Fill in the Blank: A day without Community is like ________....Don't even make me think about it!

Welcome back to our retraining program here on a Monday and it's also April Fool's Day, April 1, 2013. Sorry about the retraining comment. Old habits are hard to break and that's what I used to tell my people when we all returned from being off for a three day weekend. What's that? I must have been a joy to work for? Good observation but I'm not sure they always would have agreed. Oh. Now I get it. You were poking fun. I'm a little slow on this retraining day. Some of you will remember the old Groucho Marx quiz show, 'You Bet Your Life'. One of the main features of the program had to do with a secret word. It was typically a common word and if any of the contestants happened to say that word during the course of the show, well, a duck would come down and cash would be paid. It was always exciting because you could never predict when someone might say that secret word. I still listen to those programs and they are still funny to me. While the contestants were real, the thrust of the program was in Groucho's ability to create comedy on the fly as he ab-libbed his way through the program. He was a comedic genius.

I have my own version of the Secret Word and it happened to me the other day when I was at the grocery store. My 16 year old grandson, Jimmy Jr., was with me. As we cruised down the isle we passed by a corner filled up with coffee. He slowed down and said, "Poppy, isn't that your brand of coffee?" I told him it was Community and that I do often buy it in the 32 ounce bags just like those on the shelf. He then said, "Guess what Poppy? They have the same coffee in a huge bag, much larger than that one and I saw it at Sam's." The duck didn't fall from the ceiling to alert me but he did get my attention. I told him to just stop the cart and look me in the eye and go through that one more time. It's Community in the same bag but a much larger one? Right. You can purchase it at Sam's Club. Right. I love it when a plan comes together. My wife just within the last few weeks got herself a Sam's card. Sometimes the planets all align and they spell out a message if we can just decipher it: C-O-M-M-U-N-I-T-Y! I'm not a Sam's Club kind of guy but at this time I think she may have made an excellent decision.

I'm saving so much money!

That reminds me of a fellow I used to work with many years ago. Long before they had a Sam's Club there were several other stores that tried the quantity discount approach. He used to tell me how his wife would go to those places and buy up stuff they had little to no use for, just because it was cheaper. He joked about the spray deodorant can being about the size of a small fire extinguisher and when he used it, it blew all the hair off from underneath his armpit. I know he was joking but he was also making a point. I told you before about a fellow I knew that got into a food club deal where he ended up having to buy a stand alone freezer to keep up with all his wonderful discounted meats. He was so excited and when he was telling me about it, I was thinking mostly about the cost of the freezer and the cost to run it and wondering if he had taken that into consideration. See what I mean? He may have had to move one of his cars out of the garage to make room for the freezer. The car was outside and a tree fell on it. He only had liability. No. That didn't really happen. I made that part of it up but it does show the theory I have about cascading consequences. I'm not sure I have anything official on that theory but I do know that I have seen it at work. Haven't you? Hey. It is April Fool's after all. Have a good one and keep those retraining home fires burning. May God bless. Amen.      ....More later.