I feel like I accomplished a good bit with work today. I got a number of support issues caught up and contacted everyone with a design in the works. I didn’t get in touch with the vast majority of them, but I was able to at least leave voice messages.
I took Bruce with me to do some running around today and had an eventful time. First, while I was on Kerr Avenue, a truck in front of me was allowing a car to creep out into the turning lane to make a left turn. They were most of the way out into the turning lane when some car from New York sped down it and rammed into it, not ten feet in front of me! I saw some glass shatter, but everyone looked fine. A lady in the New York car’s passenger seat got out and checked the back, presumably to make sure some kids were okay, and already had her cell phone out. I would put the New York car at blame in this one, as the other car was clearly out there already and had been for a long enough period of time to be noticed, had the other car not been speeding down the turning lane. My biggest shame of the day is that I didn’t stick around. I’m sure Scott would have understood just fine if I were delayed, and I’m really not sure why I didn’t stay, but I didn’t and I wish I had.
The other thing about this excursion is that I discovered that Bruce doesn’t like the police. Or at least sheriffs. We were parked next to a sheriff’s car and Bruce kept making grumbling, growling noises at it. I think he didn’t like the lights on top of it.
We had small group tonight and we all had lots to talk about. We updated everybody on Anna and got to hear about how much Ben Lambeth likes his new job. Rob Peterson and Kristen Barriner have gotten moved into their new home. Paul Ayars spent the whole time outside helping a guy fix his clutch. Paul’s car has been parked out front since it broke down over a week ago. We don’t mind of course. They were going to have it fixed yesterday, but the part they needed was shipped to Charlotte instead of here.
The most exciting thing that happened tonight happened after everybody left. At 10:00, the work phone started ringing off the hook, and I noticed the calls were from a whole bunch of different area codes. Amanda convinced me to finally answer a call and the conversation went a little something like this:
“Venue Communications, this is Zach.”
“I want to vote.”
“Vote for what?”
“The Yodeler.”
“I think you’ve got the wrong number. What contest are you trying to vote for?”
“What’s it matter if I’ve got the wrong number?”
“My work phone is ringing off the hook and I’m trying to figure out what all these people are caling for.”
“Oh, okay. America’s Got Talent.”
Damn you David Hasselhoff and Regis Philbin!
I called my boss, Scott Hendrix, who said he was getting a bunch of calls too but hadn’t answered it. His wife, Anne Marie, was there with him and I told them what was going on. She and Amanda, who was on the phone telling her mom the story, thought it was hilarious. In fact, Amanda called most of our friends and her uncle, Barry Frazelle, to tell all of them too. Anne Marie found a web page with the number to dial, and it was 866-856-8301 or 02, all the way up to 10, so Otis probably got a number of calls too. The number is one digit off of our toll free number, meaning that Scott will have to pay for a bunch of calls.
I got on the America’s Got Talent Message Board to tell what was going on while Amanda started answering the phone with a yodel. Apparently this yodeler, Taylor Ware, is quite talented, because there were a lot of calls. Amanda’s mom said it was a shame this was happening to her votes, so I started answering with, “The Yodeler’s number is 856-8301.” Amanda almost convinced me to start answering as David Hasselhoff (who is inexplicably one of the show’s judges) or as Taylor Hicks, the winner of this year’s America Idol, just to throw people off.
Zach Dotsey