Smells like Rain

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Originally uploaded by ambrosia05

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Sorry, August has been a really stressful month for me.

I'm so, so depressed right now. I almost left work early since I'm not feeling well mentally or physically. *sighs* My lunch break's almost over, so I need to get driving back to work.

I was to work for 3:30pm to 10pm. During that time I was supposed to do my regular closing duties, plus some last minute things for inventory tomorrow morning. It didn't quite go that way, and my coworkers and I left at almost 1am.

I was in the backroom counting the milkroom and freezer, and when I went back up front it was raining. When I arrived at work earlier, it was hot out, and between then and being in the back, rain hit. I headed to the parking lot and rolled up my windows, and was glad nothing leaked through them (since it was hot, I left them cracked). I was a little bugged over getting my uniform a little wet before having to return to the freezer, but oh do I know the irony in this now! My clothes are now in the wash, despite it being 1:30am and despite the fact that I have to get up at 6:30 to be ready for work tomorrow. Let me explain the irony in the little bit of water that was on me. Well, I had went to the back room, and some water had leaked in through the big roll up door (where we accept our deliveries from). It wasn't a big deal since there is space between the floor and the door, so I went to get some towels to stick there. I walked into the supply/breakroom, and the emergency exit door was going off. "R", the other manager on duty (who was supposed to have left already, but got behind on his project, thank goodness!) tried his key to turn it off, but it wouldn't work. Rain was seeping inside from the bottom and top of the door, and some of the water went inside the door and tripped out the alarm. There was nothing we could do but let it ring. I figured that was no big deal, and was happy that we were on track with inventory prep. I walked out of the breakroom, and changed my mind...

Water was leaking though one of the vents, onto the floor. No problem: get a bucket or trash can to collect the water. Before I could do this, one of coworkers ("MT") called me to the front, I assumed to do a keyturn. Nope! She said she was wondering why she heard the rain so clearly, and pointed me to produce (it's located up front, when you first walk in the store). WATER WAS LEAKING THROUGH ONE OF THE ROOF PANELS and drenching the jalapeños. The other girl I was closing with went to get the mop, and I asked her to grab the wet floor sign as well. Before she could make it up, the leak got harder, and the whole panel fell along with a splash of rain. Oh, did I mention that for some reason we only have one wet floor sign in the entire store? Yep, the last one broke and I'm guessing it was thrown out. Well, I was moving pallets around in attempt to block the area from people walking over there; however, that was pretty damn pointless.

SPLASH! Another panel fell, along with more water leaking. I called "R" to the front, and he yelled the first thing I did ("Oh my god!"). He suggested that we lock the doors and get the remaining customers out, which we did. During that time, more panels over the produce fell (a total of seven), and it was pretty much raining in the store. All of the rain falling outside at the moment was coming in, along with water that built up on the roof. "R" turned off the lights in fear of the shorting out. The rain stopped soon after, yet it took about an additional ten minutes of waiting until the water stopped coming in. We had closed the store three hours early, and guess what we spent about six to seven hours doing? That's right! Cleaning a store FULL of water. We started by opening the front door and just sweeping/pushing/mopping the water out. This went on for about three hours. During that time we had people, despite the lights being off and approaching three people pushing a ton of water out the door, stop and ask if we were open. One person even stepped in and tried to come in anyway. < sarcasm> Seriously? Are we open? Sure, come on in! The whole store is flooded, but come on anyway! It's not like that's a big safety hazard or anything.

But yeah, that's how my night went. "R" left at 11 because he lives out of town and has to be back at 5:30am for the inventory, so the three of us worked on trying to get as much water out as possible. Some of the cardboard displays are pretty much done for. While the floor wasn't dry when we left, we attempted to get enough up so it's not a store-wide puddle. My feet, knees, and hands are sore; but I have to stay up and wait for my clothes to dry.

The irony is that the quick walk in the rain to roll up my windows bugged me for a minute, and then I ended up in water for about seven hours. The whole time my shoes had soaked through and my socks and the top of my pants were wet. I'd take the walk to my car and back over what I just went through. Forty-five minutes until I can get my clothes (my shoes wouldn't have dried by tomorrow, and they needed to be washed since the water was nasty) and sleep for 3.5 hours. Yay. So much for having the layout done tonight and going to bed early.