First post, always a challenge and sometimes awkward, so I’ll jump right in. As I was walking around a house in Liberty Township where we were replacing windows, working with Joe (father of Joey), Joey, Jerry (father of Alex) & Alex, moving from one window opening to the next, the cold, bitter wind pierced my innards. That prompted a thought, not of how cold I was (for that was an unmistakable reality), but of how we are a bunch of hard-working Americans. That despite the cold (roughly 13 degrees, wind chill around 0 degrees) we were out here working, doing our best to make a living. That despite our age, experience, education, social status or lack thereof, we were willing to do whatever it took to see our company succeed.
* side note explanation: we jokingly refer to that, usually after some noble gesture that we pat ourselves on the back for, as “I’m a company man.“, which insinuates the possibility others are not, but usually in good fun.*
Now that I’m done patting ourselves on the back, I also recognize the blessing it is to have such work to do. That in a time where unemployment rates are high and continue to be so, where small businesses especially in our industry are struggling to stay afloat, when every job we get refills our sometimes depleted glass of hope for future work, we have enough work to keep our men busy. With the risk of sounding like a GM commercial, I still will say I’m thankful to be an American with a job to do, great or small, to put food on the table for my family and those less fortunate, but no less blessed, than I.
