OK, the work blog seems to be working now.

Something else i don't get. When someone dies over here, they have a service and then are cremated the day after the service. This is where things get a little hazy for me. I don't know exactly what happens when someone dies, but sooner or later they have to make the funeral arrangements with on of the directors over here. That is when they are asked about embalming. If they family says yes to it, the body sooner or later comes to us and we embalm it. But that does not mean we get the body right away. Sometimes its a day or so later, after the body has been sitting around the house, mouth open, eyes half shut and smelling. We get the arrangement sheet and it says that the service will be in a few hours and cremation will be the next day.

But what i don't get is this. They spend almost $1000 on embalming to enjoy the embalmed body for just under 12 to 20 hours. You would think that they would get it to us earlier so the family can enjoy the work we do. Plus it makes our job a little easier. And you cant tell me that the deceased did not have friends that were embalmed and the other family did not say "Gee, i wish we would have had the embalming done sooner. I think you should get it done as soon as possible too".

Whatever....

OK, this is what I don't get. We do TD 1's which is just a simple wash and dress the body and then casket it. We do a TD-2 that is embalm, dress and casket the body. The TD 1 is only about $200 less then a TD 2. They have us doing both. We are professional embalmers. I do not think we should be wasting are time on TD 1, but we still make money off it. What gets me is that the staff wants the TD 1's to be perfect. That I can see, but if you do a perfect job on a TD 1, no one will buy the TD 2. We should have someone else do the TD 1 and say "Look, this person was worked on by professionals (meaning the TD 2)." Some times you can not tell the difference between a TD 1 or TD 2 unless you get real close or even touch them. It does not make sense to me.

F*CK!!!! I dropped a headblock on my foot today and its all starting to swell up and turn black and blue. A headblock is a solid plastic block that we use to keep the persons head up and off the table while I embalm. I was dressing a person today and one fell and hit my foot...with the corner. man it hurts.

something is wrong with my job. I don't get it. We have not been to busy...That's whets wrong. But there is something that is pissing me off. The amount of after 5PM bodies we are getting. Before it was maybe once a month. Now its starting to be a few times a week. Case in point. I did a noon body. I was done by 2:30. I went upstairs to the other office and watched a movie. I know not to leave my work no sooner then 4:30 just in case we get a late on in. 4:20 rolls around and I start to get ready to leave and I get a phone call. We have a 5PM body coming in. OK, that pissed me off. I sat around for almost 2 hours and now they decide to bring it in. And of course its not on time. Noooooo, it has to come at 5:30.

There are some times though when things are better. Like the time I don't have to go into work till 3PM, do one body and leave at 5PM. I wish it was like that everyday.

Off work for the next two days.

Work has been a little strange lately. Normally we get a few crazy days in a row. Like 9 body days. Then it goes calm for a while. On and off. On and off. But lately, its been one crazy day, one calm....then like 2 crazy and a calm. I don't get it. We are ahead of last year already, but it does not seem like that.

The kids (read students) help us when Ray is off so that speeds me up. I let them do certain things, but most of the time I do the major work. It would be my ass if something goes wrong and I don't want that to happen.

I have been able to watch more movies at work it seems. I think I have "American Psycho" and "Airplane" memorized now. I am working on "Caddy Shack" and "The Dirty Dozen".

work is going. thats about all i can say. nothing bad to report...nothing good to report.

We did watch Cool Hand Luck. Pretty good movie...but come on, 50 eggs. I DONT think so. *Take'n it off here boss*

We have been slow. I thought for sure they would have pushed the 3rd table issue and made sure we had 3 bodies at like 9 or 12. So far we have been lucky.

I am the next person to go on vacation. After that will be Bryan and then Ray. These next few paychecks will be nice with the overtime. Thats one of the good things we look forward to when someone goes home.

I dont like smelly bodies....Lynn and I had 2 the other day that literaly cleared the room....and they say we are getting paid too much to do out job over here.

Lynn has safely returned back to us, so that means she can get back to work. Funny thing is, with the way the schedual has been rotating, she has been off the past few days. i dont get it...she is gone for like 12 days, gets back, and then has 2 days off....lazy ass bum!

