since my last post…

I spent 4 days in Elkhart, Indiana on a work trip.  Felt amazement at the vast expanse of corn fields along the interstate.  And partook of an almost live pig while there.

Went on a “stay-cation” in Pigeon Forge with Erin & Eli in early August for 4 days.

Took a 2 day golfing trip to Richmond, Kentucky with a great friend of mine who I had not seen in three years.

Saw Eli off to his first days of Kindergarten.  He’s doing rather well, I think.  Most days, his favorite part of the day is getting to choose what he wants to eat for lunch.  The choice is the key.  When I was growing up, they served what they served.  But he gets to choose between two main dishes, and can pick 3 of 5 side items.  Heaven for a 5 year old who loves eating.

Began shaving my head again.  I can’t help it.  It’s who I am.  I like it this way.

Saw our first ever sunflowers grow to be 6 – 12 feet tall.  Soon after, they got too top heavy for their own good and began to fall over.

Went tubing down the Pigeon River twice, once with 3 guys from small group, and once with Erin and our great friends Reid and Sarah.  I nearly broke my finger swinging from an old rickety rope swing on the side of the river.

Joined my first ever fantasy sports league of any kind.  And won my first matchup.

Celebrated my 5-year anniversary with Threds (today, in fact).  The longest I’ve ever been at one job in my life.

Saw my guys small group nearly double to at least 16 guys, maybe 18.  Sadly – and happily – we’ll soon be “reproducing” into two separate groups.

Heard the loudest singing from our community at Crossings that I’ve ever heard in my over-2 years of being there.  Tear jerking.

Rearranged my office at work.  Come visit me sometime.  You can see.

Spent 3 days in Charlotte, NC at the annual Salsarita’s franchisee convention.

Went camping for 2 1/2 days in Cades Cove with my good friend Chris.  My first time camping in about 10 years.  We saw 4 deer walking through the campground, saw 3 bears while driving the Cades Cove loop, did a 5 mile round trip hike to Abrams Falls, ate 4 fire roasted hot dogs each, and went through an entire bag of marshmallows.

Helped a new friend from small group move to a new apartment just days after he had a terrible motorcycle accident, broke his pelvis, busted his hip, and tore his leg up pretty good.  I’m so grateful to be in community with guys who are ready and willing to help.

Was thrilled to see my wife, Erin, be awarded the Golden BVD award at the last Crossings Leadership Community.  Congrats, honey!

Have thought often about the future direction of this blog.  I’ll get into that more at another time.  For now, please enjoy a sampling of pictures that help encapsulate some things I’ve just mentioned in this post.

limerick

I’ll tonight work from six until eight
With other brains to speculate
Efficiency plans
That down to a man
Will give us more work and less breaks

This weekend we’ll drive to the state
Where bluegrass and coal mining mate
To hang with the crew
Both Edelen and Booe
You need me to elucidate?

Last night watched a movie so wack
With Keanu the thespian hack
Where he Stood Still the Earth
Not a crap was it worth
Can I please have my two hours back?

In the comments I’d sure love to see
A writer who eloquently
Can write such a prose
As me, I suppose
On my part it’s wishful thinking. =)

haiku

Too busy at work
To write anything at all
On this silly blog

Twelve minute lunch break
Can’t stand to leave my office
Or I’ll get behind

Need a vacation
But those things require money
Money me no have

Back to the grind now
Maybe I’ll opine again
In a day or five

a couple of cool things from Threds…

First…..We’re partnering with McAlister’s Deli (we do all their uniform apparel for all their restaurants nationwide) on a new charity-driven site.  McAlister’s is a major contributer to Share Our Strength – an organization who’s one goal is to see that no kid in America goes hungry.

We’ve just gone live with a new site – WWW.TEAFREAKSTSHIRT.COM – that allows anyone who loves McAlister’s sweet tea (and don’t we all?) to buy a brand new “Tea Freaks” t-shirt.  The site will stay up for about 3 months, and ALL proceeds from sale of the shirts will go directly to Share Our Strength.

