Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/16/2015
 Yesterday
was one of the most difficult days of my life. It was the day I said goodbye to
my oldest daughter, Tori, who was starting college in three days. The morning
started off like every Saturday morning, breakfast with Kenny, my husband, Tori
and our two boys, Kane-16 and Deshi-14, except this morning I had prepared Tori’s
favorite breakfast-blueberry pancakes, bacon and a scrambled egg. Within
seconds of me sitting down, my eyes began to tear. I knew this would be the
last Saturday breakfast we would have as a family for next three months. “It
will be OK, Mom,” Tori comfortingly said, as she gave me a hug and I cried in
her arms. “Thanksgiving will be here before you know it.”
The drive
from our home in Peabody, Massachusetts to Middlebury College in Middlebury,
Vermont was a little less than four hours. With the exception of the last
half-hour of the drive, when I realized my time with my daughter was dwindling,
I said virtually nothing. I thought about all the joy Tori has brought into my
life. She was my only daughter and my best friend. Upon seeing the first sign
for Middlebury College I began to cry uncontrollably. The realization that I
was dropping my baby off at college became overwhelming. I don’t know how I’m
going to get through the next two hours,” I thought quietly to myself as I
wiped my eyes with a tissue, while Kenny patted my knee.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/14/2015
 “I can’t
believe in six weeks the boy’s hockey season starts,” I thought to myself as I looked
out of the car window at the beautiful pink and blue hydrangeas that appeared
to be in everyone’s front yard as we drove through Chatham on our way to Nauset
Light beach. “I’d better start to think of some fundraising ideas for the
team.”
An hour
later I called my two son’s-Ryan-13 and Craig-9 to stop body surfing and come
out of the water for lunch. While we were enjoying the sandwiches we picked up
at JoMama’s this morning on our way to the beach, I said to the boys, “You know
hockey season starts in six weeks and I was thinking of some fundraising ideas
for the team that I wanted to go over with you. Do you think that Derek LaRoch
would be willing to sign a few jerseys and pucks that we could auction off?”
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/13/2015
 We were
nearing the end of our week’s vacation at Yarmouth on Cape Cod so I decided to
take my husband, Kent, and our two boys, Ryan-13, and Craig-9, out for a
special dinner. From all the restaurant reviews I had read, I determined that
we would go to the Naked Oyster in Hyannis.
While
enjoying our appetizers of grilled Thai shrimp and crab cakes we reminisced
about the good times we had this week: the whale watching trip we took from
Provincetown, the rollerblading we did along the old railroad trail, getting
ice cream at Buffy’s in Chatham and watching the Chatham Anglers play the
Brewster Whitecaps, and of course the many beaches we enjoyed. “I’ll never
forget that beautiful sunset at Herring Cove.” I stated.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/12/2015
 One of the
reasons Carol and I moved to Littleton, Colorado was to take advantage of the
many outdoor activities nature provided. All week long I was looking forward to
hiking the Meadowlake Trail in Deer Creek Canyon with her on Saturday. Saturday
morning arrived and the weather was glorious-sunny, seventy-two degrees with
low humidity. A perfect day for a hike, or so I thought. It seems that I had
forgotten all about Carol wanting me to go mattress shopping with her since her
sister was coming to visit on Wednesday and wouldn’t appreciate sleeping on our
beautiful hardwood floor.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/11/2015
 “I hate to
do this to you, Jane, but as the partner in charge of the McKinney Steel
account I need you to fly to Chicago tonight to be on hand first thing in the
morning to supervise the reinstatement of their second quarter financial
statements. It seems the SEC has taken issue with the way they have accounted
for their employee options.”
An hour
later, while I was on my way to Sky Harbor airport, I received an instant
message from my secretary. “Delta flight 0424, Terminal 3, Departs 6:17 PM,
Gate 9, Seat 29B. Arrives-O’Hare 11:58 PM. Sorry to put you in the middle,
Jane, but it was the only seat left.”
