So apparently my sister had another baby a few days ago.

I was unaware of this till this morning. Reason being that I work almost around the clock and, well. I really don't have that much of a life, I nearly never see my family, and no one tells me these things. I was however vaguely aware that she was pregnant...

Wow. I'm a horrible person aren't I?

The way this happened (me finding out, not the conception... obviously) is that when I got up this morning I stepped out into the hallway and my nephew Joel is running rampant and giggling his teeth out. I catch him as he's running and lift him up and tickle him and he starts yelling my name because he just recently learned it. I make my way into the kitchen to get some breakfast and I bump into my mother, and I'm like- "Hi mom, long time no see."
"Hi, Caleb. Did you see the baby?"
I looked at Joel. "Oh I don't know if I'd really call him a baby anymore..."
She looked at Joel, looked at me. "No, not him, Courtney's new baby."
What? Is she getting him exchanged? I didn't know those things came with a return policy. "I didn't know anything about another baby."
"You didn't?"
"No."
My mother furrows her brow. "Where have you been?"
"At work."
"Oh... well Courtney had another baby."
"Ah." So I grabbed a pancake and drove out to the hospital before work. I went in, found her room, stepped in, she was lying there holding Justice in the bed halfway through watching Catch Me if You Can. It was a very inviting room, which is to say that it was very empty. I was the only one besides the nurse that she had seen all day. Several people were supposed to have stopped by but none of them had showed up. People like the father.

I sat and we talked for a while, catching up. I didn't have too long exactly but I sat there in that big empty room all the same. She offered to let me hold him. And I held him, this little tiny person, no larger than a bread box. We talked some more till the movie ended.
Then I had to go.

I got to work wondering too many things for my own good. Forced myself to get over it, and then set to the task at hand. Once again- we were swarming with customers and there were so few of us left to contain the flood. There was no time for anything, for any thought but doing the job. Another great day of sales. This guy was getting just a case for his computer, an empty tower box. Said he built computers as a hobby and he'd just gotten this massive new power supply and he needed a new cooling fan for the CPU and blah blah blah. Asking for a load of stuff we don't carry. I kindly told him we were not a hardware store, that we sold whole computers, that you could get empty towers but not spare parts. He was miffed. I let him look at our empty towers while I toddled off to help another customer, for there were many of those.

There is this one laptop that was a really great deal that we were selling a lot of, a new one, and a fast one for a really low price. And those laptops were going very quickly. I sold one with an in store setup and a service plan, wireless mouse and a carrying case. Nothing huge, basic, standard features.

As I am handing the woman the paperwork she'd need to fill out, the guy with the tower rolls past with a cart and an actual computer tower. No monitor, no printer, just cables and cords, a keyboard, a mouse, and all of its out of the box. Frank, one of our full time people, is helping him. I ask how he's doing, he tells me he guesses he solved the cooling fan problem. He's just getting a new computer tower instead of a billion replacement parts. I tell him it's probably a wise decision. Frank has this guy going straight basic. Just this tower.

