So it's okay if you get hit by a bus!

DK likes to believe that the lab would fall apart and we would all waste away without him. He makes sure there are certain things that only he can do.

When a CEM runs out of tape, I have asked him to show me how to replace it so that we don't have to go to hum every time. He gives his, "what would happen if I got run over by a bus?" speech but won't show me how to do it.

Last night, he wasn't working and one of the CEM needed a new roll of tape.

I figured out how to open it (it basically just flips up) and how to change the roll (just slightly above the level of difficulty of changing a roll of toilet paper!). The biggest challenge was snooping through the supplies in the office to find the right size paper.

Not exactly rocket science.

This is why no one on third shift will ever get certified to do phosphatase testing. Unless DK actually gets hit by a bus, I suppose.

Foam wars

Does it make you feel better to think the people who make your food sometimes have fun doing it?

Probably not, if the food is aseptically packaged milk and soup and the making it involves sensitive machinery and complicated sanitization processes.

But anyway, we use this alcohol sanitizer for sterilizing our gloves and I think they probably use it for cleaning, too. And it comes in these aeresol cans, kind of like redi-whip, and comes out as foam.

The filler operators in the liter filler room today may have spent as much time sneaking up and spraying each other with it as they did operating their fillers. It was hilarious and got to a point where I contemplated arming myself before I walked in.

I'm sure the milk's fine.

Early morning rush

I was in main lab (the workstation formerly known as main lab) again last night. I was bored out of my mind for the first five hours.

I had one silo check. One! I had a tetra product running, but even that only took up a few minutes of each hour. I tried to find little things to do. I tried to help everyone else. And then I finally had another check- they needed a first check on some soy that was waiting to run. And then a soup silo finished blending. And milk finished recieving. Then they needed a check on enlive. And while I was getting the soup, #2 asked me to check the medpass at 0530. And when I had some of that under control, I got called to recheck the silk. And the enlive. And the milk. Oh and could you check the BSN at 0520?

V-dogg, the most impatient human in the world, told me to just take my time because he knows they're throwing a lot at me all at once. Whoa.

Sweating in your plating...not sterile.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, KS told us that we would get an air conditioner for the plating room, but only if we learned to keep the door closed.

We've had doors that shut automatically for several months now, which means there is no ventilation and all that hot air is trapped in the plating room. We are also, due to an upcoming audit, cracking down on certain regulations including wearing smocks while plating. The smocks provided are not only an extra layer of clothing, but an upper layer of non-breathable way too big on all us little girls clothing.

I checked today and found that the plating room was approximately 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

I do believe we will get that air conditioner...but probably not before someone passes out or throws up from the heat.

No, seriously can you guys just blend something?

I was in the workstation formerly known as main lab last night. For the first half of the shift I had one tetra product running, plus all of the dailies, so at least I had something to do. Honey ended just after 0200 and I did bloaters (almost always the last daily task) after lunch.

The rest of the night I sat around waiting. If I was a puppy, my tail would have wagged every time a blender walked in, thinking he would tell me to check something. Anything. No such luck.

Terrible

Bag in a box and pudding last night. Lots of silos of cream, transfers, rechecks, jello blends, bnb start-up.

Also, more problems with #1.

I actually cannot remember the last time I was in bnb and did not end up at least near tears at some point.

It's contagious!

Last night, both Beavis and Smitty, two of the most wonderfully clueless people in the universe, intentionally joined in on our continuous stream of that's what she said's.

It was both magical and highly disturbing.

Bzzz

I was not very busy last night.

In tetra, unless it is a really slow night, you can only fit in a lunch break at quarter to rather than quarter after any given hour.

My horizon flavor change started at 0115 and did not end until 0345. In that time, I was almost constantly working. I did seven horizon audits. And if I wasn't completely half-assing the last one, I would not have been able to take a lunch until 0445, an hour and a half before I clock out. Ridiculous!

Let's make a deal

I did bloaters last night even though they were assigned to Junior. I think I am the only person on third who ever does bloaters when I don't have to. I guess I just treat them like any other daily task, but everyone else sees them as this horrible torture that must be avoided if at all possible. I worry that people are going to stop doing them because they know I'll get around to it if they wait long enough.

But last night I had to. Junior told me shed bring me coffee tonight if I did bloaters for her.

Essentially, I just made an extra $3 for doing something I would have probably done anyway.

But I wasn't!

This morning, my second favorite blender on days came in to talk to me and told me he had been warned that I was cranky.

He refused to tell me who had told him. He denied that it was V-Dogg. I hadn't talked to #1 all night and he would have said crabby not cranky. I cannot think of who else it might have been and now it's driving me crazy.

The kicker is that I was in a pretty good mood all night. Two nights ago I was crabby as heck and no one noticed.