I had stayed up late the night before listing die cast cars to ebay. I awoke to get ready for work and was
tired and cranky. I knew I should not have stayed up so late but we had sold about two hundred cars in
four days and the inventory needed replenished. Those that were sold needed to be shipped. Since I
was cranky; it was good that I was the only one awake. I guess you could say I was the only one up if
you don’t count the dog and the cat. Anyway, I went downstairs to take a shower and as soon as I hit
the first floor I smelled dog poop. Ewe! I knew the dog had an upset stomach from the night before as
she had wrecked the air in the bedroom passing gas all night. I just thought it was still just lingering in
my nose until I got to the bathroom; turned on the light, looked down and saw poop on my slipper. “Awe
man” I thought to myself, “Where did this come from?” I exited the bathroom, turned on the light in the
hallway to see a big pile of steamy mess across the room with little droplets marking a path across the
floor. Instantly my temperature shot up to about 102. I went to get a rag and some soap which made
me even crankier knowing that this would put me behind schedule in getting ready for work. On the
other hand, I knew that if I did not clean it up, the kids would just rub it into the carpet if they even tried
to clean it at all. I scrubbed the carpet, washed my slippers then went to take a shower. After I got out
of the shower I felt much better. I wrapped a towel around my waist skipped up the steps to my office
slash dressing room. Just as I got to the doorway, I stepped into something else. I flipped on the light
switch to find out that the cat had just thrown up a hairball mess which included last nights dinner. My
stress meter instantly pegged at redline. As soon as I looked at the cat, he knew I was coming for him.
As I reached to grab him to take him downstairs to what we call the pet room, he darted into my office. I
quickly followed. Now, let me tell you, he is way faster than I am. Allow me to also tell you that my office
floor was still covered in Hotwheel and Matchbox cars from the night before. That is not the least of it. In
my office I have a set of shelves (about three feet wide & eight feet tall). That leaves just enough room
for me to store six crates of cars on top of a board that just sits on top of the shelves. The crates
themselves keep this board balanced. Unfortunately, there were still two crates down on the floor from
the previous nights work so it was nothing for a six pound cat to jump up and tilt everything off center &
bring the entire set up to the floor. CRASH, SMASH, TINK, DINK, CRASH, SMASH, BOOM! Needless to say, I
was no longer the only one awake. Before I could even survey the catastrophe; my wife who always has
something to say about everything was standing in the doorway of my office speechless. Oh, it is her cat
by the way. Two thousand neatly organized, spreadsheet categorized die cast cars were now all mixed
together on the floor. Six hundred of which I might ad were already listed on ebay of which a hundred or
so were already sold.
I looked at the clock which read 8:10. I have a thirty minute commute and needed to be to work by nine.
I looked at the mess on the floor. I looked back at the clock and thought about going back to bed. As I
stood there with my fists clenched my wife engaged stealth mode and removed the cat for his own
safety. As I got dressed for work all I could think about was how long it would take me to put things back
in order. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I was so angry I could hardly breathe. Now, this
may not sound like a big deal to you but understand, I keep my cars tracked on a spreadsheet which
includes acquisition cost, wheel and color variations as well as the number of each in inventory. It has
taken me a couple years to get them optimized and organized as they were and to turn it all upside down
in an instant to me is a catastrophe. Not too mention I have people waiting on potentially damaged cars
that I can’t even find.
I decided to put it out of my head and I went to work.
By the time I got home from work (twelve hours later), my wife and step son had them all lined and
separated in trays. As it turns out, the damage was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated. The cool part
is; I had doubles of the cars that were damaged and the damage that took place was so realistic that I
think I can still sell them. The damaged cars look like they were in fender benders. In retrospect it is kind
of cool. I may end up getting more money for the damaged cars than I was asking for them as they
originally were. Never the less, I was still faced with getting all of the cars back in the computer so I
knew what was where when it was time to pack and ship it and if that was not enough, I had to do it in
a timely fashion so that those waiting for their cars would not start to complain. What a Cat-astrophe.
