TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

By Debbie Bulloch



To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to harvest;
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace

To everything there is a season. These are words that have comforted me ever since I first heard them. When I was a little girl and I was sad, my Mom would tell me not to run and hide from the sadness. She would tell me, “Debbie, enjoy your sadness don’t run away from it.” The first time my mother said that I thought she was crazy. After all, mothers are supposed to try to take away the sadness that children sometimes feel, not to encourage it. But then my mother explained to me that in Life, as sure as there is a time for sadness there will also be a time for joy; she told me not to allow the sadness make me stop what I was doing. She told me to keep moving because just around the corner Happiness was waiting for me. And she was right.

Today I write, with a great deal of sadness, that my dear friend, my SL Big Brother and ABC Homes’ General Manager, Mickey Geest is leaving ABC Homes. After helping build ABC Homes into a premier SL home sales company, sans pareil, Mickey will now turn his attention, and his talents, to the pursuit of new challenges.

All of us present and past ABC sales representatives, have many fond memories of working with Mickey. Mickey taught each of us how to rezz houses; he taught us how to use borders tool to make sure that houses were rezzed in the right location within the owner’s parcel; he taught us the proper way to install a TP (and avoid orbiting a customer into SL outer space); and he taught us to write notecards, with the XYZ coordinates and Z rotation, just in case something went wrong with a house (like deleting a wall) so the house could be re-rezzed in the same, exact location. Mickey taught us these and many other skills.

I can still remember Mickey spending time teaching me how to install TPs. I was very frustrated because I could not rotate the little buggers and make them fit into the wall. I wanted to just quit and simply pay someone to install the TPs for me. But Mickey never got upset, never got angry, and never grew impatient with my clumsiness and lack of hand to eye coordination. He was kind and gentle and he persevered until I was finally able to rotate and set a TP into the wall. I was as happy with my triumph as I was the first day that my father let go of my bike and I was able to ride down the street all by myself. Mickey was there to share my accomplishment and to tell me “See, I knew you could do it.”

Mickey did more than teach the sales representatives how to do “things.” He taught each one of us the importance of customer service. Mickey made sure that we all understood that customer service was a lifetime commitment, not just something that ended after the sale was made. Mickey led by his example. I have already written about how he came to my rescue when I literally destroyed my first ABC home. I had no idea how to fix the damage. I had a friend with me but all he could do was stand by and mutter to himself. Out of desperation I called Mickey, not really expecting the Sales Manager to show up and fix my problems. Within minutes he arrived at my house, looked at the damage I had caused and without missing a beat he put my house back together again. What was really amazing is that, unknown to me at the time, Mickey had just broken his right hand and it was extremely painful for him to operate the computer’s controls to repair my house. But Mickey never complained and never let me know how much pain he was in.

I have never forgotten how Mickey came to my rescue, like a knight in shining armor. So when I became an ABC sales representative I made it a point to follow Mickey’s lead and I made great customer service my first priority. There have been many times when I was hanging with friends or I was dancing at a club and I would get a call from a distraught customer asking for help. Like Mickey, I would stop whatever I was doing at the moment and I would go to help the customer the way that Mickey helped me.

And all the time while teaching us to be the best home sales reps in SL, Mickey never lost his sense of humor. English is the second, or third or fourth language for Mickey. He would still make jokes in English that sometimes lost something (or a lot) in the translation. Still, his valiant efforts at humor were very funny and it kept the sales staff entertained while we waited for customers. Mickey took the time to teach me Dutch words and phrases. In turn, I taught Mickey that ABC Homes are “inexpensive” and not ‘cheap.”

Mickey always worked long hours, tirelessly promoting ABC Homes. To many, Mickey WAS ABC Homes and vice-versa. In fact, many times when I told people that Mickey was the Sales Manager, their reply invariably was, “We thought that he was the owner.”

I know that ABC Home’s owner, Dawn Islander, joins me and the rest of the sales staff in saying: “Mickey, we will miss you and we wish you the best of luck.”

I know that I already miss having you around.

To everything there is a season. Even as we say au revoir to our dear Mickey, we at ABC Homes are getting ready to welcome some exciting changes. If you have not done so already, please visit our new store. The new store is set on a larger sim, allowing ABC to display houses for sale in a more natural setting. The furniture store carries a full line of quality furniture that will look awesome in any ABC home. Also, there will soon be new homes available for sale. In conjunction with our business partners, ABC will launch some very exciting promotions. Look for future announcements regarding these promotions and upcoming concerts hosted by ABC Homes.

To everything there is a season, indeed!