Another weekend snuck up on me unexpectedly. That’s good, I guess: it’s a sign that time is flying, and time flying must mean I’m having fun. Possible causal fallacy aside, I really am enjoying the summer.

On Monday I had lunch with Mutak, who happens to work for my arch-nemesis, Guidant. He was telling me about his participation in an informal roller hockey club, with which I am interested in getting involved. We went to Kahn’s Mongolian Barbeque in Roseville, which is basically a “build-your-own stir-fry” place.

Thursday found me at an event for Twin Cities interns. A group rented Roller Garden for several hours, during which, hundreds of interns from various Twin Cities-area companies roller-skated and roller-bladed. Everybody I talked to was cool and upbeat, making the experience quite enjoyable.

On Friday night, I did something out of character: I went to a party. One of the Medtronic interns hosted a party at his apartment. I’d say it went well. The place was packed with people, there was a live DJ spinning records, and there was no shortage of libations (though I chose not to imbibe). The location was perfect, offering a view from the 25th floor of the Marquette Place apartments in downtown Minneapolis. It was kool. That’s right, kool with a ‘k’.

Summer is a thing to be cherished in Minnesota. This past weekend, after mowing the lawn, playing with the waverunner, and peacefully enjoying the beautiful weather, I went to watch street rods with my dad.

Here’s the pretext: the annual Street Rod Gathering is taking place at the Minnesota State Fair grounds this weekend. Participants in the Gathering enjoy cruising in their cars up and down Snelling Avenue in Roseville. Since most of the cars at the show, and thus most of the cars cruising, are meticulously detailed street rods, muscle cars, and classic cars, people enjoy sitting along Snelling, watching the cars go by.

No, this is not some Minnesotan version of ‘Bashing,’ the Hautian pastime. There are several key differences: Here, nobody is sitting on couches in pickup beds. Here, there is far, far less booze involved. Here, the cars being watched are some of the finest specimens in the country. Here, the cars are almost all American marques. The only foreign cars are classic British sports cars and exotic European supercars.

Anyhow, we sat and watched the cars go by, one after another. Although I couldn’t identify many of the cars, my dad seemed to know them all. It makes sense, really: he grew up when GTOs ruled the roads, a time when gas was cheap and horsepower king. Granted, today’s engines get better fuel economy and make more torque and horsepower with a smaller displacement, but there’s a certain mystique about engines that were designed in the absence of computers.

I hope that people continue to collect and cherish classic cars, street rods, and other bits of automobilia so that future generations can see examples of fine engineering and artistic prowess.

My first paycheck from Medtronic came in the mail today, so I thought it would be novel to deposit it at the location of my first job.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I got a job as a cashier working for Rainbow Foods. For whatever reason, I was promoted even before I started into a sort of “super cashier,” meaning I worked almost exclusively at the customer service counter. I often was a de facto customer service manager, meaning I supervised the other cashiers and had the magic cash register keys. I enjoyed my job: I had (some) authority, I had responsibility, the job paid well, and the job was anything but stressful. Perhaps it was the last point that was the rub: the store wasn’t busy.

My store was brand new when I started working. In fact, I worked at the store even before it opened. Spirits were high: the store was new and bright, and everybody from management on down was cheerful and optimistic about the future. Unfortunately, the large customer base that everyone expected never materialized. I can recall working evenings when the store would be completely empty. The Cub Foods down the street was continuously packed with shoppers, but my Rainbow Foods spent most of its time in quiet desertion.

I think several factors were working against my store. Foremost, the half-mile separating Cub and Rainbow separated two worlds. Whereas Cub was solidly in suburbia, Rainbow felt like it was located in the country. The second factor was store size. Although my Rainbow was by no means a small store, the Cub simply dwarfed it. With bigger size comes wider selection, and people like wide selections. However, by far the most detrimental factor was the existence of the EasySave card. The EasySave card gave customers a “discount” on marked items in the store. The idea, I guess, was that people would think that they were saving bushels of money. The problems with this fallacy were many.

