Baby, Red Birds, and Bottom Feeders

Weeks like this are wonderful in an annoying way. And by that I mean that it’s been busy. In my limited experience in blogging it seems the more you have to write about, the less time you have to put it on paper. My complaints to this effect tend to be met with, “You know...maybe you just shouldn’t write four page blogs every time.” True, that would partially solve the issue. But I guess I’d rather have the details on a few issues than a scattershot at everything. Or, at least that’s how I feel today. So, here are the top contenders for my mental processes today.

Pumkin Update

Pumkin continues to expand. His/her thrashing about has now become powerful enough that I can finally feel it. The child and I had been engaged in a friendly game of hide and seek until last weekend. Moonshot would call me over with promises that, “I KNOW you’ll be able to feel these kicks.” The second my hand touched her belly, however, Pumkin would giggle silently and hold perfectly still. Moonshot comforted me with the concept that Pumkin just finds my presence soothing. I know the truth…Pumkin has inherited my penchant for irritation. So, s/he would never kick for me…but would punch out mores code to our dog Arlo whenever he would lie on Moonshot’s tummy. But time has proved me the victor in our game. Pumkin’s ever increasing size has made hiding more and more difficult. The inter-uterine movement can now be seen as well as felt…Moonshot finds herself thinking of Ridley Scott’s Alien a lot. Pumkin is calm most of the time, but really seems to perk up about fifteen minutes after Moonshot eats. The kid is a big fan of food. I imagine arms and legs flailing about in a happy little dance, “Yea!! Food! [Kick Kick Punch]”

We began shopping for baby furniture last weekend. I had imagined that we would just go out and buy a crib. Simple and straightforward. But the options…oh, the options. We selected a semi-reasonably priced model from Babies-R-Us. It wasn’t the color we wanted, but it fit the budget and we weren’t yet picky. Alas, that item was out of stock and would take three months to order a new one. At this point I was a bit peeved. We had waded through the confusing sea of baby beds and made what I thought was a decent choice…only to arrive back at the beginning of our search. So, we decided to jump online for a quick product review search. It seemed logical that there would be useful product information that would help us. But this only made it worse. Every crib had at least one person who had written in to complain about the horrible response time from the company or some tragic story about a child’s foot becoming caught in the bars of the crib. By the end of the reviews, every crib seemed like a shoddily built death trap. So we went to the bookstore and purchased Baby Bargains. At last, one reasonable voice who has waded through the confusion for us. She breaks down every product a baby is likely to use. It’s wonderful.

I must admit that I used to be a huge fan of options. The more options available, I reasoned, the more likely it is that you get exactly what you want. I no longer have such faith in variety. I mean…I’m happy so many options exist…in the abstract. But without some well-defined system for selecting the top two or three options, almost any simple selection process can become stressful. For instance, I had been unaware how much it stressed me out to select a meal from a restaurant menu. It seems like such a simple transaction. And with no long lasting repercussions from the selection, I would have argued that it caused me no anxiety at all. However, upon becoming a vegetarian and having nearly every menu automatically whittled down to one or two options…I’ve actually discovered, in retrospect, how much it used to concern me that I pick the best culinary option. Now, each restaurant meal is as simple as Veggie Meal A vs. Veggie Meal B. Surprisingly, I do not miss the variety, I instead find comfort in the simplicity.

And so it is with baby products. An outside whittler allowed me to sigh in relief. I may not get the very best product every time…but by sticking to the pre-approved checklist, I’m sure I’m getting a pretty good one. Ah, simplicity.

Also in baby news, Moonshot and I went to our first childbirth class on Wednesday. We’re about a month earlier than they recommend, but the later classes are taught on Monday evening…and Moonshot teaches piano on Monday nights. So, we’re going in early. I’m not sure what to think so far. The instructor is a very pleasant nurse and the room is comfortable in a hospital classroom sort of way. However, there is only one other couple in the class with us so far and they are rather surly. Granted, our exposure to them has been limited so far, but their single words answers and basic body language just seem to exude a sense of grouchiness, like it was a big imposition on them to be there at all. Maybe we just caught them on a bad night.

