mattmanna/blog

The shortcoming I am most sheepish about admitting is my inability to put ice in a glass without dropping at least one cube on the floor.

My ice filling adroitness rating is 0.03 on a 1 to 10 scale. Family and friends have gone from bottled up snickering to outright laughter, with pointing, each time I make an ice filling attempt.

I want to get better, so much so that I practice – a lot!

Equipment changes have not improved the situation. The number one attribute under consideration when last I purchased a fridge was, “how much clearance is there between the ice maker and the ice tray?” Is there enough to accommodate my favorite glass? I took the glass to every store and checked. No machine provided the required clearance.

Door dispensers mitigated my malady only by decreasing the distance to the floor.

Yesterday my friend Danny said, “sit the glass down inside the fridge next to the ice cube tray.”

It takes an unusual mind to analyize the obvious and come up with a solution this effective. Thanks Dan!

The Notice
Due to a recent series of close calls the management requests you park nose first. Please do not back into your parking space. 

I took the notice off my windscreen and headed to the management office to find out what “series of close calls” had led to this half-baked request. 

The Explanation
The “series of close calls” numbered 1 in quantity – that’s O-N-E. 

It was an important O-N-E; the head property manager’s O-N-E. In the process of walking from his car to his office, the head property manager, (HPM), managed, without noticing, to drop his cell phone. 

The phone was found pulverized underneath the tire of a car that was parked tail first. 

The HPM believed his cell phone would have been seen if the driver had parked nose first. This was the feckless view that led to the “series of close calls” notice. 

The Resolution
I asked the HPM, “If we nose into a parking spot don’t we have to back out?” 

The HPM grunted an excuse and left the room. No other parking communications have occurred.

The Tom Thumb where I food shop has undergone a store renovation and personnel changes recently.

It seems Tom’s Thumb has been down over the last year or two. Getting that Thumb turned up is to be accomplished through customer convenience. At least that’s the offical party line I get from a couple of the managers I know who made the cut.

Recently, while handing over my change & receipt, a checker mentioned there was a code on the receipt that, if entered into a Tom Thumb gas pump, would provide a discount on Tom Thumb gasoline.

“Gee I didn’t know you had gas pumps” I said.

“We don’t”, said the checker, “but we can provide you a map to the closest store that does.”

When it comes to convenience it seems Tom is all Thumb’s.