Ten minutes before boarding
I stopped at the Kokopelli Deli and picked up dinner-roast beef on cheese bread
with lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo and a large chocolate raspberry flavored
iced hot chocolate. I couldn’t wait to get seated on the plane, relax, eat and enjoy
my iced hot chocolate.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/10/2015
 Merchants
charge a premium price for their fancy named “gourmet” coffee, which consumers
pay because they are under the perception that they are purchasing a better
quality product. But you ordered iced flavored coffee, which means as the ice
melts the taste of the coffee begins to dilute itself from its original flavor.
To compound this dilution, you add sugar and/or creamer to bring the coffee to
your liking. The end result, you paid a premium price for a regular container
of coffee because you converted the “gourmet” bean flavor to your everyday
liking.
Now, if you had purchased
Kemosabe® flavored coffee you would not have either of these problems when you
make iced coffee.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/9/2015
 The walk
back to my hotel room is usually about 25 minutes, but tonight I decided to
pick up some chicken at Jethro’s BBQ and enjoy dinner overlooking the Des
Moines River. It wasn’t long after I became situated on a bench along the
American Discovery Trail that the clear, flowing water from the river made me reminisce
about growing up in Southern California. How I missed the salty waves, the sun
on my face and the sand on my feet. “Two more days,” I thought and the “Capital
Funding for Start-up’s” course I have been teaching at the Buchanan Center for
Entrepreneurial Leadership at Drake University will be over and I can return
home to La Jolla.
I hope you
don’t mind, honey, we’re going to the beach today with my sister and her kids,”
my girlfriend of nine years, Linda, called out from the kitchen. “Paul’s away
and I know how much my Cindy and the kids love the beach,” she added.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/8/2015
 I have
always found the first day of school to be exciting and rewarding but boy does
it come with a price. This year, my twin boys, Ryan and Craig, will be
attending kindergarten. I have spent most of the summer preparing them for
school. We practiced how to sit still, how to wait and how to listen. I read
them numerous books about school and all the fun things it has to offer.
Hopefully my efforts will enable me to enjoy a few hours of personal time every
day before they come home at noon.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/7/2015
 "Bridget,
the builder just called and told me they poured the foundation yesterday," I
said to my wife as I walked into the bathroom where she was putting on her
makeup. "How exciting," she announced with excitement in her voice, as she
gently stopped applying her eye pencil to her eyelid while turning to face me.
"Let me just
finish putting on my makeup and then we can go over to the construction site."
"Here," I
stated, handing Bridget a container of her favorite creme butterscotch instant coffee
after she made herself comfortable in the passengers seat. During the fifteen-minute
drive to the construction site of our new home, Bridget and I talked about life's memorable moments,", you know, those moments in your life when your
children are born, their first day of school, their graduation, their wedding
day, picking up your first new car and building a house. "Wow!" She proclaimed,
after she took a sip of her coffee. "This is the best instant coffee I've ever
had," she added as she placed her other hand around the container and returned
it to her lap.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/6/2015
 “Excuse me,
sir.” I politely stated, looking down over the wooden dividing panel that
separated me from the student studying on the opposite side of our cubical. “You’re
shaking the desk so hard that my coffee spilled.” Startled by my demand, he hesitated for a
moment then replied, “I’m sorry, but I’ll be here for the next five hours
studying for my finals tomorrow and I need to erase a lot. There are other cubicles,
so why don’t you move?” Surprised by his answer and his demand that I move, I
reached down to my desk, grabbed my eraser and dropped it down on his book,
firmly stating, “Well, if you’re going to be erasing that much you’re going to
need a second eraser!”
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/5/2015
 Yesterday, I had agreed to meet Gloria, the company’s
payroll service provider, at the Coffee House Cafe at 8 AM to go over the files
of several new employees. I arrived ten minutes early and decided to sit
outside since it was such a beautiful morning.
