expired?

First things first. The Jaguars signed another offensive lineman....first round draft choice....finishing his rookie contract without meeting the expectations of the team that drafted him. Take yesterday's commentary and replace the name Mike Williams with Stockar McDougle (although he is the only McDougle on the roster), replace Buffalo Bills with Detroit Lions (with an intermediate one year stop in Miami), replace Texas with Oklahoma. The rest of the story is the same. First round pick...BUST...second chance with a Jaguars team desparate for O-line help...a skeptical lumberyard...the whole nine yards...one short of a first down.

My place of employment is smack in the middle of one of those fancy-ass developments. It's a gated community with Barney Fife clones checking everyone who comes in the gate and stamping hands as you leave in case you want to get back in. To make life somewhat easier, a few years ago they installed a bar code system for an express lane. The reader reads this bar code sticker on your window and the little gate goes up, allowing you entry...and we all got bar code stickers. This morning, I drove up to the gate and...nothing. The gate didn't go up. Now, I've had this happen before. When the little sticker deteriorates, the reader can't read it and I've had to get a new sticker. I looked back at the sticker though and thought...no, you look like you're still in good shape. Oh well, maybe it's that time again, even though I'm reluctant, because those stickers cost ten bucks. Call me cheap, I don't care, but it bothers me just a little to have to give these bozos $10 every few years to get access to where I work. I know, it's no different than other places where you have to pay to park for your job, but that's one reason I don't work downtown, but I'm off on a tangent. Back to the story....then, instead of pushing the button to manually let me thorough, Barney comes out of the security shack and examines my sticker. Then he goes back in the shack and punches me up on the computer. He yells out, "You're sticker's expired! You need to come in the office."

Expired? I had no idea they did that. I guess I've never had one last this long.

Barney starts asking me (suspiciously) if I still work here and I'm thinking...oh please, pal..please do something stupid like not let me in. What an excuse to play hooky! (Hey, I couldn't help it. The guard wouldn't let me in to work.) No, instead he fixed the computer to give my little sticker another year of life. I needed to get out of my car and come in your office for this...why? I guess this means I'll need a new sticker sometime this year.