Even a Gifted Man Can’t Win Them All

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Walter

The TV series, “A Gifted Man,” is on every Friday night and I like it. The premise is that a gifted surgeon who has issues dealing with impoverished people becomes haunted by his dead wife’s ghost. His wife used to run a free clinic and was accidentally killed with lots of good work here still unfinished. So, she comes back as a ghost and nags her husband into helping at the free clinic. This puts him in conflict with his work as a top surgeon at a major hospital.

Tonight’s episode had three different stories of patients. He won a case by figuring out what the actual disease was so he could be treated, he lost a case by the patient committing suicide when surgery didn’t cure him, and the third case was a patient who refused treatment and he finally conceded that it was her right to choose the treatment or not.

Although when he loses it is sad, I’m glad that he is not just a fluffy hero. It shows that even a gifted man does not win all the time, which is much more like real life.

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Walgreens for Groceries?

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Walter

Thankfully I am a pretty healthy guy. I rarely have to visit a doctor for anything. Now that I think about it, I see my dentist more often than I see any doctor. I rarely have to visit a traditional drug store, although they are everywhere.

Most of the time if I need groceries, I go to the Food Lion that is about a mile from my house to the East. The problem with going East from my house is that there is no fast food anywhere in that area.

If I go West from my house for fast food, there is no place to buy groceries. Until I realized that the Walgreens on the corner has recently remodeled and they and dedicated almost half of the store to groceries. They have an entire wall if refrigerated and frozen foods, and several aisles of canned goods, sodas, snack foods, cereals and bakery items.

That is the same thing that Target did when they remodeled their store after the flood. They turned about on third of the floor into grocery items. I wonder which of the two giants decided first to go in the direction of expanded grocery items – Walgreens or Target?

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Storm Damage to My Neighbor’s House

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Walter

We had a storm come through this morning that was very unusual for January. We had such an extreme drop in temperature, from over 60 degrees yesterday to only 20 degrees this morning, that I had a feeling we were ripe for tornadoes. Turns out I was right – we had tornado warnings on the TV and radio and the tornado sirens were going off for over an hour.

After it was all over, I went outside to check the yard and the cars. We are OK but my neigh, Miss Hattie, was not so fortunate. It looks like a big tree limb broke off in the high winds and it crashed through her basement window.

There are shards of broken glass all over her driveway from the broken window. I knocked on her door to see if she was home and all right, but she didn’t answer my knock so I assume she is at work.

I went ahead and swept up the broken glass for her. I know she would not want to have to deal with that when she gets home. I can’t do anything about the broken window itself other than taping a piece of cardboard over the hole, but at least she won’t be driving through broken glass or having to clean up all up tonight.

If I can find her phone number at work I will give her a call and let her know what happened. I’m sure I wrote it down somewhere – I just have to find it.

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Missy Starts a Catering Business

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Walter

One of my good friends from the old neighborhood found me on Facebook and we’ve been exchanging emails and private messages trying to catch up with hat each of us have been up to these past 20 years or so since he moved away to Washington State. He is doing well for himself and we hope to get together later this year. He might even be able to talk me into to a short trip out to Seattle – in the summer.

I asked him about the rest of the family. I knew that he had lost his mother a long time ago and his dad had moved back to Phoenix where he was raised. One of his brothers is still around, but not on Facebook, and his baby sister, Missy, is on Facebook, so I just added her to my friends list yesterday.

Looking at her profile, I see that Missy has started up a catering business. I think that is very cool and I bet she will be good at that. I’d like to know who she used for her Hotel Supplies & Restaurant Supply purchases. As everyone knows, starting a business requires a lot of upfront money and equipment, and unless you have serious backing from a financial partner or a windfall of cash, you have to be very careful while shopping to buy the best value products that you can afford.

Resort Supplies & Catering Supplies have to be heavy duty and certain sizes. Its not like you can just buy normal kitchen cooking equipment. You have to buy commercial quality pans, cutlery and other equipment that will be used in commercial ovens, stoves and refrigerators.

I’m hoping that she knew about PeachSuite Hospitality Supply when she was shopping for her catering kitchen equipment. I can’t wait to her from her about her new business and learn all about what she does for her clients.

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Movie Credits

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Walter

When a movie is over, I like to stick around and watch the credits while everyone else is making a mad dash to the parking lot to get in their cars and get out of there.

While the credits roll, I like to see the names of the actors but I also like to see what locations were used in the shoots and who did the work on the non-Hollywood locations.

When they shoot here in Nashville, I look even harder for the names of people and businesses that I might know, For example, most film crews requiring catering while on location and the company used most often for large events and movie shoots is called TomKats Catering.

I know the owner of TomKats Catering and had asked him about the name of his company. He said that he used a play on words, first because his name is Tom Morales, but combining it with the local legendary “Nashville Cats,” as portrayed in the hit song by the Lovin Spoonful in 1966. It turns out to be a clever combination and the name TomKats Catering easy to spot in the credits of almost every movie shot in Nashville since 1986.

In fact, TomKats Catering has been so successful that they branched out using their movie industry connections to establish operations in both Los Angeles and New York. Tom has managed to turn this little catering company into a big business, with over 150 full time employees, dozens of temporary workers during special events, and annual revenues estimates at over $5 million dollars last year.

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