It’s 4:00 a.m. do you know where your blog writer is?
If you answered at home, in bed, dreaming of state championship game coverage, you’d be very, very, wrong!
I know that I’ve promised to do a better job of posting to “The Cheap Seats”, but I’ve failed miserably . . . well I think I’ll do better, and here’s why.
A couple of years ago, my wonderful wife, Lisa decided to take a part time job at Price Chopper stocking shelves on Saturday night -- I’m talking Saturday NIGHT -- like 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. It really didn’t get in the way, and it was a few extra bucks coming into the family coffers, and as time went on, that really started to come in handy.
Well, as time went on, she started working a few other nights, filling in when there was a lot of merchandise, or when one of the regular crew was sick or on vacation. Again, it was a few more bucks and it didn’t interfere with anything, after all it was over night.
I continued to do all the things I do, work Hauldren Productions, and cover games for the website, life went on. About a year or so ago, the guy that Lisa was working with on Saturday nights (he has a real “job” too) had a shift change and could not work every other Saturday night.
So, Lisa was there, locked in Price Chopper, by herself, all night long. Now, when you work the night shift, you’re never REALLY there by yourself, there’s people coming and going all night long, cleaning people, other workers, you’re constantly going back and opening the door for at times, Lord knows who.
Now it wasn’t an ideal situation, but we made it work, and even with my misgivings about Lisa on the shift by herself, we went six months or so under those conditions. Finally, my logical mind got the better of me, and I thought “what the heck, I can do that every other Saturday, how hard can that be?”
So I mentioned something in passing one day to Barry Queen, and he agreed that Lisa probably shouldn’t be there overnight, and a couple of weeks later, I was hired! That was right before Christmas last year.
We went through the Christmas rush, then the New Year’s rush, and then those God awful snow storms of last January, when a couple of the crew members, who lived out of town couldn’t make it out of their driveways for several days at a time. It was CRAZY!
So, my every other Saturday, turned into one to two nights a week, sometimes as many as 30 hours! Then in the middle of the summer, what should happen? One of the guys on the crew up and quit one night . . . it was a Tuesday night, Lisa and I had filled in for him for about a week, because he had pulled a muscle or something like that.
Well, to make a long story short, by Thursday, I was working FULL TIME! I though, heck, I can do this, I’ll be working Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. I’ll be starting at 10:00 p.m. -- all the games will be over by then, I can make it work, make some money that I don’t have to try and drum up in business, and still do everything that I have been doing.
I can tell you this, it is working, but it’s been hard -- you just HAVE to SLEEP sometime!!! And now, the last piece of the puzzle has fallen into place. The other day I was complaining AGAIN that I was having a hard time getting the website caught up, when Lisa -- ever brilliant as she is said “why don’t you take your laptop in and do some of your writing over break?”
Well duh! Why didn’t I think of that!
So I did, and I have for the last couple of nights, and I’ve been able to bang out a story or two over each break, and tonight, well, I wrote this little dissertation on what my life’s been like for the last nine months.
So, it’s now 4:30 a.m., and do you know where your blog writer is? That’s right, he’s sitting in the break room at Price Chopper, pounding at the keyboard, giving you some insight into the life of a guy who at times seems crazy, event to himself.
Well fans, break time is over, I have to finish up and get home to fix Lisa’s food for the day, then it’s off to sleep for 4-5 hours and up to post my writings from tonight, and since it’s Thursday there’s soccer, volleyball and cross country to cover.
Then, if I’m lucky, an hour nap, and back to “work” at 9:30 -- it’s a truck night, and Progresso Soup is on sale -- fun, fun, fun!!
It’s just another day in the life -- but my busy schedule is a good thing for you, check back, my next installment will be something sports related. There’s a lot of good things going on in Paola, Louisburg and Osawatomie, and I’ve got some good things to say about them.
Until tomorrow -- or the next day -- get some sleep for me, and if you see me at a game, mention you read this, it will make me feel good to know that somebody out there is listening!!!
