Well, well, well.

What a week it has been. I started a fairly promising job on Monday (10-16-2006), and I actually made it through a whole week.

I am now working in the shipping and receiving area of a small to medium-sized metal fabrication company (think metal ducts and tubes, then think of a lot of them). It is like no job that I have had before. I work harder for longer then I have ever thought that I even could. I have to be there at 7 AM, which means that I get up at 5:45, and leave our house by 6:15 or 6:20.

That fact right there was a massive adjustment to my schedule.

I was a marshmallow. I still am, but now that I have had 5 days of significant labor I think that I will be in much better shape for this coming week. One of the biggest problems, and I know that I'm going to sound like such a pansy, is that I haven't spent 9 hours on my feet in five years. Ouch. But by Thursday and Friday my feet were toughening up, and I was keeping up without too much pain. We have to wear hearing protection the entire time, I've been using the little yellow squishy ones, but a pair of the over the head ones (cans) should be coming in this week for me.

I did learn how quick the smallest lapse of concentration can hurt. On Wednesday, after 2 hours of wiping down the insides of ducts and pieces with rubbing alcohol, I reached in a little too quick
to the next piece of duct and the sharp edge (they all have sharp edged that can cut through clothes, some just have extra sharp edges) sliced the outside of my forearm. It wasn't deep enough for stiches, I was able to clean it out, and fold the flap back over and direct pressure stopped the bleed pretty quick. It was my first, and like they said, it won't be the last. I am just incredibly amazed at one simple fact. They have no medical supplies, or written, or even informal protocol for what to do WHEN someone gets cut. I hope you notice the use of the word 'when', and not the word 'if'. Some other shipping and receiving kid got cut pretty bad a few months ago, arterial spurting blood and everything. And after they drove him off to the hospital to get sewn back together my boss' boss came out without gloves, or eye protection and wiped up and cleaned up the pool of blood with towels and kitty litter spill stuff. Oh OSHA, wherefore art thou?

But at least they are thinking about it. Thursday my boss was asking me about my EMT experience, and was pointing out the fact that there is this hole in the preparedness of the company to react when something well, bloody happens. I mentioned to him that there really wouldn't be an awful lot of supplies needed to get together a response kit. I guess that it is a good thing that I have held on to my EMT medical kit that I have been moving with me for the last ten years. Maybe I'll start bringing it in with me. Hopefully if I put together a little list of things that I need they might place an order.