Accident Prone..

I am inspired by Firebear's comment to my last blog. Common sense took me down memory lane and I thought that I'd blog about it. These were days that Common Sense took a holiday.

I used to work for Mc Donald's and have had a few interesting injuries. I've been hit in the mouth by a heel spatula (think cookie sheet with a handle) as I was behind one of my co-workers as they turned around to get some buns out of the bun toaster. I've also managed to get my hand caught in the Big Mac bun toaster. That left a nice little scar on my hand. Thankfully, it wasn't on my entire hand, but it still hurt.

This is actually the best one where somehow, common sense wasn't really present that day. I'm not sure if it was mine that was missing, or if it was actually management.

So I was fishing hashbrowns out of the fryer. There were "floaters." Meaning that some of them escaped from the basket. I hated that. Not because I had to rescue them, but because the tongs that we used were crap. Imagine a piece of metal bent in a U shape without a spring to help them open/close easily and that they were probably about 6 inches in length. Any idea where I am going with this yet? So far, I've got a burn on my hand and a split lip..... (it actually happened in the same week, not the same day)

So I'm trying to rescue the nice little hashbrowns when I have pain in my finger. Hmmm...got a little too close to the fryer and my right finger decided to take a dive. In case you ever wondered about what it feels like, IT HURTS! Then there's the wonderful burn spray. Not a good idea if you've just done this. It actually bubbles as well as hurts.

My manager, the nice and wonderful person she is, gave me my lunch early. Gee. That really helped. I swear that she had it in for me that day, as it just kept going downhill from there. I come back from lunch, my thumb is throbbing and I'm trying not to scream from the pain, to find out that I am going to be on fries. Hmmm...let's see...salt, the fryer, hot sticks of potatoes and a heat lamp. Yeah, that's going to make it all better. I had to do that for about 30 minutes. Then I was put on the production line, which meant wrapping all the sandwiches that came up front from the grill. Hmmmm...now there is the opportunity for small little paper cuts and the whole issue of the incessant throbbing and PAIN that I am still in.

My last duty for the day was to direct 3 trainees in the grill area. You would think that that wouldn't be so bad. Should give me more time to ease the pain. Oh no, that isn't my luck. Besides being pulled in different directions by the trainees, I was pulled in several others by the rest of the store. I think I would have been better off just going home. I did manage to survive that day and my finger escaped with out a trace of a scar. I really don't recommend trying this, however. :) HA

So on my next job adventure, I worked for a convienience store chain. The store I worked at had a restaurant, which was my new home. There were several days that common sense took a holiday, but I will share 3 of those with you.

The funniest one was the day that a customer asked for fried onions. Keep in mind that the only way I knew how to do that was with pickle juice. That's how we did it at McDonald's. It works if the vents for the grill are actually directly over the grill and can catch the steam and whatnot. Not a good idea if the vents are actually near the ceiling. The guy working the register actually turned on a flashlight, put it on his head and started making foghorn noises.

The next two happened in the same week. I was in the back room trying to open a tote. All I had to do was cut a small tie, about the size of a garbage bag tie. Normally, I don't have problems with this. I've done this hundreds of times. This time, I not only cut the tie, but decided to slice open the meaty part of my left thumb. Probably about an inch or so deep as well. The best part about it was that it really didn't bleed. I'm a rather curious person by nature and couldn't resist opening up the cut to look inside. Being the way that I am, I naturally thought that others wouldn't mind looking either. Yeah, not a good idea.

This is probably the stupidest thing, next to the fryer incident. I was in the back room again trying to grab cups to fill the dispensers in the coffee area. To do this, you either have to climb on a milk tote to reach them, or use "the hook." The hook was similar to a meat hook that we actually used to pull milk totes in the cooler with. Pretty simple and easy task, really. Not for me that day. I managed to hit the flourescent lightbulbs above me. I decided to look up in wonder at the fact that I hit the lights above me. After the fact, I realized that my forehead was actually bleeding. I went and checked my face in the mirror and ended up with a circle the size of the lightbulbs on my forehead above my right eye. If I would have moved about a half inch, I could have lost my eye. Common sense took a holiday that day! :)

I'm sure I have some other good ones, but these are the most memorable for now.