Way Back Machine - the Club

The way back machine today takes us to the 1970's when the Reeves' family were in what you would call the salad years, the lean years of a family of five just starting out; yet the three children could drink soda pop like no other children in the neighborhood. As my dad was the king of slicing a penny, he found a way to accommodate the sugar addicted ones that he loved so much without denting his wallet too much. Rather than the pricier Coke or Pepsi, we ventured for a short time into the "Club", Towne Club pop for a roughly $3 a "crate" of 24 and $1.99 for every second case!!!  Forty-four flavors to choose from!!!! They even had their own brick and mortar locations dedicated specifically to their product. It was somewhere on Grand River in Farmington as I recall. This was pre-returnable time but drawing a blank of what the deposit was for the crate/bottles, if there was one. 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt9-Z_Bt8E4)

Once we moved out of the area to the country, there were no clubs, the brick and mortar locations disappeared and the Reeves' kids jumped back on the Coke/Pepsi train. Until we got jobs to purchase more sugar on our own to accommodate our addictions, our dad gave us each a ration of pops per week (the 8 pack of large glass bottles - a different taste than the plastic bottles of today; can't explain it but it was better). Once those were gone (which for me was maybe two days), you had to wait until the next week's allocation. My diabetic brother made some side deals for his ration of pops. 

SUGAR!!!!

Trail Head

love the "Mixers" reference - that is the 1970's 

Stages of Change

A few weeks ago, my wandering ears picked up word that my local gathering location would be closing it's doors at the end of March. I didn't believe it at the time but read it in print this past week so it appears to be a done deal, which is too bad as the place has a steady following, not Wolfgang Puck (fancy chef) quality food but not Waffle House quality either (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v02mT37pm_8); right there in the middle, and overall a great place to gather. The November-present dine-in limitations were just too much even with carry out and a creative outdoor dining area with a sea of tarps used as walls. I thought it had a chance.  

So of the stages of change, I am past the initial denial stage when I saw the newspaper pick up the story. The resistance stage is where I'm kind of lingering right now with the place still open for another month and people coming in as they did before the announcement. I feel like Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List when he's chastising himself for not doing more (obviously in WAY different terms). "I could have bought more chicken wings!!!!" I'll eventually move on to the exploration and acceptance stages and find a new location; maybe a hail mary pass will be caught (in the form of $$$) and the present place will stay (doubtful on that one).  

It was nice to walk in and have your favorite soda pop poured and ready as you sit down. And these soda pop tenders have been at the place pretty much since it opened last century so there is no 3/4 soda pop and 1/4 foam pours; always a perfect pour.

I will miss watching the tables of U-M football slappies getting muted as the Harbaugh machine lets them down again. 

I will miss watching the regulars recreate the golf shot that was "this close" (same story they told from the previous week).

I will miss watching the many, many, many Keno players. I never got into the process but there are a lot of gamblers out there.

I will miss watching the phone-addicted patrons. Why leave the house if you are going to stare at your phone the entire time? 

I will miss the place.

Trail Head

Pelo-Tim, Echo-Tim, Nordi-Tim, ????

My treadmill of 15 years had it's motor die recently. No worries as a gold star to the treadmill maker for honoring the 25 year motor warranty with a replacement motor in route. While in route, this large melon had to improvise a bit for the 'cold as shi*' day workouts as there is no way I'm going to pay for one of those modern, stationary bikes where you can program someone to yell at you to pedal faster. 

Enter a stationary bike from my parent's old neighbor that is from the 1970's with SportsCenter as my motivation/backdrop. Yes, you are reading correctly, the pictured stationary bike is from Voit (a solid 1970's brand). There are no bells and whistles to said bike; and can pretty much guarantee they don't make it anymore. The speedometer/odometer does not work but the bike does what is asked.

Trail Head

Sunday Shrinkage - significant shrinkage it's so cold

No fish stories to report this Super Bowl Sunday morning. The main story is it's cold as shi* (which doesn't make much sense as shi* isn't usually characterized as being cold). My fellow fisherman were wise to sleep in as I gave it a couple hours to no avail. 

Trail Head

meetings, meetings, meetings...sorry, my mute button was on

My second wish for 2021 (first one is obvious) is for a reduction in meetings. Even prior to the pandemic it was happening; there is a love of meetings and it has gotten out of control. I've been involved in many (many, many) work "flavor of the day" projects in trying to better reduce and manage meetings but all seem to end up in the trash after the facilitators see a shiny object, move on to another project and things move back to what they were with the loudest individuals getting their word in. 

The latest flavor of the day involves fancy terminology in the meeting titles like retrospective, checkpoint, refinement, stand-up, follow-up, sprint, agile, scrum, biweekly update, elaboration, and last but not least, 'planning'. I have spent up to six hours of the work day logged into video conference calls (audio only - no video for me thank you).

My two cents for fixing it. The meeting host needs to know what he/she is talking about and take charge of the meeting. Get a meeting facilitator like John McLaughlin of The McLaughlin Group      (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOLF_D7JVZM). Too much lollygagging leads to long calls and everyone starts multi-tasking/day dreaming after about 10 minutes of that. Keep it short and simple. Also, don't even think about a call after lunch. Get it done early and let everyone spend the remainder of the work day focused on the tasks at hand. Kind of like the old Hill Street Blues show where the head cop would address the troops on the matters of the day in the morning and leave them off with a, "be careful out there." No refinement, follow-up or retrospective needed.

I'd like to write more but have to get to a meeting...

Trail Head

Hollywood rider is back

My nephew Jackson got his regular chair back at the Fox 2 studios with another appearance yesterday; this time to support the 2021 Bike the Blizzard fundraiser (https://thehubofdetroit.org/biketheblizzard/). 

A great cause giving bicycles to kids who normally wouldn't have one. I donated two bicycles a few years back and hopefully two kids are out there enjoying the coast on them.

I haven't heard Jackson's totals yet but he can put some miles on and the weather has not been as bad as year's past (2019 for one; believe they called it early due to the excessive snow). I'll put an estimate at 300.

Pedal on Hollywood.

Trail Head

Creeping closer to Idiocracy - thankful for humor

I watched the Idiocracy movie over the holidays for about the 1,000th time and enjoy it each and every time. 

And yesterday I got to see the live version play out.

Thankful for humor during this time.

Trail Head