I May Need Oven Mitts

...if I have to keep pulling my boss's backside out of the fire. We had a funeral yesterday at our new location. Visitation was from 8-8:30am, with mass at a nearby church at 9am, then burial at the National Cemetery. Since visitation was so early, we got the body ready Monday afternoon and took it over to the new location. Tuesday morning we bring the hearse and limo over from the original location. We're waiting until it's time to go to church, so I ask my boss if he put out an American flag. He says, "good question" and goes into the chapel to see if there is a flag. No, there is not, so we quickly folded one and put it in the hearse. Had I not said anything, we would have arrived at the National Cemetery with no flag for the honor guard to fold and present to the family. In another story, my boss spoke to a family a few weeks ago. They wanted to send their loved one up north when the time came, for burial in the Jewish section of the cemetery. My boss was supposed to check on all the burial requirements, but when we got the call and I asked for permission to embalm, the family was hesitant because they weren't sure if burial of embalmed bodies was allowed in the Jewish section, and that my boss was supposed to have checked on that for them. Turns out he did not check up on anything, and the metal casket he sold the family was unacceptable; we had to switch caskets and put the body in an orthodox Jewish casket. This is a casket that is manufactured of wood, containing absolutely no metal or animal products or by-products.

I'm Still Here

There hasn't been too much to write about concerning work, at least not without coming across as negative. I had a very busy Friday a couple of weeks ago while both my boss and our secretary were on vacation, but I got through it. This weekend I'm off, and I'm glad of that because we have two visitations on Sunday; one at our original location and one at our new acquisition. Both funerals are Monday morning. One is going to a local cemetery, the other to the National Cemetery. There are limos for both, and my boss neglected to check if our limo was available before he booked it for his family. He wound up borrowing a limo from another funeral home. Hopefully the driver will be included, as we will be stretched thin enough without having to provide another driver.
The calls keep coming in. We're on a pace to possibly reach 300 calls this year. If we get 25 calls a month for the rest of the year we'll hit it. I heard that the last time we had 300 calls the owner was passing out bonuses like crazy. I wouldn't mind getting some of that action.
I've also been busy learning how to edit videos on the computer. The owner came back from vacation with some videos, and asked me to put them on dvd. I have no experience at all working with videos, and to make matters worse, he had two different cameras that recorded in two different formats. One was a high-def Sony camera, the other recorded in Quicktime format. I finally got them burned onto dvd; now he will want to edit it and such before he makes copies for his friends. Joy.

Job Insecurities And The New Guy

Lately I've been wondering where I stand at work. We hired a director, an experienced man, originally to help out at our new location. However, the owner has decided to keep him at the original location and let my boss cover the new location, which suits me fine, by the way. However, since he has been hired, I have made arrangements with only one or two families. Sometimes I wonder what the owner thinks when he goes through the monthly files and sees that I've met with hardly anyone. Ever since the new guy came on board, I've felt more like a secretary than a funeral director. To be honest, I don't really mind, as meeting with families is not something I particularly like doing. However, I wonder if one day the owner is going to decide I'm an overpaid administrative assistant and either cut my pay or let me go. Seriously, I doubt that would ever happen. I know for a fact I'm in good standing, but still....