The lesson itself was fine, albeit very general. Moonshot and I have read quite a bit about the process of baby production and liberation (Moonshot more than me). We also find ourselves watching A Baby Story on The Learning Channel quite a bit. So mostly, Wednesday was a much less detailed version of stuff we’ve already read and seen. MoMa, my mother, used to teach childbirth classes when I was young, so she is peppering me with questions about the specific technique they are going to teach. I think the answer is, no specific technique. Just a nice general, here’s what’s happening to your body and maybe you should try to relax. I’m hoping I’m wrong and that next week will be more specific.

Stadium Fever

Jet scored some tickets to Sunday’s Cards game. As a rule, I’m not a big sports fan, but this is opening week at our new stadium and I’m looking forward to a good picture of Moonshot at the stadium. St. Louis is a huge baseball town, and Pumkin will grow up knowing s/he was born the same year as the stadium. So I’d like to let Pumkin know that s/he was at a game opening week. Plus, stadium fever had gripped St. Louis and it’s easy to get wrapped up in it. I’m looking forward to roaming our new coliseum. And finally, a Cards game is always fun…even for non-sports fans like Moonshot and me.

I really don’t have anything else to add to that thought…I’m just looking forward to it and though I’d share.


Our Store

Jet and I finally opened our store! As I may have mentioned here or maybe in the Cast of Characters, my brother Jet and I have been working toward opening a store together. While I may loose some of the readers who don’t really know me at this disclosure, we’re opening a payday loan store. Since the general view of such an establishment is fairly negative, I await groans of disapproval echoing across cyberspace. In order to better explain how a nice little boy like me ended up as a “predatory lender,” I feel compelled to fill in some back-story on this issue.

Back in ’95 or so, my Dad lost most of his retirement due to a lousy broker. He was nearly fifty, working as an electrician and suddenly very scared about his retirement options. He had a small lump of money, but was afraid to throw it back into the market. Enter the man I will here refer to as Mr. Dingus (a self applied nickname). He had been a small-time general contractor at the Lake of the Ozarks and my Dad had wired a few of his houses. He and my Dad had become pretty good friends over the years and Dad had stayed in touch with Mr. Dingus even after he and Mrs. Dingus moved to Saint Louis to open payday loan stores. Mr. Dingus had left the construction business to open his stores by having friends and family put forth the money to open a store. He and Mrs. Dingus would run the store and see to day-to-day operations. For this they would get 50% ownership of the store. He had opened several stores this way with various groups of friends and family supporting each store and at this point, it look reasonably profitable for all parties. He approached my Dad.

I was at my first year of college and I remember Dad being extremely torn about proposal. First of all, the idea of turning over what remained of his retirement to crazy Mr. Dingus was terrifying. Secondly, the business model of a payday loan just doesn’t SEEM like something that should work. And finally, if it DID work…was it moral to leach off the less fortunate?

In the end, Dad made his peace with the industry and decided to take a risk. Together, Dad and Mr. Dingus opened a store in Columbia, MO and Dad crossed his fingers.

The store did well. In fact, the store did better than any of Mr. Dingus’s previous stores and soon spun off enough money to open another store in Granite City, IL (just outside St. Louis. Things were going well.

Then, in 1997, Dad died. Suddenly, my brother and I each found ourselves the proud owner of 25% of Dad’s shares. Suddenly I was wrestling with the same moral dilemma Dad had faced before. Luckily, I got to ignore the question for a few years since the shares were wrapped up in probate until 2000. Dad didn’t have a will and there was some question about the exact split line between the sons and the step-mom (a tale for another time). By the time the shares were issued in our name in early 2000, I had been roaming the country in my post-graduation wandering for about two years. The plan had been to return to grad school, but now that checks were rolling in from the payday loan stores, I couldn’t ignore the moral question of whether or not I was comfortable with this money at all.

So, as I was wrapping up my time down in New Orleans, Mr. Dingus invited me to work for the company in St Louis.

