Corporate Survival, Hello Dolly, fall is finally here!

First things first.











This has been (unexpectedly) a bad business year. Friday last I had a meeting with my boss, and with his boss the V.P. of our division.
Even though I knew that most of the company was having a tough year, meetings like this bring a great deal of trepidation and uncertainty.
I spent most of the week preparing to state my case.
Kevin (the V.P.) started the day by teasing me about my Western Boots, which are a trade mark of mine.
"I don't have to see your face to know that it's you. Just look at the boots!"
That let me know this would not be the Spanish (or Hillbilly) Inquisition revisited.
"Cardinal Fang, bring out the rack!"
To summarize in a few words, I am to spend more time going after a certain market segment next year. The company acknowleges making some serious mistakes on spending resources on the wrong products, and I will have help in the form of new Manufacturer's rep personnel in my territory. This will free me up to do what I am tasked. He also told me to travel more, something which we had to curtail this year with expense spending reduced.

As I told the Queen afterwards, "Well, I'm still driving the company car home, so we are safe for another year" The ups and downs of sales are not for the faint of heart.

Earlier this month we went to Gatlinburg TN for a couple of days.
It was still warm, in the seventies, but both Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg were bedecked in Pumpkins and Corn Shocks for the fall season.
The weather was gorgeous!
Some shots I took on Clingman's Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
With an elevation over 6,000 ft, it is one of the highest peaks east of the Mississippi.












And was it cold up there! We were dressed in light wind breakers, the temp at the top was a couple of degrees above freezing. Needless to say I took most of these from inside the car.













Downtown Gatlinburg.













Queen Felicia in front of the Grist Mill at Dollywood.


















We had a wonderful time at Dollywood. Much more family friendly and relaxed than either Disney or Universal Studios, it pays homage to the Mountain Heritage of my parents.
The Old Steam Train that we rode up the mountain from Dollywood.
Rail travel was much more elegant (excepting the soot and cinders!) than our modern modes of travel.












She got to shop, and I got to relax a tiny bit. Two days of driving for two days away from work seemed to be the norm this year for me.
At last Fall seems to have come here in NC and VA.
We will have our first freeze Weds morn, and the weather has been quite spectacular of late.
The entire State is still under a ban on open burning, so I can't enjoy a camp fire in our back yard pit yet. At least we can light the Chiminea on the deck this weekend.
I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is just two weeks from Thursday.
Thanksgiving Day is also our son's Twenty First Birthday.

The Saturday he was born it was a cold and rainy day in Dallas.
It is quite hard to accept that the spunky young man yet to show any gray hair, who had not started fighting the 'battle of the bulge' is now in his mid fiftes, and his new baby boy is now a man in every respect.

Time slows for no man, that's for sure!

Is that Turkey roasting and Pumpkin Pie that I smell?
'Twill soon be! Huzzah fellow Pilgrims!