I will never play quarter slots again!

Today I had a special treat. I spent a large part of the day at Access Storage taking inventory of the car wash. Wash bays check, vacuums check, auto wash check, jobs done. Unfortunately that’s not what they meant. If you think about it what does a car was have the most of? Quarters. Every machine accepts quarters, or gives quarters. So there are a bunch of quarters to count. 11 am to 4 pm I spent counting, categorizing, or re-cording quarters. I met John at Access at 11 am and I think I actually said this should not take to long. I am thankful that John was there or I would still be counting. By the time we were through our hands were blackened and probably quite toxic. I really don’t want to go into totals because I want to be able to sleep tonight. Lets just say we counted thousands of quarters.



I wanted to say that I will not be blogging about my upcoming auction. Some how the computer did not send out the final lien notices when it should have. This is the certified letter that has to go out on time.  Not a real hard fix the new program did not have the right switches set. So what does the manager of a self storage facility do when the paperwork gets messed up.? Simple, set a new date and restart the process. Never take the chance on your auctions it is better to start again then to put about a questionable auction. I will let you know when the new date is set.

The Game of Life

Here is a lesson for all who may read this.  In the “Game of Life” that is the Parker Brothers game, the idea of the game is to make more money than anyone else and beat your opponents to the finish.  That is a board game people.   Get the clue that life is not a game.   The one with the most toys does not win.

Pardon for the rant but I seem to be in a power struggle at work and I did not start it.   I have a fellow employee in the company that feels like he is not needed in his current position and is trying to gain some form of control in the storage branch of the corporation.   Now the old me wants to say “I didn’t start this fight but I will sure end it”.  Now here is where my internal struggle hits.  My gut still wants to fight fire with a small thermal nuclear device, but I spent last fall at an adult leadership course put on by the Boy Scouts of America.  This course is called Wood Badge and is one of the most compelling classes I have ever taken.  I will not go into great detail on the overall course, but I want to tell you about one lesson. 

“The Game of Life”

Here are the rules of a simple game.  You have two paddles on red and one green. On the count of three each team lifts a paddle in the air.  That is all the rules you are given and the game starts.   After the first round the scoring board is brought out and the scores are counted.  For example the scoring board for a game with two teams would look like this.   Two red paddles are raised both teams lose 100 points.  If a red paddle and a green paddle are raised then the red paddle wins 500 points and the green paddle loses 500 points. If the two green paddles are raised then each team gets 50 points.   Now the motto of this game is “Win All You Can”.  How do you see this game going?  When I played it we had eight teams with a very complicated scoring board, but the concept stayed the same.  At first we were just throwing up paddles at a whim and going into the negatives fast.  Then a group of instructors ran across the room holding up one word signs which read Win All You Can. As soon as they passed they ran backwards so the message read Can You All Win.  Slowly two tactics emerged one group started only holding up the red paddle while the other seven groups were holding up green.  The seven groups started trying to get the eight group to join in but they were winning and they kept holding up red by the end of the game seven teams where dip in the negative and one team had thousands of points. Who won?  …. No one won.  In life there is no score board and no playing pieces and if you can’t figure out that there is always a win-win scenario, then you will be the one to bring down everyone.  I don’t want to be the one to destroy everything just to prove I am right. 

When I started this blog tonight I had all intentions of explaining my strategies of how I was going to win this battle.  Then I would probably spend some time justifying my decision.  Now here I am at the end of this post and I realize it’s time to lift the paddle.  Well Bob what’s it going to be red or green.   This will be a long weekend figuring out my next move.   I hope you will think before your next move and try to find the win-win scenario.

P.S. If I blow this game for any soon to be Wood Badgers, please forgive me.   Not only did this game hit me hard then, but again tonight.  It is a lesson we all need.

 Make good choices.  in the end it is just between you and God.

Now that's diffrent

I started working in storage 20 years ago, and spent the first 18 years in Southern California. So what is in Oklahoma that is sooooo different form So. Cal? Ice!

I know tornados seemed like the best bet, but the real answer is ice. California can get its rare tornado and it’s straight winds can be just as impressive as out here on the plains, but Ice now that is something that you don’t get in the land of Hollywood. The year we moved to Oklahoma we experienced some record hot months and some of the hardest winters. Trying to explain to your wife and kids that this is not the way winter is normally in Oklahoma for two years in a row is a challenge. I did tell them that we would be experiencing fore seasons. I did not tell them that it would happen all in one week.