Flexible Schedule

The utility guys came to fix the furnace last Tuesday. I waited most the day for them but it was worth it! They told me they had been making bets in the truck about what sort of furnace I had, and one had guessed correctly and also had guessed correctly what the problem was. These type of furnaces are known for that problem, apparently. So charged me for a hour of time and $4 for supplies for a total of $84--the cheapest furnace repair I'd paid yet. And also the only effective one. I'm very much enjoying the heat in here now!

I should be at a visitation right now, but it was canceled. This is the third one in a row that has been canceled. I got ready, took out the garbage and moved the garbage bin to the alley before leaving, because I thought I wouldn't be returning until after dark tonight. I had 7-and-a-half hours scheduled for two visitations and only a short half-hour to drive between them. I sped over the interstate "High" bridge and to the Center where the key to the visit rooms was missing (again). The building key was there so I could get into the building and knocked on the visit room doors, thinking someone had used the key and had not put it back. Well, that last part was true!

Called the boss about the missing key and she told me that the visitation had been canceled! I had gotten ready, raced over and stood out in the cold waiting--for nothing. Well, almost nothing, as she said I can get the 1-hour "cancellation" pay and a half hour for doing the paperwork. Friday morning the exact same thing happened, for a different family's visitation, and Friday afternoon the boss called me (BEFORE) I drove over the bridge, this time, to let me know that the afternoon visit had been cancelled too.

Although I'll get 1.5 hours of pay for each, it isn't what I'd planned for or what had been scheduled. So far I still have the 4-hour visitation in a family's home later this afternoon. But even that appears to be iffy because another boss told me just this morning that another worker had been assigned that visit, "to give me a day off"! Some day off when I had to go running over there! But my direct boss told me the visit is still on. We'll see what happens when I get there.

OK, I really do like this new job, but like any job it does have certain things about it that could be improved. When hired they told us that we would need to be flexible--and they really weren't kidding about that! They are also hiring more workers even though most of us are clamoring for more hours. What's up with that? Will the person who shadowed one of my visits be TAKING OVER that visit? Possibly so as I haven't seen her (new person) name on the schedule yet and she will be wanting hours too. I really don't want to donate any of my visitations to her, even though she seems to be a nice person!

Last week my hours did increase so Worker's Comp will (hopefully) be more pleased with this job. The job placement person is coming to meet for the usual two hours next week. I've already filled out the required job-hunting logs for her and the "Returns" matrix of companies who have gotten back to me, with rejection letters or E-mails.

I also finally finished the last folder of scanning for the friends who had this computer fixed. It was a barter deal and I had to fulfill my end of it after they paid for the repair. It was a good deal that worked out well. I couldn't have done my new job very well without computer access. The documents are E-mailed to the main office and there is a deadline about how fast they need to be submitted. Since a lot of my work is during the weekend, that would have been a problem to find a computer to get it done had not this one at home been fixed. I'm grateful. Everything is still turning out well, just not very predictable!