Goodbye, 2011

So it's almost 2012. Wow.

When I was little, I always thought that it would be cool to see a new century. I always hoped that I would see the "TURN OF THE CENTURY". This seemed to be the BIGGEST EVENT OF MY LIFE. I don't know what I thought I'd see, but I looked forward to it eagerly. I remember clearly sitting and doing the math, (uh, 2000 minus 1955 equals ) figuring "OK, I'll only be 45, I should make that."  I guess I thought that there would be some kind of big, noticeable change, maybe like a cosmic blink or something. When the talk of Y2K started, I wasn't surprised. That fit with the fact that this was the beginning of a NEW MILLENNIUM. So many possibilities, such anticipation.

As you know, it was just another New Year's Eve/Day. So still, even at 45 years old, I went "Big deal." Too much science fiction reading, I suppose.

Now it's hard to believe that was 12 years ago. They say (whoever they are) that the feeling that time is going by faster is a sign of old age. I don't know if I feel that time is going faster as much as that there is just so much to enjoy and do and see and participate in and be a part of and remember that I don't want the year to be done. I want some more stuff dated 2011 to remember. 

January 2011: Lots of snow days

February 2011: Mardi Gras Lunch at church

March 2011: DJ's track meets

April 2011: Joshua earned his Arrow of Light

May 2011: Another school year ended

June 2011: DJ's last doctor visit for his neck. My camping trip to Land Between the Lakes. Our 19th Wedding Anniversary

July 2011: Trips to Birmingham and Cincinnati on vacation. Monica's class reunion.

August 2011: Ricky turns 16.

September 2011: 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center Attacks

October 2011: Monica got her teaching position at Jere Baxter school

November 2011: My birthday landed on Thanksgiving again

December 2011: Another Christmas!

There's tons more stuff that I didn't list. There's tons more stuff that I've forgotten. I started this post with the idea that I was just going to take the ball about the New Year and run with it. No particular point to make. Now I find that I'm coming to a state of mind where I want not just to make memories, but to better appreciate the opportunity to make memories. I've never been one for New Year resolutions, but maybe that's one I should make: To relax and enjoy every day and the things that happen in that day. I'm not known for being that passive. I've been brought up and trained to make things happen. Can I do it? Watch this space...

Obligatory Holiday Post

I had actually intended to write this yesterday, but never got around to it. It still applies. The question I had planned to open with was:

How many of you woke up yesterday and thought "Hey wow, this is Christmas Eve!"

Christmas Eve. It stills has a magical quality to it. Even though we're not children anymore, just realizing that the day is Christmas Eve kinda lightens the heart. You go through the day just a tad more relaxed, a little happier, a bit more musical. Yes, musical. Don't you find yourself humming carols and Christmas songs all day? Doesn't "Frosty the Snowman" leap to the front of your thoughts more than it did on December 23rd?

Now it's Christmas Day (and almost over, at that). There's a certain amount of magic here too, but not the same as yesterday. It must be the anticipation of Santa Claus coming that night. Or maybe it's just the fact that most people know that it's really the last day of the holiday season. Whatever. I love Christmas Eve. The holidays to me are more an attitude, a chance to be a bit child-like. 

So I hope that you have had a good holiday season and a Merry Christmas. I hope that you can carry a bit of this magic through the New Year with you. I know I'm going to re-dedicate myself to it. 

Celebrating 80

Yes, I feel the need to blog. I've opened this damn "new post" link several times the last few days, but can't get started. So I figured the only way to do it is to do it.

So, last week we go to Birmingham for my Dad's 80th birthday party. His birthday is actually the 22nd, but Mom wanted to make sure that his party was not connected in any way with Christmas. When Dad was a kid, his father skipped out on them, and left my grandmother to take care of three kids. Now I'm not sure exactly when Ol' Gramps left, but I know that the family was pretty poor. I know that for a brief period of time, they lived in a neighbor's outbuilding, like a barn or something similar. Of course, remember that this was in a pretty rural area, so even the barns and stuff were well-maintained and such (I don't want you to get the wrong impression). Dad never has spoken of it much. I don't know if it's too painful, or if he's just gotten over it and doesn't want to fool with it, or if it just doesn't come up. I never met his father so when I was little it never occurred to me to ask about him. Anyway, Dad has mentioned that many times, he only got one gift (or sets thereof) that served as both a birthday present and Christmas present. So Mom wanted this to be especially special and distinct.

