I bring it up because the last two weeks I averaged half of minimum wage doing it. And for that, I had to provide my own tools and equipment, and work 87 hours. I have to submit to the individual manufacturers of every appliance I work on, and hope they pay me. The company I work for technically doesn't pay me a dime, I have to live on what the other manufacturers decide to pay me.
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TLOC
Well-Known Member
It’s ”lite” in calories only
TLOC
Well-Known Member
I am a almost present day modeler, 2010 and 2020 for the trains I operate.
ClassOne talks a great game and most of their stuff is super detailed and is extremely accurate. The way they handled the depressed flat car warping leaves a terribly bad taste with me. I am a modeler and I can fix things but a $60.00 flat car should not get delivered to the customer. Their method of customer service was ignore my emails but tell you online how to repair the warp. I understand errors happen but Customer Service to me is still #1and doesn’t cost anymore then paying the people to do it. But by ignoring CS you run the risk of losing clients. They lost me as a customer. If I buy anymore ClassOne it will be on the secondary market.
I have 2 depressed flats, some of their absolutely wonderful containers and 1 well car.
Bruette
Well-Known Member
Terry, you are far too good to be treated in that way! You would be better off making burgers and being paid by the hour. I'm not saying you should do that. I'm saying almost anything is better than what they are doing to you.
The truly sad thing is, that is how most RV techs are paid, and the place I work is better than most.
Mentally, he's probably half that. Of course, mentally, I'm 14, so I don't have any room to talk...I have no idea why the 30 on top of the cake. I though why not?
Boris
Beach Bum
Good evening. 40° cloudy and damp. Supposed, (80%), to start raining in a couple of hours. Capitals lost, Devils are Losing, Villanova (Men), Lost in 2OT. Rangers have pulled ahead of Ottawa. Not much else going on.
George: While we are still concerned about Covid, there are so many different things out there that cause real pain and discomfort. I attribute it to a flareup of osteoarthritis, especially with all the damp wet weather we have had lately. My vitals are all good and within prescribed limits, but Idon't get the tired part...I get sufficient sleep, eat a balanced diet, and consider my self healthy. I also have minimal contact with the outside world, unlike when I rode the train. Hopefully you will have avoided the C word.
Patrick
Alien Attitude.
Happy Birthday Karl!
View attachment 180233
This image was created with artifical intelligence. I have no idea why the 30 on top of the cake. I though why not?
Karl and I will be the same age again when I have my day in a few weeks...I think he'd agree, oh to be 30 again...
TLOC
Well-Known Member
Good morning from So. Central Wisconsin where 6 days of waking up to thick dense fog are over. It’s snowing!
Before the fog and rain of the last 6 days we had 23” of official snow cover at the airport reporting station 12 miles northeast of us. This morning Terry tells me as the local weather guesser appeared on TV says it is now 6”. Terry said she also said you may have more or less and was laughing saying it.
I watched 2 more of the Marvel movies. Captain America:Civil War (decent) and Dr. Strange (good) and will do at least one more tonight, Guardian of the Galaxy 2 but not previously watched! As with the previous 12 movies I have re-watched there is a lot that was missed while watching the first time at the theater. There are a few like Galaxy2 that I have not seen.
I saw 1 of the 3 hockey games the grandson played yesterday. He had 3 goals and 2 assists in the game I saw and in the other 2 games had 1 goal and the SIL says 5 assists. A good day for him and they won all 3. I will miss the 10am game today and depending how I feel the 2pm game. The #2 Badger women after being down 4-1 and getting beat all around, woke up with 8 minutes left in the game scoring 3 times to tie in a 3 minute spa and scored the winning goal winning with 2:21 left. A terrible game for them that the grit and heart of a defending NCAA champion came through.
A relaxing day with a hour or 2 hopefully coming at the work bench today.
