I guess we have gotten our feet on the ground at Chris's store and started to take some action. Last week we ordered some specialty inventory but this week seemed like more things started being addressed.

We have been looking at different vendors for the possibility of adding or replacing some product lines. Chris has seems to have a short string with most of the chain's representatives. In the beginning I thought it might be due to immaturity on his part, but three weeks into this exercise I would have to testify that his frustrations are very real and very well founded. It seems as though there is a vicious circle that they put you into when you call with a question or a problem. The TSM is supposed to be the first link in the support chain. Chris's TSM is only two or three years older than him and is usually very quick to defer to another authority. My brief experience is that you are going to be back to him shortly. I made the statement yesterday to Chris that next time the TSM tells him to call "jobber services" he needs to tell the TSM when he receives his next pay check send half to "jobber services" and the other half to Chris!

I am preaching the merits of documenting all these occasions that "support" refuses to help and I have told Chris when we are forced to, we will go over the head of the first lines of support and get to the meat of the batting order. Fortunately, Chris has met many of these people while he was in Atlanta getting his certification.

On Thursday Chris had talked with his TSM about his battery inventory. Some of the batteries have been there since August of 2005 and do not test any good. He was asking the TSM about rotating the inventory and who's responsibility it is. Of course the TSM said, "yours". Friday morning I began crawling around the battery display, pointing out to Chris what batteries to pull from inventory. Many of these were "suggested inventory" by the previous TSM, but when their cost is "double" of others on the rack you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what will sell. The final few battery units we pulled were mis-shipments. Chris had been ordering 7212's and they kept sending 7210's. In the end we had a cart full and a dolly full of batteries that we moved to the shop and loaded on a shipping skid. We wrapped them and Chris called for a return authorization from the DC and the girl told him "We don't take batteries back!" Three more phone calls and a return call from the battery specialist didn't clarify the situation any and the big boss won't be back until Monday.

I dislike games of wit. But I can play them. I took a call from a girl at the DC telling me that we are scheduled for "Black and Red NAPA defects return on Tuesday". There's more than one way to skin a cat. I think a run down battery would qualify as a red NAPA defect.

What these jerks don't know is I have learned how to be Chicken S. from the very best, and I don't mean Chicken Salad. (This is probably the upside to having dealt with asshole bankers and unethical international business people). I've learned a trade!

I am sure that Pat gets tired of me bouncing ideas off her. It seems that every time we have opportunity it is like a brainstorming session. Two days this past week she has picked me up to make a circle and check on things. The entire time we are driving is packed with lots of ideas. I figure if one percent of them are good, we are generating such a high volume of ideas, we could become a successful think tank!

Yesterday, just about the time I was gathering my things to head home, Pat called wanting me to take a ride up to where all the happenings are going on with the wind generator farm. It is almost unbelievable. It looks like a giant prairie dog farm. You see multiple mounds of dirt, each signifying a foundation location for one generator. There is so much going on. Roads being staked out, road material being hauled in. Excavators digging the large holes, cement crews setting forms, installing rebar and specialty anchors, and cement trucks delivering and pouring cement.

I am amazed how much is being done with so few people. Come May 1 they are bringing in five hundred additional laborers. Wow!

Long story short, Pat and I took an hour and a half sight-seeing tour but we covered a lot of territory concerning the parts store.

I didn't get home last evening until about seven-thirty. I had decided I would wimp out and call for pizza delivery. When I arrived home I found Krl had made spaghetti. It took a little adjustment to my taste buds, but it was O.K..

Krl told me that before I got home the man who had tended our yard in our absence, had been by. I had already done our yard three times, I had given it some spring weed and feed and even the insecticide treatment. I am not sure exactly what my summer holds, as far as being able to set and maintain a regular schedule for doing the yard, week in and week out. On top of that, we are going to need someone to do the yard when we leave to fulfill our contractual obligations again this Fall, provided I even care.

I've been approached by two people about the possibility of full time employment, with benefits. I am trying to take all of this in. It is very delicate, very tempting, and very "worth" weighing the possibilities. One obstacle is that I do have two years left on my personal employment contract for the seasonal work in the Fall.

On the home front things remain unsettled. I don't know they will ever improve. I don't know that I care. Krl doesn't like me, I don't like her. For me it is simply a mailing address and hound care. To be honest it isn't home and hasn't been for several years. I run a delivery service and bring home a little money. For the most part she runs a laundry service/hound care and brings home more money. For the most part the cooking is split down the middle. I think for both of us it is just a convenience. She is physically crippled. I am mentally cripple.

It seems I've got lots to think about and lots of decisions to make.

One thing about it. I had never thought I would have to start over again, but over the last few years I seem to have started over so many times, in so many ways, and on so many fronts, that it doesn't even phase me anymore.

Have a day!

FATHER, throw me the life saving buoy.