[Sca-cooks] Adventures in Connecticut

[marilyn traber 011221]

As some of you may know, Margali has gotten a job, doing cutomer service for 
a trash disposal company. They're not the usual sort, that takes your trash 
once a week, but rather they specialize in hauling trash for special 
occasions, if, for example, your company only needs trash hauled 
occasionally, rather than weekly, or if you suddenly have a whole lot of 
stuff that needs hauled, a one shot type of deal. And, her company doesn't 
actually do the hauling, but work out sub-contracts with the companies that 
do.She has chosen to be the sole Customer Service Rep on Saturdays and 
Sundays, with Tuesday-Wednesdays off.

Today, she went into work, and had barely sat down, when she got a call from 
a Friendly's restaurant, raising all kinds of bloody blue blazes because the 
trash hauler had spilled grease all over the parking lot- he could tell 
because he could see tire tracks through the grease.

Sunday not being the best day to contact businesses, she none the less tried 
to contact the dispatchers from the company who actually was supposed to haul 
the garbage with little success. After about an hour, she got an apologetic 
call back from the manager of the Friendly's- it seems that, in fact, the 
grease was not spilled by the hauler, but rather by two employees of 
Friendly's, taking it out to the grease pit. She accepts the apology, and 
tells him that one of their haulers will be there 6 AM tomorrow AM to clean 
up the mess.

This apparently isn't fast enough for the guy. He headed down to Home Depot 
and got a power sprayer and degreaser, and proceeds to try to clean up the 
mess himself.

The end result is that now, instead of a nasty pile in one parking lot, the 
combination of grease and degreaser, thanks to the motivational power of the 
power washer is now covering half of two parking lots, and has invaded an 
assotment of drains, not to mention a manhole, ownership unknown. 
Furthermore, the local fire department is involved, the Department of 
Environmental Protection is there, and, at a rough estimate, it's going to 
cost $50,000 for the HazMat people to clean up the mess (never mind all the 
various fines etc that will be levied by various governmental agencies).

In the mean time, she gets a couple of minor calls- someone's trash compactor 
was hit by lightening and won't work, and they need an open top dumpster to 
put their garbage in. A similar call a few minutes later, where the compactor 
caught on fire, and they need someplace to put the garbage that the fire dept 
has scattered all over, putting the fire out.

As if that isn't enough, she's just sat down to share some Chinese food with 
a co-worker, and the fire department arrives at her building. It seems that a 
fire alarm has gone off, and they need to evacuate for half an hour while the 
firemen do a room by room search for any source of flames.

Some days, it doesn't pay to go to work...

Phlip