(ps – you didn’t hear this from me, but if you order a shirt, you also get a coupon in your order for a free cookie at McAlister’s Deli)

Second….we recently designed a series of new UT Football t-shirt designs that the general public got to vote on at UTsports.com.  Here is the winning shirt.  Over the next couple of months, we anticipate printing about 30,000 of these and they’ll be available for purchase at area retailers, and pretty much any store that you can normally find UT apparel at.  They’ll also be available at just about every single 107.7 FM WIVK remote over the next few weeks – staffed by part time college agers with Threds.

I’m not the biggest UT or Lane Kiffin fan….but it’s still a pretty sweet shirt, huh?

promotion

Anyone out there ever get a promotion that included more work and a higher level of responsibility …. but no extra pay?

I just did.

masters weekend

For the second year in a row, I get the pleasure of spending my Memorial Day weekend at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA running an apparel booth at the Nautiques Masters Water Ski & Wakeboarding tournament.  It’s a pretty simple and enjoyable event in comparison with many of our other Threds events….except…this weekend is going to be the coldest, rainiest weekend in many years for the Masters event.  60’s all day with storms and showers everyday. 

Just like today.  Cool with showers.  Not too good for an outdoor event on a lakeside beach.  We brought about 500 t-shirts and 40 sweatshirts/jackets – and today we sold more sweatshirts than t-shirts.  Demand is high and inventory is LOW. 

Here’s a picture of the inside of our 10′ x 10′ booth.  Very cramped.  We only have room to put out about 1/2 of the stuff we brought. 

And here’s a picture of a custom designed Lambourgini from the makers of Mona Vie – apparantly a very popular and profitable energy gel that’s a big hit in the wakeboarding scene.  Mona Vie also brought along a customized F-350 truck, their own tour bus, and there was an overhead fly-by from the private Mona Vie jet.  All this from drinkable energy gel?? 

it’s just me

For the last 11 years, I’ve been convinced that no one could ever be as good as Michael Jordan.  Kobe, to me, simply does not compare.  Michael was much more explosive off the dribble and more ruthless than Kobe.  Not DWade.  He needs to be a couple of inches taller to be able to do more damage, post guys up, etc.  Never Vince Carter.  Total softy.  But now, for the first time, I’m starting to wonder.  I don’t get to watch a lot of the NBA, but everytime I’ve seen Lebron James this year – especially thus far in the playoffs – it’s been nothing short of amazing.  He could end up being the best ever.

Top – Friday face.  Bottom – Monday face.

(Preface – I love teachers.  Teachers are awesome.)

I should have been a teacher.  I can’t think of any other job in America where you get roughly 10 – 12 weeks of vacation per year, plus sick leave days.  According to the handbook, I think I can work my way up to 4 weeks of vacation once I’m at my current job for like 22 years.

The most damning sign that I’m getting old – I now really like using Old Spice after I shave.  Stuff smells awesome.

One nice thing about owning a bottom-of-the-line Hyundai Accent.  You never have to worry about locking the doors.  I mean, seriously, who wants to steal a Hyundai Accent?

Crossings – A T-Shirt Community

At Crossings, we’ve already begun to jokingly refer to the fact that we love us some t-shirts.  It’s been cool on my part to be part of providing t-shirts for the community over the last 2 years.  In fact, I fully believe that t-shirts can help instill a sense of community … they commemorate moments or events, they help you feel connected.  It’s awesome showing up pretty much every Sunday morning and seeing at least a few people wearing a Crossings t-shirt of some kind.  Below is a recap of all the t-shirts we’ve produced thus far.  For each tee – the front of the shirt is on the left hand side, the back of the shirt is on the right hand side.

