The Filter Of Love

Mid-week last week, I had occasion to send some "issue" emails to Cowboy. "This wasn't done right", "This is broken", "This needs to change", that sort of thing. I ended up sending quite a few of those messages throughout the morning. Cowboy never replied to any of them, but I wasn't worried. He's got a reputation as a hinder-kicker... I didn't need to hear from him to know what his reaction was going to be.

And I tried to be good. Really, I tried. But after the second or third message, some of my snarky attitude started to come through a bit. Phrases like, "What was so-and-so thinking?", began to appear. I deleted some of them after typing them, but not quite all.

Early that afternoon, Cowboy called me. "I just wanted you to know that I'm not ignoring your messages," he said. "I'm deleting a few of your words here and there, forwarding the message along, and then I'm going and talking to them directly."

Deleting a few of my words here and there? Ah, my good buddy Cowboy's lookin' out for me. :) "So what you're telling me," I replied with a grin, "is that I can feel free to kick the sarcasm up a notch?"

"Oh yeah," he replied, brimming with bravado. "I'm your editor, baby."

"You're my filter of love?"

I momentarily lost Cowboy to bursts of laughter over that one. "Yes," he sputtered, "I am your filter of love."

"You need that on a t-shirt, man."

Once again, I lost Cowboy to explosive laughter.

I started to think about this, and it just seemed *right*. So, I went to Switch to ask for help. Switch is one of our graphic designers, and he just happens to have his own t-shirt press. Upon hearing the story, Switch enthusiastically agreed to make a "I am Jeff's filter of love" t-shirt for Cowboy.

The next day, Switch made the shirt. And this is where the story ends.

See, for the past FULL WEEK, Switch keeps forgetting to bring the shirt to work so we can present it to Cowboy. By now, I am certain Cowboy has forgotten the joke.

So instead, I have to content myself with blogging about Cowboy's tact and Switch's forgetfulness.

Ah, well. At least I finally made Cowboy laugh uncontrollably. I can cross that off my life's to-do list.