Tsunami vs. Toyota

Rosie says the first picture is Rosie and Daddy, and the second picture is her beloved chick Feathery.

I’ve never wanted any chicken to not be a rooster as much as Feathery.  What if it’s a rooster and we can’t keep it?  She will be heartbroken!

Did I tell you all how I had to get rid of my roosters after some guy we’ve never seen before who lives behind a big privacy fence came out and started cursing and yelling about how he was going to call the police if he heard a rooster crow at dawn the next morning?  I’ve had the roosters since 2008, it’s not like they were anything new.  I seriously hate our neighbors here, they are psycho and apparently have no concept of how to speak civilly to someone.

Anyway, this means if Feathery is a boy he can’t stay here.  Poor Rosie.  Fingers crossed Feathery is a girl.  We’ll know in like a month, probably.

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan are kind of hitting close to home.  You know how Tyler works at the Toyota factory?  Well Toyota is a Japanese company.  Their parts are supplied from Japan.  They’ve used up all of their extra stock at the factory where Tyler works, and so they had to make an announcement about what will happen.

Apparently 120 supplier factories in northern Japan are just…gone.  They no longer have a physical address.  There’s nothing there, they were totally wiped out by the tsunami.  Can you imagine?  Gone.  Poof.

There are 250 other factories that supply the Toyota factory here with pieces and parts that are currently closed due to the earthquake.

The company has no idea when these supply factories will be able to reopen.  Or in some cases, be rebuilt.  They have no idea when the workers will be back, or in some cases they will have to hire new workers because the others were washed away with those 120 missing factories.  I can’t even imagine, that’s horrifying.

The factories supply things like radio buttons and small pieces and parts that the factory here uses to build the cars.  They can’t continue building cars without these things.

The announcement at Tyler’s factory was good though.  They said that no one is going to be laid off or fired, but instead they will shut down production and everyone (including temps like Tyler) has the option of coming in and doing maintenance work and cleaning, or taking paid vacation time, or taking no pay days if they don’t have vacation time.  Tyler doesn’t have vacation time and we can’t afford for him to not be paid, so he’ll be cleaning.

The Toyota factory is so large, it’s like a closed community.  They even have showers there.  I can’t really explain it, but it would be totally possible for someone to live there and no one realize it.  It’s crazy huge and constantly in motion.  So there are lots of things to do there–deep cleaning, painting, etc.

They don’t know how long plant production will be stopped, which is concerning.  What if it’s so long they do decide to lay off temp workers?  Tyler still has 1.5 years until he can apply to be hired as permanent.  (You have to be a temp for three years.)  I cannot wait until that day, if it ever comes.  He will be a real permanent worker at a very stable job with great benefits.  We can finally breathe.

The Japanese people are extremely productive and organized.  I have a feeling that of all countries to have a disaster, they will be the most efficient at recovering…and quickly.

120 factories obliterated, lost, completely gone.  It’s just unfathomable the magnitude of destruction they are facing.