Here’s a brief description of each (from the top).  1 – Crossings Logo Tee – Crossings logo on the left chest with “HPFTWBTG” on the back (Helping People Find Their Way Back to God).  We’ve actually done two runs of these – some in black, some in charcoal, some in chocolate brown on a ladies cut tee.  We also printed the front logo on several hooded sweatshirts, which everone seems to have really loved.  Probably about 150 of these shirts and hoodies circulating.  2 – Crossing Baptism Tee – given to anyone who is baptized at Crossings as a commemorative shirt.  3 – The Tour of John’s Story Tee – we did about 300 of these last March at the end of a 20-something week long study of John.  They were free to anyone who wanted one.  4 – Production Tee – we gave these out to all the people who had actively served and sweated during the time we were at the theater, setting up and breaking down every morning.  We asked these awesome servants to come forward at the end of a service in January at 4MS to applaud their efforts and present their shirts.  5 – Pregnant Woman Tee – this was the one I did for my small group, and as a practical joke on Mark.  I posted about this roughly a month ago.  6 – Never Thwarted Tee – Like the John tee, this shirt commemorated a 20-something week study of the book of Genesis.  We took preorders for anyone who wanted one at a very low cost.  Both this and the John shirt are “concert style”, where the back of each shirt has the date, the passage studied, and the “big idea” for that week.  Similar to a concert tour layout.  (UPDATE)  Greg reminded me that I forgot the Balls Tee – Trevor, during a testimony last summer, basically said that his boss at work would sometimes tell him to “grow some balls”.  And he said it just like that.  Then realized his faux pax, then made fun of himself and had the whole place laughing.  So I made some Balls Tees and had them there early a couple of weeks later, so when Trevor showed up, about 12-15 of us were wearing these shirts.

Threds is on Facebook

Did you know that Threds is on Facebook?  Now you do. 

Wanna help me look good to my bosses?  Become a fan!

HGTV – Change the World Tee

Threds recently partnered with HGTV to do a promotion for their “Change the World” campaign. We designed some t-shirts with different “green” themes, opened up a voting site  that was linked to HGTV’s website, and then changed the site over to an ordering site for the shirt with the most votes. Here’s the shirt that won:

It’s an Anvil organic tee, available in both men’s and women’s sizing.  You can order this shirt by going to www.hgtvchangetheworldstore.com.  It’s $18.95 with free UPS Ground shipping, and a portion of the proceeds goes to support national HGTV partners.  Also, if you enter the code HGTV in the coupon box at checkout, you’ll also get a free HGTV Flower & Gardening book.

glorious creation

it’s 1:17pm on Thursday afternoon.  We’re driving through the mountains just about 20 miles to the south east of Asheville, NC.  The trees are as bright and as colorful as you could possibly ever imagine them being.  Red, auburn, orange, brown, green, yellow, sienna…absolutely, wonderfully, amazing.  It is in a setting like this that I am most often reminded of the glorious greatness of God.  Of how spectacular, creative, and wonderous He is, and how fortunate I am to be able to live a tiny bit of a life in the earth He created.  For the last 20 minutes (my boss Keith is driving right now) all I can do is crane my neck around to see all the views…and it will be another hour or so before we finally get through it all, so I’ve much more to see and take in.  I absolutely have to find a way to get to the mountains with Erin and Eli this weekend to take this all in before the leaves fall and winter ensues.  It’s just too beautiful to miss.

sitting in a florida cafeteria

i’m sitting in a cafeteria at a Sea Ray plant in Merritt Island, Florida right now.  It’s about 5 miles from the Cape Canaveral shuttle launch area.  Drove down with my boss on Monday, worked about a 15 hour day yesterday, and in the middle of another 15 hour day today.  I’m tired, my legs hurt, and at the moment I’m bored.  All the plant employees are working, and we won’t have any more sales pushes until they hit their break times.  We come down every year to do several “plant sales”, which are like gigantic flea markets for Sea Ray plant workers and employees, so they can buy Sea Ray apparel and other stuff at really cheap prices.  It’s a great way for us (pause….just ran a 35 dollar transaction) to get rid lots of extra stuff we accumulate throughout the year at work. 

We’ll pack up the truck around 5:00pm, drive about 4-5 hours to the Savannah, Ga area to spend the night, and be back in Knoxville sometime tomorrow afternoon.  Fun, fun.  What really sucks is spending 4 days within 1 mile of the ocean, and not one time setting foot on the beach.  Anyways….back to work!

Salsarita’s Convention

Spent most of my weekend in Charlotte, NC at the annual Salsarita’s franchise convention.  Threds does all the apparel for all Salsarita’s restaurants nationwide (www.ritasthreds.com), and we attend this event every year.

