The Treasure Hunt

Friday September 28, 2012 7:34 pm

After typing that title I thought that if this had been six or seven years ago, and I typed that I would have taken some grief through my email because of some super-sensitive or “politically correct” person wanting to take me to task. However, so few read this today I am confident I'll hear no complaints. After what I tell you that I did today... you too will agree with my assessment of myself.

This morning after arriving at work there was a note for me to follow up with a customer's order which had been placed yesterday. Although it was in my name I had no recollection of waiting on this girl the day before. It was simple enough to do... however, I was irked because this wasn't mine and yet I needed to follow up because someone else hadn't done their job?

I called her to find out the hole configuration she wanted on her special order sink and then I would fax it off to the company to have it properly drilled. Before hanging up I wanted to find out who had waited on her and (though I didn't tell her) I was going to tell that salesperson to make certain in the future to not leave work undone for someone else to follow up the next day. This is what she told me.

She said he was an older guy... probably about 50 and his hair was turning gray. Well, I told her that could be me, and I had written several contracts the previous day but I didn't remember ordering any sinks? She said that it wasn't me because my voice sounded way too young. I told her that if that was true, then it was very deceiving because I am closer to 60 then I am 50. At that point I asked her if the guy was wearing a cap... because Rich and I are the two oldest guys in the department and he is mostly bald and wears a cap because of that. She said, no... no cap... wait, there is one more thing: he had a mustache. Okay, I told her... that definitely rules me out... no mustache for me.

Now though, I really wanted to know who it was. She then gave me the last bit of information I needed. She said there was a “real tall” guy who said he was in “rough plumbing” and he is the one who took me to the guy to order my sink. I thanked her and hung up the phone. Kevin, was the guy in rough plumbing and I was now going to find out who this mustached guy was who left the order undone for someone else to have to follow up.

I started down the middle aisle and I spotted Kevin at the other end of aisle 34. Aisle 34 is our vanity aisle and every eight foot section there are mirrors to accent the bathroom cabinets. I glanced over at one while I was walking... and I stopped dead in my tracks! I was the mustached guy!!!

Now, it's bad enough that I had forgotten I had sold a sink the day before... but, to not remember I had a mustache... c'mon! In my defense there are two things. First, the day before I had been very busy and had probably written a dozen contracts, and... secondly I don't (as some guys do) have a “particular look” that I wear. I only mean that sometimes I shave very closely. First I use an electric razor to start and I finish with an old straight razor I have and I get a close shave. Then, there are times like now, I don't think I've shaved all week, so apparently I have grown a mustache unnoticed, at least by me! (lol) Sometimes I set the clippers at 1/2" and cut my own hair. Other times I forget to get a haircut for an apparently long time? A couple of months ago one of my daughters called me and began the conversation by saying that "she didn't care either way" but she wanted to tell me something. She said that one of the girls who had been sitting behind me at church said that "Papaw's hair" was almost to his shoulders? I laughed and said I hadn't noticed... but I went out the next day to a barber shop to get a haircut.

Anyway, other than I stay clean, I am not a person who pays a lot of attention to my appearance... yet no more than three hours before I left for work this morning I would have showered and then brushed my teeth standing in front of a mirror... but I never saw that I had a mustache? Do you want to hear something else, maybe even more ridiculous than that, considering my powers of keen observation?

Sometime back I was thinking that if I live to retirement what was I going to do with the rest of my life? So, I had an idea that might actually help some people and make their lives better. However, to do that I needed a degree in order to obtain a license for the state and in order to pursue my next “career." So, I signed up and started taking classes to get my degree.

I thought it might be rewarding to become a private investigator, but I would focus in only one area. I would try to help people find lost loved ones they had been separated from for a very long time. In this way I thought I might be able to help some people have happier lives. Now though, after this morning I might have to rethink that. I suppose before I could go out and locate a complete 

stranger... I might have to "really look" in a mirror just to remember what I look like? lol