Enough is enough. The crew here at AITS headquarters decided we weren’t willing to take second seat anymore. We all had a little heart-to-heart with Norm, and told him if he was going to stash beer in this place, he needs to share the love. Don’t bogart the Bud. A workers’ rebellion, it would be, if we didn’t get a few creature comforts around here.

Amazingly, Norm was receptive to our plight. No yelling, no rants, no name-calling, no objects thrown. “I can’t be a dickwad…all the time,” Norm admitted. “I guess you all earned a little diversion in this rathole where we toil every day.” Norm decided that the Alligators in the Sewer newsroom needed a refrigerator. It’s a quality of life issue, after all. We were stunned. That was soooo incredibly easy, and Norm didn’t raise a single objection. Such generosity from The Big Guy lately. First a Halloween party, now this. To what do we owe this extreme pleasure?

Norm informed us that if we purchased a fridge, he’d stock it with Budweiser. Cold Bud for a change! If we wanted anything else on hand, we would have to buy it ourselves. Like a few microbrews for really special occasions. We have finally arrived.

We scoured the classifieds on Craigslist, looking for a cheap refrigerator. We did one better than that. We found a free one. Just one catch: they said we would have to haul it out of their building ourselves. Bring lots of help.

The next day, we all drove to the location in the AITS utility truck during our lunch break. Norm and Maynard even came along to help. It wasn’t the nicest neighborhood. But then again, AITS HQ isn’t exactly in a posh neighborhood either.

We discovered that the fridge is on the fifth floor of an old apartment building and the only way to get it down is to carry it down the fire escape. Good times. It was like Laurel & Hardy hauling that piano, only down. But we made it down all 5 flights without getting hurt and had the refrigerator on terra firma and loaded up before we knew it. Which only made us thirsty…

On the way back to HQ we stopped at one of our favorite liquor stores (we have many). Can’t have an empty fridge, can we?  The refrigerator is now in its final resting place along the side wall of the newsroom, plugged in and well-stocked with various liquid refreshments. It’s enough to make our kinda-sucky job a bit more tolerable.