Today with Patty

I Have A Crush on My Phone Guy John Grider

by Patty

I have the most amazing man that has come into my life. His name is John Grider. I have learned so much from him and I truly value his friendship. I can not really figure out why he is willing to be my friend since all I bring him is problems and heartache.

I have an ESI phone system that I have been “dissing”, and I should not be. John has taught me that I have a quality telephone system but that it has problems not because of the equipment or software, but because of the individual (that would be me) who has been programming in junk.

John sends me these amazingly funny, clever, educational, and illuminating e-mails that make me think. If you are a business owner and you are reading this, you know that your computers can, and do, go down periodically. And you live with that. But you also know you cannot live without your telephone. About six or eight months ago our server crashed, and we were without internet or computer access for about three days. We survived just fine. In fact, we picked up our trusty phone and called reporters. I never once worried that anyone thought we might be out of business. They might have thought we were a little slow responding, but oh well.

Yesterday, our telephone lines – not our ESI phone system – had some sort of a problem. I was out of the office all day and flipping out about it. You know what my biggest worry was —- that someone would try and call us and since the phones didn’t answer or pick up, they would think the worst. So as you can see, I have really come to learn how valuable the telephone is to my business. And with that comes the expertise of John Grider.

My Long Distance Guardian Angel

Let me let you in on a secret, which is the most amazing part of this whole story. I have never met John Grider. John Grider lives far, far away. He has a company called Green Light Communication in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Fla. He appears to be a rather good looking guy from his Web site, but again, I have never actually worked with him face-to-face. I found him by accident when I was researching problems on my ESI phone system and everywhere I went, people kept telling me that he was the foremost expert for that system. I went to a message board of the top telephone tech people in the country, www.sundance-communcations.com and asked his advice. The rest is history.

So, it does not matter if you are in Raleigh, N.C.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Minneapolis, Minn., or Honolulu, Hawaii; if you have a phone problem, I suggest you contact John Grider. He and his company can solve whatever comes your way. So why not pick up the phone and give him a call: (904) 808-8546.

It Seemed Like A Good Idea

Ok, let me talk about my trainer. As you recall, in January, I decided to clean out my system and forgo carbs for a while. I do not even think I have lost much weight – if any – but I did feel a little bit better. Please notice the past tense. That would be because Jeff Wooten of The Body Mechanic has come into my life.

I was researching personal trainers and his name kept coming up. In the past when I’ve had personal trainers I have always been able to out-talk them so that I didn’t have to do much exercise. I could always convince them that we should warm-up by walking across the street to get coffee, or some other shenanigans like that. Well none of that works with Jeff.

First off, he comes to your house. So there is no lying in bed, saying “I am not gonna get up and go to the gym.” And he doesn’t buy any of my baloney. He is training me and my husband John together. The interesting thing is that he uses a combination of yoga, martial arts, and military training. At first I thought, “oh this is gonna be easy – no weights”. Well, I was wrong. I would kill to be able to use weights. I have never done yoga before, and I thought you just sat on a mat and sort of chanted “Ohhhhm”. That is not the case either. I hate yoga. It is hard. They have these things, I think they are called positions (and not in a good way), that are named after animals. You think they would be easy to do, but since I am a complete and total spaz, I am having a lot of difficulty. There are these two cat things, and a dog thing. Anyway, I have to do crouching cat, and hidden dog and then they want us to do some things in sequence too. It is a bad thing.

It Gets Worse

The worst part is he has this instrument of torture that he calls the “wheel of fortune” and I call “the wheel of pain”. I kneel down on my poor, aching knees, grasp the little handles on each side of the wheel and stretch forward without touching the ground, then (theoretically) come back to the kneeling position. This action is associated with searing pain. Naturally, I offer it up, and suffer in silence.

Jeff assures me that he can shape up even the likes of me. We have had some discussions about my coffee intake and he believes that aerobic coffee consumption does not qualify as a physical activity. Thank God he has yet to ask me if I drink wine. More later.

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