And it was. We went out to dinner at a place called Sweet Bones Alabama, kind of an upscale BBQ place. I don't know how upscale except maybe price, because they were out of spare ribs! How does a BBQ place run out of spare ribs? They had baby backs, but still! And on a Saturday night! (The only thing I can think of is that they overcooked a batch. Those things probably cook for 12 hours, and if you lost a batch, you'd be a day behind). Whatever. Then over to the house for cake. All the family was there except my daughter Susan, who was busy in Cincinnati doing doctorate-type stuff and couldn't get away. So that's about 20 people. Had a nice time, and I think Dad really got a kick out of it.

Of course, Mom's a couple of years older than he is, and it's kinda funny how they both tell me occasionally that they worry about the other. "He's not really in too good of shape," Mom will say. "He just doesn't have the energy he used to. " and from Dad: "I worry about her sometimes. She just can't seem to do as much anymore."

Worry-warts. Gotta love 'em.

Know What? I Like Sports

Are you ready for some football? ESPN doesn't use that line much anymore, but I like it. I like watching sports. I like the physicality, the effort, the determination, and the competition. I enjoy the strategy. That last one is why it took so long for me to enjoy hockey, I didn't know enough about it to appreciate what they were doing. (I still only know enough to enjoy Predators hockey where I have an interest in the result.) The story lines (as the media likes to call them) are often interesting, too, but it's the game itself I want to see.

Football is king. I can watch any NFL game. Obviously, my team is the Titans. I don't understand people who don't pull for their local team. Prior loyalties I can understand. If you grew up a Steelers fan, I get that you can't change, but the local team should be a close second. I like the college game too, but it has to be a team I care about. (Fortunately, I care about enough teams that there's plenty of opportunities). Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Ohio State; they all hold me for an entire game. I peek into games that I have a passing interest: Troy (my brother's team), MTSU (local boys), Cincinnati (wife and daughter's). I like shows about football, NFL Network, NFL Primetime. I like football movies, but there's very few good ones (The Blind Side, Remember the Titans).

Having an NHL team has taught me about hockey. I don't think I'll ever get it to the same extent as football, but if the Preds are on TV, I'll try to watch it if I can, and I enjoy it. But if it ain't the Predators, I can't do it.

Baseball is great late in the season and in the playoff series. I really enjoyed the World Series this year. I guess I'm a Reds fan (since Monica is) but I don't have a team otherwise. I have an ages-old prejudice against Atlanta teams, so I have a hard time cheering the Braves (I just alienated two brothers, a nephew, and a niece with that line.)

I played basketball for years in grammar school and high school, but I can't hardly watch any of the pro game anymore. It's all offense and superstars. The college game is pretty good, I watch some of the NCAA tournament. Actually, the women's game is closer to what I call pure basketball nowadays. I'll peek at it occasionally.

See what happens when you get me on a subject I like? Gotta go now, it's 8 minutes left in the 3rd period, Nashville Predators are down 2-1 but are now on the power play. So if th..  PREDS SCORE ON THE PP!

The Holidays (Part 1)

So...

Thanksgiving Day (and my birthday) has come and gone. 

We had a good holiday. We made the annual trip to Trussville (just outside Birmingham) Alabama to my parent's house for the big family holiday. Altogether, we had 18 people there. There's always plenty of food, plenty of beer, plenty of football to watch, and plenty of fun. Our car's acting up (again. I know, but it's got 160,000 miles on it) but we made it. The biggest concern to me outside of that is that Mom and Dad will be wiped out from all the stuff. Mom's 84, and Dad turns 80 Dec. 22nd, They're both in good health for their age, and 100% mentally, but I know that Dad especially will be worn out all of Friday and most of Saturday.

Now it's time to look forward to Christmas.

I like the holidays, I really do. But in my business, it's hard. So much pressure, so busy, so many people. No extra time off to enjoy the special events. And at Sam's Club, they don't even have the piped-in music anymore, so no Christmas music to get you in the mood.

