Well, I
figured that maybe I ought to knock the dust off my blog.
I haven't
traveled "pretty" since my last blog on the subject. Come to think of
it, I really haven't traveled much at all for that matter. I don't know why,
but our field service requests have plummeted over the last two months and our
field service group has had its worst two months in our history. It was so bad
that the young lady that compiles our metrics into a report for management
every month pulled me to the side.
"Hey,
you usually have a utilization of over 100% but you're at only 40% last month.
Did you forget to write some of your service reports or something?" She
asked me.
"Nope,
I just haven't had the work." I had to tell her. Still, I wanted to hug
her for at least giving a shit and trying to give me chance to fix it if I had
screwed up.
I suppose
it's a good thing that I haven't had much work because my family and I've been
fighting pneumonia or something very much like it for the last month. All of us
have been cycling in and out of the doctor’s office, but can't seem to shake
it. I'm sitting on a plane headed for home as I type this, and I've asked my
wife to try and get me yet another doctor appointment for when I land. On my
way to my customer, I had been feeling better and thought I might finally be
licking it, but mid-way through the week things started to degrade again. I
feel so sorry for everyone sitting around me in the plane right now where I'm
coughing non-stop, but I really don't have much choice as I can't exactly stay
in Detroit until I get better.
When my
company leased our facility in Austin, it was hoped that it would become
something of a training center, both for our employees and for providing
training for our customers. It never really blossomed fully into that role, but
they do provide classes for our customers once a year or so. They just had one
a couple of weeks ago, and the folks giving the class waylaid me at the front
door as I arrived for work that morning and asked me if I wouldn't mind giving
some training on how to maintain the equipment. I laughed and thanked them for
giving me a whole 15 minutes to prepare when they had had this class scheduled
for months, then I shut up and got to work as two of the people giving the
class are people that might be able to help me keep my job, or get another one
should the need arise. It was probably just as well that they did wait until
the last second to ask me, because I essentially have stage fright and hate
speaking in front of large groups. One or two people are Ok, but a classroom
full makes me a nervous wreck. If I'd been given weeks to worry about it and
dwell on it, I would have had a nervous breakdown before the big day arrived.
Anyway, one of the guys in the class was a customer that I had already met
during a service call, and I was immensely grateful when he related to the
others in the room how he had called for help on a Saturday afternoon and I had
come into the office at 8PM that night to get his equipment back up and running
so that he could finish his testing. Considering how slow things have been, it
never hurts to have a grateful customer brag about you in front of other people
in your company.
We were
taking a short break from the class so that everyone could get their caffeine
and nicotine fix when he walked up to me.
"Do you
know a guy named Frank that works here?"
"Sure,
he's my manger." I replied, "Why do you ask?"
"Well,
there is someone in your front lobby that is here to see him and I think you
might want to take care of this one personally." He said with a
shit-eating grin on his face. I had been talking to some of the other guys in
the class, so feeling a little confused about the way he had said it, I excused
myself and made my way to the lobby where I found an absolutely stunning young
woman standing at the counter. She had exceptionally long blonde hair and a
flawless figure that she had adorned in a chic skirt suit. She was at least my
height, maybe even taller, and so I appreciated her courage in wearing heels
that I'm pretty sure were longer than her skirt. The lobby area was filled with
many of the men on break from the class, and they all spoke in hushed tones, doing
their best to look at her without being too
obvious about it. Since I'm facing her, I can see all of the men behind her
staring at her with goofy looks on their faces, and trading grins with each
other.
"Good
morning, can I help you?" I asked her, putting on my best "I'm a
professional and will not make an ass out of myself" demeanor.
"Hi!
Are you Frank?" She inquired.
"No
ma'am, but he works for . . . Umm. . . I work for him." I fumbled, turning
bright red in the face. So much for not making an ass out of myself. . .
"If you
don't mind following me, I'll be happy to take you to his office?"
Two things
occurred to me as this stunning young woman and I made our way through the
building. First, her heels made a loud squeaking and squishing sound with every
single step that she took, and I figured that was probably irritating the hell
out of her. Been there and done that. The other thing that struck me was that
in some ways it must be uncomfortable to be THAT attractive. Everyone that we
passed on the way to my mangers office grew silent, including the women in the
customer service area that we had to walk through. Don't get me wrong, if I had to choose
between being plain Jane, or looking like this incredible woman, I'd take the
incredible option please, but in a way I kind of felt sorry for her. I don't
think I'd like knowing that people were staring at me when I wasn't looking, or
talking about me after I passed by. It
turns out that she was pitching a software package for our service department.
I find myself wondering if she was as capable as she was pretty, and if so, was
she respected for her ability or just hired because of her looks? Things that
make you go "hmmm. . . "
I think I
told y'all a while back that my son and his wife were getting divorced. Well,
I am pleased to share that they have decided to work things out. He is in the navy and has just
transferred from a base in Washington state to one in Virginia, and the timing
was just right so that they were able to stop mid-way and spend Christmas with
us. I swear that even I don't understand why, but I've got to be honest - I was
an asshole to my daughter in law the entire time that they were here. I would
even realize that I was being a jerk
just as the words were leaving my mouth and would chastise myself, but then I’d
turn right around and do it again the next chance that I got. I know damn good
and well that a marriage typically either works or fails as a result of the
efforts of both people, and that my son no doubt shared the blame for their
breakup, but I guess that on some level I was still angry that she had caused
my baby pain. Intellectually I know that wasn't fair of me, but there are some
things that are hard to deal with in a logical manner. I guess I probably made
it just a little bit harder for them by making them both uncomfortable. After
they left, I felt worse and worse about my behavior and finally called her to
apologize. She very graciously told me several times that I had nothing to
apologize for, but I know I was a bitch and so does she. . .
Do you
remember that we had to tear our upstairs bathroom apart a year or so ago because the walls were rotted away due
to a water
Tearing apart our water damaged bathroom |
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Laying tile floor after foundation repair |
Building the
new shed took a LOT more time and money than I had anticipated. I guess it took
us about three months of working on it every weekend, and spare moment, but
eventually we got it done. That's when I discovered that my wife and I had
different "visions" of what we were building. I had been building a
![]() |
The shed/workshop that we built |
Shelter for lawn tools and firewood |
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New Fence |
So now I
have a partially enclosed place to store firewood and lawn equipment, one
stretch of new fencing, and a damn fine shed and workshop where I can store
materials for rebuilding our damaged home. The only problem is that I have no
money left for buying the materials. . .
Oh! Last
week we discovered that we are gonna be grandparents again! It seems that once
my son and his wife decided to work things out, they got right to
"work" on it. *giggle*. You know
it still kind of boggles my mind. As a teenager, I had often dreamed that
someday I would find someone crazy enough to love and marry me, but it never
once crossed my mind that I'd be a parent someday. Now not only do I have three
beautiful children, but I'm a grandparent. How very weird . . .