December 11. Sunday Night.

Hi Journey.

I can hardly believe that last year by now I was 90% done with my holiday shopping!

Oh Journey, it's only two weeks until Christmas and I'm not even begun. Glad I at least booked my ticket to Carm's last summer. Got a great deal on United into LaGuardia. Ordinarily I'd try and fly Southwest into Islip , but I decided to go in extra early and treat myself to some Macy's madness with Mom and Carm on the 23 rd . Should be a grand time. I always take a ride on their wooden escalator whenever I shop there; those wooden cleats make such a unique clack-clack-clack sound.

Good day today. Tee and Jack Heckstrom were both well behaved; I've cast them as two of the Wise Men in the Christmas pageant and told both of them they'd be shepherds watching over a flock outside the church on Christmas Eve if they don't behave. Wish I could be there to make sure neither one tries to jostle the other out of the spotlight but I'm sure Mrs. Trepals our choir director can keep them peeled apart long enough for the class to get through “Silent Night” and “Away in a Manger”.

Lunch Friday with Eddie was uneventful. Small talk and a small lunch and even that got cut short. I had a fire to put out back at the shop; carpet ordered for one of Dana's clients didn't match the carpet delivered. Client insisted on an all-hands-on-deck meeting at the shop to go over swatches again and make sure we got it right this time. Dana probably could have soloed on the mission but the tone of her voice clued me in I'd better be there to at least thank the client for her business and add a back-up apology for the mistake.

And yes, it was the carpet store's fault, but that doesn't matter. From the client's point of view it's our fault. They pay us to advise, and when something isn't right I'd much rather they come directly to us. Gives us the chance to contain the damage. Gives us at least a fighting chance to turn lemons into lemonade.

I think that's the same reason Dad always insisted his clients call him personally with any questions on premiums or claims. He didn't want some salaried office worker having a lousy day back at corporate jeopardizing a relationship he'd worked years on with some curt answer to a question.

Saturday I spent all day at the shop; Eddie couldn't do anything because his sister was having dinner at her house and just transporting his mom over there was a major project. It was her first trek she'd made outside the house since her surgery other than trips to physical therapy. Eddie reported that she'd held up well during the meal but once home she basically collapsed and spent much of today in bed.

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