I spent the next five days working my regular job only to go home and then work until two, three in the
morning trying to get my die cast business back online. What a Cat-astrophe!
tired and cranky. I knew I should not have stayed up so late but we had sold about two hundred cars in
four days and the inventory needed replenished. Those that were sold needed to be shipped. Since I
was cranky; it was good that I was the only one awake. I guess you could say I was the only one up if
you don’t count the dog and the cat. Anyway, I went downstairs to take a shower and as soon as I hit
the first floor I smelled dog poop. Ewe! I knew the dog had an upset stomach from the night before as
she had wrecked the air in the bedroom passing gas all night. I just thought it was still just lingering in
my nose until I got to the bathroom; turned on the light, looked down and saw poop on my slipper. “Awe
man” I thought to myself, “Where did this come from?” I exited the bathroom, turned on the light in the
hallway to see a big pile of steamy mess across the room with little droplets marking a path across the
floor. Instantly my temperature shot up to about 102. I went to get a rag and some soap which made
me even crankier knowing that this would put me behind schedule in getting ready for work. On the
other hand, I knew that if I did not clean it up, the kids would just rub it into the carpet if they even tried
to clean it at all. I scrubbed the carpet, washed my slippers then went to take a shower. After I got out
of the shower I felt much better. I wrapped a towel around my waist skipped up the steps to my office
slash dressing room. Just as I got to the doorway, I stepped into something else. I flipped on the light
switch to find out that the cat had just thrown up a hairball mess which included last nights dinner. My
stress meter instantly pegged at redline. As soon as I looked at the cat, he knew I was coming for him.
As I reached to grab him to take him downstairs to what we call the pet room, he darted into my office. I
quickly followed. Now, let me tell you, he is way faster than I am. Allow me to also tell you that my office
floor was still covered in Hotwheel and Matchbox cars from the night before. That is not the least of it. In
my office I have a set of shelves (about three feet wide & eight feet tall). That leaves just enough room
for me to store six crates of cars on top of a board that just sits on top of the shelves. The crates
themselves keep this board balanced. Unfortunately, there were still two crates down on the floor from
the previous nights work so it was nothing for a six pound cat to jump up and tilt everything off center &
bring the entire set up to the floor. CRASH, SMASH, TINK, DINK, CRASH, SMASH, BOOM! Needless to say, I
was no longer the only one awake. Before I could even survey the catastrophe; my wife who always has
something to say about everything was standing in the doorway of my office speechless. Oh, it is her cat
by the way. Two thousand neatly organized, spreadsheet categorized die cast cars were now all mixed
together on the floor. Six hundred of which I might ad were already listed on ebay of which a hundred or
so were already sold.
I looked at the clock which read 8:10. I have a thirty minute commute and needed to be to work by nine.
I looked at the mess on the floor. I looked back at the clock and thought about going back to bed. As I
stood there with my fists clenched my wife engaged stealth mode and removed the cat for his own
safety. As I got dressed for work all I could think about was how long it would take me to put things back
in order. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I was so angry I could hardly breathe. Now, this
may not sound like a big deal to you but understand, I keep my cars tracked on a spreadsheet which
includes acquisition cost, wheel and color variations as well as the number of each in inventory. It has
taken me a couple years to get them optimized and organized as they were and to turn it all upside down
in an instant to me is a catastrophe. Not too mention I have people waiting on potentially damaged cars
that I can’t even find.
I decided to put it out of my head and I went to work.
By the time I got home from work (twelve hours later), my wife and step son had them all lined and
separated in trays. As it turns out, the damage was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated. The cool part
is; I had doubles of the cars that were damaged and the damage that took place was so realistic that I
think I can still sell them. The damaged cars look like they were in fender benders. In retrospect it is kind
of cool. I may end up getting more money for the damaged cars than I was asking for them as they
originally were. Never the less, I was still faced with getting all of the cars back in the computer so I
knew what was where when it was time to pack and ship it and if that was not enough, I had to do it in
a timely fashion so that those waiting for their cars would not start to complain. What a Cat-astrophe.
I spent the next five days working my regular job only to go home and then work until two, three in the
morning trying to get my die cast business back online. What a Cat-astrophe!
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| CAT-ASTROPHE August 2008 |
