The things in my head go 'round and 'round

I sat on the deck this afternoon with a good cigar, and a good brew and just listened. 

We have a school that is about 50 yards from our yard.  When we bought this house back in 1996 it was one of the selling points.  That along with the fact that we were buying it from family and getting a great deal.  Back then the school house k-5, and that is were The Princess went to 1-4.  When she got into 5th grade the school was closed and she went to another one that is a couple of blocks in the opposite direction. 

Sitting here listening to the leaves, I can also hear the kids coming in from last recess.  I can hear the buzzer, and the buses pulling up getting ready to take them home.  The parents are queing up in the same place that I used to when I picked The Princess up.  The sound of little peoples voices is like a balm.  I love listening to them as they are chattering to one another.  When this was our school, it had a huge family feel to it.  We all knew one another, saw one another at all the functions, and watched out for one anothers kids.  If someone was late, the parents would hang around and let our kids play on the playground until the late parent arrived.  Now that we are years beyond that, I find how much I miss those days. 

I missed those days with my eldest daughter, and even though I had some of that time with my boys, I basically missed those days with my own kids.  I lived them vicariously through The Princess.  I am a flawed Father. 

Anyway.  Live life now.  Don’t look back on it and regret.  Life is to be lived now.

Namaste.

So now after a carafe of coffee, and a large cup from Mc’s, I think that it is time to sit down and talk about what a typical day is like in retail. 

A typical day in retail begins for me with a walk through my store.  I say hello to all of my associates, checking in with them, and letting them know that I am there if they need anything.  With the way our work schedules are, I am not in the store on the same days every week, they change in relation to what the business dictates.  I also check with my Department Managers to see if they are having any concerns with associates, orders, or deliveries. 

After this quick “survival walk”, I head to my office, grab a legal pad and start walking each department making notes of items that need specific attention.  These items might be as simple as wiping down a scale, or as involved as breaking down a rack, or display unit and cleaning it due to how it looks.  Appearance is everything in food retail, and you don’t want nice fruit or vegetables sitting on a dirty counter.  During these walks I am also answering phone calls from customers and associates.  Saturday I received a call that took the cake in my 30 years in this business.

I get this call from a Deli associate.  She tells me that she is in the parking lot, ready to come to work, when the person who she was riding with got pulled over by the police.  And let’s be clear, she told me that she was with her “baby daddy.”  Which makes me crazy as the label just means this is the person I decided to have unprotected sex with, without any concern of the consequences.  She informs me that the “baby daddy” might have some warrants.  I ask if she has someone who can come get her child, as the ‘baby daddy” will be going to jail if he has warrants.  She assures me that that won’t happen.

Riiiiiight.

I go to the upstairs conference room and watch the scene unfold.  First the “baby daddy” is pulled from the car, frisked, and handcuffed.  Mind you, there are 3 officers dealing with him.  While two are handcuffing him, the other pulls leg shackles out of his trunk.  So, the warrants had to be just a bit more serious than what my associate led me to believe.  Since being cuffed, he was then stuffed into the back seat of one of the cruisers, and my associate got into his car and drove her and her daughter home.  Yeah, I forgot to mention that her child watched her father cuffed and taken away by the police.  That is a nice tape to have running in your head isn’t it?

And that is just part of a typical day in retail.