It’s winter here in Utah. Sadly we haven’t had as much snow as we would like, but still, winter in the Rocky Mountains is winter. The temperatures are in the upper 20s to low 30s. Occasionally we have a day in the 40s. I start work at 6:00 am. It’s often the coldest part of the night just before sunrise. It’s part of that whole, “darkest just before dawn” philosophy.
I work at a 7 – eleven. I stand behind the counter right inside the automatic doors and greet people as they enter. Sometimes, if the wind is blowing a little it gets chilly standing there. It was that way last week. I wasn’t freezing, but I wasn’t warm either.
When things are slow (as they are on a Sunday morning at 6:00am when I work) I have other tasks I need to do. One of the most common is called “front facing.” Have you ever noticed that when you go into a store all the product lapels are facing you? That’s not an accident. Someone went through and rotated all of those ketchup bottles or Twinkie packages, or in my case, energy drinks. We have an entire closed off room called “The Energy Cave.” It’s stocked floor to ceiling with energy drinks. I had no idea there were so many different brands and flavors.
The Energy Cave is chilled. Of course it is. Customers want cold drinks. Sunday morning, as I mentioned, it was kind of chilly. Stepping into the Energy Cave made me downright cold. I hurriedly rotated all the Red Bull, Rockstar and Monster cans, constantly keeping an eye out for an early morning customer. When I finished, I stepped back out into the store. And an amazing thing happened. I was suddenly warm. The temperature hadn’t changed, of course. But my perception of it did.
If you want to get warm, sometimes it helps to get cold(er) first.
Happy New Year. Hope it’s a great one for you.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren. Order Miscellany III A Collection of Holiday Short Stories, an anthology including his latest short story, “You Can Call Me Dan” here
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