Bob's Blog

Like clockwork in September,
A hurricane called Ike, was brewing in the Gulf, and was quite a splendor.
Moreover, it was headed to Texas, with not a bit of surrender.
On Thursday, Bill’s email to Robert did say, “He was up”, and made sure he was aware,
Therefore, our team left home early from Denver, just to prepare.

The night on Friday, when Ike made the fall,
It came south of Houston, right where they said, and never did stall.
So Robert, he worked and re-worded the Hurricane Plan,
And our folks were ready, quite true, and quite steady,
Not one said a word, they never complained,
With their firm list in hand, they were in command.

So, imagine Ziggy, and Randy, all up at the helm,
And wasn’t it something that Jane was on-call,
However, I am sure a bit tired, but nevertheless,
She rode it out well, and by the end of her tour,
Would probably say that she just barely endured.

Now Kurt, Ron, and James, were vital work force,
Working long hours through wind, and the rain,
But then Bobby, Joe, Shaun, also did strain,
Calling, and quizzing the owners to fully obtain,
To find info on meat damaged by flooding, and such.
And let’s not forget that Ed was at JFO, and also did much.

Right from that Monday, the phones would not work,
In addition, no emails, nor BlackBerry PINs, we had no service at all.
But Janet kept trying, and doing her best,
She tried long and hard, and finally was able to activate,
‘Till finally, the next day, we were able to communicate.

Through hundreds of freezers of quite rotten stuff,
We detained, and destroyed, and got it all dumped.
You knew we were there right from the start,
We kept right on going through rain, mud, and such.

Now we may wonder now looking back through it all,
With the power all down, and devastation everywhere,
How our Guys made it through all freezers and coolers without nary a fall.
They hung in there tough; but moreover,
In that they came shining through for the consumer,

In thirteen days, they just did it all.

Robert Collazo, 9/30/08

A lot of folks don’t know that in his younger days, they called him Flaco,
He could pitch that ball and make it curve so fine,
He’d tell you a joke or spin a story every chance he’d get to all the little muchachos,
But He’d go the distance for his family for they were his core and his design.

You just had to know Flaco and Letty
For they surely were a pair.
The jokes between them both, they’d have everyone laughing,
They would treat you like kings in their house, they had such a flair!

Now Letty had passed a short time so you see
And Flaco he missed her so much, everyone would agree.
Didn’t you know that life to him then, I’m sure, just didn’t seem fair,
Without his Queen at his side, he just didn’t seem square.

Flaco was somehow closer than family to me but we had no blood relation,
For this giant of a Man was so caring, and so true.
Flaco and Letty were truly a blessing, and I’m sure there is quite a celebration,
For both Flaco & Letty are both dancing in Heaven tonight, and we all know that’s what THEY wanted – for sure!

His name was Jesse Hall, but in his younger days they called him Flaco.

Robert Collazo  10/14/08, and modified on 10/16/08

I had just bought a new vehicle six months before, and never gave it a second thought that it would go out on me in the middle of a cold Friday night in West Texas on the way to San Antonio. But there I was, stuck on the side of that dark, lonely highway, and my new truck wouldn’t start. Well, I couldn’t just sit there and freeze all night. So, I got off my truck, and when that cold wind hit me, I thought what did I get into now?

A few miles before, it had begun to sleet, and though it was not coming down too hard, the road was beginning to take on that icy, sheen look. I thought about which way I should start walking.  In one direction, the closest town south was about 9 miles away, and the other way, I knew it was more than twenty.

My walk south hadn’t been more than 10-15 minutes, when a loud, souped up truck was coming up the road. The surprise was when that stranger stopped and asked me if that pickup truck down the road was mine, and if so, gestured me to climb in. I thought it odd that the stranger looked about in his late 70s or 80s.

The stranger told me that a new pickup truck in his neck of the woods wouldn’t last long out on the highway without being stolen, and said we’d better hurry to go it before it disappeared. In the time the stranger picked me up to the time we got to my truck, the man had told his whole life story. That he was a retired mechanic, all his kids were dead, and had outlived all his relatives.

We arrived at my truck’s location and the stranger stated that all he had was ten foot chain that he pull me with, and I exclaimed that the chain wasn’t long enough! All the stranger said, was not to worry since he just lived up the road “a bit”, and wouldn’t be driving too fast anyway. Yeah, right!

You can imagine my surprise when we got on that highway and the speed at which he pulled me was somewhere around 80-85 mph! The only thing that stranger didn’t lie about was that he did live relatively close by and ten minutes later we were driving into his driveway.  The stranger told me that I could use the pay phone at the corner store, and have someone pick me up.  He also told me that I should give him my truck keys and to come back on Sunday, and my truck would be ready to go.  I thought to myself, can I trust this stranger?  He already had saved me, and kept me off that cold highway, so why shouldn’t I?  So, I gave him my keys and I thanked him.  I then walked as he suggested to the pay phone, to call my Brother Frank.

A couple of hours later when Frank had picked me up, he couldn’t believe I had “given my keys” to a stranger, and then felt like a fool since I had not even got his name!  Somehow, like I explained to my brother, it all felt “right”.  He called me a fool (very eloquently in the Spanish language), and as he kept chewing on me, I fell asleep on the way to San Antonio.  For those of you that know my Brother Frank, surely you understand how I felt, right?

That following Sunday, I took a Greyhound bus back to the Stranger’s house in Mason, Texas.  I walked from the station, to the Stranger’s house, and found a note from him on his front door.  The note stated that he had worked on my truck and all that was needed was a timing chain adjustment, and my truck was good “as new”.   So, I knocked on his door, and when he didn’t answer, looked around for him, and realized that the house looked totally abandoned.  In fact, it looked like no one had lived in it for years!

My thought then was that the stranger had just gone to the store or something.  So, I waited awhile for him.  After an hour or so, and feeling impatient, and thinking and feeling just about what my Brother had called me, I looked down his long driveway, saw my truck, and didn’t quite feel like a fool any longer!   Then I saw another vehicle behind my truck under a very dusty tarp. I pulled the tarp off and found what appeared to be that souped-up truck. However, this time, the motor looked like it was in the middle of an overhaul. That couldn’t be right. For the other night, it had been running great!

My mind was surely playing games, I thought. So, I got in my truck and found that it started right up as the Stranger had noted.  I then drove to the nearest ranch house, about a mile away. When I asked the gentleman that greeted me there if he had seen the neighbor lately, his faced got grim. It seemed that his neighbor had had a heart attack and died about 6 months back, he said. How can that be, I thought?

Robert Collazo, posted on 10/03/08; and modified on 10/20/08.