Oh, no!

It’s that time of year again. The weather’s just right (at least for a few days in a row, it was) for sleeping with the windows open and getting a nice, cool breeze.

See the windows cranked out on the second floor?

While that feels really great and lots of folks love to sleep that way, it can wreak havoc in the lives of professional flockers.

Our victim’s home was less than 10 minutes from ours, in one of the most beautiful, well-known neighborhoods in the area (the victim’s, not ours — ha!). This home was just a couple of blocks from one of the lakes in this neighborhood. Nice area, nice lawns, and I don’t ever worry about theft or vandalism when I set up here.

It was about 5:45 a.m. when we got there and I was looking forward to a quick setup and getting back home to sleep in a little more on a Saturday morning.

There were several windows cranked open along the front of the house.

Oh, no! Last time we delivered to a house with windows open, the victim was either already awake or we woke her up. I’m not exactly sure, but I think she may have been up already because her teenaged son came out and got in his car to leave for band practice while we were setting up.

We set the tombstones and yard card up as quickly and as quietly as possible, tip-toeing all the while.

Didn’t want to risk waking everyone up by taking a photo, so I came back later in the day while I was running errands. Actually, I came back by twice because it was a straigth shot from my house to the grocery store and I was so darn curious. The first time I drove by, neighbors were outside and cars were slowing down to take a look.

I always get such a kick out of that!

So I came back by a little later and people were still taking a look.

Fun, fun, fun!

That’s the best part of this business. Making people happy.

Are you ready to make someone happy on their birthday or other special occasion? We’re ready to help! Just send us an email at info@agreetingyard.com or call us at (417) 823-3915 to schedule a Public Display of Affection to mysteriously appear in the yard of your loved one.

Need a few ideas for inspiration first? Take a look at the short video on the home page of our web site at AGreetingYard.com.

A mom recently hired us to set up in front of her son’s place of business, Loftis Jewelry & Pawnbrokers in Springfield, Missouri, for his 40th birthday.

It was to be near one of the busiest intersections in town, just across the road from the world-famous original Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World.

Yup, that’s my town’s claim to fame — Bass Pro Shops. Oh, and we can’t forget Brad Pitt. He grew up here, ya know. His family is still here. We hear of Brad-sightings once in a while, but not so much lately. (But don’t get me started on Brad or Brangelina. Jennifer Aniston and I are now joined by the bond of men who did us wrong… Hey, Jenn. Ring my digits, girrrrrrl. We’ll meet at Starbucks ‘cuz I’ll be there for you when the rain starts to pour…)

Back to the details of this fabulous flocking…

Actually, the business itself sits just off the busy intersection, with the east side of its parking lot facing the intersection and its entrance (to the north) opens to a less-busy street that runs behind. Kind of confusing to explain, but both the east and north sides of this business’ parking lot are highly visible, even though they’re not directly on the corner of one of the busiest intersections in town.

The building is bright yellow, so when the mom requested our giant yellow rubber duckies, I was concerned that they wouldn’t show up too well against the backdrop of a yellow building.

As with setting up in front of any business, we run a greater risk of theft or vandalism, so we didn’t do our usual sneaking-around-in-the-wee-hours bit. We set up about 7 a.m., so it was already light outside and the birthday boy was already there. Picked the display up about 6 p.m., but we had already been the victim of a theft. We lost yet another of our precious giant yellow rubber duckies. (Have you heard the story of our first heartbreaking duckie theft? If not, click here to read it in an e-newsletter. Once you get there, scroll down about half-way until you see the headline, “Ab-DUCK-ted.”)

We took advantage of the fact that we were setting up near this busy intersection and put out two yard cards (at no extra charge — see how flocking nice we can be?) instead of our usual one yard card. Plus it was easier to break it up and do, essentially, two displays on this job because we didn’t have a nice, wide grassy area to do our usual duckie placement.

Another concern was the only grassy areas available were actually the city’s right-of-way, and we didn’t want to risk putting our display far enough into the grass that we might block drivers’ vision. So that’s why the duckies are planted as close to the inner curbing as possible. I didn’t want to get any calls from the city teling me to pick it all up NOW, or go back to pick it up in the evening to discover it had all been yanked out and put through a wood chipper or something.

Here are a few photos of the dual duckie display for Darrell’s 40th bday at Loftis Jewelry & Pawnbrokers in Springfield, Missouri.

See that traffic light at the intersection (in the photo above)? Look past it and to the right. You'll see the (fuzzy) Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World sign, and some treetops at the massive Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World complex. I avoid BPS as much as possible except for an occasional trip to its fabulous restaurant, Hemingway's. And I know the nearly-Bubba-free way to get in there.

AGreetingYard.com was featured in the May 2, 2006, business section of the Springfield News-Leader. (Sorry — The story is no longer up on their web site.)

Pretty good translation of the interview. Only a few minor errors, and it’s stuff that I always discuss with my customers when they’re ordering anyway. So there won’t be any surprises. For example, the story states that we rent the displays for a 24-hour period. Well, we DO rent them for a full 24 hours for an extra fee, but our normal, basic, everyday, most popular service is for the display to be in your victim’s yard from dawn until dark.

In other words (and to accomodate all of our deliveries, and to acommodate folks who might be early risers, etc.), we usually make our deliveries between midnight and about 6 a.m., and we pick up after dark.

So, no biggie.

We’re just excited to finally have some coverage, and it’s really boosted our web site visitors in the last few days.