mark of the beast

you heard it before, that '666' is the number of the devil.. in fact yesterday being 06-06-06, a couple of channels were carrying lighthearted specials on satan, hell and and the ilk. the remake of the cult classic 'The Omen' also opened yesterday, the premise of which was the antichrist son bore the triple-six tattooed into his scalp! i loved that book, the original movie was the bone-chilling kinda scary, and this version should be just as baaaad!

not that i'm superstitious or anything, but i did think it would be best to tread gingerly on this day. half of a man's paranoia is based in his brain, and i try not to disturb that half too often! so i stayed in bed pretty much all day, which is what i do anyways, ever since i started working the nightshift. coming in to work i was hoping that whatever ills had to happen had already befallen whoever was slated to next face the wrath of the demons. strange how no politicans or lawyers die in bizarre accidents on such days.. tells you something about who their souls have been leased off to!

of course, when the bogeyman wants to get you he will find you no matter where you hide! he decided to sneak into the plant at 1.30 am when honest people are a-soundly asleep, the fiendish are plotting dastardly deeds, and the rest are busy working hard making sure you get your daily supply of cola and other cold drinks. a quarter-million dollar machine came to a shuddering halt, cos a link on a chain broke. and no surprise, the last spares we had were just used up the previous day!

things being the way they are, this happened at a time when no hardware stores are open, none of the plants in the immediate vicinity run that size of chain, the chain is too small and in too sensitive an area to be jerry-rigged, welded, mickey-moused, remodelled, or any number of ways we mechanics make things do what they aren't made to do.

as i left work, i marvelled how a piece of metal worth 10cts shutdown a line (that goes at the rate of 900 bottles per minute) for six hours.. you just know that bears the classic hallmarks of the devil dropping by.