My co-worker Stephen and I spent much of last week boxing up inventory, creating signs, packing the cargo van, creating surveys, and brainstorming how we’re going to sell as much stuff as possible.  Then Saturday comes.  We leave Threds at 6:15am, and arrive in Charlotte around 10:30am.  The vendor show starts at 2:00pm, and vendors are supposed to start setting up at 11:00am.  Little did we know that the entire downtown would be shut down for a parade, and the convention hotel would be located SMACK in the middle of the parade area.  So we drive around the city for 40 minutes trying to find a way to the hotel.  Finally find a way.  Then we find out the convention is on the 3rd floor and are directed to go the loading dock area.  We find this, but realize that there’s no elevator in there.  Then we discover we need to use the freight elevator at the back of the hotel.  10 minutes later, we find this elevator, and begin unloading a butt-load of stuff from our van, carting it down the corridor and onto the elevator.  This takes about 20 minutes.  We go up to the 3rd floor.  We find a couple of Salsarita’s “gophers” to help make several trips with all of our stuff to the vendor booth area. 

It’s there we discover that our booth is about half the size we were expecting.  Basically, we’ve got all this display equipment, clothing racks, grid wall panels, and about 20 big boxes full of apparel….and no space to put any of it.  By now it’s almost 12:30pm.  We have 90 minutes left.  We make the decision that it’s going to be impossible to sell anything….and we scrap our original idea and begin working on a smaller set up, focusing only on displaying the product, giving away some freebies, and making ourselves known. 

We’re set up by 1:45am, grab a very quick bite to eat in the lobby, and then man the booth.  By 4:00pm, almost everyone has come through, and headed back to their rooms.  So…a four hour drive, 45 minutes of driving around downtown….loading dock….freight elevator…half size booth….take most everything back to the elevator….1 hour set up….for a 2 hour trade show.  So…we begin breaking everything back down, boxing stuff back up, and carting back to the freight elevator.  Down the elevator, down the corridor, and back into the van.  Finish with all this around 5:20pm.  Back to the room, clean up, have a couple of cocktails and appetizers in the Salsarita’s reception gathering, leave to grab some dinner at Unos, back to the room to watch UT get thrashed by ‘Bama, then lights out around 11:30pm. 

Little did we know that the 18th floor of the Charlotte Hilton would turn into a circus until 3:00am with parties, wrestling, yelling, laughing, and drunkedness filling the hallway as we tried to sleep.  (This was not Salsarita’s related…just a bunch of gosh darn hooligans)  Up at 7:00am, clean up, check out, hop in the van, and drive back to Knoxville.  Back by 12:30pm. 

Just another typical Threds event.  Lucky for me, next Monday I get to drive a 16 foot box truck 10 hours to Florida for a 4-day Sea Ray plant sale trip.  Woo Hoo!

Car – Buying a Car – Car Salespeople

I may be buying another car very soon.  I love my 2002 Mazda Protege LX.  I bought it with 12 miles on the odometer.  It now has 97,500.  However, it needs a new clutch and a new timing belt VERY soon….I’ve gotten 3 estimates and the cheapest so far is $1300.00 to do both.  Because I’ve had to refinance my car a couple of times to make our family budget work, I’m still making payments on it.  Not sure if I want to drop $1300.00 on a car with 97,000 miles that I’m still making payments on.  Tough choice. 

Anyways, just started a little car shopping, and am immediately reminded of why I no longer sell cars, and never ever ever want to again.  My sales guy last night was about 26 years old, and for over an hour looked like he needed a drug fix really bad.  In fact, at one point I was outside with him.  We started to walk inside, and he began sniffing and rubbing his nose frantically and said, “I’ll meet you inside….I’m having some issues with my nose….my sinuses are killing me.”  I’ve worked with many car salespeople who were on cocaine.  This was a classic cocaine reaction.  I worked with a guy who was a crack addict.  Every so often he would bring random things to work to try and sell to other salespeople for $15 or $20.  Clocks, phones, a watch, etc.  I worked with another guy who, about 1 year ago, was put in jail for life for killing a mom/daughter while driving drunk.  Turns out he’d been arrested for DUI about 9 times in the last 10 years, and had only spent about 1 week in jail.  He was the top salesperson for over about 2 years at one dealership I worked for.

