Well, it's over...whew

The 2010 Summer Fireworks Season is officially in the books. Well, technically not officially, since Jason is still out there at the moment taking down and cleaning up, and hopefully even selling. And we don't actually settle with the company until tomorrow afternoon, but it's pretty much over, and THANK GOODNESS for that!!!

This season has probably earned me an ulcer, I'm sorry to say. We had obstacles at every single turn, and all along they seemed insurmountable; that is, until now when I have the benefit of hindsight. I will never understand how Jason kept his cool (even in the heat) the entire time and did not give the Hatchet Face woman across the street from us the satisfaction of either cowering in the face of her evilness or lowering himself to her level to strike back. He has the gift of watching and waiting, which has earned us (him) huge credits with everyone in Cheatham County who has anything at all to do with fireworks tents and all their various licenses and regulations. They are all sick to death of Hatchet Face also; as a matter of fact, they have even been known to commiserate with Jason about her.

According to Mr. Hatchet Face, we (our tent) are to blame for the fact that they lost $11,000 last year. Whether or not that's actually the dollar amount, I don't know. But we (Jason) do every bit of the advertising to get customers to our tent/area, and it kind of makes us sick to see anyone leave our tent and go over to theirs. But it happens, we swallow it, and that is that. And last year even we did not have a great year, so it's absolutely absurd for them to blame us. This year, the Hatchet Face family pulled out every big gun they had to try to get us shut down, and I'm so proud to say they did not succeed.

Our tent has been there at the Shell gas station for much more than 10 years (because we've been running it for 10 years); their tent has been there at the BP station maybe 6 years (?). We watched the BP station being built about 6 years ago. So Hatchet Face's behavior is like BP coming in after the Shell has been there for 15 years or more, and BP doing everything in its power to get Shell put out of business because BP isn't making as much money as they want. It's exactly the same!!! And it makes NO SENSE!!!

The Vice President of Operations for Shell (maybe the regional one, I don't know) went to talk to Ms. Hatchet Face; he asked her why she she's doing what she's doing. Her answer: "Greed." Straight from the horse-face's mouth!!! He told us that she said it emphatically and with a straight face. Well, at least she knows. What she doesn't know is how big of a hornet's nest she has stuck her horse-face into, messing with both Shell and Mid-America Distributors; neither of them is going to let anything at all happen to this tent. She ain't big enough to stand up against them, and she has annoyed everyone else so much that she doesn't have anyone to stand with her.

Who knows what next year holds...and it's not for me to think about right now and especially not to worry about. I need to catch up on my prayers of thanksgiving!!! We really did have a good season, nobody got hurt, and we were not shut down. I really hope I learn a lesson from this episode, and even from Jason. He is an incredible salesman, an amazingly hard worker, and among many other good things, a level-headed manager. One thing he is not, however, is a complainer. Now that the storm is over, we can relax for a while (until football season at least) and enjoy the rest of the summer.

Including.....Little Lady's One Year Birthday on July 24!!! Oh great, now I'm going to go worry about that. Just kidding.