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Choice Mindsets

Choice Mindsets

Casey Reichert:
“Um, I think I’m getting a sunburn.”

 

As we move out of Daylight Saving Time and things just feel… darker, we’ve tried to infuse some extra brightness into the Choice One office. No, we haven’t put on fluorescent spandex again (thankfully!), we removed the diffusing panels from some light fixtures. Apparently the initial shock of the fresh lighting was just a little too much for Casey.

 

We try to keep our offices “light” in many ways. In addition to adding brighter bulbs, we make embarrassing videos, laugh at each other’s harmless mistakes (until the Governor calls), and jab each other endlessly… and publicly. And while it’s ALWAYS dark when Jeff Puthoff shows up at the office at 5:00am, we’ll keep flipping on the lights, cranking out some engineering design, and saying enough ridiculous things to make each other (and you) chuckle from time to time.

 

Hope this Mindset has made your Friday brighter. Not painfully brighter (like Casey), but brighter nonetheless!

Nick Selhorst:
“Buckets are here!”

Our Loveland Choice One Charity Cup is back, and Nick Selhorst couldn’t be more excited! He also couldn’t be more efficient, as he clearly didn’t want to make more than one trip to his car to haul in all the buckets needed to play our annual Charity Cup Bucketball Tournament.

 

The only thing more impressive than Nick’s giant stack of buckets? The generosity of our clients and friends, who donated over $19,450 to Sweet Cheeks Diaper Bank. Wow! We can’t even think of words to describe our appreciation except THANK YOU! We continue to be blown away by the support and kindness of our friends who support this great cause. (And “blown away” is better than “blown over” in Nick’s bucket-carrying case, for sure!)

 

Believe it or not, despite Nick’s typical clumsiness, no buckets were dropped in the making of this Mindset. Nick’s luck did run out, however. The winner of the 2021 Loveland Charity Cup was not Nick’s team, but rather the team from CTL Engineering (l-r Dave Rowland, Doug Batt, COEC’s Jacqui Lohman, and Billy Tegge). Congrats to CTL and thanks again to all who participated!

Kaye Borchers:
“Why would you not drink coffee? These are the deep questions of life, Matt.”

If you know Choice One’s Matt Hoying and you think he’s a decent guy, your mind is about to be changed. He doesn’t like coffee. And not only does he not personally like coffee, he doesn’t even try to understand the deep love some of us have for hot bean water. And yet… and yet, behold the glorious coffee order received recently at Choice One’s Sidney office, beautifully built into a breakfast-blend box fort as modeled by Brittany Clinehens.

 

The Choice One relationship with coffee (despite Matt’s best efforts) has strengthened mightily over the years. From the introduction of afternoon coffee by Nick Selhorst (why it took us so long we’re not sure) to the eventual installation of a direct water feed coffee system (and Tony’s delightful frustration during said installation), most of us at Choice One enjoy a cup or six of coffee each day. Indeed, Nick Selhorst can’t even talk without it.

 

Sorry Matt, you can’t deny that Choice One is largely fueled by coffee. We love our cups of joe and will physically build fortifications to defend its existence and influence on our work. When you’re ready to come over to the dark [roast] side, the rest of us will welcome you with cappuccin-open arms.

Friendly Festival Guy:
“Yeah, I’ve met your friends. I was the top of their pyramid. Want me to be the top of your group’s pyramid too?”

 

A few weekends back, the Choice One crew loaded up a couple of buses and hung out in Pittsburgh for the weekend. Part of the weekend included a photo scavenger hunt that resulted in lots of entertaining photos, as you might guess. We made such an impression on the people of Pittsburgh, apparently, that one gentleman offered to be at the top of TWO of our groups’ human pyramids.

 

The list of scavenger hunt items was most interesting. In addition to a human pyramid, we looked for roadkill, a green house (naturally), a green car (obviously), Christmas decorations, and, of course, a roundabout (which no one could find, by the way… it was an engineering tragedy). We posed with strangers who had the same first names as us, recreated the Beatles Abbey Road cover, and tried our best to pronounce “Monongahela.”

 

If you haven’t guessed yet, we try to spread fun wherever we go. And based on our new friend’s willingness to participate, it appears we succeeded. Enjoy a few more photos of our fun below!

Brian Schmidt:
“My eye doctor is an advertiser for us. He kept flipping lenses saying ‘Choice One or Choice Two?'”

We notice a green shirt across the room at a conference, and we automatically think it’s a coworker. We hear someone talk about their “first choice” in a situation, and we know they’ve used the wrong phrase to indicate the best selection. We are given two options during an eye exam, and we know which choice is the right choice, even if it leads to ineffective prescription eyewear.

 

We just can’t help ourselves. When we spend each day wearing green, surrounded by green, living the Choice One mindset (pun intended), it just happens. Don’t worry about our mental states–we promise we’re not brainwashed!

Adam Gill:
“The server was down, so we had to pass the time…”

…and Sledgehammer Putt-Putt was born.

 

What can we say? Most of us at Choice One like sports, or at least enjoy friendly competition, so when a few spare minutes are had, some sort of contest spontaneously occurs. Our Loveland office has a pop-a-shot machine that elicits daily lunchtime games of P-I-G. Our Sidney office has a pickleball court in the basement. Jacqui Lohman keeps her lacrosse sticks at work “just in case.”

 

It’s a testament to our engineering ingenuity (or more likely our extreme competitiveness) that we can develop a game of skill out of just about anything. Just take our annual Charity Cup fundraisers, which coerce–ahem, invite–our clients and friends into closing their eyes, spinning around three times, and throwing beanbags at various targets with their non-dominant hand to support a charity. Regular cornhole or bucketball? Not a chance! (Just a reminder that the Loveland event is November 3!)

 

Whether we’re “hammering” a golf ball into Jake Bertke’s “How the $#@* did I get to be 30?!” coffee cup or considering adding qualifications to our employment application like “must be willing to try off-the-ceiling shots during daily pop-a-shot games,” we will keep coming up with ways to compete. Stay tuned—we’re pretty sure our recent establishment of the National Association of Trashcan Football (NATCFB) is going to catch on beyond our office walls soon!