Paychecks and Ziltoid

Tomorrow marks eight weeks that I’ve worked at The Pharmacy. I’m through the initial “I’m never going to keep this all straight in my head” phase, although there’s still a helluvalot more that I don’t know than what I do know. They’ve hired a third part-time tech for “flu shot season,” which started a few weeks ago, although we haven’t given many flu shots yet. The vaccinations are free for employees and their immediate family, so I got one within days of our receiving the vaccine stock, and The Prof got his yesterday.

I’m a bit concerned about what hiring a third part-time tech portends. We techs should all be safe until after flu shot season. While I’m not entirely sure when flu shot season even ends for The Pharmacy, I do know that if they keep all three of us after that point that my hours will drop significantly. Right now we have one tech on first shift and another on second shift weekdays, and a single tech on weekends, which means there are twelve slots to fit the three of us in. Since the senior tech only wants two shifts a week, that means we two newbies get five shifts each. When we drop back to one tech a day weekdays and no techs on weekends that it will mean that either there will only be three shifts to split between two people, or that one of us will be let go (or at least, so I surmise). While I have no intention of working here for the long haul, I plan to be the one to choose the hour of my departure, so that means that I need to become as indispensible as possible.

I’m working five days a week right now, for a total of 32-35 hours. Feels like full time, even though it is not and never will be with this organization. I’m getting paid better than I would at the other chain pharmacies in my area at the moment, but even a month’s pay is less than what I used to make in a week. Hell, I was making more on unemployment in a week than I can bring home in two weeks of work now. I know I’ll eventually be able to parlay this into a better position with better money (more quickly than other new techs I hope), but the current situation is down-heartening at best. I’m old to be starting over again, and the realization that the retirement I was working towards will never be a reality is discouraging and depressing. I try not to dwell on in – the new mantra is “It Is What It Is”, but some days I can’t help myself.

Of course, no entry will be complete right now without a Ziltoid update. I don’t have many caterpillar pictures of Waldo (last year’s caterpillar project) because he chrysalized (is that a word?) so soon after we found him, and the few pictures I do have are poor quality. Still, Waldo looked more like a fourth instar when I compare him to what I can find on the web than he looked like a fifth instar. With that in mind, I wonder if Ziltoid isn’t closer to molting into a chrysalis than I thought when we first found him.

Beginning last night, Ziltoid started crawling about in the glass sides of his bowl. He hasn’t eaten since last night, which I read is typical of caterpillars preparing to molt. This morning I found Ziltoid in repose on the side of the glass bowl, with a light webbing of cobweb around him. (I apologize for the picture quality, but the bowl we have him in has fairly thick sides, which distort my best attempts of focusing.)

I emphatically do not want Ziltoid molting into a chrysalis while hanging to the side of the bowl, since that would dramatically increase his chances of losing his footing during a critical phase of the molting process (see entry from September 25th 2010 – will open in separate window – for further details). He hasn’t assumed the “J” position yet, so it might be that I’m correct and he’s simply preparing to molt from fourth instar to fifth, but a foster mother worries.

You can get a good look at the white spots on the pseudo-legs that help identify fourth and fifth monarch caterpillar instars in the picture above. These really look like the fourth instar legs from the diagram of the pictures at the Monarch Caterpillar Guide that I found on-line, but since there’s a fair amount of variation between one caterpillar and another I can’t use this to definitively identify how old Ziltoid is.

I particularly like this belly shot because you can get a fairly good look at Ziltoid’s head, as well as make out the spiracles (breathing holes) that are just above the legs on most of his segments. Just before a caterpillar molts, the clear cap over his head will start to look cloudy. This indicates the cap beginning to separate from the head underneath. Whatever Ziltoid is up to, he isn’t ready to molt in the immediate future.