Sasha was doing a safety audit at their Vancouver production plant. It was just after lunch and her task was to enter all her findings in the check sheet. As she worked on that, she chatted through Gmail chat with a few of her colleagues from her home plant in southern Ontario. It was getting close to their home time and one of them informed her that there had just been a major issue in the plant. Seems a big piece of equipment was down due to a fault on a secondary piece of equipment.
Sasha tried to get more details but her friend had to leave to go pick up her kids from school. So she reached out to a few others she figured might still be at work. Nobody was answering. She focused on her task for a while and then heard a little "ding" from her computer so she checked and sure enough, it was one of the people from her plant, responding to her earlier questions about the issue at their plant. He gave her the details. It was a bad situation but, after being with the company for several years, she knew that some plants had identical equipment and that particular piece was a common one with the very plant she was auditing at.
Coincidently, one of the people from the plant was walking in so she asked if they still had that particular piece of equipment. The person informed her that while they had recently purchased and installed a different model, they still had the old one in their warehouse. Sasha told her friend at work that he should tell the maintenance manager to get in contact with the maintenance manager here in Vancouver.
The auditors finished their day of work and then went to have dinner. In the evening, Sasha got a phone call from her plant's maintenance manager and one of the electrical supervisors. When they both said their hellos, hearing Tanner's voice made her smile. He'd been hired as a supervisor a few years prior and she didn't know much about him other than he had a really nice smile, a cute tushy and seemed like a very nice guy. Any interaction they'd had was always pleasant. There had been a bit of fun flirting between them during a course a few weeks back but nothing more than that. Bringing her back to reality, they asked if she could go back to the plant in Vancouver and verify a few things for them.
"Don't you trust the people there?"
The manager answered "Actually, I don't trust Dennis at all. If they took it out of service, there's got to be something wrong with it and Dennis is too enthusiastic about sending it here. We'd like to use the facetime function to have you check a few things and have us see them for ourselves."
So Sasha went back to the plant and met with the shift supervisor there who took her to the area of the warehouse where the item was stored. They opened up the crate and Sasha called her colleagues. They started the facetime thing and she pointed to everything they wanted to see. Then they asked "is the warehouse heated?"
"Yes, why?"
"There are parts of this that cannot be left to freeze, ever."
The shift foreman, who was still standing next to her, said "We know that. We don't freeze here very often but we've always made sure that this baby is kept totally warm, even after we removed it from service. And by the way, there was nothing wrong with this unit. We changed it because we had to change other parts and needed more space for the other parts and the newer models are smaller and fit with the upgrade we were making."
"Good to hear. Sorry about not trusting Dennis but I've worked with him before and we have bad history."
Sasha spoke up "Guys, I'm coming home tomorrow. I can't exactly carry this on the plane but we could get it to go cargo on the plane I'm on and I could drive it to the plant."
"Thanks Sasha but the cargo hold isn't heated. This can't travel by normal cargo. It needs either specialized transportation or for someone to drive it here. And I think that's going to be our option. Can we count on you to help with that?"
"You want me to drive this across the country?"
"Yes. Tell me, what kind of rental car are you driving? Will the crate fit in there?"
"I'm driving a Dodge Grand Caravan. Hate it with a passion but hey, it would be perfect for this. And funny thing is, it actually has Ontario plates! We might be doing the rental company a favour! But wait a minute, won't that gizmo freeze when I leave it in the car overnight?"
"You won't leave it in the car. We'll send someone to drive with you. You'll have to work together and carry the crate into your hotel room each and every night. Don't worry, it's not as heavy as it looks. Two of you can easily handle it. Then, you'll need to warm up the car in the morning and ensure it's totally warm before you put the crate back in. It's our only option if we want to operate before summer. We need this, Sasha, can you help?"
"Of course! Who will you send?"
"We don't know yet. We'll let you know tomorrow. I take it I can count on you to talk to the rental company about driving the Caravan to Ontario? Thanks Sasha. Go get some sleep!"
