(I had some server issues the last couple of days so haven’t been able to make any posts. This is the post that should have been posted yesterday. As for Monday’s MWF Read, I’ll post it later today as the Wednesday MWF Read. Sorry for any inconvenience.)

I was talking to Phirate yesterday and my weight loss came up. Then my strength training came up. And then a memory came back to me that I thought I’d share.

I used to work at a grocery store when I was in my teens. I had two jobs. I was a cashier and I was the day stocker. (I later got promoted to night stock manager, but that’s a different story.) The day stocker had to stock things like milk, eggs, water, and beer. At one point while I was working there I was able to carry 7 to 8 cases of beer that held 24 cans each. If the dolly or hand truck was unavailable, I’d just carry them myself from the back to the cooler where they were available for purchase. I ended up being quite strong because of this.

One day I was in the warehouse with another day stocker and the assistant manager. We were stacking beer cases on top of a wooden pallet for storage. There was a promotion going on for Budweiser, so we had many cases. At this point the stack was already about 8 to 9 feet tall. The easy way to handle this was for someone to sit/stand on top of the stack and the other person would throw the cases up to the person on top. I was the one throwing them. The other day stocker was catching them. The manager was taking inventory. We ended up with a really good rhythm. I’d throw, he’d grab and set down, and then I’d throw again. It was going very smoothly. That is, until I picked up a 12 pack.

See, the beer came in cases of 24 cans or packs of 12 cans. Well, I was used to throwing the cases of 24 cans and the next package I grabbed was a pack of 12 cans. I threw it up to the day stocker. The problem was, I threw it just as hard as I had been throwing the 24 can cases. I didn’t realize how close the warehouse ceiling was when a 12 pack was thrown that hard. The 12 pack hit the ceiling and all of the cans busted open. The 12 pack fell to the floor along with a nice rain of beer. At first, the manager got angry, but then he couldn’t help but laugh. All 3 of us were laughing. The actual store manager walked in at that moment. Remember, it rained beer. We’re covered in it and therefore smell like it and we’re all laughing.

We were all fired long enough for us to explain what happened and then were hired again as the store manager laughed too.

Do you have any stories about not knowing your own strength? Feel free to share.

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