Popcorn + Snow = Frustration

Just when you thought I would be done commenting on popcorn, Murphy happens. Friday was supposed to be the last of the popcorn sale with the Take Order pick-up that evening. This is not what happened.

Backing up a step, the Take Order pick-up started going bad on Thursday. First, I found out that over half of the folks I was expecting as staff let me know they were not able to be there. Lovely. Second, the semis came with the product; one was loaded well but the second not so much. The second semi took almost 3 hours to unload. Several were loaded sideways and two had tipped over. I did a lot more work with this than I expected.

Friday started out fairly typical for a popcorn day prepping for the pick-up. Then the weather turned south, well actually out of the south-west according to the radar map. By the time I arrived at the warehouse the rain that started the day had added hail to its repertoire. That hurt. Once inside the building I stopped paying attention to the weather. About 45 minutes before the pickup was to begin we started getting calls about people wanting to cancel their time due to the weather. Rather than looking outside, I dismissed their concerns. Then the facilities director stopped in to tell us that the campus was closing due to the weather and suggested that we do the same. I finally stuck my head outside and realized that it had gone from rain/hail to slush then heavy snow. I realized at this point that canceling the pick-up was the best option. Brian went in to make calls to cancel the pick-up for the night and I met the folks that arrived despite the weather to help them get their orders. By the time we finished it was 6pm and the storm had slackened and it took me 40 minutes to go the 11 miles home via the freeway. The storm totaled about 4 inches of snow in less than two hours and fell accompanied by thunder and lightning.

This was the first time I have ever participated in a canceled warehouse in 10 years of working with popcorn warehouses. I don't intend to try it again. We ended up telling folks to either come yesterday morning or next Wednesday evening. Most came yesterday and they were actually pretty peaceable despite a long wait since the only folks loading were people from the units there and Brian and I leading the counting. 13 more orders are on the docket for Wednesday and then, hopefully, the saga will be done.

On the upside, I went to one of the neatest Eagle Service Projects I have ever seen yesterday. One of the OA guys from the south side of Sheboygan did a flag retirement/Veteran's Day ceremony at Fountain Park downtown. There were several good speakers, some good patriotic readings and over 500 flags were retired stripe by stripe into a fire. I stayed after to help stir the fire to complete the disposal and chat with the folks from the troop. The only downside was that it was cold; about 32 with a cold wind. I was okay in a jacket with long johns, but the scouts participating in uniform were without jackets and the Eagle candidate was visibly shivering on stage. I thought it went very well despite this. I only felt bad because I was not in uniform having gone straight there after working at the warehouse.

Besides that, the week was fairly uneventful.