A.G.E's Joint

A couple of months ago, I went into my spare bedroom to get something out of the closet and I noticed a small brown spot on the baseboard molding. I reached down and everything along the floor was wet. On, no. It turned out I had a pinhole leak in a pipe going to my front outdoor spigot. I may have caused this problem because for the longest time, there was a hose that had seized to the threads and I tied (and failed) to use force to get it loose.  On inspection, the water was dripping from underneath the siding and flowing down toward the street.  I quickly called a plumber. Being the good company they are, they had a truck nearby and he was at the house in a couple of hours.  The hurry-up part? The pipe was fixed in about an hour. The slow-down part? I had water damage over a 4'X5' section of the wall and an unknown amount of the floor.                                 ...

Cherished memories? Given the holiday theme. you would think I would go all mushy about great family times, or special presents (like the purple Schwinn Fastback I got when I was 10), or whatnot.  But if you have been reading me for any length of time, you know I don't get into the cinnamon and clove falseness of the Feast of Conspicuous Consumption. My hero was pre-ghost Ebeneezer Scrooge and his wise words about pocket-picking.  That said, I do have an interesting story. The week after Christmas 1979, I was scanning the want ads in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution before lining my cat box with them. My eye landed on a 4-line one for an Accounting Clerk, if interested call this number. Well, I was unemployed at the time and while I still had a little money in the bank, I didn't see that holding out for much more than a couple of months. So, I called. The perky secretary told me to bring my resume up the day after New Years.  The office was on the third floor of an offic...

The clouds seemed to obscure the big orange box on the side of the road.   There isn’t any money, but that doesn't matter.  Hardware and research, it all fits.   Even Odin had to think before making Askr and Embla. The Toyota responds to his thoughts at pulls across the highway into the parking lot. Riding up and down the lane, dodging a display of rhododendrons placed for maximum impulse buying, he wonders where to park.   Slowing down for an elderly man walking towards his car, he feels the cold fear return. The store looks like a ravenous beast, consuming all that might enter.   Jeremy fights it back and pulls into a space next to a sign truck. Getting out, he impulsively looked up to see cameras mounted on every pole.   Sighing, he shrugged his shoulders. Just can’t have any privacy anymore. He headed past the upturned spa at the entrance and went it in. There was a desk hawking store credit cards just inside. It brought to Jeremy’s mind th...

No story this week. No poem. Maybe a rant from an aging fool. Aristotle is quoted as saying "Happiness depends on ourselves." What did he know, he deliberately poisoned himself to avoid treason charges. When we were young, we were told all things were possible and then warned there would be consequences if the actually tried that. And as we grew older, we found out our elders were right. And we grow more risk adverse as more and more information comes in, all of in the form of cautionary tales of what can go wrong. But, some of us push through the fear.  Bernie Marcus started as a Pharmacist and found out he liked the front of the store more than behind the drug counter. He pushed on and learned all he could about retailing.  Along the way, he met a thin accountant named Arthur Blank in Los Angeles. Together, they became a threat to their boss and got fired. They pushed through the fear of financial ruin and moved 2400 miles away to open a new Hardware concept...

Half my life ago. That is a bad topic for someone in their mid fifties. Even saying that is admission that I am more than half way to the exit. Working at this little retail start up with the big orange idea. With four semi crazy people that knew they could do hardware better. Seventy hour weeks. Cold pizza from the Thursday Night marketing meeting eaten for breakfast on Friday. Going from four stores To eight To twenty six. To fifty five when I left, exhausted three years later. Leaving a fortune behind. Bitter? No.  I wasn't cut out to be rich. I would have been miserable. But Bernie Marcus is still the coolest person I have had the pleasure to know.