Friendship and Reminders = Thanksgiving

by Joe DeRozier

Joe DeRozier

It is Thanksgiving week!

Life can be hard at times, and it can be difficult to not focus solely on our troubles. This week is a good time to see the good that is shining through...

Steve was the Chef du jour at his restaurant when he saw Kathy and me at a table under the painting of Frank Sinatra. "Joe! I'm glad you're here. I have something for you." ...

My "bad day" had started a full four hours before the clock struck midnight the previous night.

It began with a phone call.

"Hey Joe. Please don't deliver our order in the morning. I'm really sorry, but..."

The reason she had to cancel was legitimate. So legitimate, in fact, that her offer to pay for her donuts even without needing them, was refused...

 ... but that didn't make the financial loss any less disheartening.

I have a wholesale bakery, which means I have no storefront to sell donuts whenever an order is refused or not picked up. I would have to, once again, rely on the kindness of others by posting that I had over 200 extra donuts that needed to be purchased from the back of the bakery.

Whenever this happens, I sell them at a discounted price, then take whatever I collect and create a contest where the winner will get that money. I get to meet people, which is awesome, but it creates even more work for the same zero profit.

I went to the bakery a little earlier the next morning because I'd need the extra time to advertise my dilemma, and also to put together orders for those that came to my rescue...

 ... I also had 500 pounds of icing to make, and had to clean the fryer in addition to my usual paperwork.

Once there, I immediately headed into my office to print invoices and the "Donut Bible" for that day's pastry adventures.

The spreadsheets I use are from Microsoft Works, and Microsoft is very proud of its stuff.

So proud, in fact, that after you've purchased their naked spreadsheets, input your equations into the proper cells, and format everything to the sizes you need, you have to continue to pay them year after year... after year.

Though I find this to be ridiculous, I realize that I signed up for this ludicrousy and have been faithfully paying their annual ransom.

However...

 ... six months ago I had to cancel the credit card I had been using for the Microsoft subscription.

Every time I tried to change the card information on my account, Micro-Mind informed me that the email I was using was not valid...

... they informed me by sending me an email...

... the very email they told me was not valid.

I was repeatedly warned via an alert across my computer screen that my spreadsheets would stop working due to non-payment, but after several unfulfilled threats (not unlike a child whose parent "counts to three"), I blissfully ignored them.

Two months after my subscription had lapsed, and three minutes before Nicole (Thumper) needed the Donut Bible to do her morning prep, my spreadsheet stopped working.

Well, poop.

Micro-Intelligence must have finally gotten to "three."

I'm busy, I'm frustrated, I'm sad, and I'm tired...

 ... and now, let's take a moment to appreciate how funny the word, "poop", is...

Just for fun-sies, I clicked on their ransom note and played the same information game I've tried and failed so many times in the last few months, and, miraculously, they discovered my email was indeed valid.

I know this because they sent an email...

... an email that attached itself to the previous emails they had sent stating that it was not valid.

I had no time to make sense of this ridiculous situation.

I quickly plugged in the information from my new credit card, and Micro-Brain accepted my payment and reopened the spreadsheet...

... but only for a moment.

It then locked me out of it and told me I owed for the two-month lapse as well, asking if I'd like to pay for that.

No, in fact, I would NOT like to pay that, Micro-Fiend, but you know I have to, so please take my money.

At last I was able to print my work, and all was well...

... until...

... until I attempted to save my work.

  I was then sent an alert that my equations were not compatible with Micro-Sense...

 ... the equations that were already on the spreadsheets for several years that were directly from Micro-Jerks.

Another mess.

On top of all of this, I was given bad news about a rental property that was left in a disastrous condition.

It was one more soul-crushing day in what has become a soul-crushing year...

A few days ago, I climbed my rickety extension ladder onto the roof of the bakery to change out our holiday signs. It was quite windy, which has become the norm whenever I'm trying to rotate the parasail-type signage that often brings me to the brink of death.

My rickety extension ladder was again tossed by the wind after my ascension to the roof and was splayed in the alley.

I saw Steve Foht, owner of Legend's restaurant, going into work, and got his attention.

After laughing, he put the rickety extension ladder back together and leaned it against the bakery. As he was holding it, it fell apart in his hands and crashed back down.

I yelled down to him, "Yeah, it does that. It usually takes me three times to get it to stay together."

Steve, also being in construction, shook his head. "You're not using this." He said and went to get one of his ladders.

He made me promise to throw my rickety extension ladder away after I thanked him for his help.

Steve went back to work as I took my rickety extension ladder, which I had no intention of throwing away, back into the bakery...

Kathy and I had gone to Legend's for our weekly date.

"What's wrong?" the Greek-one asked when she saw the defeat in my eyes.

"Nothing. I'm fine." Was my not-so truthful response. Keeping frustrations to myself to eat away at my soul and sanity, is my superpower.

Just then, Steve saw Kathy and me at a table under the painting of Frank Sinatra in his restaurant. "Joe! I'm glad you're here. I have something for you." Steve said as he smiled, flipping a towel over his shoulder.

Steve had bought an extension ladder for me...

I won't bore you with the seemingly unending string of unfortunate incidents that have befallen me this last year, but I will tell you this:

Steve took a very heavy load off my shoulders.

 It isn't that my problems have suddenly disappeared...

It's that he reminded me that people ARE kind, and sometimes...

... sometimes I need to be reminded of that.

Find Joe and his books in the back of DeRoziers--the door on the alley, or here, or Doud's Orchard, or a few other places. I recommend you get them locally because the conversation's always good. Warning, you have to ASK him to sign your books. He usually gives you a donut, too, and they are way good!

Thanks, Joe, for being here for the Window Holidays Project. - Liz