Some of the reasons I hated selling cars….

1. You’re pushing people to spend many thousands of dollars “on the spot”.
2. Everybody lies.  The salespeople lie.  The customers lie.  The managers lie.  The detailers lie.  If “Kit”, the Knight Rider car, was for sale on the lot, he would freaking lie to you.   
3. Some days you could be at the dealership for 12 hours and only work with 1 customer, and that customer would buy a vehicle.  Other days you could be at the dealership for 12 hours and work with 14 customers, and not one of them would buy a vehicle.
4. You never, ever know what you’re going to earn….from sale to sale, day to day, week to week, month to month.  From August to November of 2001, this was my monthly earnings…. $4800.00 … $2200.00 … $1800.00 … $500.00.  No kidding.  I made $4800 one month, then 3 months later made $500.00 the whole month.  This is common.
5. Balloons, balloons, balloons.  Every Saturday morning is was vital to put balloons in every conceivable spot around the lot.  On the cars, on the trucks, on the hot dog stand, on the gates, on the fence…it made you want to tie a big helium balloon around your neck and have it wisk you off to Kansas.
6. Terrible business sense.  Here’s how it works.  You’re a salesperson.  For a couple of years, you’re the top salesperson.  You become a sales manager.  Doesn’t matter if you have good people skills, if you’re a good manager, if you know how to work with other salespeople, if you’re good with business and marketing matters.  Top salespeople = future manager.  No matter what.  The sad part … most of the top salespeople make HORRIBLE managers. 
7. Almost Zero customer loyalty.  Over 90% of the customers I sold to could have cared less how hard I worked, how cordial I was, how honest I was, how I would go over the top to help them.  Once they drive home (unless they have a problem), they forget who you are. 

Enough venting.  It’s time to make a choice.  I’m going to look at a 2008 Hyundai Accent after work.  It’s new, with NO frills…no power windows, no power locks.  But I can buy it brand new for about $13,200.00, so it may be worth it.  Hyundai has come a LOOONG way in the last decade.  They are now one of the top rated vehicles, period.  The Sonata recently beat out both the Camry and Accord in a Motor Trend midsize car test.  5 years, 60,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty, 10 year, 100,000 drivetrain warranty.  We’ll see.  Maybe it’ll work, maybe not.  I’ll let you know.

Until then…be nice to your local car salesperson.

A few more designs

Not Just a T-Shirt Company

Threds (my place of employment) has tried hard over the last couple of years to market themselves as more than just your standard t-shirt shop.  New logo, new website, new marketing campaigns, etc.  We do embroidery, custom design work, marketing, a WIDE variety of promotional products (check out www.searaywearables.com or www.nautiquegear.com to get an idea of what we can do).  As you may know from some previous posts, sometimes I get totally stressed out working here.  But sometimes (like today), we have our moments as a company that make you proud to be a part of it.

We’ve recently partnered with the UT Bookstore on campus to provide a customized, unique men’s and ladies “fashion apparel” line.  They’ve given us our own section in the store and we’ve just sent over our first production of 4 men’s and 8 women’s fashion-styled tees.  And they absolutely LOVE it.  The UT Bookstore has tons of basic tees…orange, white, all kinds of UT logos and designs…but nothing to speak of the “fashion” line – custom cuts, ladies fits, American Apparel, California style stuff.  But now they do…and I’m proud to have played a significant role in making this happen.  Here is a small sample of some of the designs we did for them….if you’re a visitor to the UT Bookstore, check out our stuff!  (unfortunately, these virtual designs don’t do the actual garment justice….you’d just have to see them to see how freaking awesome they look)

meetings

ever had days (or weeks) at work where you feel like your sitting in meetings just so you can talk about your upcoming meetings? 

yep.  me too.

Earn $5,143.52 Per Minute!

DeSagana Diop, a 7 foot tall NBA center, just signed a 5 year contract with the Dallas Mavericks for a total of $31,000,000.00….or 6.2 million a year.  You’re thinking…wow, that’s a LOT of money, especially for a guy I’m not even sure I’ve heard of!  Well, you’re right.  Let me break it down for you.  Diop has played 7 full NBA seasons.  Wanna know his “career” stats?  Here they are:

14.7 minutes per game … 43% field goal percentage … 52% free throw percentage … 1.2 blocks per game … 3.9 rebounds per game… 2.1 points per game.  That’s right.  For 6 million a year, the guys scores 2 points, gets 4 rebounds, plays 15 minutes, and shoots 52% from the free throw line. 

