The Seasons of Work

 

The Season Cycles of Employment

I’m off again. It’s the last day of my dwindling vacation time for 2023. I’ll go in tomorrow (Friday) and come back again Tuesday to a New Year. Already I’m remembering the cycles of work: early, middle and late year responsibilities. Most jobs have a seasonal rhythm to them, despite peripheral changes in the underlying business. Ours runs alongside that of the school year. For me it’s busy summers and slow autumns. Winter picks up again with baseball uniform sales. Baseball keeps me almost as busy as football uniforms in the summer. Where football is concerned with large groups, baseball is all about individual teams. I handle a lot more teams but they’re each significantly smaller. I prefer baseball.

The Update

We’ll have a new wrinkle to deal with this year. Our software system that’s kept us afloat is getting old. Actually it was old 5 years ago, now it’s ancient. Medium sized companies have mostly moved to cloud based software for their operational needs. Our industry (sporting goods) isn’t known for its first mover status on new technology. Normally that’s not a big deal, but eventually legacy systems become a liability for keeping pace with new business. On site servers, choked with information take longer to load, glitch out more frequently and generally don’t work well newer payment systems.

Like most things, software is a giant expense. We’re finally ready to set it up. I remember the last big software update we did as a company. There are few things as horrible as transitioning your entire company to a new platform. Being sued in civil court and losing hundreds of thousands in net worth comes to mind. Surgeries that keep you in bed for months, skin diseases and 3^rd degree burns are all worse, but not much else.

The Grind

 New software implementation is a grind because no one is sure when a steady process will return to business life. Learning, unlearning and re-learning gobble up most of the early days. Reports look different, as do accounting sections, item lists and costs. As painful as it is, we need to get it done or be in real trouble come summer. Summer is our busiest time because fall season sports all begin at the start of school.  

When the high schools are on break, we’re working harder than ever. Doing an update at the beginning of the year is the best idea. Of course, it also means we’ll have to count the inventory before going live. Inventory gets done at the beginning of the year anyway. This is another piece of the cyclical nature of work. I’ve been with the same company for 15 years. In today’s marketplace that’s unusual. I’m not sure what the average time spent with a company is on a national basis. My instinct on this is purely anecdotal. It’s not unusual for the guys I work with. A handful have been there over 20 years and another few are like me, more than 12 years and counting. Certainly I’ve seen the business change from when I started, but the essentials of this industry are consistent.

We used to have a much bigger retail presence. Before Dicks Sporting Goods moved into the area our operation was 75% larger. But Amazon blew up, Dicks moved in and our interest in selling what customers could get elsewhere fell dramatically. Besides, we didn’t sell as much as we bought. That’s never a good thing. At least we had a yearly tent sale to clear out the excess goods at a discount. We don’t have the space for that anymore. That’s one big change that didn’t repeat itself when we moved into our current home in 2020. The second big change is my job description.

The Versatility

Officially I’m the retail manager, unofficially I pull orders, answer sales calls, order letter jackets and float around helping where I can. I like it better than managing a busy retail store only. Everyone should do retail at some time in their career however. The experience you get from customer service is invaluable. You have to present yourself as helpful at all times, even when you don’t feel like it. That means you must smile, listen and recommend. A lot of people struggle with this. Pop into a Burger King sometime and tell me the cashier is excited to greet you. Nothing again Burger King but you don’t have to look hard to find awful service. It’s difficult to put your attitude on the shelf and be helpful. It’s assumed that retail is easy, but it’s not easy to do right.

Conclusion

At a certain point we all burn out on retail though. After the new software install we’ll all get used to a new seasonal cycle again. Not completely different of course but slightly. Our focus has already shifted from order taking and shipping to an online ordering model. In a few years I imagine the online stores will take the larger share of financials. Maybe then we can downsize the warehouse a bit. 

The seasonal cycles remain the same even when the work looks different. The change in sporting goods reflects the changes in the overall economy over the last 15 years. Web stores will remain the most popular way to buy for both players and institutions. Can’t wait to see what the next 5 years will bring.

