I didn’t have a dream job in St. Louis. It was a decent paying gig and I did my best to make do without hating it. Ronnoco Coffee was the warehouse and I did a number of things for them. I worked the dock-unloading and loading trucks-as well as working in the production and picking areas. I drove the transfer truck and even roasted coffee for a few weeks. When you work in a warehouse, you do everything but sit around and count the squares on the wall. It’s busy physical work.

When it comes to warehouse grunt work, I’m a veteran. I’ve worked in six different warehouses for five different companies. Park 370 Schnucks, Senoret Chemical, Bommaritto Wines, Conway Trucking and Ronnoco. Each place has their own personal rigors and delights. You haven’t loaded a truck until you’ve pushed 60 skids of chemicals onto a 53 foot trailer with the driver sleeping inside his truck. I’ve driven a Yale, Toyota, Kawasaki, and a few other fork lift brands. The smell of propane in the morning is worse than a bad instance of gas from a football fan who loves bratwurst.

In December of 2014, my wife had an opportunity to acquire her own store. She was an assistant manager at the Tile Shop in Sunset Hills and had a chance to be a Store Manager but it would have to come in a different state. Florida and Alabama were possibilities. Then, Arkansas came up. Little Rock, Arkansas. It seemed harmless at first. A new beginning in a different place. The cover of the book looked great but if you flipped the pages inside too fast, the general climate of change would pass you by.  (more…)