Dinner Speech

Such a nice dinner Thursday night at Pampas Steakhouse on Old Milton Parkway. L-R: Brad, Alex, Shane, Todd, Jonathan, Angie, Eric Jones, Eric McGill, me, and Ceil. With a big old piece of cake.  

Didn’t want to take people away from their work for too long, so I saved some of my speech the dinner. Didn't deliver it as a speech, but managed to work a good deal of it in during the dinner.

The speed that Shane gets work done amazes me. My brain never worked so fast. When I started it took days and weeks for managers to quote and make decisions. It takes Shane minutes, and he’s better informed than we used to be back in the old days. Kills me the gems and zingers that Shane comes up with at the drop of the hat. If I don’t read off my jokes word for word, I’ll screw them up.

When Brad called me to ask if he should join the Textron team, I lied and told him yes. I told Brad that he’d make me look bad in comparison, and he has. But I don’t care. Took a huge weight off my shoulders. I’m dumping it all off onto Brad and Leo. Don’t worry, Brad – ten more years then you can retire.

The amazing thing is that Angie actually does a great job. I didn’t want to say this in front of everyone in the office, or course. Who was it that trained her? She sends work emails while she’s on vacation. She comes in at 630 in the morning and stays 30 minutes after she clocks out. That’s more hours than Steve Garrett. Angie do you see what you’re doing to yourself? Some of the wisdom I’ve taught Angie she now passes on to her daughters.

Steve Garrett: we both used to run the Peachtree Road Race a whole lot faster, but we’re still showing up every year, since when Steve, the 1990’s?

Me and Alex don’t work side by side much, but to this day Alex will remember my color code system – right Alex?

Buck is like Steve’s Ed McMahon, if you’re old enough to know who he was. Mike likes to egg Steve on. Thanks for acting interested with the arcane bits of trivia and breaking sports news that you already heard about hours before. So much fun to listen to Ben mess with Steve and Buck.

Gotta love Alex Brennan. You have to. I think it’s a rule. Like Shane and Steve and Jonathan and so many others, Alex is a machine. A big machine, but a machine none the less.

Ben says that instead of a honeymoon, he and his bride are going on Ben’s regular family vacation with Mack to Cape Sand Blast. Down there Ben has always slept in a bunk bed. I told Ben to tell his wife that he wants to be on top.