Day 17 – moar screws

The other day I picked up a box of screws on the mezzanine and the bottom fell out. About fifty screws fell through the crosshatching to the area below. I went and cleared them up. Nobody was below me, so nobody got a screw on the head, but the French clocked it. As I was sweeping I said “Il pleut!” to them. “Oui, il pleut des vis.” It’s one of those things that we all knew might happen. I even thought about putting a cardboard floor down. Better to shift it entirely.

So …  I’m making a new station for vis, with a concrete floor. Much better. Des vis – the screws – are a constant problem. The office guys can make orders at the hardware store but they have to choose the brand and then the French hardware store inevitably says “we only have 999 of the 1000 screws you ordered so you are getting none”. It is actually better by far for me to show up and buy screws by weight. I’ve done that twice today and so long as I keep changing branches I’ll keep us in cheap screws until the fabled unicorn brings the delivery of screws that was promised in the faraway time. These weight boxes are just as good, they just require a bit more work to count.

You measure screws by weight, which I wish I’d known when I first counted out 300. I’ve bought a kitchen scales now. Amazon lost my first one, but it is a crucial tool. Nobody counts screws, but … anyone with a modicum of sense can work out how much ten screws weighs and then multiply it to get their amount. I’m making a chart. I’m checking it twice. I’m becoming the screw master.

Then it was boxes. Everything always comes at last minute. 150 80x40x40… No office store is gonna stock that many. Another big hard call, but there’s two of us and we are both good at this. I’m gonna be on stock tomorrow, and Darren will roam. This means I’d better turn in. Wednesday morning can be pretty full on. And there have been a load of trucks. It’s getting really busy here now. I think I might need to crack in early. Just had to tell Dean the driver where the Luton key was so someone could drop the back of their artic.