Change in Schedule

So, I went in yesterday to the temp. office to pick up the piece of paper I would need to give to the guard at the factory where I was to work. And, yes, it was every bit as involved as that sentence.

I showed up at the office, explained it all, and found that they could move me to a first-shift job which would start today, Tuesday. Well, that was what I was hoping for, really, because that means that I could probably see the Solid Rock concert and friends when they perform later this summer. Plus, that helps me to wake up at a regular hour each morning, and get into that good habit. College will probably change that, but at least I'm trying.

So, the gist of all this, is that today I woke up at 5:30 a.m., stumbled out of bed, and saw that the sun was shining. I ate breakfast, hurried to work, and entered the work force!

My shift runs from 6:15 to 14:15 (that's 2:15 p.m., for all you non-European people). I am in Plating. It's the part of the production process that takes the metal faucet fittings and change their color. Today, at least, we were changing the fittings from a copper/bronze color to a pretty silver.

This is accomplished through electrolysis. For all of you who are out of high school and can't remember what exactly that means, it's a process of running electric current through metal (in this case the fittings) that forces nickel molecules in a nickel-solution to bond to the metal in a nice, smooth finish.

My job today was to take the faucet pieces from their boxes and fasten them onto racks. These special racks were hung on the plating machine. The machine dipped the racks and the fittings into the nickel solution. It is kind of a repetitive job, in that I did it for eight hours. But there were enough different kinds of pieces and different kinds of racks that I never became bored.

We get a break from 8:30 to 8:40, and then lunch from 11:00 to 11:20. Today we also had a fire drill/alarm. I never did hear if it was just a drill, or if it was an actual alarm. Either way, we got to go outside for about five minutes and stand in the fresh, cool air. It got warm in there. Fortunately it was a fairly dry heat, so the sweat didn't ever become too unbearable. But I drank a whole lot of water.

Okay, I've gotta get to bed. This working man has to be back at it tomorrow morning. Later.

In His Time,