bite my tongue..oh so bite my tongue

The IT guy is back in camp and the internet connection has gone all funky. We have been up and down for the last couple days and everyone is complaining that it is broken and all but the IT guy says that everything is running smoothly. All we can say to that is that if it was running smoothly then the managers wouldn’t be having the entire camp complaining to him every day that the internet connection is down and not responding.

Had a bit of a fight with the old dishwasher that we have in camp. His favourite saying these days as the dishwasher is “Tony told me this”. Henry, the old dishwasher, has basically two regular duties for his job, clean dirty dishes and keep an eye on the vegetable pails (potatoes, carrots, celery, onions) to keep them stocked up. We told him awhile ago that we need at least 2 pails of these items at all times. We said he can wait till it gets down to one pail but after that he has to fill them up. For the last couple days we have watched the pails dwindle down to almost nothing and no refilling has been done. Finally the other dishwasher came to me and said that Henry is waiting for us to ask him to fill the buckets cause apparently “Tony told him” that unless the cooks ask for the pails to be filled, not to do it. About 10 minutes later Henry came up and asked “So what is the magic word today?” and I asked what he meant and he said “what pails do you need filled?” I just looked at him and went into a huge rant swearing at the idiot and calling him a moron. He has only two regular duties and I felt that I didn’t have the time or the energy to babysit him since it is not that hard to count the pails and fill them when needed. He ended up doing the vegetables and he asked me how he should do something later and my only response to him was “I don’t know, what does Tony say?”. He ended up doing it the way he wanted to but had to ask me if that was a ‘smart ass response’. In the end I am doing the vegetable pails now because it is easier and quicker for me to look and keep track of them than try to baby sit him.

I am going to baker this Wednesday, which should be interesting. I figure I have proven my theory about them putting me on baking. In the other camps I had no baking cooking books or any tools and they would get to me cover Donna cause she was too drunk to get on the plane to come to work for a couple days. I then started to bring in my baking books and all till I had a really good collection here. They then stopped to ask me to bake. I think with my arsenal of cooking books in camp I was asked to bake maybe a week or a couple of days. Last time I went out I decided to cut down on the crap I had in camp so I took about 75% of my books home and only brought in the bare necessities of books. Of course what happens? I get asked to go to baker for 2 weeks straight. I am fully prepared, not a chance of being baker; I am under prepared, I am put on baker for a long time. The fates have it in for me. Even better is that Sheldon is back but he is going to days as the 2nd cook helper. Talk about pressure now. Sheldon, a really really great baker is on days and I am doing baking at night. Everyone in camp is going to be asking him why he is cutting vegetables on days for the 1st cook while I am stumbling through baking. Talk about pressure.

My ‘nearly get in trouble cause of my big mouth’ moment came the other day. Radio was telling me about me going to baking and all and Sheldon and Roger on days. This is basically what he told me:

Radio: You will be going to nights as the baker and the new guy is going to breakfast cook with his wife as his helper. I figure that you wont be of much help to him at nights cause you aren’t that great of a baker, no offence, I know that Donna could help him out cause she has been baking for such a long time that she could do it with her eyes closed but you will need extra time.

Of course my first reaction to that was to say “really? Well maybe you should tell Donna to start baking with her eyes open and maybe we wouldn't have such crappy desserts when she bakes” but I bit my tongue on that one. Then was going to mention “I am sure that Donna could help him with breakfast stuff but she doesn’t help the breakfast cook cause that would cut into her 4 hour breaks at night” but again, bit my tongue. I ended up just looking at him and nodding. I find that is the best way to handle that sort of thing with him. I say little and just nod and wonder exactly how much BS he can shovel in a day and wonder if he really believes the crap that comes out of his mouth at times.