Nah... While my other customer is filling out paperwork, I talk to this guy about the performance service plan, he's getting a good machine, great parts in already, and with the plan if he needs to replace a part: he doesn't have to go look for it, he can just bring it in and we'll fix him up properly. He muses about it while I speak and he decides to go with it. Cool. $250.
I also remembered what he said about his new power supply, I suggest to him an AVR, a unit that protects him from power spikes and surges. He assures me he already has twin surge protectors. I ask if he knows that a surge protector does not protect against spikes and power fluctuations. A 330 watt surge protector will only safeguard you from surges over 330 watts. A 329 watt spike, and the computer takes the jolt full force. The power in one's home is constantly fluctuating, the air conditioning kicks on or the clothes washer starts and power is rerouted, lights dim temporarily and the power traveling to the computer takes a hit. An AVR will protect the computer from all the random fluctuations, streamlines the power, and extends the life of the computer generally 2-3 years. He muses over that as well while I'm speaking, we go look at them on the way to the checkout where Frank is leading him, and because it's on the way it's no problem to stop and look. We decide to go with an AVR, just to be on the safe side. $110.
When we finally get to the register that has been only a few steps away the whole time, Frank is watching me just sell this guy stuff and I asked Frank privately if he'd offered him the in-store setup. He said he had and the guy told him no dice. He looked at me sideways. He dared me to sell it to the guy, dared me to, as if it were my choice whether he bought it or not. "This is why I've been letting you do all the talking, just keep talking."
So I walk back over to the guy and we start talking. He is now at the register getting stuff scanned in. There is hardly time for this. We're talking, he was so apprehensive about the thing. He told me he'd heard of it, and I just started melting his apprehension. I don't even know what I said. Something... I don't know. This guy had come in looking for the tower case and a few spare parts. He had gotten Frank to get him an open item. Now I was talking to him about getting the open item an In-Store setup. He was determinedly no at first, then apprehensive, then unsure, then interested, then he wanted it. It all happened in thirty seconds or so, I'm just talking. Frank watched, shook his head, and walked away. The open item was a 700 dollar tower, I doubled the sale within a few minutes while we are walking from the computer department to the register. When we were done, I shake the man's hand, smile kindly and let him know that the woman here at the checkout can take care of the setup as well and that I had to get back to the sales floor. He smiled back, shook my hand, and I walked back just in time for my other customer to hand me her just finished paperwork. I loved it.

The best part though was not that, the best part was the truck driver and the laptop. I recall writing that it was near impossible to sell an in home on a laptop. Richard disagreed. He said it was possible and that he'd even done it a few times. I told him about the sale I was currently working on (this is later in the day) and I asked him if it was morally ethical to sell an in home to a truck driver who's just got his rig in town for a few days who wants a laptop for the road. He looked at me and laughed. "Are you serious?" It was then then that even Richard Winters I think wondered if some sales were possible. I went back into it. It was the longest sale ever. A full hour and gently explanation and conversation with these guys. The guy was a trucker, drives a semi for a living and just wanted a laptop to use roadmaps and maybe some GPS stuff so he can track his own motions across the road. It was so hard, and I wasn't forceful at all, that is the last way to gather a sale. The absolute worst way is to shove it down their throat. I mean I wanted it, I really wanted it, I'm not going to lie. But I waited for it, I started at the bottom, I worked my way up. We built upon everything, stacking feature and value upon feature and value. It happened.

I sold a three in one in home on a LAPTOP to a guy who doesn't even intend to keep the laptop at HOME! It was gold. That's the short story long. It was a good time.

After work I went to my dad's house for the weekend. I got there around 11:30pm and my sister, brother, and several friends were there. My dad was gone for the weekend to Branson, a nearby tourist town for some fun and such with someone... Anyway. Natalie and Nathan were doing the "Cats away and mice will play" and were having all these random people over for the night. I showed up late and we all ended up staying up late, just talking in the dark till around 3am when Nathan looks up and sees out the window and says "What is he doing?" We all go look out the window and across the street through the window of another house to see this guy standing in his living room doing Karate moves, by himself, without pants. At 3am.

It was so bizzare. So Nathan runs off to get the camcorder and tries to film out of the window but can't because the camera keeps focusing on the screen instead of the window across the street, and when he moved to a point on the window where there was no screen, the guy across the street looked up and I guess he saw the red blinking light because he stopped, turned, and immediately left the room. He didn't come back either. This is the same neighbor that has been seen walking around with a samurai sword in the middle of the day and the last week Nathan found 45 caliber shell casings in his yard while mowing. It's a strange life...

That's about all I have for this one, I actually started writing this yesterday and am finishing it up now. Or am finished with it now. So to avoid much more delay on its publication we'll just wrap it up and post the post.

Cheers-

Monsterbox