The Talkative Mover

Most of our moving team are quiet hard-working guys. They say very little. This team packs the Green Bay Packers. One of the guys told me I had the most shoes he’s seen. He said one of the Green Bay Packers had almost as many shoes as me, with many of them being athletic shoes of the same brand in different colors. Bob complains that I have too many shoes and every time I buy a new pair he tells me to throw an old pair away. Bob heard the remark, so I’m sure I haven’t heard the last of that.

One of our movers is a chatterbox. He is a brand new employee and is going to be in sales, but was sent to our house to experience the packing first hand. I found him to be very interesting. Here are some of the things he told us about himself:

He used to own his own business, but three of his employees took the trade secrets, left the company, and became competitors. He couldn’t sue them as one of them was a lawyer and knew the ropes. He lost $1.4 million.

He sold his hunting shack, which had no running water or electricity, for $835,000. Paid in cash by the owner of a large Milwaukee welding business. He used that money to help settle his debt from the failed business.

He is 43 and just had his first child last summer. He was a stay at home dad until his savings account dwindled to $3,000.

He raises and trains Labradors.

He rebuilds classic cars.

He competes in extreme sports. Now, this came as a shock to me because he’s pretty fat and looks a bit dumpy.

He was one of the five original people who did the helicopter drop skiing. Three of the others went on to be famous.

He competed in motocross ice races. He also competes in cross country ski races of 50 km.

He took his Ford F350 out on the frozen lake and raced it, beating a real race car and ticking that driver off. As he was attempting to get off the ice, the front end of his truck fell through and he had to be towed out. $1100 damage to the truck.

He finished a ski competition in 1985 in the top ten in the country, so he tried out for the Olympic ski team, but did not make it.

He was a mountain guide for Mount Ranier. He was also on their Search & Rescue squad.

During one Search & Rescue, he brought back a dead body only to meet the widow at the bottom and had to notify her of her husband’s death.

He is a sea and whitewater kayaker. He took an expedition of kayakers to Mexico and hired a Mexican who lived in a hut to watch their vehicles and gear when they were out at sea. The Mexican he hired drank isopropyl alcohol, so they paid him in tequila.

He worked for Jansport and took a hiking expedition to Peru. There he introduced the mountain guides to a backpack with wide straps. The guides were used to strapping their packs using twine, which dug into their skin. They at first put the packs on upside down using the narrow part of the strap until he showed them the proper way to use the backpack. They were very grateful.

With all of his extreme sports, he cracked a disc in his spine and did not realize it until he sneezed one day and lost all sensation in his arms and legs. The disk snapped into his spinal cord. He now has it fused.

As a kid, he used to hang around the Green Bay Packers and would help clean their locker room.

His uncle was the priest that performed the marriage ceremony for Vince Lombardi’s daughter.

His cousin played football for the Green Bay Packers.

His dad used to own 154 Packers season tickets, but has pared down to 50.

He grew up on a 4,000 acre game farm where the Green Bay Packers used to hunt. They were not good shots.

During all this talk, all he got done was the packing of a couple of boxes. I told him he didn’t have to have eye contact when he talked because we’d never get our stuff packed out. When he left, I told Bob how amazing all of his exploits were and asked what he thought of him. Bob replied, “He’s a bullshitter.”