Today is also the 1st day of no diabetes medicines. Ozempic is it with no additional oral meds. I have been on Ozempic for a year and my A1C has dropped to 6.1 and remained steady for the last 6 months. It had dropped to 5.8 in the 2th quarter lab testing but she warned me then that being at 5.8 was unrealistic if I want to enjoy some of the foods I like and if I couldn’t lose anymore weight. 6.1 is good especially when coming down out of the 7‘s. Now the Ozempic dozage has been doubled from 1/2 mg to 1mg once a week. We started out to manage the diabetes and now we continue going for management but also weight loss. My weight goal is another 20# getting me to 185 and the A1c to 5.6 by 2/1/2025. I have been at the 205-215# plateau for 6 months but we had been extra cautious about the use of the Ozempic for weight loss and since I have tolerated it very well per all the lab tests, it’s time
Enjoy the day
Before the fog and rain of the last 6 days we had 23” of official snow cover at the airport reporting station 12 miles northeast of us. This morning Terry tells me as the local weather guesser appeared on TV says it is now 6”. Terry said she also said you may have more or less and was laughing saying it.
I watched 2 more of the Marvel movies. Captain America:Civil War (decent) and Dr. Strange (good) and will do at least one more tonight, Guardian of the Galaxy 2 but not previously watched! As with the previous 12 movies I have re-watched there is a lot that was missed while watching the first time at the theater. There are a few like Galaxy2 that I have not seen.
I saw 1 of the 3 hockey games the grandson played yesterday. He had 3 goals and 2 assists in the game I saw and in the other 2 games had 1 goal and the SIL says 5 assists. A good day for him and they won all 3. I will miss the 10am game today and depending how I feel the 2pm game. The #2 Badger women after being down 4-1 and getting beat all around, woke up with 8 minutes left in the game scoring 3 times to tie in a 3 minute spa and scored the winning goal winning with 2:21 left. A terrible game for them that the grit and heart of a defending NCAA champion came through.
A relaxing day with a hour or 2 hopefully coming at the work bench today.
Today is also the 1st day of no diabetes medicines. Ozempic is it with no additional oral meds. I have been on Ozempic for a year and my A1C has dropped to 6.1 and remained steady for the last 6 months. It had dropped to 5.8 in the 2th quarter lab testing but she warned me then that being at 5.8 was unrealistic if I want to enjoy some of the foods I like and if I couldn’t lose anymore weight. 6.1 is good especially when coming down out of the 7‘s. Now the Ozempic dozage has been doubled from 1/2 mg to 1mg once a week. We started out to manage the diabetes and now we continue going for management but also weight loss. My weight goal is another 20# getting me to 185 and the A1c to 5.6 by 2/1/2025. I have been at the 205-215# plateau for 6 months but we had been extra cautious about the use of the Ozempic for weight loss and since I have tolerated it very well per all the lab tests, it’s time
Enjoy the day
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troyphoto
Snarky Old Fart (in training)
Well, howdy there internet people, and those with birthdays!
It's Troy again...
Wife and I stopped by the IHOP earlier this week, and I mentioned I might not mind heading to brunch on Sunday. Get there before the Baptists get out of church, while the servers are still in good moods.
(That comes from an old minister somewhere, famous for letting their congregations out "before the Baptists finish their sermon, so you can get a table in the restaurant.")
Wife said yes, even got up early and showered.
I go upstairs to flip the laundry, look outside, and it's snowing...
That pink blob keeps rotating on top of us, and not really going anywhere except in a circle.
AND my Sis In Law called. Her adult granddaughter down in Indianapolis called. Seems GD's father (divorced from Sis-in-law's daughter) died overnight in a crash on I-70 near Indianapolis. Can't find it on any news sites yet. AND with the former wife of dead guy (My wife's niece) on a cruise down in New Orleans (just getting off the ship, which is a HUGE pain in NOLA, that terminal is terrible for disembarkation)... it fell to "Grandma" to head down the icy highways to comfort her granddaughter.
Oh, and she reported the roads are really slick.
So, we're skipping brunch and eating left-over pizza.
This is what we had yesterday at Giordano's. Not the full deepdish, but YUMMY Pan Pizza:
Unfortunately, we should have gotten the medium. Even with garlic bread for an appetizer, we at 2/3rds of the pie. Now we only get a single piece each for lunch.
It's Troy again...
Wife and I stopped by the IHOP earlier this week, and I mentioned I might not mind heading to brunch on Sunday. Get there before the Baptists get out of church, while the servers are still in good moods.