Week Before Christmas = Lawn Care

 

Leaf Cleanup and Lawn Prep In December

I had a successful Sunday this week, measured with a very low bar. I like to be productive, normally that means yard work or exercise. I spent close to 3 hours in the lawn mowing and raking the leaves for the second time. Why does it matter to anyone? It’s a slow news day in my world. Stay with me.

 Saturday was the first time. The size of my lawn dictates that I do leaf cleanup in 2 parts. It's a seasonal situation for me. Saturday I mowed the front, Sunday the back. The front lawn is much easier. I didn’t do any raking because the leaves are spread out enough and don’t clog the mowing deck. It does take a few passes to mulch them up effectively though.

However, the ground was still wet on Saturday. Nothing is worse than trying to mulch up heavy wet leaves. I managed with my small push mower. The trick is to raise it just high enough where the leaves don’t escape, but still crunch up to a fine powder. The next heavy rain will dissolve whatever organic material still exists in the leaves.

Sunday I had more time. Christmas this year is in Texas for me. Phil and Carolina are hosting me and my mom for 3 days. I’ll drive back on Christmas Eve. It’s a 5 hour trip so it’s not too dreary. Because we won’t have a family gathering this year, Justin and Tabitha hosted a dinner Sunday night. Dad and Joyce were there as well. We had a breakfast dinner complete with pancakes, egg casserole, bacon and Danish. I had all morning and afternoon to clean up the yard. Fortunately, the sun came up in the afternoon on Saturday and dried up the wet leaves. My back yard is much denser with leaves than the front is. My mower wouldn’t have been up to the task. I bagged a good section of it first, 6 bags worth. Then I ran the mower over it. I needed to make a few passes to properly chop them up.

That took a while longer than if I’d just mowed the lawn. With all the new grass seed in the lawn I’m hoping this year I’ll have a thicker growth and fewer weeds. Last year I paid a friend to come out and spray the whole yard for weeds. It killed everything in sight, not the grass thankfully. It was after that I realized how little in my yard was actually grass.  By August the soil was ready to plant again. I used a small tiller and dumped a healthy amount of seed on the bare spots. Not to mention, I overseeded the rest. After getting the leaves up I went to Lowes and bought two bags of crabgrass killer and threw it on the lawn. I asked for a “preemergent”. The clerk had never heard the term so I took my best shot with the crabgrass killer. I’ve got high hopes this year for at least 50% more grass and 50% less weeds. This is the first time I’ve considered improving my lawn and not just mowing it.

I called a few companies last year to get quotes on a treatment plan. None were less than $500 for the year. That’s just too much. I’m sure it’s worth the money but it’s a lot of money for me. The next best thing was to call Daniel (brother of Michael) to spray one good time. The rest was up to me. No matter how long I’ve lived here, it’s still strange to be talking about lawn care just before Christmas. I get that it’s technically not Winter yet, but up north it’s already snowed at least once. We didn’t always get a White Christmas but the threat of snow was usually there. Leaves cover the ground still in Oklahoma. I prefer this climate even though it’s not dramatically different. I’d say 10 to 12 degrees on average. That’s hardly Montana and Florida, but it’s an easier way to go in January and February.

Until the spring I’ll wait patiently and watch the ground. Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Brideshead Revisited: Book Review

 

Religious Themes Run Through Brideshead

Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Charles Ryder is a novel by Evelyn Waugh set in the 1920s and 30s. After World War II, grand estates like Brideshead and a large swath of the nobility disappeared in Great Britain. The cost of both wars killed off a lot of wealth and land holdings. This is the setting for Brideshead, the twilight years of the nobility.

