OW! OW! OW!

Man! I hurt in more places than I knew I had! It's always amazing to me how fast one can get completely out of shape! Equally amazing is how fast it can take to start hurting like you never felt before too! Let me explain what I'm "whining" about! LOL!

Last Wednesday, I received a call from the temp agency I am registered with asking me to consider taking an assignment at a local light fixture manufacturer. I was told the position was for "wiring" which I am very good at. The assignment was a temporary one, but "might lead to full-time employment if the 'fit' is right". I accepted, so on Thursday morning, oh so bright and early, I reported to the company as directed. Lo and behold, as seems to be the standard MO of these companies who use temp agencies, no one knew I was coming! So, instead of wiring, I was assigned to the paint line. There I found myself hanging parts onto hooks to be painted then baked. About an hour into my shift, I was moved from the loading side to the unloading side of the line. This meant that I was now unhooking painted, baked and mostly still warm parts from the hooks and putting them into racks or bins, depending on the size of the parts. Right off the bat, no problem. The parts being painted were the outside frames for light boxes and very light. Unfortunately, the painters weren't doing a very good job, so most of the parts had to be put aside and spray painted - lovely! To paraphrase an already over-used movie line, "I LOVE the smell of aerosol in the morning!" NOT! Just when I thought the line was going to get ahead of me because the other guy I was working with was now spray painting almost the entire time, I caught a lucky break... sort of. The parts changed from two small, light, aluminum boxes per hook to two 8 foot long extruded aluminum fluorescent fixtures per rack. Lucky in that it now took about 2 minutes for each rack of fixtures to fully clear the ovens, and unlucky because, as they were extruded aluminum, they were quite a bit heavier than the boxes! Then came the 12 foot fixtures! Oh man, I guesstimate that they were about 30 pounds each, and very awkward! Since I was still unloading the line solo, you guessed it, my back started protesting mightily! By lunch time, I was feeling VERY sore and starting to lose the last of my strength. It was actually embarrassing the way I felt after just 4 hours on the job! There were women smaller than me who were working twice as fast and I hate feeling like I'm the slow coach of a group! Fortunately, after lunch, my co-worker was able to return to the line which was a real blessing since we were now unloading 6 - 9 parts per hook and the hooks were spaced about 10 seconds apart! We had to hustle to keep up with the line, but the parts were light enough to enable me to keep up. After a while more heavy parts arrived, but with the two of us, we managed to keep up - just barely!

When I got home Thursday afternoon, I was in extreme pain and could barely move. My wife graciously volunteered to give me a rub down with A-535 before I went to bed and I awoke Friday stiff and sore, but at least able to function!

Luckily the paint line was shut down on Friday (the company only runs it 2 days per week - I understand it costs them over $2,000 in natural gas to just fire it up in the morning!) so I was assigned to the Metal Finishing Department for the morning. After using an orbital sander to sand down burrs and imperfections on unpainted aluminum fixtures all morning, (yes, again some 8 foot and 12 foot beasties) my right hand still hasn't stopped tingling! My afternoon was spent riveting end caps to sections of louvers that probably weighed less than a pound in total, so I was able to enjoy that part of the day!

So you can see, after spending the last 7 months sitting at home playing games online, doing the occasional load of laundry and cooking a few meals, my muscles had gotten pretty soft, pretty fast! And then, WHAM! all this heavy work all at once! Can you blame me for complaining just a little bit?

The upside of this job is, there is no shift-work, and the plant is operational Monday to Friday, so no weekend work either. The downside, a 7 am start which is very tough for this nighthawk to transition to! Hopefully it won't take me too long to adjust to the new schedule and that my muscles get used to the workload real soon too! I was asked to go back next week by the plant supervisor (actually, TOLD I was coming back is more like it, LOL!) so, I'm hoping that I can adapt to their working conditions and find myself gainfully employed full-time for the first time in over 5 years! I heard a rumour that a full-time employee there gets $17.00/hour which would be fantastic! Right now, as a temp I'm making $11.50/hour which, while not great, is way better than the $0.00/hour I was making as Mr. Mom! hehe! It also beats the minimum wage jobs that I had been applying to but being rejected for because I was "too qualified"! Best thing about it is, if something goes wrong at this job, I have the option of walking away without hurting my chances at being assigned to another employer! Let's hope I don't have to exercise that option!

I am very much enjoying our weather this weekend too! In fact, this entire week has been very nice! Sunny, warm (temps between 13 and 23 degrees Celsius, 55 - 73 for my American friends) with a nice breeze to move the air around. I love it! The early mornings are still a might nippy, but by mid-afternoon, it's t-shirt weather baby! WHOOO HOOO! So far, the forecast calls for the same weather until Wednesday when it is supposed to cool off and rain a bit. That's great too, as my spring bulbs are starting to look a little withered around the edges and I really don't want to break out the hose just yet! The long range forecast for next weekend has the temps going up to the mid 20s (mid - high 70s) and loads of sun! Can't wait!

Have a great week everyone!