A few days ago, when we all looked down from our paper-line balcony at work, the machine operators had amassed a vast pile of flattened aluminum cans. It was perhaps a dozen feet high, thirty feet across, and the cans were all of different colors. We were seeing it from above and at some distance. Away across the floor of Greenstar’s grand central cavern, it looked a lot like a pile of treasure, precious gems all a-glitter — a dragon’s hoard!
So we’ve come through a week of winter’s deep-freeze here in Pittsburgh. For a few days, temperatures were down in the teens (before wind chill); then it warmed up just enough to make snow possible. So we received a few more inches of that. There were cancellations and early school dismissals right and left.
“How cold was it?” you ask. Well, since the opening of the new break room at work, which is beside the front entrance gate, I’ve been leaving my lunch in my car; I pick it up there on the way to lunch break. This past week, my mini-carrots were all frozen by lunch time.
Also, when we take breaks, we typically leave our gloves on the handles of our trash bins up on the line. I came back after the fifteen-minute break on that first really cold day, and my reinforced outer gloves were stiff. I could hardly bend the fingers!
So, as you can imagine, I’ve been bundling up. I went to a thrift store and bought a heavy secondhand coat that can get as dirty as it wants to. I wear my seven layers with that on top as the eighth (I know this sounds like a fairy tale) — and Carol at Triad (my staffing agency) found me a bigger safety vest that will fit over all that. My summer bandana is now a knit hat, which the hardhat fits over. I’m wearing the insulated overalls I bought back in Taylorville. It’s frustrating how wearing all that cuts down on mobility. It’s a lot harder to bend to the floor to pick things up, and with stiff gloves, I can’t do nearly the fine snatching on the line that I could in warmer times. I think the plant should just shut down until a more reasonable season.
The authorities of Greenstar, though, have been quite decent and humane toward us workers. On the coldest days, they extended our break times a little, so that we could spend more time in the heated trailer. One day they ordered us pizzas for lunch! And they’ve let us know that, if we get too cold on the line, we can go down to the trailer one by one and warm up for ten minutes. I haven’t had to resort to that yet, but some of the guys do. Also, the bosses sometimes give out hand-warmers, those chemical baggies that emit heat when exposed to air. Having those inside the gloves helps a little, as does shoving some down into the toes of our boots. We stand on scraps of rug; we stand on pieces of cardboard if we have no rugs. Gizmo taught me the technique of nylon dress socks: wear a pair of those under two pairs of regular socks, and the toes don’t get quite as cold.
I had the privilege of substitute teaching once more on Thursday this past week, this time for a three-hour intensive writing class at the other school, the Community College of Allegheny County. I had even more fun with this class!
Okay, then . . . nothing spectacular this time around . . . just letting you all know I’m still here, still thrashing.
Hagiograph says: 
Morwenna 
jhagman 
Binsers 
Lizzie