If customers shopped without a card, either by accident or by desire, the prices paid were outrageously expensive. The card, although free to obtain, required registration, which many customers viewed as another way for Corporate America to stuff their mailboxes and phone lines with rubbish. By far the most damning snag was that, even with the card, Rainbow’s prices were higher than Cub’s. (For those of you not from the Twin Cities, Rainbow and Cub compete with each other primarily based on price. If a customer wants exceptional service and exquisite selection, they shop at either Byerly’s or Lund’s, but they must be willing to pay for the experience.)

I know that several other chains in other parts of the country, such as in Terre Haute, Indiana, have Cards. The example that comes to mind are the Kroger stores in the ‘Haute. However, despite having cards, they seem to do brisk business. But why? Simple: there is no viable grocery store competition in the area.

When I worked at the Service Counter, I dealt with customer complaints and questions. By far the most common question was, “Where is the bathroom?” By far the most common complaint was, “I HATE the stupid Card! I’m doing all of my shopping at Cub from now on!” Hey, I couldn’t blame them. After all, my family did all of its shopping at Cub. I found it somewhat humorous when the Rainbow President sent out a memo asking Rainbow employees to shop at Rainbow.

It doesn’t take a PhD to figure out that a lack of customers is bad for business. The parent of Rainbow, Fleming Corporation, entered bankruptcy a few months ago. In reality, the downfall of Fleming was primarily due to the bankruptcy of K-Mart (a large Fleming customer), but Rainbow certainly wasn’t helping the situation. A few weeks ago, Wisconsin-based Roundy’s, Inc. bought Rainbow in federal bankruptcy court. The purchase included most Rainbow stores in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin. Most, but not all. At the time of the deal, my old Rainbow store was not included, so it liquidated its merchandise and dimmed its lights. It was purchased separately about a week after the initial agreement, but the news came too late to stave off temporary closure.

And there, I return to the beginning of this post. My store, Rainbow Foods at Plymouth Station, has a Wells Fargo bank branch inside. I am a Wells Fargo customer, so I thought that I would drive over, see the old store, and deposit my check. (How could I get in if the store was closed? They left the doors unlocked exclusively for access to the bank.). It felt odd to see my store very much like I first saw it: lights dimmed, shelves bare, devoid of people. Ah, the memories of my year-long stint under the employ of the grocery industry.

Indeed, lessons were learned. During my tenure, I gained an appreciation for customer service, a respect of money, and perhaps a bit of social grace. The business world learned from the experience, too: The first thing Roundy’s did was eliminate the EasySave card.

I can’t believe that a week and a half of my internship is already done. Time certainly is flying by! I imagine that a large part of this is due to me having a worthwhile project. Yay for interns that have meaningful assignments!

Tonight my division of Medtronic brought its engineering interns out for an evening of entertainment. We went to the Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis, where we had a nice dinner followed by a multitude of laughs.

Anyhow, that has left me precious little time to do things before I head to sleep tonight, so until later, I bid thee adieu.

Today was a beautiful day. I couldn’t stomach the thought of spending the entire day cooped up inside, so for my lunch break, I went to the driving range and hit a few. Good stuff!

The first week of my internship at Medtronic has drawn to a close, and I must say that I continue to be extremely impressed: impressed by my knowledgeable coworkers, impressed by the professionalism everyone shows, impressed by my manager’s leadership skills… let’s just say that I’m delighted with the experience thus far. A major contributing factor to my satisfaction is that I have a worthwhile project. I am learning valuable strategies for managing and executing projects. Overall, I am gaining fantastic experience, which has direct, real application in whatever I end up doing later in life.

I noticed a disturbing trend as of late: The number of visitors to this site is inversely proportional to the amount I post. Are my posts driving you all away? Maybe if I do tricks more people will come. Here, I’ll stand on my head. See? Okay, so maybe that doesn’t trip your trigger. Perhaps this calls for a different strategy: I will give a new Hummer to the person who visits my web site the most. This should work; everybody likes contests. Of course, I have no Hummer to give away, so to fix that problem, the contest entry fee is one new Hummer.

But seriously, if I know you, drop me a line by any of the usual ways: email, AIM, or phone. Let me know how your summer is going. Alternately, start your own blog. If you’re a personal friend of mine, I’ll even host your web site, no charge. No kidding! Just get in touch with me and I’ll give you the details.