A Watched Candy Bowl Never Boils

It happens like magic. Look at it, candy stays. Look away and it disappears. 

Tomorrow is Halloween. Millions of little goblins and Harry Potter’s and super heroes will be wandering the neighborhoods in search of that houw that gives out the full sized Snickers bars. Pity the unprepared who leave their porch light on and forget to stock up on candy. 

My kids are finally too old for trick-or-treating. My youngest will be 13 next month. They have moved on to parties and movies. Apparently, many of our neighborhood kids have never seen “Haunted Mansion.” So, we’ll have a house full of teenagers. 

We’ll still have the candy bowl, of course. And chances are that we’ll end up with extra. Better that than running out, right? Some of that candy will make it work with me to appear in my work candy bowl. And a funny thing will happen there. 

I work in a cubicle which is part of a cube-farm. I used to sit right in the middle of the farm. I was directly under a TV and right in a main traffic flow area. It killed my productivity. My ADD is pretty bad. Too many distractions. 

A couple of months ago I moved to a corner. A nice quite corner where I have a single cube mate next to me. It’s been great. However, it does mean that my candy bowl stays mostly full. No one “wanders past” my desk. And the guy in the seat next to me doesn’t eat candy. So, my bowl sits there day after day in all its candy goodness. No, I’m not tempted. I pretty much gave up sugar a little over a year ago. (How I Lost 40 lbs And Why You Can’t.) 

But, the candy doesn’t disappear very quickly. . . unless. . .

A couple of weeks ago I forgot and left the candy bowl on the desk overnight. Then I was gone for a couple days. When I came back, it was half empty. 

What happened? Did my coworkers stop by my desk to see if I was back and help themselves to some M&Ms? Did my seat mate suddenly develop a sweet tooth? 

Maybe. (People who work in an office know exactly what happened to it.) 

Most likely, it disappeared the same time my garbage can got emptied. Leave a bowl out overnight and I can nearly guarantee that it will decrease. Our office once had a candy bowl that sat on the receptionists desk. It was dropping precipitously every night. We are technology guys. We came up with a technology solution. A web cam was installed and clearly showed the janitor taking a double handful each night. 

There are some ethicial questions about putting out candy for anyone to take and then having a problem when someone takes some. I still haven’t decided how I feel about it. However, I put out the candy so that coworkers or visitors who have come to talk to me can enjoy it. It’s like a reward for those willing to come find me hiding in my corner. 

I put my candy bowl in my desk each night. It’s doesn’t disappear that way. Of course, it means I still have candy from two months ago. 

Maybe I should just bring it home and hand it out tomorrow night. 

Happy Halloween.  

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren. 

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