But I still enjoy this time of year. Joshua has been talking about Christmas for weeks. Some of the best Made-for-TV movies come on. And people generally get into a better mood, especially the last few days before Christmas. So break out the egg nog, put out the cookies, and let's go! It's the Holiday Season!

Veteran's Day

I know that I can never really know what it must be like to serve overseas in the military. How in the world can a person survive mentally and emotionally in a situation where they are subject to traumatic injury, even death, at a moment's notice every minute of every day? When you see a movie where soldiers attack an enemy position, knowing that most of the people they're with will die before they get there, it's hard to realize that that is happening in real life EVERY DAY to people just like me.

No, not like me. The people who do this are special people, a cut above. These people put their personal lives on hold for an ideal, an image. They believe that the concept of America is worth whatever sacrifice is required to preserve it. Over there, it doesn't matter whether a person is Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, black, white, or green. They don't worry about who the President is, just that there IS one. They do what has to be done for the America that, as imperfect as it is, stands for freedom, opportunity, justice, liberty, and peace.

And they don't have to be deployed to serve and sacrifice. Even those here at home are subjected to stresses and such that would kill anybody else. 

Most people I know appreciate our military. Everyone says "Thank a soldier." And that's good, I know service members who say that it really does mean something to them to hear those thanks. But try and put yourself in their boots, and try to understand what emotions they have to overcome and suppress in order to serve. I think that may help you gain an even better appreciation. If politicians did it, it may solve many issues in the world.

 Think about kneeling behind a wall in a foreign country, bullets whizzing all around from people trying to kill you. Your heart is racing from adrenaline. Sweat is pouring down your face, into your eyes. There are ten friends over there in the same situation. Only YOU can save their life. You have to stick yourself around the side of that wall and kill the enemy before they kill you. The odds are against you, and you know it. You take a deep breath, and start to move.

I honestly don't know how they do it.

Truly Random

Sometime's you just feel like you should write something, so here I go. The reason I started this blog in the first place was because I enjoy writing, and felt like I needed an excuse to do it, not to mention a place. I have written some fiction in my spare time, but not lately. I don't even know if it's still around here anywhere. I guess I ought to try to find it.

How did people live before spell check? I'm a very good speller, but a terrible typist. I looked back at that paragraph and it's got more words with red underlines than not. Just think how it was back in the day when you had manual typewriters and had to fix errors with White-Out. How did they (we) get anything done? Especially when making carbon copies.

I wonder how many young people know what "CC:" on their email means. Mine didn't. It stands for Carbon Copy. It's used on letters to show who received a carbon copy of the letter. YOU knew, didn't you?

When was the last time you sent a letter? I know that I haven't in years. I hardly ever mail anything nowadays. I use online banking to pay bills, I use email to communicate, or text messaging. Of course, that's why the Postal Service is suffering. They need to figure out how to get onto the digital bandwagon.

I'd like to write about the Penn State situation, but honestly, I don't know what to say. I know how I feel about it, but not sure I can put it into words well enough to make my point clearly. I think that there is a huge rush to judgement and political correctness going on. For example, did you know that there is a decades-old student-run charity (THON, I think is the name) that many contributors have pulled their support for? Why would they do that? What did the charity have to do with Sandusky? I believe that there is a ton of information yet to come out and that any real reaction should wait. Another example of that: I understand and even agree that Paterno had to go from the university's standpoint, but I was feeling that he was getting a bit shafted. Then I hear on ESPN Radio today that he signed over the deed to his house to his wife for $1 - just this past summer. After his grand jury testimony. It seems incredible to me that all this was going on for all those years, and NOBODY knew it. Why did Sandusky retire in 1999 in his fifties at the prime of his career? This was the year he received national "Assistant Coach of the Year" awards. And why was he never interviewed for head coaching jobs? There's dirt everywhere on this scandal. It's sickening. And there needs to be more emphasis on getting help for the victims.

And yes, I have read the Grand Jury's presentment of the case, so I feel at least informed enough for an opinion.

I guess I did know what to say, after all...

I'm not bragging, but...