Let’s break it down further.  This season, let’s ASSUME he plays in all 82 games (he’s only averaged playing in 62 games each season over his career).  And let’s ASSUME he plays to his career averages.  With those assumptions in mind, we reach these earnings conclusions.  Diop will earn…

$75,609 per game  OR  $63,007 per blocked shot  OR  $36,004 per point scored  OR  $19,386 per rebound  OR  $5,143.52 per minute he spends on the court in a game.  Or, to put it more personally, Diop, in ONE MINUTE of action, will earn more than I do in 300 HOURS of work.  And, frankly, that pisses me off.

Layoffs, The Economy, and The State of My Stress Level

In the last week, the company I work for has either laid off or “let go” of nearly 20% of our work force. And we only had about 50 people total to begin with, so that’s pretty significant. In my department (6 of us), one person was let go and another is being move laterally to a different position in the company.

What does this mean for me? A lot more work. I’m basically, for the forseeable future, going to absorb another person’s full time duties on top of my own. This will likely mean coming in 30-60 minutes earlier everyday, leaving 45-60 minutes later everyday, and working during lunch most days, just to keep up. I do not know how long it will last, but it could be for a few weeks or a few months, just depends on how our sales are and if we pick up any new clients or accounts.

It may also mean less blogging, since I do almost all of my blogging during work. Since I’m not a smoker and I normally bring my lunch and eat at my desk, blogging has been a good time filler for me during those daily “break” times. We’ll see. I’ll try to keep up, it’s just hard to tell right now.

Why the lay offs? Because a pretty significant chunk of our companies sales and revenue come from companies in the marine & boating industry….and the marine and boating industry is in a really really bad financial state right now, which has directly affected us in a big way. Basically, when it now costs someone up to $200.00 in gas just to go out on their boat for the day, plus the cost of towing it with a gas guzzling truck or SUV, people just aren’t buying nearly as many boats. Pretty simple.

So my stress level is fairly high right now. It’s good that my job is safe, but I’m not looking forward to the huge loads of work ahead of me each day. It’s pretty amazing how one thing – gas prices – can have such a major affect on an entire economy. But it does. Our family gas budget is now almost $150.00 a month more than it was a year ago at this time. And it’s nearly impossible for me to ride a bike or even the bus to work, since I live 23 miles away, pretty much across the county. In fact, I’ve researched the Knox County Bus system online, and there is literally no way for me to ride the bus to work. The farthest west any bus drops off is Cedar Bluff, which is still nearly 4 miles from work. And I would have to buy a bike, get on the bus in Halls at about 6:00am, make two transfers to get to the Cedar Bluff line, get off the bus around 7:50am, then ride my bike the last 4 miles to work. Which then leaves Erin with all the responsibility of dropping off and picking up Eli everyday. It just ain’t happening.

BVD Tour Stop XV

I’m in a cottage in Callaway Gardens, located in Pine Moutain, GA.  Today, my friend Zach and I worked a pretty dead day at the Nautiques Master’s Wakeboarding Tournament.  From what we’re told, the next two days will be insane.  So tomorrow we’ll get up around 6am, be at the tent by 6:45am, be set up and ready to run the booth from 8am to 5pm.  Oh yeah, you’ll see me to the right inside our small little sales area, sporting the BVD.

And here are a couple of other pictures of our area, and the event in general.  And it sucks to not be at Crossings two weeks in a row.  Hey Crossings peeps, I miss you all.  Have a great Sunday!

