What is really going on at F.R.I.?

It has been a rather eventful year for us at Fanatical Recycling Inc. Back in August, our parent company filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Now, the business has been sold and the buy-out transition is complete.

During the bankruptcy close-out there was a general attitude of apathy. Even before bankruptcy was declared there were a lot of problems with production. There were problems with shipping and with our info database. The problems with the database continue and I believe, unfortunately, that these problems will not be resolved until the closing of the 2013 business year.

All these factors were mentally taxing to the point of apathy, as I have mentioned, causing very little productivity in all things F.R.I. As the business year winds down I have been able to dedicate a bit more time to F.R.I. contributions. I intend for the pattern to remain in place for this fall and winter, and beyond.



With all this in consideration, along with other issues which I have not mentioned, the F.R.I. staff, myself, Sally and Iris, have decided to break from our current parent company and move the F.R.I. corporate headquarters to the friendly confines of North Alabama, specifically the Muscle Shoals area. As they say, "this should not affect the day to day operations of the corporation."

As a symbol of our dedication to the continued productivity of the Co, we introduce the latest product, currently in production. This will be a Honey Kolsch which was racked to secondary fermentation yesterday and will be bottled in two weeks.

I had that dream again.

I'm back in school and the school's been design by post modern architects intent on bringing the work of M. C. Escher to life. It is a minimalist pyramid with stairs that wrap around the outside of each level. I discover an escalator just when I start to become lost in these crowded pathways. Of course, in the confusion, I have to climb over the hand rail to gain access to the escalator.

The school has a student radio station which constantly broadcast discussion panels. I meet some old friends who are broadcasting their crowd sourcing campaign to reprint a favorite childhood book. I am not familiar with their favorite childhood book and don't get involved in their surreal commerce.

Flash forward and I'm sitting at a bar drinking beer from a can. (I'm sure this is dream symbolism for cheap beer.) I have an ink pen and am drawing an endless invisible circle on the bar, the cap is on the pen. The bartender becomes annoyed with my invisible circle and places my nearly full beer out of reach. I appeal to fellow costumers and other bartenders to retrieve my beer without success.

Next, I'm riding in a van with someone, perhaps it is a group of people? I'm telling the driver of my experience, drawing invisible circles, with the bartender. The navigator of the vehicle has little concern for my earlier experience at the bar and says, "I'll talk to you later," as we pull into his driveway. The implication being; "free beer."

Then the cat woke me up.

Here's to the new boss...

She's not the same as the old boss, but she's much like him. I picked her up from the side of Asheville Hwy about a month ago. Sally says she's not sure why she is here and I said, "to avoid being road kill and, or procreation." We have named her Iris. She is almost exactly the same size and age that Pal was when I got him.

I took these photos a few weeks ago, when Sally was visiting North Alabama. In the second photo, I imagine Iris is saying, "where is the nice lady?" She was probably saying, "Why's this glass (window) between us?"

Que the Who, Here's to the new boss...!

Eulogy for a domestic pet

Warning: Sad Content Follows

 How do we eulogize a pet, how do we eulogize anyone? Our pets are friends and family and certainly earn their share of emotional attachment. So, the loss of any pet is not easy or pleasant to discuss but, invariably, as with much of life's unpleasantness, these things must be discussed.

Thus, I share with you all the passing of our FRI family cat  from this mortal coil. It seems he, Pal, developed cancer. Pal was a rescue cat and I am certain that his short life was much more pampered and joyful than any enjoyed by his litter mates. He met and loved many people during his short life and was known by many who had never met him.

In the words of Johnny Allen Hendrix, "Fly on my sweet angle. Fly on through the night."

2005 -- 3.24.2012

If he were still with us he would give me the very look in the photo, as if to say, "get on with your beer writing funny man."

Love List

limpery over at the blog Aldeboran has posted a list of his love interests. This isn't a list about potential mates but a list of what he loves about life and I'm inspired to follow his example.

Things I love about life:

I love my wife.
I love my family and friends; the Creels, the Morgans, the Gollihers, the Hamners & the Browns.
I love my stepsons, my granddaughters and their mom.
I love our cat.
I love my new friends in East Tennessee and all my old, and new, friends on Facebook.
I love freedom.
And, I love beer.

This is the short list version; I may add some more when they come to mind.

Oh, of course, I love reading.

Fanatical Recycling Brand Humor

There’s been a missing dog poster hanging in our neighborhood for about a week. The dog in question is a Yorkie and this reminded me of a one-liner I asked Sally about in reference to my job. I work for a third party provider for a large retail chain. Some folks, even friends, think I work for the chain because if I’m at work, I’m at one of these store locations. The particular big box retailer has chosen to ignore the laws of logic and human decency and allows customers to bring their dogs into their stores. This is not just at one location but at every location of this chain in which I’ve worked and I’ve been in every location in my region.

It occurred to me that one possible explanation is that there’s been a canine liberation movement but I failed to get the memo or view the various news flashes. This C.R.M. or Canine Rights Movement makes me want to take my cat out in public. But cats, unlike dogs and, according to some recent snappy e-mails, Democrats have a mind of their own and want nothing to do with visiting the grocery or local bar or park.

So, not to offend my friends who own lap dogs as my mother owns one as well;

Why do people who own lap dogs always own more than one, do they taste like chicken?

Open Letter opens!

My wife, Sally, likes cats because they are always making cookies and crap.