Brideshead is the estate of the Flyte family. It’s the central home and symbol for the characters, their Catholicism and culture. It ties them together through the years and hast a lasting impact on their characters even when far from home. The main characters are in college at Oxford in the early pages, circa 1925. Charles Ryder, the narrator, befriends a wealthy aristocrat named Sebastian Flyte. Imbued with a child’s desire for fun, Sabastian is mischievous and usually drunk. He carries a teddy bear around, representing his immaturity. The Flyte’s are Catholic. Charles rejects religion, criticizing whenever possible their beliefs in God and their adherence to church norms. It eventually causes friction. Brideshead is owned by the Marquis of Marchmain. Waugh uses Marchmain and Flyte almost interchangeably despite the first being a title. He married Teressa Flyte (Lady Marchmain) before the first World War. Then had an affair and moved with his lover to Italy, rejecting Catholicism and his wife.

The book begins in World War II but quickly jumps back to the carefree college years of Mr. Ryder. Charles Ryder is a Captain by 1944. Commissioned to paint great houses, his unit stumbles upon Brideshead Mansion. It’s been converted into a guest house for traveling soldiers. The recognition of the home prompts him to recall the Marchmains and his connection to the family. Here the novel really gets going. In their college years they drink and party a lot. Charles visits Italy with Sebastian and meets Lord Marchmain and his mistress Cara. Despite their wild fun, Charles begins to mature while Sebastian falls into alcoholism. Eventually he leaves school, unwilling to kick the habit. They remain friends but see less of each other after that. Lady Marchmain is lost on what to do about Sebastian’s drinking. Charles isn’t the help she was hoping he’d be for her son.

Years later, Sebastian ends up in Morocco at a monastery in very poor health. The monks care for him but he can’t kick the habit. It’s the last we hear of him. His sister Cordelia tells Charles he’ll probably die there, unable to go anywhere else. Charles has success as a painter and even goes to Latin America for a few years. He comes back to a wife and kids he hardly knows. That’s when he begins an affair with the oldest Flyte daughter Julia. Both are married but decide to divorce their respective spouses despite Julia’s Catholic tradition.

The final act of the story has Lord Machmain moving back home to Brideshead to die. Lady Marchmain passed on years ago, but it’s this coming back to God theme that drives the story. Wayward sons and daughters, scattered across the world all hold the thread of religion close at hand. It’s the reason why Lord Marchmain returns, it’s the reason Julia keeps bringing in the priest to read her father the last rites despite his public rejection of the faith. It’s why two of the Flyte's, Bridey and Cordelia, enthusiastically support the church. Even Sebastian, found solace in the monastery despite his crippling addiction and emptiness. Charles is moved as well to come to the faith. I won’t say how and spoil it though.

There is a description near the end that sums up the impact of religion in our lives. Charles, now Captain Ryder, walks out of the chapel at Brideshead after saying a prayer. He notices the occupying soldiers had lit an old lamp near the original stones that the early builders had started with. No one’s used it in years. But the efforts of the early builders who thought it essential to have a chapel were not in vain. He is telling us that God’s efforts to reach man carry on through riches and poverty, peace and war. The efforts of people like Lady Marchmain, who carried the torch, are alive still and affecting the next generation.

A lot of people think the book is about the good ol’ days of the aristocracy in Great Britain. That’s certainly present, but to me the religious themes were stronger. I say "religious" even thought it’s Catholicism that Waugh is concerned with. Despite the different personalities within the family, it remained the torch that burned bright for all of them.

Golden Corral and Buffet Food

 I Survived A Night at Golden Corral 

I went to Golden Corral tonight. I haven’t eaten there in years. As a kid we always went to buffets constantly. Actually it’s as close to fine dining as you get as a kid. When you have 5 siblings it’s just the best option. I remember the food being tasty, but how discerning was I as a kid? Lunch and dinner were always subpar at Golden Corral. I don’t remember them being this awful though. I’ve avoided going there for years because I knew the steaks were fatty and tasteless. Any of the sliced meats were risky. Not because they were undercooked but because they had no flavor.

 What possessed me to give it another try?