There has been talks of getting a thrid table. We are going up in numbers and they seem to think we can do 3 bodies at a time. But here are some problems. 1)we are the busiest location and also the smallest. 2) we were supposed to get an new location to work at, but due to some corp. problems, that has been put on hold. 3)We got the 3rd table and it was put in...now we dont have room to move. They want to do the business, but they dont want to spend the money to give us better working condition. We are going to try this for a little bit, but i dont think its going to work. 3 tables in out work room is going to suck. Plus, we think that if they see its working, the head office wont remodel or build us a new facility. kinda sucks.

On the bright side, Band Of Brothers is getting pretty good. We have been watching it on out down time.

Some of the drivers are placing bets on how many bodies we are going to do this month. I put my 1000YEN...i want some of this action. I bet 122. Wish me luck. I have a chance at winning like 10,000YEN (thats about $100).

Work has had its ups and down lately. A few days agao we did nothing. Not one body came in. The 3 of us watched Swordfish (not a bad movie desipite the reviews i heard) and the first DVD of Band of Brothers. I really want to see the rest of it. I like WW2 for some reason and BoB was really good. Then yesterday we do 7. How do you go from one day of nothing to 7. And what really pissed me off was the fact that on the day we had nothing going on, they got a body that wanted embalming, but they held it over till the next day. So instead of getting it to us to work on right after the death, they held it for 18 hours. I dont get it.

Lynn is home for vaction so I am getting some nice overtime. I dont mind working. Whenever i work that means i dont go downtown and waste money.

Sony music is trying to stop the illegal trade of MP3 music. They have come up with a few ways that have curbed it, but with a black magic marker and some patients you can copy the cd or make it into mp3's. Well, they have comeup with another method that is alot harder to bypass. I spent most of my work day today going from one computer to another trying to get this new cd i got to copy. I love sony products, but this little copy control stunt pisses me off. there is no way they will ever make a cd copy proof. there will always be away around it. As long as you make the cd, the songs will be there somewhere. i wish sony would stop trying to play music god and admit they lost in this matter and let people who pay for their music copy it. 'Nuff said.

I had to do 2 TD's today. One normal and the other a suicide. Not as messy as i thought it was going to be. My first body did not come in until noon so i sat up in the office
downloading game demos. i got this cool on called Postal 2. Its just plain killing and thats what i like. Ray was even laffing at it.

Tomo came back to work today. he was off for 2 days with pneumonia (sp). He still did not look 100%, but he is back and wearing a mack to work so he does not get anyone else sick. I wish more poeple would wear masks. Everywhere you go, people are coughing. No wonder SARS is spreading so fast, no one covers their mouth.

After my second TD 2, i had to haul ass home to get ready for my japanese language lessons.

Only one each today. I did a TD 2 at noon and that was it. After we got finished, Lynn and I went out galavanting. I had to tack some movies back to the AV store and go to the 100YEN shop. After that, we went to the Hard Off store. its a place that buys and sells used stuff. We used to go there a lot, but then they pissed us off so we stopped going for a while. I was VERY glad we went back today. I made a HUGH score. In the CD section, i found a set of Kimagure Orange Road Singing Heart 2 Box set for 4000YEN (About $35. I can probably sell it on Ebay for a nice mint). I aslo found a set of Love Hina DVD figures for 500YEN (about $4.50) each. Along with the anime stuff, i also found 2 giant latterns. It was a good day at the Hard Off.

Man, we got hammered today. And out of all the days to get it too. We all had plans to get together after work. We had 7 calls come in and i had to do 3 (all TD 2's)of them. The last one came in at 5 so it was a rush job. We were getting together at around 7 for anther wine party.

After getting hammered yesterday, we were slow today. Only 3 bodies. I did a TD 2. I am glad i did not have to come into work till noon, i was soo hungover from last nights party. Brian and I are watching "Sneakers" again.

No work...No Blog.

No work...No Blog.

ANOTHER slow day at work. In fact, this is the second day in a row were we only did 1 body. This is the 2nd day in a row for me that I did not do anything at work except sit in front of the TV and watch movies. I have not embalmed since monday, and i am off the next two days. If this keeps up, I might forget how to embalm.

After Lynn got finished with here embalming, lunch and a fast nap, we went to the used video game / cd store. I like going shopping there as compared to the retail stores. The used place has stuff that is in excellent condition and it always costs less. Plus i get points on my point card for money back later.

