Category Archives: Business

Business, Food and dining

Need a Date for the Company Christmas Party

This Saturday night is our big company Christmas party at the Sheraton. This is always a big deal for my company – they spend a lot of money on the whole evening for us. It starts off with a cocktail hour and open bar at 7:00 pm, so people have plenty of time to arrive and get happy. Then they have a formal sit down dinner with prime rib and all kinds of side dishes. And then we have a kind of awards time, with the CEO giving a speech and a lot of people getting recognition for things we’ve accomplished throughout the year. Then the company President hands out Christmas bonus checks to all the staff, which always puts a big smile on everyone’s faces.

After all the speeches and awards and the bonus checks, they bring out coffee and dessert carts with all kinds of fantastic cheesecakes, pies, cakes and ice creams. And they bring out a DJ and open the bar again. We dance until 1:00 am. It is a crazy fun dinner and dance and fun time with everyone from our office. I’m really looking forward to it and now I have to find a good looking woman to be my date and make me look good in front of my boss and co-workers.

Automobiles, Business, Local

No Neighborhood for Sports Cars

My neighborhood is a bunch of single family homes on nice, wooded lots. Everyone has a nice, well kept lawn in the front and most have a fence in the back. Its full of working class people and young families, a couple of old geezers, and me. This is not a neighborhood for sports cars. This is a neighborhood of minivans, SUVs, a few Buick Regals and my Jeep. The most daring car here is a 2010 Mustang, black, driven by an older lady across the street.

The woman next door to me drives a big white Lexus SUV and that thing is always in the shop. I had made the mistake of telling her one time that if she ever needed a ride to work while her car is being repaired, that she can call me any time. Of course, I thought it was going to be a one time repair for a few days. But it has turned out to be endless, ongoing repairs ever since she bought this lemon. I tell you what, after hearing all the problems she has had with that Lexus, I will never buy one of those fuckers.

Last night she called and told me that the Lexus has a bad transmission and that it will be in the shop this whole week. She was practically crying and of course I told her I would be happy to give her a ride to work and home again. So, this morning I had to leave the house about 20 minutes earlier than normal to give myself enough time to fetch her and go to her office, then backtrack in rush hour traffic to get to my office by 8:30. It was close, but I made it with 4 or 5 minutes to spare. Not that anyone watches the clock at my office, but I just hate to be late and take personal pride in being on time 99% of the time.

Automobiles, Business, Nature

No Bird Shit Yesterday

The next chapter in my bird shit saga is good news. I parked my car on the east side of the building yesterday. There is a lot of activity on that side, because that is where the loading dock is for the whole building. There is constant traffic over there with delivery trucks and moving vans, so birds are less likely to hang around with all that noise and activity.

Just out of curiosity, when I left work I drove around to the south side of the building and noticed that there were several cars parked on that side that had white splotches of bird shit on them. So I think I figured out to park on the other side for a while. I don’t even know what kind of birds these are, but sometimes I see huge flocks of Starlings swarming in the sky. I hadn’t noticed any Starlings lately, but I haven’t been looking for them, either. We don’t really have pigeons around here, although there are some downtown. I wonder what the fuck is shitting on our cars in Cools Springs now?

Business, Food and dining

Scrounging the Break Room for Lunch

Can’t get out of here for lunch, so I guess I’ll be hitting the break room and looking around for whatever I can grab. Or vending machine crap.

Either that or I have to order pizza and have it delivered. The problem with ordering pizza is that you can never order it just for yourself. You have to walk around and offer a share of the pizza with everyone in the office. Sometimes I end up buying 5 pizzas, and then its a pain in the ass to collect money back from people. I work with a big bunch of moochers. Why am I the only one who orders pizza and takes a hit on the bill?

Business, Music and concerts, Trips

Summer Concerts

We just got over the big Bonnaroo festival for this year. It had a record setting attendance again – not a surprise. Ever since it start, each year it has grown. Bonnaroo started out with with a lot of unknown and Indi bands. Now it attracts headliners from all over the world and features, country music, rock and roll, rap, Americana and even comedy shows. There is nothing else like it. Tennessee’s own version of the old-school Woodstock Festival from the 70’s.

At the same time Bonnaroo is going in in southern Tennessee, there is a big music festival here in Nashville. It used to be called Fan Fair for the country music artists, and a lot of the locals still call it that. But some corporate suits decided they wanted to fuck it up and add some rock and rap stars into the mix to get more bang for their buck.Nobody likes that but the labels almost never admit that they fucked up and they like ramming shit down our throats, so we don’t have Fan Fair anymore except for the holdouts who have taken it underground.

I think it is really stupid that they put both festivals on at the same time. It is causing a huge conflict for the performers and the fans. I really don’t see why they don’t move the Nashville festival into July. Its not any difference in the weather around here between June and July, and having a month between events would give more people the chance to attend both and enjoy the music.