It's a good thing Archie is a nice guy, else I might have gotten blown away.

I remembered today that I hadn't appraised you as to how it went when I interviewed Archie last week. Fantastic, to say it in one word. He had all the time in the world for me as we chatted about our mutual friend and the subject of my other book. It was like two guys, sitting at the ballpark shelling peanuts during a double header, or dunking minnows from a small boat on a lake in the Canadian wilderness.

Warm, gracious, down to earth, helpful, insightful. I can think of many words to describe the gentleman I was privileged to sit down and have a conversation with. I ended up with 50 minutes of tape, which is a lot for someone of that stature. It's a good thing too. I might have been in trouble if it had only been 49.

Last Tuesday was the day the storm swept through Columbus. When I left Archie's third floor corner office, and then stepped from the elevator into the lobby, I thought Hole-Leeee-Cow! The sky to the west was blacker than a moonless night far from civilization. "Maybe I should wait a minute", I thought. I did, and it wasn't but a couple of minutes that the deluge started. "Now I know I am not going out," I told myself.

About that time, the tornado sirens sounded, WBNS TV broke in to tell us we were under a tornado warning, and the entire Longaberger staff, Archie, and yours truly, all headed to the basement to wait it out. I was sure glad I wasn't in my car out on Olentangy River Road. After about 20 minutes, the storm passed without any serious incident, but it did give me opportunity to nose around down there and check out their print shop, mail facilities, and all the other behind the scenes things that go with supporting and organization of that magnitude.

As I went on my way I thought how lucky I had been that it hadn't hit in the middle of the interview. Had it interrupted us, I probably wouldn't have gotten my 50 minutes!