We waited for Brian to show up and then we went to Mister Doghnut (or Doghnut-san here in japan...hehehe, just kidding, but thats what we call it). We sat outside becasue it was a very nice day. As we were shoting the shit, 2 girls came up to us. They said hello. I think they were expecting a "hello" back, but instead we threw them a curve ball and spoke to them in Japanese. They were very surpirsed at that. The conversation did not last long, but it shows that all of our japanese is improving.

We are starting to slow down again at work. I did not have to go into worh until noon yesterday and today. I did 2 TD 2's yesterday and today i did nothing. We had one call come in at 9 today and thats it. I had sushi for lunch at the 100YEN sushi bar....good eatin's. Lynn and I got the bug and we decided to clean the inside of the car. You know, I think it runs better when its cleaned out.After that the 3 of us went downtown for a little bit. I had to show Lynn and Brian a few stores and a very good place to eat Italian. I got to go home early too so thats a plus.

Whoops, forgot to update yesterday. I did 2 calls yesterday (both TD 2`s). Spent some time across the street watching Scary Movie 2...again. Had to watch it one last time before it went back. I still like the first one better.

Today it was just Ray and I. we did not get our first 2 calls until Noon. We watched The Matrix again. I love that movie and cant wait for the second and third ones to come out. After my call was done (my TD 2 that is), i went home. No sence hanging out if there is nothing going on.

I was off yesterday from so I did not post.

Today seems to be a pretty normal day. I was up firsst. TD2 action for me at 9. I have a TD1 at 2:30.

We got the plumbing done for the 3rd table. We are going to be soooo cramped in our embalming room. They are adding another table and we do not have the room. We were supposed to get a whole new embalming room, but there were some money problems in the corporation so out renovations have been put on hold. So now we have to pay for it.

I am off today. No work, No Blog.

Score one for the gaijin. We finally got a key to our office. We have an office across the street, only thing was we never had a key to it. All the other office people did but us. I finally bugged Tomo enough today and he got a copy. I mean, it is our office, we should have a key to it.

I played a nice April fools joke on Mike today. He actually thought i told the one guy off and wanted to go back to the USA. It was great. I am so evil.

Wewere not so busy today. I did one TD 2 today. Most of the day i stayed across the street in out other office. I watched Scary Movie and The Matrix again. I need to get some new movies for over there. DOnt get me wrong, i LOVE scary movie, but i think i can recite ever line from it.

OK, so much for the cure for death. I guess i spoke too soon. We got hammered today. 7 calls. I did two (2 TD 2's) of them. The good thing was I go tot sleep in and did not have to go into work till noon or I would have been dagging ass.

I did not get out of work till about 6 or so. It went by fast though.

WOW, I think they found a cure for death over here. We only had 1 call in today and I got to do it. It was a TD 2, and it came in at noon. We spent most of the day watching Jet Li movies in out rest office. I, like normal, had my face planted in my computer fixing up thing on pozie.com. That will be up soon, I promise. We left work at 4:30PM. I am very surprised at how slow we are. That can only mean one thing. We are going to get nailed hard soon.

BAH. Another slow day at work. 3 calls. 2 at 12:00 and 2 at 15:00 ( I had one of the noon bodies). If I would have known that I was not needed for work until Noon, I would have slept in. So while I waited to work, I watched Scary Movie, and Sneakers. I am watching The Matrix as i write this. If nothing comes in by 4:30, I am going home. I can do more with my time there then here.

3/28/2003

We had a memo handed to us today. Apparently the "Yakuza" or Japanese mafia have been hanging around the funeral home. They are trying to find out about embalming and use it to there advantage to extort money from us. We were told to keep the doors locked, dont let anyone in, and if someone does try to get in, report it immediatley.

Kind of a slow day today. 4 calls, all TD2's. I did one of them. Ray and Brian did the others.

They are adding a new table to our embalming room so they are doing some plumbing work. That means they did not schedual embalming for after 3 so the guy could work. I stayed in the office across the street, working on my computer and fixing up some stuff on my web page. We left work at 4:30.

Brian and I worked today. We had 6 calls. I had a TD 1 and two TD 2's. The bodies we do are either TD 1 (Wash and dress), TD 2 (Full embalm), TD 3 (Surface embalm with some hypo action) and TD 4 (Bag it). My calls today were at 9:00, 12:00 and 15:00. We were busy so the day went fast.