Log 26: Ghost town
When I walked into work last Monday, it took me about 10 minutes to notice the eerie quiet that filled the office. Where was everybody? I mean, I wasn't literally the only person there - Robbie, José, Preston, Tom, and Jeff were accounted for - but besides that, the place was empty. There was no one working in metals, nobody in the saw room, and Graeme was nowhere to be found. My first thought was, maybe it's a holiday. And then I was like, no, if it was a holiday, I would definitely know, and I would not be here. Then I reconsidered - maybe, it's a Religious holiday! I checked my calendar. It was not. Not to mention that to the best of my knowledge everyone in the office is Christian, and my family’s Christian, so again, I would know. Then I remembered, daylight savings time ended today. This felt like a pretty reasonable explanation, until I realized that we had fallen back, not sprung forward. If daylight savings was a variable here, everyone would have arrived to work an hour early, not late. Puzzled, I gave up on figuring out the reason for everyone's absence and went back to work.
That day, I was working in the saw room with Mick, because Chris, who usually works alongside home, was among the missing employees. As he was showing me how to assemble some countertops, he chuckled to himself. “Want to hear something funny?” I supposed I did. “I’ve been sending Chris a bunch of emails all morning, so he's sitting in a tree trying to be all stealthy with a bunch of notifications going off!” I laughed, but I was super confused. Why would Chris be in a tree? And perhaps more importantly, do neither Chris nor Mick know about the Do Not Disturb function? But then it finally hit me. Oh my god, hunting!
Unbeknownst to me, that Monday marked the first day of Minnesota’s deer hunting season, which meant work would have to be put on the back burner for most of Featherlite’s employees. It felt like company production essentially grinded to a halt for the whole week.
The start of the following week saw those who had taken part in the hunting festivities slowly trickling back into the office. I smiled when I saw Gary walk in on Monday. “Did ya catch anything?” I called, rhetorically. “Nope, not this time,” he answered cheerfully. “Wait… what?” What do you mean you didn't catch anything? Was he joking? “Yeah, we saw one doe and one buck while we were out there, but we couldn't shoot the doe because that's not what our permit is for, and we missed the buck.”
Five days, I’d estimate he was gone. Five days of sitting in the woods in concentrated silence, to see just one deer? And the deer didn't even come home with you?! Honestly, without all the shooting, it kind of sounded like more of a nature focused meditation retreat to me. Maybe I would enjoy going hunting!
Highlight: Walked into the bathroom door and smacked my face hard enough to leave a bruise.
