What is it with Christmas eve?

Last year we had Christmas eve dinner with a friend.  When we got there, we realized he was sick.  Too late to leave... we both got sick. 

This morning, our first driver kept hacking into his hands, and complaining about how sick he'd been last night, up with chills and fever, etc... "I feel terrible but I need the money!" 

Thanks a lot!   Not to worry, he reassured us, he'd be taking 10 days off after this.  Thanks. 

I am praying I don't catch it.  According to the CDC, I'll know in 1 to 4 days.  On the plus side, we did make it through the Christmas season. 

We had 2 repairmen scheduled.  The bottled vendor repairman, for the dreaded V-40 - hated by ALL repairmen, never showed.  Thanks. 

That's 4 hours, and a possible flu exposure, I won't be getting back. 

If I were evil, and I did get sick, I'd go in and shake his hand when he does come.  But I won't. 

The other guy, our standard, did show.  He fixed the food machine and the snack machine coin jam.  I'd gotten some of the coins out, but not all, and it was ripping people off.  NOT cool.  I can't abide it if a machine is extorting customers; I'll turn it off if I can't fix it myself. 

Which I actually did, for a while, today. 

At any rate we stocked what we could and the machines look pretty good.  We got 2 machines fixed. 

Ron's having a hard time with the remodel.  Not the fact that they moved us, or even that we're working with half our machines. 

He hates losing his independence.  It is impossible for him to work by himself anymore, too many safety concerns.  Today, for example, I came around a corner and nearly ran into a ladder a guy'd hoisted on his shoulder.  Ron would have caused an accident.  That's not even factoring the forklifts, the towmotors, the cherrypickers, etc. 

I have to walk him around, and he hates that.  He blames me, saying I'm "overprotective".  I have asked God to work with him on this, to realize it really is a safety issue and we could lose the business if he defies the rules. 

In the meantime, I keep an eye on him. 

Life is certainly interesting.