08 December 2017

Amid Cold Days, Holiday Greetings for Colleagues

The week started off fine at work. A usual busy Monday morning, and much business during the rest of the day.

Right after work, I drove to Firehouse Bar & Grill (http://www.firehousebarandgrillstl.com/) in Mehlville, where the annual soccer referee Christmas party was held. I did not feel like partying, so I only stayed long enough to pick up the two referee long-sleeve shirts I ordered.

After working much of the day Tuesday (5 December), I flexed out in mid-afternoon as I will be working this Saturday morning. Before going home, though, I stopped by the three nearest branches: Ballwin, Manchester, and Kirkwood. At all three stops, I dropped off a can of cookies along with copies of my annual newsletter to people I know at those locations. At Ballwin, that would be manager Tessie, management trainees Melissa and William, and preps Steve and Wayne. Manager Billy and driver David received the newsletters at Manchester. I also dropped off cookies and a newsletter for Kory at Manchester Car Sales, co-located with Rent-a-Car. Finally, at Kirkwood, my newsletters went to manager Hannah and management trainees Maggie and Katy. I then came home to rest up, as I felt real tired.

I put in a full day of work on Wednesday, which went well, although temperatures fell that day to just below freezing early in the morning and not much above freezing that afternoon. At home that night, I made plans for the next day.

That Thursday, I got my hair cut at Great Clips (https://www.greatclips.com/), then treated myself to a hot drink and pastry at St. Louis Bread Co. (https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/home.html).

After that brief refreshment stop, it was on to seven locations to bring Holiday greetings to my colleagues. First, it was Creve Coeur, where I had newsletters for manager Cody, assistant manager Jacob (soon to be manager in Washington, Mo.), and management trainer Phillip. Then, manager Tim in Chesterfield garnered my visit. (The day before, a light plane crashed into a service station parking lot across the street, killing the pilot. The wreckage was being removed when I drove by there.)


I headed northwest to St. Charles rental to visit Derek, then nearby St. Charles Car Sales to greet Cayla and Anthony. I then went to Florissant, where I had cookies and a newsletter for manager Justin. Finally, it was to Glen Carbon rental, where assistant manager Leah greeted me and the cookies. I also had the same for assistant sales manager Dan at the co-located car sales location. (Dan recently arrived there from Manchester.) In all, a nice day to be out and about.


That night, Mom and I went out for Chinese dinner at Lemay Wok (https://www.yelp.com/biz/lemay-wok-saint-louis) in Mehlville, where I had the Sweet and Sour Pork. Back home, I remembered the 76th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor by playing the movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!" on my DVD player.


Today, it started below freezing, but warmed up a bit by sunset. We had a full day of work, including bringing in quite a few vehicles from our drop locations late in the day. Things look fine heading into tomorrow morning.

Later.

03 December 2017

Into December 2017

Last weekend was a calm one, after the excitement (such as it was) of Thanksgiving. It was just time to chill out at home.

Back to work on Monday (27 November), and it was a busy Monday morning as usual--a bit more so, coming off the holiday weekend. All of us at the Ellisville branch got through the day and this past week with professionalism and effort, and things went very well overall.

Right after work Wednesday night (29 November), I dashed off to World Wide Technology Soccer Park (http://www.saintlouisfc.com/soccerpark) for my annual soccer referee recertification clinic. The lecture portion of the clinic was under way when I arrived; it was covering areas of emphasis for us referees working youth matches. At the end, I received my 2018 referee patch, which I can now wear on my uniform while refereeing US Soccer Federation (https://www.ussoccer.com/) matches.


Off work Thursday, I got my laundry done and went to Office Max (https://www.officedepot.com/) to get some copies run off of my annual newsletter, as well as ink for my home computer printer. I also treated myself to coffee and pastry at the St. Louis Bread Co. (https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/home.html/) location near South County Center in Mehlvile.


That afternoon, I delivered newsletters and cookies to some of my colleagues. First, I went to the Enterprise Holdings, Inc. (https://www.enterpriseholdings.com/en/index.html) headquarters in Clayton to have my newsletter and two cans of cookies delivered to my friend Mel in Field Support. Then, I went to an Enterprise office in Overland to deliver my newsletter and cookies to my friend Kerry in Corporate Information Management (IM). Mel and Kerry later informed me how much they appreciated my gesture.

Friday morning (1 December), as usual, I brought doughnuts at Krispy Kreme (http://krispykreme.com/) in Fenton for my colleagues. The day started fairly quickly, then it got rather quiet much of the day until we had a most busy end of the work day. All was good at the end, though. I also drew the name of a colleague to play "Secret Santa" for, in a gift exchange to be made at a pre-Christmas area "happy hour."

The St. Louis Artists' Guild (http://www.stlouisartistsguild.org/new/) in Clayton was where I was yesterday morning for this month's Missouri Professional Communicators (MPC) (http://www.mpc-nfpw.org/cpsiteframepage.lasso?-token.lpuserref=113815.113118) meeting. This gathering featured a discussion, "How to Tell a Better Story," with tips on better storytelling for various audiences. The panelists were: Eli Chen, science editor of St. Louis Public Radio (http://news.stlpublicradio.org/) and producer of The Story Collider podcast (https://www.storycollider.org/); and Dr. Ken Haller, a Pediatrician at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital (http://www.ssmhealth.com/locations/cardinal-glennon-childrens-hospital), professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University (http://www.slu.edu/), and an actor and cabaret performer. It was a most fascinating program, which included Chen and Haller answering questions from the audience. I was able to chat a bit with fellow MPC members before and after the program.


I did a bit of shopping yesterday afternoon; otherwise, I stayed at home this weekend. I did some prep work for this month's IPMS/Gateway (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/) newsletter, The Arch Scaler News.

Later.