Immediately, I noticed a line of about 9 cars waiting to
place their orders at the drive-thur window. As the company Controller, one of
my job responsibilities is to time all manufacturing activity for our standard
cost-based accounting system. It only follows then that I timed how long it
took the last several cars to get their orders. 20 minutes was the average. “Unbelievable,”
I thought. “What a waste of time and gas.”
A half-hour after our meeting had concluded I was back at
the office. A few minutes later, my executive assistant, Jennifer, entered my
office holding the month’s performance reports in one hand and a cup of
steaming hot coffee in the other.
“Good morning, Frank. How was your meeting with Gloria? She
asked.
With my eye focused on her coffee cup, I asked, “Would you
wait in line in your car 20 minutes every morning to buy your coffee?
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/4/2015
 As
President of the Riverton Band Booster Club I was absolutely delighted when Mr.
Heartworthy, our band director, told me of the letter he received from Macy’s
requesting our presence to be the lead marching band in this years’ Macy’s Thanksgiving
Day parade. This is the most exciting thing to happen to our band since the day
I-the tubby tuba player-fell while running onto the field to dot the “i” in
Riverton at our state championship football game back in ‘84.
“How am I going to quickly
raise the $54,000 needed to send our sixty-two-member marching band to New York?”
I asked myself, while sipping a cup of Kemosabe chocolate cinnamon flavored
coffee and looking out my office window down onto the parking lot. For the next
hour I focused my attention not on my work, but on making a list of fundraising
ideas that could fund our event. “No,” I thought as I scanned the list. “These
events are too small. Think big.” Suddenly, a brilliant idea came to me as I
looked at my almost empty coffee mug.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/3/2015
So
it’s the beginning of the new work week and you’re feeling guilty about the 4
beers, potato skins appetizer, baked ziti entree and cheese cake dessert you
ate on Saturday night. You make a decision-to begin to eat healthier. You make
a mental note to stop at the supermarket on the way home tonight to buy
chicken, asparagus, lettuce and rice. You
open the refrigerator door looking for some breakfast food only to be met with
a barrage of now “unwelcomed” foods left over from the weekend-onion dip, pizza,
chocolate layer cake and egg claires. Like Ponce De Leon searching for the Fountain
of Youth, you now begin your search for healthy foods. You push aside the Heineken
and find a box of raspberries. “Good”, you silently proclaim as you grab hold
of the box and pull it from its “evil” environment. You return to the refrigerator,
this time pushing aside the ketchup, pickles and mayonnaise jar to find a box
of strawberries. You place it on the counter next to the raspberries and out of
the corner of your eye you catch a glimpse of a bunch of bananas and tomatoes
in a bowl on the kitchen table.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/2/2015
 Did you ever
have one of those days when everything, and I mean everything, goes wrong? This
was the case on Friday when, no matter how much I tried to manage the day’s
events, it seemed that all the world’s “forces” were against me.
I had planned on leaving
work around 1 PM to re-register my car at the DMV before it closed at 5 PM.
What I didn’t expect was to loose a filling at lunch. It’s my fault actually,
chewing on a Tootsie-Roll on my way from the cafeteria back to my office.
Stupid! Just stupid! The receptionist at the dentist’s office told me if I
could be at the office by 2 PM he would stay and fix my tooth. On the way to the dentist’s office, the
“check-engine” indicator light came on in the instrument panel of my car. After
I got my tooth filled, and a good lecture from the dentist, I headed to the
emissions inspection center.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 8/1/2015
 Today
we flip the calendar and it reads, August 1st. Immediately our minds
conjure up childhood memories of the hazy, hot, humid and sultry “dog days of
August” when we would ride our bikes to the corner store for ice cream, when we
would go on a family vacation to the “shore” or when Fido had no energy
whatsoever to move from his place in the shade to play fetch.
In
ancient times it was believed the hot weather we experienced between mid July
and mid August was the result of Sirius, the Dog Star-the largest star in the “Great
Dog” Canis Major constellation-aligning itself with the sun to produce a higher
than normal energy heat level.
Ask a baseball
enthusiast and they will tell you the “dog days of August” are when major
league baseball shifts into overdrive.
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