I wanted a hearty meal, comfort food as they say. Cracker Barrell would’ve been a better idea, but some part of my mind betrayed me. The mashed potatoes weren’t bad, you soak them with gravy anyway. The desserts were passable but the pot roast was fatty in spots and tough in others. I gave up cutting into what felt like a rubber ball and pushed the plate away. The mac & cheese was bland. The fajita chicken was dry and the vegetables were hard. I’ve never had a good meal at GC. But on a low scale, you know what you’re getting into when the group you’re with says “I vote for Golden Corral tonight”. You can make the best of it and select dishes that aren’t total crap. But for some reason, my brain glitched enough to where GC sounded like the perfect fit.  

With most willfully bad decisions you can claim a small victory. “I didn’t want to get drunk last night but Frank was in town! He’s always so much fun” What’s the upside with Golden Corral? The best you can hope for is to eat a reasonable amount instead of the Thanksgiving plus size portions you’ll put down. After that you’ll have mini food coma, if you don’t lie down from the stomach pain before that. Come to think of it, being hung over is less consequential.

 In my defense it had been probably 10 years since I’ve had dinner there.

I remember it being a typical buffet restaurant, low quality but passable. My old rule was that breakfast at GC was the best option of all three potential meals. It’s hard to screw up eggs and bacon. Even the biscuits and gravy tasted like something created in the kitchen instead of a frozen pack, opened an hour ago and warmed up. Potatoes are either hash browns or home fries, thankfully there is little to create. Just make sure the seasoning lands on the warm parts. 

And like most buffets you can always find a dish that suits your taste better than most. But dinner is tricky for some reason.

This isn’t true with the Chinese buffets. They aren’t fine dining either, but there are at least hot dishes with flavorful crab and noddle casseroles. If you go on a Saturday or Sunday the hosts rotate the food on a regular basis so it doesn’t get rubbery. Besides, Chinese buffets aren’t THAT Chinese. Most of them carry a few pans with American staples like meatloaf and sliced ham. In other words, I can’t think of reason to ever go back to Golden Coral. I’m putting it on the never-again-unless-family-demands-it list. It will sit right below Cici’s Pizza for the same reason. Both are suitable for holidays or special occasions. During those times you have to go to places that cater to large groups of families with kids.  

As expensive at eating out has gotten, I’ll have to learn how to cook. My resistance to cooking so far has just been the time it takes. When I get home from work I want to eat. I don’t want to spend 45 minutes making a meal. That’s why the crockpot is the best option, it’s ready when I get home. The grill is another possibility. I cook in the summer more than the winter though. Anyway, I burned out on brats and grilled chicken. I’ve cooked too much before, by the 4^th day of eating the same smoky flavored meat I’m ready for anything else. Also I don’t have a gas grill anymore. My incident from a few months ago ended my gas range for good.

Charcoal takes longer, is messier and requires fresh bag after fresh bag. You replace charcoal a lot more than you replace a gas tank. I’ll have to look for a new one after Christmas. It’s not difficult to plan meals for the week if you take the time. But I never want to take the time. Cost is going to change my mind eventually. I can’t keep going to GC and expecting a quality meal. They’ve lost me.

Foolishness and Sin Nature

 

A framework for Understanding Foolishness: Ecclesiastes 10

There are two kinds of foolish in the world, the lunatic and the intellectual. We usually lock the first type up for their own good. We used to at least. Now we let people roam the streets until they harm themselves or someone else. The second kind is respected but equally dangerous. They deny the existence of God and use their influence to undermine morality. Not all intellectuals deny God, but history is full of movements steeped in the philosophy of nihilism. 

Ecclesiastes 10:12-14 says “The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool shall swallow him up; the words of his mouth begin with foolishness, and the end of his talk is raving madness. A fool also multiplies words.”

In true Solomon fashion he gives a contrast, the wise does this and the fool does that. He leaves it vague enough so we can fill in the blanks. We’d rather hear something specific about the fool. What kind of foolishness, or what subjects does the fool focus on? But wisdom and foolishness should be self-evident. At least that’s the idea I get when I read this. Wisdom is clear when it’s beneficial. Foolishness is clear when it’s ruinous. It’s a distinction we all see.

