Pop the Dock

Today was a different day at work than usual. When the first truck arrived at my receiving door at 8:30 this morning, it was quickly discovered that the dock plate had somehow become broken from the time I left yesterday to the time I got to work in the morning. I don't know how many people know how a dock plate works, because I certainly had no idea before I started working as a receiver, but basically, it's a large metal platform found directly behind the large roll-up metal door. It can be popped up so that a ramp will flop out and onto the floor of the delivering truck, allowing skids to be brought into the warehouse. Well, the dock plate wouldn't stay down like it usually does - it kept popping up and flipping out the ramp. This being somewhat of a safety hazard, we had to develop a system where something would sit on top of the dock plate that was heavy enough to keep it down - it needed to be something big, much bigger than me, because if I stood on it, it would pop me off. Even two people had trouble keeping it down. The best thing was the forklift . . . oh the dreaded forklift which I have been ignoring for four months. I had to learn how to drive it today. I have to admit, it was not an in-depth lesson or anything, and I basically just drove it forwards and backwards for each delivery, but it was a confusing thing to drive, not like the old tow motor at Tiggys (not that I was wonderful at driving that either, but it was at least a little more like driving a car). This forklift is driven standing up, turns on the rear wheels, and has a joystick for going forwards and backwards and a crank for going left andright. To drive it requires skills similar to patting your head and rubbing your tummy in circles at the same time. Unfortunately, I am not even coordinated enough to clap in rhythm while singing, so as you can imagine, I wasn't so good at the steering aspect of things. But I must admit it was the first day, and it would be cool if I could someday drive that thing like a pro.