Burnt Rubber in place of Burnt Toast.

Today at work my boss started asking both Michelle and myself if we could smell that burnt rubber smell. Come to think of it- we could! We knew it wasn't a good smell, but he started looking for the source. He pulled the grill out, looked under around, above and behind it, but couldn't find anything. We thought he had forgotten about it, because he couldn't see anything wrong. A few minutes later he went over to the toaster, which is a conveyor belt toaster (FRICKIN' AMAZING!) and started searching for the source of the smell over there. It was stronger, he told us, but he couldn't find anything.
Pretty soon the smell was gone and we were going about our regular business. He left and we kept working. Michelle left me at 2, and I started slicing and slicing and slicing and slicing and slicing the meat. It always feels like a long job, perhaps because it is. As I sliced and wondered what music was playing in the front of the store, my thoughts turned to the smell. I wondered if it could have been a glove on the belt, because one time I attempted a long shot of shooting my rubber gloves into the garbage can, and one landed on the toaster! But there was nothing in there. So I thought no more about it as I sliced and sliced and sliced.
Anyway, five o'clock rolled around, that's the time for night crew to come in, and only Nikki was there. Thomas called and told me that he'd be in late, and I said I'd stay until he got there. Nikki told me about how busy it was on Saturday and how unusual that was. But then she told me this story about how she grabbed three gloves when she was about to start help cooking, and threw the extra one back without looking at where it landed. She and Heather started to smell the burning, and they both wondered what it was. Finally Heather looked in the toaster and pulled out a melted and burnt latex glove!!
She didn't get why I was laughing so hard until I explained that she had solved the mystery of the day! Hooray Nikki!
No more burning gloves. Only Toast goes in the toaster! (Except she did show me how good the rice crispie treats are when they're toasted...)

Comments