The loading dock as alive with activity two trucks had to be loaded quickly.  The Refer truck would drop its load at one restaurant and then take advantage of the fact that security night security tended see no evil and speak no evil.  The Refer truck would head from peak of the park down and around.  The steak bed had its own run from Viva, to Plaza, to Shamu soft serve then to Voyagers.  In the warehouse there was a burst of activity while Carrie Underwood's voice punctured the air in the culinary warehouse.  In thirty minutes two trucks loads and ten pallets three pallet jacks were loaded up  and the trucks doing more then park speed limit went on their way.

Liz was finally asleep.  Her body was sore.  Her mind drifted back to what happened the day before.  Something in her asleep brain was familiar with the pattern.  She had dreamed of Basic.  She had dreamed of Afghanistan.  Now tonight though it was of the place she could not escape this summer...Sea World.   A part of her decided that for once a dream about a college course would be nice.  She was wondering why she was facing that line at Picnic again.  She was hearing the same old songs  "I'm loving Angels instead." 

 Sea World San Antonio drew military people like moths to a light.   The similarities were many.  For someone who served in the military Sea World felt comfortingly familiar.  

Liz's mind was in REM sleep.  She knew that at least her brain was defragging she would be reasonably sharp the following morning which was approaching way too soon. She had barely made it out of there at 11:30pm.  It had been a 13 hour day.

A Rio Grande Cichlid seeing a larger bluegill charged at it.  The Bluegill charged back seeing the white shadow coming to it.  The Rio Grande Cichlid managed to damage a fin of the larger bluegill Sunfish. 

The tractor dragging the a couple full dumpsters approached the main compactor.  It was driven by a man in his 1960s smoking a cigarette.  He quickly turned around and backed the blue dumpster to the lift area of the massive compactor.  He slowly unhooked the dumpster and started the process the dumpster from the back of Sweet Treats was reasonably full.  The park had an attendance level of 20,000.  The dumpster was lifted and dumped by electro hydraulic action.  It did not take too much time. 

The dumpster was unhooked from the left and placed behind.  slowly this process was repeated till the four dumpsters that had once been behind Sweet treats were now empty the tractor towed the four empty dumpsters back to their place in the park.   

The steak bed full of pallets:two pallets of water,a pallet of fruit punch and lemonade (this time looking yin and yang) two pallets of Cotton candy and two pallets of bibs drove up the incline to ski stadium.  Men soaked with sweat quickly worked the lift gate and placed them all.  Bill,Joseph and Vic worked quietly in the humid air.  Well rehearsed motion of pallet jack lift gate operation and pallet place worked as the diesel motor hummed providing electricity through an alternator to power the lights, the 99.5 KISS ROCK and the lift gate as it cycled through eight pallets worth.  They wanted to get done before commissary run would start which was 0400.  That crew would need the steak bed as well.  Besides they were tired.  The whole operation took twenty minutes. 

The steak bed went down by Rio.  Its cooler and Freezer had been loaded.  Bill and Jaun would take the last pallets of dry to both Rio and Snack attack.  The shift was rapidly fading.  

Wendy walked slowly.  She was checking for trash.  The moonlight of earlier that night had given way to a cloud filled cast.  Some stars will visible.  The air was heavy it could be drunk.  Wendy had her eyes out for the tell take white on black background meaning trash that someone had forgotten to pick up.  She had a good crew.  Sea World had grown on her and the idea of returning to teaching even though she was a certified teacher was horrifying.  This job did not have the glam of teaching but she was responsible.  In the end her boss and her wanted the same thing.   In the distance she saw the waddling of a skunk she laughed a bit and let wander.  She knew as long as the critter knew it had an out it would not spray.  She kept her distance and made sure the critter always felt comfortable.  She walked by Steel Eel cart and felt sorry.  She had more park to inspect and she knew ultimately that the big syrup line was something culinary would have to deal with....besides they stole enough paper towels. A little Karma was good where you could find it.  She laughed a bit and felt somewhat sorry for laughing another night at Sea World.

Harry laughed he knew where not to appear and when.  This was nights.  Nights always had a different feel at Sea World.  Security could easily become the bane of everybody's existence in the park.  Or Security could keep the place secure.  Harry was at the back of the park when warehouse delivered front of the park.  Now he was at the front of the park.  He drove the golf cart around just looking for anything suspicious a cat ran in front of him  It was a known park cat and it was another part of the unofficial program by rednecks and biologists to keep rattle snakes off the park property.  There were certain snakes that were welcome.  A Texas Rat Snake competed with rattle snakes.  They were welcome every place but the aviary area that had prairie chicken.  This really was not too much a problem because the prairie chickens were on island of ground surrounded by asphalt.  A number of feral cats inhabited the park they kept the rat and mice population down.  He drove feeling the calm hearing the splashing of dolphins at night.  He would not trade this work for anything.  He had been air force fire fighter now he was making decent money at a fun job life was good. 

The sound of MS.Pacman bellowed from the game machine.  A couple people night crew relaxed.  This was their break time and darkness was still around.  An expert set of hands guided Ms.Pacman it was a neat toy.  It was an improvement that maintained employee loyalty.  Shoot it was just a fun thing to play.

Two men one in his sixties one thirty years younger walked in and headed for the coffee maker.  It was Douwe Egberts a step up from previous years and it was welcome.  Three foam cups were removed and a package of carnation instant breakfast was placed into two of them.  The coffee was poured onto the top of chocolate flavored instant breakfast and then some half and half was mixed into two cups.  Jose talked to the guy "I see you got your chocolate this morning."  Stippy replied "Yeah something to hold me over till 8"  Jose made is coffee and the two drank it was about 3:40 they had twenty minutes before they would have to clock in and bring all the baked goods  to the air appointed places in the park.  It was going to be a Saturday.  For Stippy it was a split shift but the dirty secret was commissary runs were the best deal in the park.  The day boiled down to two sets of deliveries very little pulling.  The park had a charm its nights.  Jose and Stippy sat and drank the coffee getting the last bit of fun done before work would begin.