sixty-three
Monday morning I went down to the temp agency and signed up.
The way that it works is, if they have something for me, I will get a call between 6:00 and 6:30 am with an offer for work. I can decide whether to accept or not. However, if I end up not accepting too often then they will call me less. If I’m dependable and do a good job I’ll get called more often and get the better jobs. It pays minimum wage which is $7.25 an hour, minus taxes which I hear is like 14%. There’s no vacation, no sick leave, and no medical coverage.
I got my first call this morning and ended up with two other temp agency guys, Roy and Ray, over at the Sears unloading trucks. It was pretty uneventful except for, as the day went by, Ray got paler and paler until he blew grits all over a pallet of Prevail PM Extended Wear Adult Diapers. A couple of the packs of diapers had been cut, probably accidentally with box cutters, and the moisture from the vom puffed them up like giant popcorn. Roy says Ray chases the red dragon. The boss guy sent him home. Me and Roy finished up.
Nine and a half hours of cold hard cash - well, I don’t actually get paid for a couple of weeks but, other than being dead tired, I’m feeling pretty good about myself right now.