It's easy sometimes to take stuff for granted. You know, some stuff happens everyday, and you get where you just expect that. You forget sometimes how unique it is, or how special or whatever. Then, something happens that makes you realize what's going on.

Your kids are that way. You work hard all their lives to help mold their personality and stuff, and when they get a little older (remember, everything is relative), when they act or behave or whatever in the manner you expect,  ehhh, no big deal. But when you hear of some of the things that other kids do, you begin to appreciate them a bit more.

I'm very blessed with my kids. I have five, which got everybody's attention when I was answering questions during jury selection one time. My two older girls, now 29 and 26 (27 in November), and my three boys, aged 17 (18 in January),16,and 11. Each one is as different as night and day. The oldest has the outgoing personality, the next is the student. The youngest has a silly sense of humor, and enjoys being the youngest (just ask him, he admits it!) At 16, Middle Boy is the prototypical high school nerd, who loves gaming and wants a career in computer software engineering. And the 17-going-on-25 boy is the most like me in terms of his love of sports and such. We have (at least I think we have) a good, strong relationship with all of them. The girls even get along with and seem to like their stepmother (and yes, in deference to all the Disney movies, I often refer to her as the "wicked stepmother", a joke that only I seem to truly appreciate).

I say we're blessed because I don't usually face some of the issues I hear others dealing with. My boys do their chores. They come home and sit down and do their homework. They ask permission to go places. They watch their soda intake (which I understand is a MAJOR problem in a lot of homes). They do their own laundry (more or less...). I was complaining to someone one day a while back about how one of them says "Hello" every time they see me as if they hadn't seen me all day, and they expect me to answer. My complaint was that it was distracting. The other person thought it was nice, and wished their kids would speak to them even just once a day. I've learned to appreciate it more now.

We had a run-in with Honorable Number One Son a couple of weeks back. To be brief, he let us down on something, and Mom and I were pretty upset about it, but, being a Mom, it particularly got to Monica. It took quite a while to get everybody over it, because, as I explained to them at the time, we didn't know how to get over something like this. We'd never had to! We had always been able to sit down, talk over a matter briefly, and be done. And we still can. This one just took a little more work than usual.

That's what I mean about being blessed. #1 has gone back to school to get her degree and improve herself, #2 is about to finish her doctorate and has a good career outlook, #3 has done a great job of looking at colleges, and he has a job and a girlfriend now, #4 continues to do well with his engineering studies and is still on the path to being an Eagle Scout, and #5 still makes me laugh. We all of us can sit around a dinner table, or be riding in a car, or whatever, and carry on a conversation, often intelligent, sometimes cracking each other up (ask the boys about Zoltan the punter.)

Oh yeah, and Monica completes the final course for her Master's degree in Education this weekend. (Had to throw that in. That's quite a blessing as well!)

Leadership

I posted on Facebook the other day the results of my annual performance review at work. I received a total rating of "Solid Performer", which is about as good as I can expect to get at my wage level. Let's face it, you're not going to qualify for the top wage increase after 13 years in a skill position. But, one category was listed as "Development Needed". Reason: "Daniel works too hard. Leaders lead, and workers work." OK, now I get the point that leaders should provide direction and so forth, but I've never heard of someone being marked down for working too hard. After basically 30 years of management, the vast majority of that as General Manager, and a significant chunk of THAT as GM of Manager Training Units, I have some opinions of what leadership and management should look like. (I know, you're surprised that I of all people would have an opinion...)

Most managers make things too hard on themselves. Managers have ONE job: to get their employees to perform at a certain level. All other jobs that managers think they have are based on this one. You can't manage the supply cost: it's a piece of paper. Managing the bottom line doesn't work either, it's theoretical. There are as many ways to get people to perform as there are people. But managers have to deal in generalities first, and there's only one way to get people to work the way you need: they have to want to. They have to have a desire deep down in their gut to do the job right. Without that, no amount of begging, pleading, threatening, bullying, or, to use the current phrase, holding them accountable will make a difference. If they don't want to do it and do it right, they won't. Period. End of story.