If you answered at home, in bed, dreaming of state championship game coverage, you’d be very, very, wrong!
I know that I’ve promised to do a better job of posting to “The Cheap Seats”, but I’ve failed miserably . . . well I think I’ll do better, and here’s why.
A couple of years ago, my wonderful wife, Lisa decided to take a part time job at Price Chopper stocking shelves on Saturday night -- I’m talking Saturday NIGHT -- like 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. It really didn’t get in the way, and it was a few extra bucks coming into the family coffers, and as time went on, that really started to come in handy.
Well, as time went on, she started working a few other nights, filling in when there was a lot of merchandise, or when one of the regular crew was sick or on vacation. Again, it was a few more bucks and it didn’t interfere with anything, after all it was over night.
I continued to do all the things I do, work Hauldren Productions, and cover games for the website, life went on. About a year or so ago, the guy that Lisa was working with on Saturday nights (he has a real “job” too) had a shift change and could not work every other Saturday night.
So, Lisa was there, locked in Price Chopper, by herself, all night long. Now, when you work the night shift, you’re never REALLY there by yourself, there’s people coming and going all night long, cleaning people, other workers, you’re constantly going back and opening the door for at times, Lord knows who.
Now it wasn’t an ideal situation, but we made it work, and even with my misgivings about Lisa on the shift by herself, we went six months or so under those conditions. Finally, my logical mind got the better of me, and I thought “what the heck, I can do that every other Saturday, how hard can that be?”
So I mentioned something in passing one day to Barry Queen, and he agreed that Lisa probably shouldn’t be there overnight, and a couple of weeks later, I was hired! That was right before Christmas last year.
We went through the Christmas rush, then the New Year’s rush, and then those God awful snow storms of last January, when a couple of the crew members, who lived out of town couldn’t make it out of their driveways for several days at a time. It was CRAZY!
So, my every other Saturday, turned into one to two nights a week, sometimes as many as 30 hours! Then in the middle of the summer, what should happen? One of the guys on the crew up and quit one night . . . it was a Tuesday night, Lisa and I had filled in for him for about a week, because he had pulled a muscle or something like that.
Well, to make a long story short, by Thursday, I was working FULL TIME! I though, heck, I can do this, I’ll be working Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. I’ll be starting at 10:00 p.m. -- all the games will be over by then, I can make it work, make some money that I don’t have to try and drum up in business, and still do everything that I have been doing.
I can tell you this, it is working, but it’s been hard -- you just HAVE to SLEEP sometime!!! And now, the last piece of the puzzle has fallen into place. The other day I was complaining AGAIN that I was having a hard time getting the website caught up, when Lisa -- ever brilliant as she is said “why don’t you take your laptop in and do some of your writing over break?”
Well duh! Why didn’t I think of that!
So I did, and I have for the last couple of nights, and I’ve been able to bang out a story or two over each break, and tonight, well, I wrote this little dissertation on what my life’s been like for the last nine months.
So, it’s now 4:30 a.m., and do you know where your blog writer is? That’s right, he’s sitting in the break room at Price Chopper, pounding at the keyboard, giving you some insight into the life of a guy who at times seems crazy, event to himself.
Well fans, break time is over, I have to finish up and get home to fix Lisa’s food for the day, then it’s off to sleep for 4-5 hours and up to post my writings from tonight, and since it’s Thursday there’s soccer, volleyball and cross country to cover.
Then, if I’m lucky, an hour nap, and back to “work” at 9:30 -- it’s a truck night, and Progresso Soup is on sale -- fun, fun, fun!!
It’s just another day in the life -- but my busy schedule is a good thing for you, check back, my next installment will be something sports related. There’s a lot of good things going on in Paola, Louisburg and Osawatomie, and I’ve got some good things to say about them.
Until tomorrow -- or the next day -- get some sleep for me, and if you see me at a game, mention you read this, it will make me feel good to know that somebody out there is listening!!!
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