One week ago, I woke up in Missouri. I had needed to go to my warehouse there for business for a while, but COVID is running rampant there. The St. Louis Cardinals can’t even play baseball. Due to COVID, the Cardinals have played 5 games. FIVE. My hometown Chicago White Sox have already played 19. There’s a serious COVID problem in Missouri.
I didn’t want to stay in any Missouri hotel or motel. I had no plan to stop anywhere at all on the way to the warehouse. I made arrangements to stay in the warehouse overnight, despite that warehouse being the site of a suicide many years ago. Gulp.
They had prepared a nice second floor loft space for me.
Although I brought an air mattress, the bed they had ready was appreciated, sort of.
I passed on the loft experience, and the old owner’s office was an alternative. The scenery outside the window was lovely for a business park.
However, I was not sure I wanted to spend the night with this guy (not the old owner) staring at me.
And the very phallic award in the office made me feel a bit uncomfortable and emasculated.
I did spot an old organization chart proving that at one time I was a captain of industry.
Sure, a captain of a company ship heading directly into the waters of product obsolescence.
I noted this ancient picture that used to hang on the wall at the old Fischer Industries facility.
That’s Warren Fischer, the founder, with his elbows on one of his Fischer processors. I had to fire him from his “consulting” job with the company. All he would do was come around, tell the same stories over & over, and bill the company. I knew there were cheaper ways for us to be bored.
The most famous employee was Jason Alexander (George Costanza from Seinfeld) over on the far right of the pic. I hear he did some part-time engineering work for Fischer.
He was funny on the show, but known to be deadly serious when it came to medical equipment design.
Too many memories (and skulls) in the old owner’s office for me to bunk there. I chose another office. In the morning, I took a 4000 step walk in the warehouse while watching Season 2 of the Umbrella Company on my Kindle. Then it was time for a Wisconsin shower in the old owner’s private bathroom. If you are not familiar with a Wisconsin shower, that means to wash yourself off as best you can, and lay on a lot of deodorant.
There is zero truth to the rumor that I spooned much of the night with this ripped guy I met in the conference room.
Jim Flanigan Looks at the World 