(That comes from an old minister somewhere, famous for letting their congregations out "before the Baptists finish their sermon, so you can get a table in the restaurant.")Wife said yes, even got up early and showered.
I go upstairs to flip the laundry, look outside, and it's snowing...
That pink blob keeps rotating on top of us, and not really going anywhere except in a circle.
AND my Sis In Law called. Her adult granddaughter down in Indianapolis called. Seems GD's father (divorced from Sis-in-law's daughter) died overnight in a crash on I-70 near Indianapolis. Can't find it on any news sites yet. AND with the former wife of dead guy (My wife's niece) on a cruise down in New Orleans (just getting off the ship, which is a HUGE pain in NOLA, that terminal is terrible for disembarkation)... it fell to "Grandma" to head down the icy highways to comfort her granddaughter.
Oh, and she reported the roads are really slick.
So, we're skipping brunch and eating left-over pizza.
This is what we had yesterday at Giordano's. Not the full deepdish, but YUMMY Pan Pizza:
Unfortunately, we should have gotten the medium. Even with garlic bread for an appetizer, we at 2/3rds of the pie. Now we only get a single piece each for lunch.
CambriaArea51
Well-Known Member
Happy Birthday Karl.
Rain now snow later which means I'll be going into work.
Rain now snow later which means I'll be going into work.
santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Good Morning All. Clear and 35° out there. Good news is that the clouds finally departed yesterday, sadly it was after nightfall so I didn't get any sunshine. There is a heavy frost right now, I know because I slipped on the porch step a little while ago, did not fall though. But we're in for a few sunny days and the temperature will be ~70° tomorrow and Tuesday, with 60's the rest of the week. Wind from the west or southwest for a few days; which usually brings dust storms from West Texas and New Mexico; but maybe there was enough rain out there to avoid that for now.
No new progress report on the Sous Vide brisket except the timer now shows 7 hours left. The plan is to sear it for 4 minutes a side later on. I can do it either on the grill or a cast iron skillet since it really won't have enough time to pick up a smokey flavor. If I do it on the charcoal grill, I'll also sear a couple of packages of hot dogs and hot links so I don't waste a bunch of the charcoal. That's a good size bed of coals for a brisket. Next time I do one, I'll be planning for a four hour smoke, but I still haven't read enough to determine whether it should be done before or after the Sous Vide. Meanwhile once it is done, half will go into the freezer since my wife and I won't eat the whole thing this week.
It's unfortunate that it's so wet outside, as today and the next few will be great temperature-wise for working outdoors. I'll have to see if there is something on high ground that I can accomplish besides shredding brush. There's nothing left on the honey-do list to do inside that I didn't do in the last two days.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I mainly inspected and cleaned freight cars. 31 cars including 19-40' corn oil tankers. I spent way too much time repairing three Intermountain ones, their QC in the 2010 - 2014 era absolutely sucked. These were all RTR cars that I must not have thoroughly inspected when I put them on the layout. Or maybe they were good then but have rattled loose since then. It was mainly the safety railings around the tank domes and valves. On one, I had to re-glue 5 of the 8 posts for the railing. Some of the underbody detail parts had also become loose, but fortunately none had come off. Thank goodness for multiple mounting locations. I also found two more cars with McHenry couplers on them that were changed out, even though they were still working. Today it's back to the cemetery fence construction that I was temporarily burned out on.
Speaking of burnout, I have almost run out of stuff to post from the archives, that I don't remember whether or not I have posted in the past? So today I will post a few structures that are ready to go as soon as I start another town. And I may have posted some of these before.
Brownie's Northside Service a laser-cut wood kit from JL Innovative.
Ed's Market, a structure from Chet's Logan Valley.
Our House from DPM, or maybe Woodland Scenics now.
A big red barn from ???
Tom O - Most of these high-falutin BBQ places are no better than the hole in the wall places in Texas, matter of fact many smaller joints are actually better. I have not eaten at Franklin's so I can't judge them. The real secret is the sauces and rubs, anybody can smoke a brisket or sausages. I personally use Johnsonville sausage, but Hillshire Farms or Eckridge is used by many eateries. Matter of fact, many store brands from places like Kroger or Albertson's are adequate for smoking. I need to check out Earl Campbell sausage as I really like his brand of hot links.
