Everyone is also a customer

I have had a thought rattling around in my head for some time. Probably about 20 years, which is how old the Free Press will be in about three weeks.

If you’ve been in business for a while, I think you can relate to what I am about to write.

There is absolutely no way you can make everyone happy all of the time nor should you even try.

What I am talking about is when an employee takes the brunt of someone’s wrath that they had no connection to causing.

I offer this word of caution to anyone who has or will take it out on an employee of any business in the future.

They are customers too, so if you lean on them unnecessarily, you may be causing a loss of business for your employer’s business.

Last week I didn’t have the space to write everything I had to share in my travelogue.

While at David and Sally’s, we witnessed two baby birds leave their nest.

I believe they were house wrens. The mom and pop wrens have been returning to the same hanging vase for a number of years now to raise their little ones. There were two little birds in the nest. One flew away on July 4 and the other one left the next day.

Somehow they know when it is time to go. In the past, they have all gone on the same day but this time was different. The first one kind of coasted to the ground and took off. We thought maybe the mom and pop thought the first wasn’t quite ready so they gave the second one another day to get ready… or maybe we were too visible watching the proceedings.

We also had lunch at the Blue Dog cafe in Sherman Oaks where a whole company of firemen are known to have lunch and park their pumpers and ladder trucks in the street.

This day they got a call and they all ran out the door to their trucks and disappeared with sirens blaring. We don’t know if they all finished lunch or where they were going but appreciate their dedication to protecting the property and lives of they friends and neighbors. Just like we appreciate the dedication of our Homegrown Heroes who go to great lengths to protect all of us. Home­grown Heroes is the theme of this year’s county fair..

The Olympic Forest National Park is right out the back door of Dan and Katie’s house. It is 17 miles to Hurricane Ridge, which we drove to one day we were in Washington. It is a beautiful area and Nancy’s senior park pass she bought for $10—which is now $80—got us all in for no more.

The deer up there were almost close enough to eat out of your hand. I thought I was taking a video of one of them. Later when I checked I had a video of the inside my pocket for more than 30 seconds, the lesson being that you push the button at the right time.

If you wish to share your comments or ideas, my e-mail address is joel@
hillsborofreepress.com.

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