"At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference". Soren Kierkegaard
The company I am currently employed by operates as three different divisions, construction, residential and maintenance. The down turn in our economy has severely affected our construction and residential divisions to the point that they have been reduced by about 50%. In the commercial maintenance division we have taken a small hit as far as some of the smaller accounts that struggle to pay the bills, but for the most part we have managed to keep the stronger accounts. The private residential market has increased to such a lucrative level that we have now been able to delve successfully into this market.
The private residential account is always a rough customer for us. We are like an 800 lb. gorilla compared to the smaller truck and trailer guy. A company such as ours carries certifications, bonding cost, workers compensation and all the necessary legal costs versus the fly-by-nighter who has no federal tax number and usually pays cash to his help; this is what we are up against. One particular customer we have is a local doctor who lives in a very private gated community with it’s own private security and still he has seventeen video cameras placed around his walled compound and uses this modern technology that cost (and I’m quoting him) "$3000.00” in order to monitor the landscapers who are assigned to his account; he watches and times them. Last Friday, around eight o’clock he calls me and he is pissed, “Hey your guys are ripping me off, they were here only an hour and forty five minutes.” I kid not. I tried to explain to him that we had a couple of guys out Thursday and Friday and a truck went down so we were running a little late. Shit Happens. Well, he wants a reduction on his pissy $300.00 a month service rate; a reduction? Pro rate fifteen minutes? ”Yeah.” he says “I pay you good money.” I’m thinking,($3000.00 surveillance system to watch over a $300.00 yard service) "we service accounts through out the week that have on average 70,000 to 100,000 square feet of grass and landscaping including hundreds of trees and thousands of frickin' shrubs and ground cover with many sizes of valves and emitters, services provided by men who typically couldn't afford his services and are not paid what they are worth, and you want a cost reduction? Let me flog you with this, not only will I not reduce your monthly service rate to offset the fifteen minutes but I’m going to send a “Power Crew” to dance all over your account (landscaping) and make it the pride of the neighborhood, then replace you with the first needy person who calls us after seeing our commercial on t.v.
"In the end we're all Jerry Springer show guests we just have'nt been on the show". Marilyn Manson
I am not ashamed to admit that I was in part raised by our family RCA 18” color t.v. Until the late seventies we only had four channels to entertain us, but entertained we were. I would spend hours at a time as a child when it was to hot too play outside during the summer watching Underdog, Adam 12, Dragnet, Star Trek, and Gilligan's Island. I am part of a unique generation and I feel privileged to have been part of a long lost part of America. My generation has grown older and yet we have clung (like Pepe Le Pew clung to FiFi) to those golden things (with a tinge of black and white) that we remember from our past while still enjoying the few things the X generation has offered. Bugs Bunny never fought against evil villains, (except maybe during the WWII era.). Nowadays, cartoons have a message or product behind it. I was always more sympathetic towards The Joker rather than Batman who appeared to be a goodie two shoes. I always thought Mrs Howell (Luvie) was more appealing than Ginger or Maryann on Gilligan's Island and I thought it was kinda cool when on some of the episodes Kent McCord would speak jive to the occasional little black kids on Adam 12. My generation has learned not to take life too seriously and most of all we realized that there is a little Barney Fife in each of us. Seven weeks of summer then after three months, then it seems like we go from Fall straight back to Summer again. Godnat Denmark, The Serial Landscaper.
T. S. Eliot
