Dumpster Diving

I don't usually post about work, so bear with me...

Yesterday one of our clients received a new printer. It was huge. It came in three boxes and was delivered on a pallet. I worked my butt off to get it all unpacked and put together. There were a couple of things that I couldn't finish because I ran out of time. I returned this morning to finish them up. I had the whole thing put together and was ready to test it out when I noticed that the unit wasn't working. WTF? I looked up the error code that the printer was giving me and found out that there was a small part that was not installed. I had not seen this part when I was unpacking the million items that make up this printer. Where could it be? Then it hit me - I must have inadvertently thrown away the tiny part when I was removing all the boxes and thrown it into the dumpster. Aww, crap.

I went out to the dumpster and looked in. There was so much crap in there. There was no way I was going to actually get into the dumpster so I fished around with my hands for a bit. No part, but I did find some soda bottles and a lot of paper. I was beginning to get grossed out and the people at the company were making fun of me, so I closed up the dumpster, admitted defeat and ordered a replacement part.

I had to chuckle later, thinking of how I was perched on a stool, rooting around in the dumpster. My job is never dull, I can say that much....