Sweep 9

My summer job like any job can be exciting one day and boring the next. Every day is somthing new and I love a challenge. I started out working with Darron. Darron is developmentally disabled (retarded) 30 something year old that pivot point pays the workshop to send out. They are 5 or 6 workers. Darren and I were given the job of walking around the plant and sweeping up corn. Complicated sounding I know. I wasn't sure I could handle it at fist. then Darren explained it to me. It is all about the 9. When you sweep you do it 9 times. You can count to 9 easily if you think Three blind mice, Three blind mice, see how they run. ( I know that is ten words but Darren swears that is how you count to 9. ) and each time you sweep you do it two short sweeps and three long ones. the mice are the long ones. and you always sweep in 9's if the job isn't done is 9 sweeps then you do nine more. until the job is done. When we had swept for 3 hours we pretty much had the corn picked up. but lunch wasn't for another hour. Darren said not problem. you just keep sweeping. I told him that we could do the same job in 5 sweeps. He said maybe so but 9 sweeps makes everyone think you are doing a good job. I suppose some 25 years ago some well intensioned teacher taught Darren how to sweep. Little did she know that she taught Darren for life.

Lunch time Darren pull out is monster lunch box and took out one boiled egg. one pickle. a mason jar of Ice tea. and a piece of beef jerky. I pack it myself he told me proudly. All I had was a bologna sandwich and a can of diet coke. Darren told me that coke will rot your insides. He knows because he used it to clean a coke machine once.

Darren and I spent the afternoon pulling tags off bags of seed corns. and then stapeling new ones on. After awhile at the new job Darren caught on. but he was visible frustrated. I asked him is there was a better way. He said the way is ok. we are just going the wrong way. Silly me I went around the pallets in a counter clockwise direction. Darren perfers to do everything clockwise. ok lesson well learned.

today we started out the day probing (sampling) bags of seed that don't sell have to be sampled to make sure they still germinate at the right time. The terms they use made me a little unconfortable. words like probing, physical and rubber gloves.

A guy named Randy works right next to me and complained about everything but the weather. It made me think of how I must sound at times. When the guy who prints the new tages came out singing some old song. I thought what fun and spent the rest of the day singing three blind mice.

My baby finch that is in my porch is now learning to fly. just 14 days ago he hatched out of a gumball size egg and now he is almost as big as his parents. Natures wonders.