Lunatic Foolish

I went for a short run a few years ago in my neighborhood. Homeless people are usually nearby. On occasion I’ll stop and talk to them. I’ve offered prayer. Some accept, others don’t. A few are completely out of their mind. That’s not a surprise. We use words like “homelessness” to describe people living on the streets because it fits. But it’s increased at an alarming rate. It’s beyond whatever natural distribution used to exist. I don’t pretend to know all the reasons, but it’s at least related to deinstitutionalization and laissez faire attitudes toward drug use. It’s just cheaper to get drugs and live in a tent than it’s ever been. Responsibility for this group was always done on a local level. Eventually the financial burden was kicked to the federal government when Medicaid came about.

That’s a complaint for another time though.

 People on the streets need Jesus. This hasn’t changed. One guy was sitting on the steps at a small Methodist church on the corner. It’s right along my normal jogging route so I stopped for a second. I offered him a granola bar and he declined. The exact details of our short conversation are lost to the ether. I remember thinking that he was completely insane. His thoughts, logic and stories were disconnected. He complained that the cops had beat him up. I got that much out of him. Did he realize how nutty he looked and sounded? Was he aware that most people would see him as dangerous because of his twitchy, shaky movements? He was most likely a junkie. I said a quick prayer when I could get a word in. He agreed to listen to me at least.  

Multiplied Words

Whenever I think of Solomon’s description, I imagine my encounter with this man. He multiplied words like a madman and spoke in disconnected ideas. At one end of foolishness there is a crazy man who dumps words and phrases like a snow plow salting a slick highway. He covers everything with foolishness. But I also think Solomon refers to something closer to home. We don’t encounter crazy people every day. But even people with rational thinking can be fools. Even those respected academics, writers, intellectuals and philosophers can have nonsensical ideas.

Anytime a respected individual disputes the existence of God, they speak foolishness.

Intellectual Foolishness

I watched a debate with Richard Dawkins and John Lennox. Dawkins is a renowned atheist and biologist, Lennox a Christian mathematician. Both men are Oxford professors. Dawkins rejects the existence of God, because of the “pettiness” of a creator who judges the sin of man. He’s a brilliant guy with a gigantic hole in his rationalization of the universe. The moral code we live by came from somewhere. Natural selection can explain why the fittest species survived, but it can’t introduce a moral code. The only lesson is survival at all costs. Our laws aren’t based on dog eat dog survival. They're rooted in Judeo-Christian tenets about morality. Dawkins seems to think morality is self-evident. Other times, he thinks morality itself is kind of irrelevant and tough to define. But a lack of definition and structure leads to chaos. In the long term, a society becomes tribal and war like.

Denied Reality

 Mankind lives in a state of sinfulness that’s been in existence since the garden of Eden. Without the “pettiness” of a Savior, we are doomed to eternal justice. Atheists like to separate the idea of God into categories or myths. “Which god are you referring to?” is a common refrain. But they clearly understand the basis of the question, do you believe in God, or at least, in a universal right and wrong? How about a creator? These might seem like different questions but they’re the same. There is a correct way for a created thing to behave. A toy car rolls forward when you crank the wheels back. It stops working when the wheels won’t crank. If you send the toy back to the manufacturer to have it fixed, you can expect they know what to do. If they said “We created it, but we have no idea how it’s supposed to work” You’d be confused.

Conclusion

Created things function a particular way because they were designed to. Humans were created with an inherent need to behave in a moral capacity. Sin puts up a wall between the Creator and the created, by introducing a ‘work around’. It says you don’t need God. It says you are God. It says there is no God, or creation or ultimate justice.

You can behave however you like. Solomon would call this “raving madness”. His description assumes a self-evident reality. We can understand how things work by observing creation. Foolishness comes in two varieties, socially acceptable or socially unacceptable. Neither is hopeless. Salvation is for all and redemption is for today.