Monday, June 13, 2011

Phat Phil Returns....

I got a note from Phat Phil recently....

He shared a story with me about a friend of his...

His story kind of reminded me of some Peyton PHlaCe Antics....

Seriously...


I feel a little like Ms. Ant...

I guess I'd better change my attitude..


Until recently, Ms. Ant arrived at her place of work very early everyday and started work immediately. She produced a lot and she was happy to do so.  She enjoyed her job.

Mr. Lion, the CEO of the company where Ms. Ant worked, was surprised to see that Ms. Ant worked without supervision and yet produced so much....

And he could not help but wonder how much more Ms. Ant would produce if she were supervised...

So, Mr. Lion recruited Mr. Cockroach, who had extensive experience as a supervisor and who was famous for writing extensive reports.

Mr. Cockroach's first order of business was to set up a clocking-in attendance system.

And, of course, he needed to hire an admin person to write and type his reports, and...

He recruited young Mr. Spider to manage the archives amd monitor all phone calls.

Mr. Lion was delighted with mr. cockroach's reports and asked him to produce graphs to describe production rates and analyze trends so that he could present them at B of D meetings.

Well, Mr. cockroach needed a newer/better computer and a laser printer to prepare those graphs...

And someone to manage the new IT department...

Enter Mr. Fly....

Ms. Ant started feeling the pressure. She used to be so relaxed and productive.  But now she had a plethora of paperwork and meetings to attend which got in the way of her "real" work.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lion decided it was time to put someone in charge of the growing department. And for that position, he hired Mr. Cicada...

Who also needed a compter and carpet and an ergonomic chair for his office...

And a personal assistant, who he brought from his previous place of employment, to help him prepare a Work and Budget Control Strategic Optimisation Plan.....

Ms. Ant was not liking the idea of coming into work anymore. She was not having a bit of fun.

Mr. Cicada noticed that department morale was down and convinced Mr. Lion of the absolute necessity of a climatic study of the office environment.

However, after reviewing the increasing costs for running the department and realizing that production was down, Mr. Lion decided it was time for an audit....

So....

He hired Mr. Owl, a prestigious and renowned consultant. to perform the audit and make suggestions....

Mr. Owl spent the next three months in the department and produced a 6-volume report....

Mr. Owl's conclusion: The department is overstaffed.

And who is the first to go????

Ms. Ant of course....

Because of her lack of motivation and negative attitude...

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Sometimes it pays to have a little extra padding....

A friend and I made a trip to visit Houdini and a few other friends Saturday....


At Presque Isle Downs near Erie....


We got there about 11:00 AM and were walking from my car to the door....


Chatting away....


About what time and where we should meet for lunch....


When all of a sudden, my coffee and I were flying through the air....


Ok, maybe just my coffee was flying.....


But I felt like I was flying....


Actually I was hitting the ground....


Apparently another Houdini visitor saw someone leaving an awesome close-up spot....


So he backed up a little to make room for the leaver (new word) to back out... 


He backed up right into me....


I took a pretty good tumble....


I am hurting today in places I did not know could hurt....


But I lived to tell about it....


Obviously....


It could have been worse....


Much worse....


I could have been so small that he did not feel the hit and I could have been under his truck/van/suv....


Yeah, I am not sure what kind of vehicle it was he was driving, other than that it was something that he obviously could not see out of the back of too well...


Or I could have still been in my car....


In my brand new car....


And it would have been smashed instead of me....


Things could have been worse....