Grizzled - No EPA on my layout. No OSHA either!
Hughie - Yep! She stares at and studies stuff that I have no intention of buying. I am strictly an "on the list" shopper and I know where everything is most of the time. I even make my list in the order of things in the store so I don't backtrack; maybe everyone does, but my wife doesn't, so I make her read it to me before we leave the house and I put it in the right order on my list.
Ray - Good to see you again.
Karl - Yes, Happy Birthday today.
Everyone have a great day today.
No new progress report on the Sous Vide brisket except the timer now shows 7 hours left. The plan is to sear it for 4 minutes a side later on. I can do it either on the grill or a cast iron skillet since it really won't have enough time to pick up a smokey flavor. If I do it on the charcoal grill, I'll also sear a couple of packages of hot dogs and hot links so I don't waste a bunch of the charcoal. That's a good size bed of coals for a brisket. Next time I do one, I'll be planning for a four hour smoke, but I still haven't read enough to determine whether it should be done before or after the Sous Vide. Meanwhile once it is done, half will go into the freezer since my wife and I won't eat the whole thing this week.
It's unfortunate that it's so wet outside, as today and the next few will be great temperature-wise for working outdoors. I'll have to see if there is something on high ground that I can accomplish besides shredding brush. There's nothing left on the honey-do list to do inside that I didn't do in the last two days.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I mainly inspected and cleaned freight cars. 31 cars including 19-40' corn oil tankers. I spent way too much time repairing three Intermountain ones, their QC in the 2010 - 2014 era absolutely sucked. These were all RTR cars that I must not have thoroughly inspected when I put them on the layout. Or maybe they were good then but have rattled loose since then. It was mainly the safety railings around the tank domes and valves. On one, I had to re-glue 5 of the 8 posts for the railing. Some of the underbody detail parts had also become loose, but fortunately none had come off. Thank goodness for multiple mounting locations. I also found two more cars with McHenry couplers on them that were changed out, even though they were still working. Today it's back to the cemetery fence construction that I was temporarily burned out on.
Speaking of burnout, I have almost run out of stuff to post from the archives, that I don't remember whether or not I have posted in the past? So today I will post a few structures that are ready to go as soon as I start another town. And I may have posted some of these before.
Brownie's Northside Service a laser-cut wood kit from JL Innovative.
Ed's Market, a structure from Chet's Logan Valley.
Our House from DPM, or maybe Woodland Scenics now.
A big red barn from ???
Tom O - Most of these high-falutin BBQ places are no better than the hole in the wall places in Texas, matter of fact many smaller joints are actually better. I have not eaten at Franklin's so I can't judge them. The real secret is the sauces and rubs, anybody can smoke a brisket or sausages. I personally use Johnsonville sausage, but Hillshire Farms or Eckridge is used by many eateries. Matter of fact, many store brands from places like Kroger or Albertson's are adequate for smoking. I need to check out Earl Campbell sausage as I really like his brand of hot links.
Grizzled - No EPA on my layout. No OSHA either!
Hughie - Yep! She stares at and studies stuff that I have no intention of buying. I am strictly an "on the list" shopper and I know where everything is most of the time. I even make my list in the order of things in the store so I don't backtrack; maybe everyone does, but my wife doesn't, so I make her read it to me before we leave the house and I put it in the right order on my list.
Ray - Good to see you again.
Karl - Yes, Happy Birthday today.
Everyone have a great day today.
migalyto
Well-Known Member
I was a diesel mechanic for 32 years. First job out of tech school was at a dealership that paid off of flat rate. There were times I would be there 60+ hours and only get paid for 30 hours, because the work wasn’t there, or the service manager had the good old boy mentality and spoon fed his buddies jobs that paid 5 hours and took 2.5 -3 hours .
I left after 6 months and worked for a private company that owned and maintained their own equipment and paid for the time you were there and not the job.
Might be something to think about. Go to a company that values your experience and can serve as a mentor to the younger inexperienced techs and teach them the right and safe way to do the job. May take some time to find the perfect fit, but it’s out there.
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