Sasha went to the airport to discuss with the rental company. They were indeed happy with them taking it back to Ontario for them and offered a nice low rate in addition to including the navigation system for free. When she was done with that, she went up to the airline counter and cancelled her flight home. Then, she went back to the hotel and, after learning they had a guest laundry room, washed all her clothes. After all, she'd only brought enough for four days, not for eight or nine!
The next day, Sasha was really busy with the audit. They even worked through lunch so they could get the report finalized. They were presenting to the plant management at 3 pm and had to have it finished. It was a mad dash to the finish line, leaving absolutely no time for her to check her emails or her phone. She figured that if anything was urgent, the phone would actually ring and it hadn't. Someone had told her that one of her co-workers had arrived and was in the warehouse but that's all she knew.
After the meeting, Sasha went back to the room they had been working in and proceeded to pack up her things. Within two minutes, the local electrical supervisor arrived with Tanner.
"Hey Sasha! How are you?"
Oh she was good all right! Seeing his nice smile and snug pants made all the rush of the day evaporate.
"I'm good, Tanner, and you?"
"Good, good. Are you ready to go?"
"I am. Should I bring the van to the same place I went to last night?"
The local electrical supervisor said "To the warehouse, door three, yes. We'll open the door so you can back in, okay?"
"Sure. I'll see you there in a few minutes. And I'll warm up the van."
Sasha made her way to the parking lot. She put her work bag in the back and started up the vehicle. She put the heat on to its maximum setting. It would take a while to really warm it up. Good thing it wasn't too cold outside. She made her way to the warehouse and slowly backed into the open door. She wasn't going to leave the vehicle on in a building so she turned it off. They opened the back doors and folded the back seats to make room for the crate. Then, they put the crate inside. The manager had been right, it wasn't as heavy as it looked but it wasn't light either. They would need to make sure they took rooms on the first floor wherever they stopped.
Tanner offered to drive but Sasha declined "Tanner, with the time difference, it's like almost 8 pm for you. If we're going to make it to Kamloops tonight, I'll drive. You can drive tomorrow."
So they left the plant with their precious cargo and got caught in some traffic to get out of Vancouver but then had clear roads all the way to Kamloops. Along the way, they talked about work, about the safety audit and various other topics. They were nearing Kamloops when Sasha noticed that Tanner was sitting with his hands on his family jewels. She'd noticed that several guys had that habit and figured it was her chance to ask.
"May I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"You're not the only guy I've seen do that so I'm asking in general. Why do guys, when they're sitting, often put their hands on their family jewels?"
"What?"
Tanner had immediately looked down at his crotch and then lifted his hands away. Sasha laughed and then asked "Seriously, why? Are you worried they're going to run away? Are they cold? What's the deal there?"
"Run away? No! Of course not!"
He was flustered. She hadn't meant to make him so flustered.
"Tanner, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I was just teasing and asking a general question. You don't need to answer. I was just joking."
He remained quiet. So did Sasha, at least for a while. Then, awkwardly, she said "We're about to get to where there are a bunch of hotels and motels, let's take this next exit here."
They found a place, obtained two rooms and carefully moved the crate into Tanner's room. Then, they had a quick bite to eat, mostly in silence, and retired for the night. Sasha felt bad that her silly question had pretty much ruined the evening. She was hoping that by morning, they could start over and have a fun time and for sure, she'd stick to neutral subjects and keep her twisted sense of humour in check.
The next morning, they met as agreed at the breakfast buffet at 6:30 am. Tanner greeted her with a smile and a cheerful "Good morning!"
After she replied in like, he asked if she'd had a good night's sleep. Sasha was relieved that he seemed to have forgiven her for her unfortunate question the night before. They watched the news on the television while they ate, making comments about the reports now and then. As they left the kitchen area, Sasha said "I'll go and warm up the van and then go knock on your door to get the crate, okay?"
"You still don't trust me to drive?"
