Thanks Mike

You know the feeling you have when you find extra money you didn’t know you had?  Well Judy and I had one of those moments yesterday.  Our weekly shift at Blanton Creek ends on Tue at 9:00 PM. I know that is the policy at the other parks in the system.

The relief “hosts” normally reports to the park for a turnover brief around 5 or 6 PM Tue evening.  So after a 15-20 meeting the on duty hosts continues to work until the park closes at 9: PM.  The reporting hosts does whatever they want to do since they don’t officially take over until Tues activity is closed out at 9PM. The off going host usually leaves at the close of the business day. In the past most hosts have lived locally.  We on the other hand live about 135 miles away.  The first time we worked we just slept in until Wed morning.  The next time we worked we left at 9:20 PM and got home around mid-night. While we did not like driving at night after a 14hr day, we did like being home to enjoy Wed.

On Monday Mike our boss stopped by the park to chat and see how things were going.  He asked us how driving home the previous week went. Judy told him we got home about midnight and we liked being home Wed AM.   Mike said “you know there is no hard and fast rule about closing out the day’s activity at 9: PM”.  He informed us he would be ok with closing out at 7PM if the other host were ok with it. We told him that would be a tremendous help to us and would be a lot safer drive. It would also shorten the last day by two hours. That really gives you something to look forward to on the last day.  It would be almost as good as finding the money that you didn’t know you had!  We told Mike we would discuss it with Ed and Char to get their take.  The park's  9:PM  closing time would not be affected.

When they arrived we all agreed that the proposal would work great for all of us. We worked out the details for ending the business day earlier than 9:PM. Judy balanced and closed out the day’s activity at 7:00PM sharp.  We were on the road by 7:15.  We could have gotten on the road at 7 PM sharp if  Char hadn’t brought in a black cherry pie!  Judy had some vanilla ice cream  in the freezer to add to it.  It was a great treat.  We arrived home at 9:15 PM!  I think this new sked shift is going to work out just fine. Thanks Mike.

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