S-Mart NO MORE! Serenity NOW!

(Apologies for gratuitous use of Mal's ship's name.)

Hallelujah! Friday evening (Saturday morning, in S-mart time) I discussed with the mrs., and we decided tat S-Mart had to go. you see, 85 hours a week is too much for this fat old 'smith, and projects were being back-burnered that did not need to be.

I DID have a blast building bikes, but when I kept working myself out of work, I would get assigned to "big Goonie" type stuff- like "move these heavy things here" or "just toss those 6 pallets of pet food there."

The final straw was when I called in Friday, unable to see straight and drive safely, after spending a lovely, albeit long (for me) day with the Mrs. on her birthday. 2 hours or so of sleep (Eli needed playtime!) The call ended something like this:

"...well, just make sure you come in the next 2 nights, we need you in meat."

What I HEARD was:
"Make sure to come in, be unappreciated, hurt your back & freeze your ass of for 5 hours, go home, sleep for 2 hours, drive an hour to the shop, work there for 8-10 hours, drive back an hour, sleep for 2, then come in so you can freeze your ass off for another 5 hours (all while lifting 40 lb boxes of frozen dead things over your head) so that you can then go home, sleep for 2 hours, shower, drive 40 minutes to church and sit on a plastic chair for 2 hours. You will then have permission to spend the afternoon with your family, for family day."

So, Friday night/Saturday morning went like this:
11 PM- shower & change
11:20 Got to Wal-, er, I meant- S-Mart, park, and smoke a cigar
11:45, go in & harrass the awesome woodworker buddy of mine, Todd, who works there and
11:59 go turn in my ID & discount card, with my box cutter, and tell them all how much fun it was.

I did a quick drive-by and said some goodbyes to some of the hardworkers that are there, solely because of being economically screwed (one fella has 7 kids and lost a business that was pulling in $400k a year!)

Ain't gonna miss it at all. After 3 night of solid rest now, and lots of play-time with the boy, I know it was the right thing. We don't need the discounts that badly, and I don't need any more of their stock right now. 1/2 the fun was seeing what ammo came in, and being able to tell customers to come get it before it hit the shelves (but to not bogart it.)

Sadly, my one Hmong friend there (or was he Karen, I don't know) I did not get to see- but he probably won't notice I'm gone anyway. All us white folks look alike to him, I'm sure.

So, Frak it. I quit. No notice. The 3 of us went fishing, and the new guy had a GREAT time.

Besides, It's almost time to fire up the new vinyl cutter...