motivation

I'm lacking it today.

So Chris moved and got all settled in camp. I love camp jobs! He gets a room and good food and it's all taken care of. We don't even have to pay for it. It just comes off his sub pay on his cheque. It's great.

The downside is that because of where he is, there is no cell service. None on the lease site where he's working and none in camp. It bites. They had to drive 30 kms to find a place where they got reception. All 6 of them in one truck. So as you can imagine, I could barely hear him over the voices of all the other guys calling thier wives, girlfriends, parents or kids. It sucks. I hope he's not out there that long.

I had a request the other day from Pleiades for some information about my pawnshop management days. I wish I could remember some of the good stories, because man there were a lot!

It was a strange job. There were regulars, all on welfare who were millionaires for the day on pay day. They'd come in and pick up the stuff they had on pawn, buy new stuff from the shelves and shop like nothing. (And by new stuff, I mean stuff that people had left behind that went out for sale. As in when a person would pawn something and not return for it, or not pay the bill, it would go out for sale on the shelf). Anyhow, inevitably, the stuff they just paid to get out of hock or the stuff they just bought would end up back in pawn. Sometimes it would take a few days, other times they'd be back later that afternoon. A bit of buyers remorse I guess.

Sad really.

I always felt some sympathy for these people. I mean they for the most part were uneducated, simple minded people who had no idea about budgets or making ends meet. On the other hand, there were everyday people who were just dealt hard blows and needed some cash.

There were regulars who always came in to shop. The list is endless of what the place carried, bought, sold, pawned: CD's, DVD's, cameras, Playstations and games, Xbox's and games, Any kind of game console really, firearms; both restricted and non (thus resulting me in becoming licensed in both), any kind of tool; power and regular, chainsaws, bikes, lawnmowers, fine china, decorative plates, fishing gear, hunting gear, cell phones, speakers, stereos, dvd players, computers, jewelry, hockey gear, golf clubs, musical instruments. I know there are more things, but that's all I can really think of right now.

The particular place where I worked got into buying Army Surplus direct from bases online and we had tons of it for sale. Shirts, pants, hats, ruck sacks, canteens, all kinds of rigging, tons of stuff and that sold well too.

I really did like that job. I was there for a year and friends with the owners. Over time she changed and things got weird. I was tired of being talked about behind my back, my co-worker was a tool and I was ready for a change of pace. She took offense to me quitting and when I applied for EI she told them lies and so I didn't qualify. I got over it.

The hardest part of the job was trying to determine what the value of something was. Some stuff was defined clearly - DVD's had a value, as did game consoles, but some things - AC system for a boat...I had no idea. Sometimes I had to guess, sometimes I did well, others not so great - selling that boat AC system for $100 when it should have gone for $250....oops. Oh well. You take a guess and hope it's ok.

The jewelry was my favorite. We had these old ladies that would come in twice a week and check out new stock. They always bought a ton of stuff. And cheap too. We only took gold that was stamped as such, no plate and real diamonds - we used a tester. I remember the bf I had at the time, we had been together for 2.5 years and I was pushing for a commitment, a promise ring at least. I found one I loved while I was working there and he got it for me, for like $50. It was so pretty. I remember throwing it at him when we broke up, lol, and telling him I hoped he and his mommy were very happy together. Ha - brings back memories! Just kidding.

I remember this guy that would come in, my boss called him a cone head, lol. He was nice, but a hunting nut. He's always come in to talk to me, but never asked me out. He's always comment on things, that I did my nails or such lol. Of course there were the creepy guys that would come in too, the store seemed to attract some losers, I'd hide when they came in.

I gathered quite a CD and DVD collection from there. It was great, they came in for sale, we'd test them, take them home and watch, if you liked the movie, you kept it.

It wasn't very common that we had stolen things come in. Everyone had to have vaid ID and all serial numbers were entered into the program. Weekly we'd send in reports of what we took on pawn or bought to the RCMP. Once a guy came in with a stolen monitor, he left to get the cables and when he returned with it, we had called the police and they waited until he pawned it and we faked some computer problem. In the meantime we locked him in the store. There was a door lock, bolt type thing behind the counter. When I think back now, really it was kinda dangerous to do that. It was dangerous because we had a ton of money on hand too, sometimes up to $13,000 or $14,000.

I could probably go on, but I should check my laundry...funny how you can look back and remember things....and see how life has changed.