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.
