Lots of excitement about our story this week about the possibility of a new shopping center coming to Orange. If the city and the developers can come to an agreement, you could see some major players coming to town. The bad news is that if they come to an agreement, we’re talking years from cutting a ribbon because it’s such a big project. But you have to start somewhere. I’ve also learned there could be some movement on the new HEB.
Unfortunately this year it seems like for every business we gain, we lose another one. The trend is not just in Orange County.
The other thing we’re losing is customer service. It’s been in my top three pet peeves for years. It’s dwindled so much that when someone does give you good customer service it literally brightens your day. It doesn’t cost anything to be nice. The other part of customer service is knowing your product. Business owners, especially small business owners, are happy these days just to have a staff of people that show up to work. Proper training gets put on the back burner in many cases.
My wife recently came home from a store and noticed on her receipt there was a Customer Service Charge. What?! Yeh, that’s what I said. If you thought bagging your own items at Wal-Mart dills your pickle how about being charged to put one item in a bag? We’ll be checking our receipts a little better from here on.
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The wife and I spend what we consider to be a lot of money on bird feed. We love to watch the birds when we get to go to our fish camp. And we buy the good stuff. We see how they kick all the cheap feed to the curb. We go with Grade A Black Oil Sunflower seed. They love it and will even fight over it. When one bird shows up, it’s not long before they’re singing our praises and letting all the other birds know where the party is. But there always has to be someone that wants to ruin the party. The bullies, the thugs, the destructive demons.
Also known as….The Squirrel.
Over the years I’ve been a fan of the squirrel. They can be funny rats with tails. We even have feeders for them but nooo, they would rather climb a string upside down and knock all of the feed out of a bird feeder in a matter of minutes.
We have clear openings in front of the feeder but they would rather chew the butt end out of the wood and plastic feeders so it won’t hold any feed at all. I’ve had to replace six feeders just this year. I have greased the poles that they’re not supposed to be able to climb and it doesn’t stop them. Saw what I thought was a great invention on the internet of putting a slinky around the pole so they can’t get any traction. They mastered that in less than an hour.
It became a game between me and the squirrel and I was losing. So I made the decision to fight violence with violence and brought out the old Red Ryder. If I popped one or two (just two pumps) maybe they would run and tell the others. I popped one in the butt, and then another. They ran off like their tail was on fire and the birds cheered.
But my victory was short lived. I woke up the next morning to sit on the porch and there was a squirrel on all eight feeders and I swear I heard two of them laughing. But I got to laugh too. As I opened my “mind reading” phone I see the picture below. This old Bobcat tipped his hat to the squirrels and said, “Til we meet again.”
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Lost two people I grew up with this week. Actor Malcom Jamal Warner drowned at 54. Known of course as the oldest brother Theo on The Cosby Show. But I will tell you his best work in my opinion was as a doctor on “The Resident.” A bingeful series that I also recommend.
And then we lost Ozzy Osbourne Tuesday at age 76. I know most of you think I’m just a country music listener because of KOGT. But I rocked out in my younger years and still every know and then my playlist will include Mr. Crowley, Bark at the Moon, I’m Coming Home and others. I still remember where I was when I heard KZOM announce that his guitarist Randy Rhoads had died in a helicopter crash.
Upset me to see some of the news people that clearly weren’t familiar with his music or career, bring out two incidents that happened 40 years ago. Ozzy is a rock and roll legend and I don’t think there will ever be another one like him.
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We want to send out some well wishes to West Orange Fire Chief David Roberts who was injured while working with an air conditioner and will have to undergo some surgeries we’re told. It happened as we are writing The Juice so I don’t have a lot of details.
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Thanks again for all of the feedback for my latest podcast with Shirley Q. Had a friend say they had no idea I was doing a podcast. Really? And you say you look at KOGT everyday? Well I’ve never been as good promoting myself as I have my advertisers (says the wife) so I will include the link below to all of the “Behind the Mic” podcasts. I’m not looking to be the next Joe Rogan but it gives me a chance to get back on the air and I think we have some interesting stories and people around here.
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Sheriff Havard always leaves us with a quote each week on KOGT, so I’ll leave you with this one that I wrote myself for the fellas. “You never know how much you pee on your feet in a public bathroom until you do it in flip flops.”
Have a great weekend!
-Gary Stelly-
gstelly66@gmail.com
Volume 1 No. 25
The Juice is a weekly column where Gary Stelly discusses things that happened the past week and mixes it with 40 years of being involved in the Orange County community. (If we think of a better way to explain it we’ll change it) You can also check out his podcast by clicking on the Behind the Mic banner on the KOGT.com front page.
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