The Office Picnic

So yesterday was my work area's annual picnic/retreat. Some years the morale had been so bad that people bitched about getting a Friday afternoon off to go to a picnic. Imagine that!

After an obligatory boring morning meeting, I headed out to the shelter. The weather was supposed to be ideal for the picnic -- clear skies with a high of 81 degrees. My duty was to be on the grilling team. Well, if you know men, you know that ofttimes there is some degree of ego involved in grilling. Von, the head of our police force, was the chief cook. Being the newest director in my area, I just laid low and helped where I could. Von had this unique method for cooking brats, alternating between grilling them and boiling them in beer. I sucked in my share of smoke when we put the hamburgers on. I had forgotten that when you are one of the people helping to set up and work on a picnic it isn't nearly as much fun.

A little later I was drafted to help run the bingo game. The lead in to it was kind of funny.

Tim: We need someone to help Melisa (not her real name -- Oops -- wrong blog!) run bingo. How about ... lightning?
Me: What is Melisa doing? Is she getting the balls from the mixer or calling the numbers?
Tim: She might handle your balls.
Me: Okay. But what is she doing?
Tim: She's from Turkey. I don't even know if she knows how to play bingo ...

Dang, but we ran the fast games of bingo you ever saw! After the picnic was over, I joked with two of my folks that they needed to head into the office for the last working hour of the week. But ... we instead cruised to a downtown bar where I, Mr. El Cheapo, even bought the first round. Yes, I told them, I am not above buying their allegiance with alcohol. They seemed to think it was not a bad tradeoff! Several others from work headed for the same bar, so it was a nice end to the week. Better yet, I had some leftover hamburgers and hot dogs for lazy man meals this weekend. Some days just go well!