trapped in Target

In a new low for this shitty job I drove all the way downtown, 7th and Union, some bullshit law office wanted a new desk and file cabinets. I swear I'd be better off walking around to all the law offices in a square mile (there are hundreds) and giving them a card that says "Assemble Any Item" that's it. Charge half as much as they do at Impact and I get to be Johnny on the Spot in my own area. that would be better.
Of course I drive 12 miles to get to the office and the security people would not let me up because the insurance paper had not been filed. so that's a bust. All that driving. Useless.
Now my dispatcher tells me I can go to Cudahy, way the hell over by Bell gardens near. The conversation on the phone with the dispatcher was like this.

"You want to go to a Kamrt. They have more bikes than we originally thought."
I look out at the desolate asphalt landscape and sigh. I gotta be the hero.
"Ok. where is it."
"In Cudahy."
I wince. He might as well say "Kill Whitey Springs"
"That out east?"
"Yes, near Bell Gardens."
"Ok. Remind me how to get there."
"You take the 110 to...where are you?"
"7th and Union. Downtown."
"Take the 110 to the 10."
"Ok."
"To the 710."
"Ok."
"South on the 710. Don't go to the 115. That's too far."
"Right."
"South on the 710 to Cudahy. To Atlantic. 8100 Atlantic."
"So south on the 110. To the 10. East on the 10. To the 710. south on the 710. Got it. What's the work order?"
"998889."
"That'll take an hour."
"I gave you until 1."
(It's 10. At 1pm they will put out a phone call to me if I haven't signed in yet.)
Ok.

So I go and it takes an hour (It's 6 miles away but, you know, traffic and accidents and the car overheating and an attempted car jacking...)

I get there and can say with certainty that Kmart 3337 is where Huffy bikes go to die. this old wood floor warehouse up a conveyor belt and bullshit. I set up shop and proceed to build one bike an hour for four hours. These bikes are so poorly made and the tires are completely twisted and the parts are falling off them that I spend more time searching the floor for parts that may have fallen out of the broken boxes. Awful.
Fernando, another tech, tells me stories of ten years ago when Huffy was in Ohio and made their bikes here. ha! That is a long time ago as these bikes are now made in China and are complete crap. They get ridden once or twice and then returned where the parts will never arrive. Awful. So this is where Huffy bikes go to die. Fernando shakes his head and says these bikes are the worst of the worst and this store is the worst of the worst.
" I haven't been here in two years and there are still the same bikes waiting to be repaired."

I felt it was an insult to accept $12 for my work so I just threw my paperwork away and gave the bikes for free. to accept money for that work would have been saying that I thought it had value but when I KNOW those bikes can never be ridden more than a block or two without falling apart then I know that these bikes were not worth assembling, but I assembled them anyway, and that was my mistake, my sin. So I shouldn't be rewarded for it. That Kmart was a slummy, rotten, evil place. I wanted nothing from them.

the next day I got sent back to my old Target in Culver City and wound up in a garden shed with the busted or defective christmas wreaths and broken toys. Awful. The place closed early and there I was building these bikes in the cold and damp and dark. christmas eve. I kept thinking, why should I go home and feel sorry for myself in that broken down van? Why bother? Well, because the Target had closed and now I was trapped in a cold garden shed.
It just gets worse and worse with this job.

Just a plug for Pandora.com. I am listening to Connie Francis radio and am loving it. Linda Scott. Ricky Nelson. Dusty Springfield. Elvis. It don't get better than that and the station pics songs and artists based on what YOU like and I must say they are doing pretty good.
merry christmas everyone!