Quick Friday

Today was Friday for me.  I am taking Thursday and Friday off this week.  My schedule has been so upside-down lately, I am really looking forward to a break.  It will be nice to get back on a regular schedule soon too.  I think that my co-worker and I have finally settled on a new schedule that seems like it will work well.  We will see.
The day started out in a rush.  I went to the morning meeting at the shop and then hurried to the office to take care of new hire paperwork for a temporary part time employee.  When all of the pages were signed and photo copies were made, I headed out of the park.  I had to take the last water sample at Fechtel and then carry both water samples to the county health department for routine testing.  It was so peaceful there.  I thought about how nice it would be to sit on the bench in the shade of the Oak Tree to watch the day go by.


I couldn't sit and enjoy the Oak Tree though, I had water samples to deliver.  I packed the new sample with the other one in my cooler and got on the road.  It took about 45 minutes to get from Wekiwa to Fechtel and then almost another hour to get to the health department.  I returned to Wekiwa with plenty of time to spare before our personnel meeting at 1:00.  I took care of some office work and then headed home to change.  We wore our Class A uniforms (our formal uniform with tie) to the meeting.  This is not a usual occurrence, but we have had some changes to our uniform policies in the past couple of years and we wanted to make sure that all of the Rangers had complete Class A uniforms and knew how to wear them properly.  I changed into my Class A and headed to the meeting.
I had to drive past the zone that we burned last on the way to the meeting.  It was looking beautiful.  There was already green grass growing just five short days after the burn.  Its amazing to see how quickly the plants come back.  There will be some nice grazing opportunities for Deer and Gopher Tortoises.


The meeting went well.  We talked about current events at the park and some upcoming events.  We also talked quite a bit about customer service.  We watched a DVD that I have seen before.  It is a fun way to get the idea of customer service across.  Its called Give Em The Pickle.  In the DVD, a man named Bob Farrell discusses his background in customer service at an ice cream shop.  He relates some stories in a funny way about giving the customer what they want and serving them the best we can.  After the video, we discussed a few more issues and then started taking pictures.  With all of us looking our best, we took advantage of the situation and I took individual pictures of all of the staff and a group photo for our archives.  Here is mine!


After the meeting, it was almost time to go home.  I wrapped up my office projects and turned in some paperwork.  I talked to my coworker about the next few days because we won't see each other again until Monday.  Then, I headed home.

Thought of the Day #43
I enjoy the monthly personnel meetings here at Wekiwa.  It gives us a chance to communicate as a group and discuss important issues.  We also communicate with the staff via memo, but the memos don't get all of the information out as well as face to face communication.  I enjoy seeing how the group interacts as a whole as well.  There are so many different personalities at this park and while they are all very different, they all are essential to the operation of the park.  Its neat to see how they interact.