 

My Memorial Day Weekend

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be driving a large van full of apparel, headwear, promotional merchandise, and display equipment about 5 hours, with 2 other co-workers, to this location:

We’ll be staying in a 2 bedroom cottage at Callway Gardens Resort in Pine Mountain, GA.  And we’ll be working all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at a boating event on the adjacent Mountain Creek Lake.  Dozens of professional skiers and wakeboarders from around the nation will converge for 3 days of competition, hosted by Nautique Boats.  We run their retail merchandise website, www.nautiquegear.com.  My job at Threds is basically to oversee the technical and product development of roughly a dozen of these types of merchandise sites.  We’ll be setting up a sales area on the beach of the lake, where we will display approximately 75 – 80 different products (tees, hats, polos, accessories, etc) and try to sell as much as humanly possible.  Am I excited to be working my entire Memorial Day weekend at a grueling sales event?  Not particularly.  But I don’t have much choice, so I hope it will be fun.  With any luck, we’ll have a chance to watch some of the competitions.  Also, if I have the chance, I look forward to getting a few good BVD photo ops while we’re there.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to blog while we’re there, so I may be dark for a few days.  Wish me luck – and please enjoy your extended weekends off.  I’ll be thinking of you…often.

BVD Tour Stop V

Yes, this is not as exciting as a panda bear, a movie theatre, a chinese circus, or a freaked out TGI Friday hostess….but The Golden BVD did make a visit to my office.  Not an easy thing to explain to co-workers, I must admit.  So here we are, at my desk, chillin.

Car Brushing

On my way to work this morning, just after getting off onto Lovell Road in west Knoxville, there was a 1990’s gold BMW behind me. A guy was driving, maybe 30-something in age. And he was brushing his teeth…in the car…while driving.

Who the heck does that??

crap, darn, shoot, &@%#!!!

Yesterday afternoon in Knoxville produced one of the hardest, heaviest, scariest storms I’ve seen around here in a while. It only lasted about 15 minutes, but some of my co-workers were really freaking out, thinking we may need to take shelter in a bathroom or something. The rain was coming down sideways. The tin roof of our facility of creaking and sounded like it may rip off. Water was coming in every door of the building, wetting the floors and carpets. Pretty much everyone here was huddled at a window or a door or in the distribution center looking out of the open bay door. It was wild.

And the sunroof on my car was open. $%&#@!!!

off to work…

This Sunday morning at 8:00am, I’ll be driving a 16 ft box truck full of apparel and displays about 11 hours to Merritt Island, Florida. Along with two other co-workers, we’ll be working 4 straight 11 – 14 hour days at 4 different Sea Ray manufacturing facilities along the Florida coast. We call it a “Plant Sale.” It’s typically more like a “flea market.”

Drive a big bulky truck for 11-12 hours. Check into hotel. Eat. Go to sleep. Get up at 5am. Spend 2 hours unloading a truck and setting up stuff. Run an event sale for 8 hours. Spend 2 hours reloading everything on the truck. Get something to eat. Chill out, go to sleep. Do the same thing the next day. And the next day. And the next day. Then drive about 10 hours back home. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Anyways, I’ll be going dark for a few days. Until next Friday, be good, stay warm, and drink plenty of water.

Hell Week

I’m in the middle of Hell Week at work. Barely time to think or breathe. Major headache when I went home yesterday. From yesterday (Wednesday) through next Friday, I’ll probably be working about 90 hours. Hard to explain….our company does tons of merchandising for Sea Ray boats. I run a retail website for Sea Ray merchandise. You can check it out at www.searaywearables.com. In the next week, there are 3 major events at Sea Ray’s corporate location – including 2 days in which every Sea Ray dealership owner/president in the entire world will converge in Knoxville. We’re running full-blown merchandise displays and selling stuff at all 3 events.

So, I’ll be (already am) spending a tremendous amount of time prepping product, doing price tags, creating orders, loading a giant truck with tons of display equipment and product. We’ll set up a display Friday night, run it Saturday, tear it down. Re set up an even larger product display on Sunday, run it Monday and Tuesday, then tear it down. Then set up yet another one on Wednesday, run it on Thurdsday, then tear it down. Then everything comes back to our main location on Friday, at which point we have to unload the entire truck, put everything back in trailers, count every single merchandise item back into inventory, etc, etc, etc.

Anywho. Let’s just say I’m stressed out, and the week is just beginning. In the words of one of most classic and cherished Michael W. Smith songs…so incredible that it made his 1st decade best of album…”Pray For Me”.