“What would I be doing?” I asked.

“All sorts of option,” he replied. “We’ve just merged all the separate stores that I opened with the various partners. This gives us a bigger, centralized company with bigger cash reserves to work with. We’ll be opening stores and we could always use someone with a vested interest in the company out in the field. Or, if that doesn’t appeal, we can find something else.” I’d known Mr. Dingus since I was 12, so he was willing to give me some freedom. I told him I wanted to spend some time in the stores; I wanted to see what it was really like. See if I agreed with the process.

So I ran a store. For about six months I managed a small store here in St Louis and got to know the industry. And in truth, I really am ok with it. I won’t lie to you and say it’s some great and noble career. It does not fill me with a sense of social contribution. And if I retire having done nothing more fulfilling with my time than make loans, I will be very disappointed with myself. That said, however, I also feel that the industry (when properly regulated) is very fair. There are hard luck stories and horrible cases of abuse that find their way into the papers, sure. But you get the same story from mortgage loans and insurance companies. So, I’ve come to the conclusion that my industry is a moral neutral. A grey fog hovering somewhere between the light of a helpful loan from a friend and the dark depths of a loan shark.

After the six months of running the store, I was pulled up to the corporate office, I ran around the country for a while opening stores then settled down to become the multi-talented jack of all trades for our company. I oversee the development of our proprietary software. I lobby state agencies about our views on issues. I change light bulbs around the office. I manage the IT department and manage the telecom for all the stores. While it keeps my days interesting to wear so many hats, I basically stall when people ask me what I do. I can think of no one term for it. I suppose “owner” come closest to covering the wide variety of tasks I do, but at a meager 2.5% ownership of this combined company, I think the title “owner” properly falls on Mr. Dingus with his 51%. They call me a Director of Operations…but really that’s just a nice term we made up that carries enough weight to seem appropriate. It has no real relevance to my specific daily tasks.

Anyway, the point to all this is two-fold. First, I’m ok with payday loans, but am also ok if you, my reader, aren’t. Secondly, I’ve been out of the stores for a while. I’ve busied myself with all sorts of tasks that are in no way related to the daily operation of a payday loan store. Enter Mr. Dingus’s proposition.

Back in 2004, Mr. Dingus made me an offer. Basically, there was a store location the company had a long lease on but at which we were unable (for rather complicated reasons) to open a payday loan store of our own. However, an independently owned franchisee would conceivably be able to open there. There would be a fight with the local city, but we’d be on solid legal ground.

It was soon decided that Jet and I would open a franchise location of our own. Jet had just graduated from college and was eager to start a new business. So, we began the long fight with the city. And I must say, the city played its hand very well in its attempts to keep us out. They knew they couldn’t legally stop us, but they also knew they could probably delay us long enough to make us go away. The tactic had worked with other would-be lenders in the past and they were hopeful it would work again. It didn’t. In situations like this, I am very patient. Jet and I went to city council meeting after city council meeting. We were screamed at by councilmen, berated by the mayor, and called “bottom feeders,” “loan sharks” and “scum” on local access television. In fact, the council’s behavior was so over the top, my brother and I soon became the victims in the eye of public opinion. We had sweet little old ladies coming up to us letting us know what nice young boys we were, letting us know they were pulling for us, letting us know they were appalled at the council’s behavior. In the end, the council cracked and issued us our occupancy permit. And finally, we opened our doors yesterday. We should do fairly well since in the same ordinance that allowed us to open; the council changed the city laws so that no other loan store could follow us in. Jet and I now find ourselves in the enviable position of owning of a brand new payday loan store in the middle of the St. Louis municipality with the lowest congestion of payday lenders. It should work out nicely.

Hopefully, it will be a great opportunity for me and my family; offering the best of both parenting worlds…enough money to raise my kids, but enough free time to actually dedicate vast amounts of attention to them. Oh, and hopefully, eventually, the financial and temporal freedom to pursue another career…one that isn’t so gray…one that I’ll actually be actively proud of on my deathbed.