So how do you get someone to want to move 50 pound boxes from one pallet to another for 8 hours? How many people get up in the morning saying "Oh boy, I get to go bust my butt today!" There's only one way here too: they have to want to make their manager happy. This old "I'm not here to be liked" doesn't apply anymore. People want a leader, someone they can look up to, someone they can believe in and count on. And someone they can trust. They MUST trust that leader to the point that if he says "This job can be done in one hour", they know it can because he's done it and he knows what he's talking about. Therefore, they will do the best they can to do it in that hour, because (wait for it) they want their leader to be proud of them and happy with their work. If they've never seen that leader pick up that 50 pound box, then it becomes "Who does he think he's talking to? I do this every day." Leaders have to be out in front, leading the way, looking over their shoulder and telling their folks to catch up to them.

Leaders DO work. The difference is that they shouldn't be working that hard the whole day. One of my favorite expressions was "If I'm out of breath, you should be sweating." If a manager finds themselves doing their people's work all day, they need to look at why, but they need to keep doing it until they solve that question.

This is getting WAY too long, so I'll end here. Next time I'm in the mood, we'll have a class on motivating people, which is similar, but not exactly the same. One thing's for sure: I'm trying to make sure I never get marked off for working too hard again!

I Remember When Rock was Young

CLICK HERE and listen to this (Click the back button on your browser to come back here. I guess I need to learn how to embed this stuff)
OK so this just hit me earlier today. This is good music. Actually, one of the best covers of this song I ever heard was way back in 1989 or 1990. At O'Charley's, we decided to have live entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights. My memory is that it didn't last but whatever, that's beside the point. One guy I hired for awhile did a great job with this song, so much so that we had the whole saloon singing the refrain. Later this same guy started playing regularly at Courtyard Cafe at Hickory Hollow, which is where Monica and I had our first date. He later bought Courtyard, changed the name to Nathan's, and kept playing there. His name? Phil Vasser.

I searched for him doing this cover, but couldn't find one. I'll keep trying. It was dynamite!

Did you know that a relative of Englebert Humperdink (I think his son, actually) heard Vasser there at Nathan's and hired him as a songwriter. That's how he got his start.

Monica actually was friends with Vasser for a while before all this. I still kid her that her old boyfriend is on whenever he's on TV. Of course he wouldn't know me from Adam's housecat nowadays, but oh well.

Along those same lines, when I was running the Fifth Quarter on Thompson Lane, we remodeled the saloon and changed it to a piano bar. It was pretty uptown too, with upholstered chairs, a sunken bar, and a mirrored stage. I hired a girl, I forget her name for sure, who was immensely talented, both as a musician and singer. She packed the place out. One night as I'm doing the manager thing, one of the waitresses says a customer was asking me to come by his table. Naturally, I'm like "Oh man, what did we do wrong this time?" I go to the table, and it's Lee Greenwood. Now this is right when "God Bless the USA" had just become popular. Click here to Jog your memory Anyway, he was asking about the entertainer. I told him what I knew of her, her background and so forth, and he said that he was very impressed by her. He asked me not to say anything to her because he wanted to go in and listen to her after dinner. To get to the point, it was basically an audition. He was going on a brief road trip and his opening act had cancelled two or three of the dates. So he hired her to front for him later that month. I never did hear much afterwards, except I know that it got her several jobs, mostly studio work I think, but for all I know she's now some famous artist. Can't believe I can't remember her name.

There was fun in the restaurant business, lots of it, but the crap outweighed the gold. Too bad too.

Let's Go Camping!

Maybe it's because I don't have an RV and have never gone camping in one, but that commercial for RV World or whatever it is that yells "Let's go camping!" makes me smile a little every time. To me, that's not camping. You gotta vehicle, beds instead of sleeping bags, refrigeration, all the comforts of home.

To me, camping is tent camping. You have to carry everything you're going to need for the trip in at one time. The food has to be packed in ice. Clothes have to be rolled up and packed away neatly. You have to plan it through because there's no room for extra stuff.

But for a real camping experience, go along with almost 100 other people, where about 50% of them have never been camping. Make sure you have about 45 of them under the age of 10, and a good portion of them on their first trip. Make yourself responsible (with one other person) for their experience, and you get the feeling of what it's like to be a Cub Scout Leader at a Cub N Family weekend.
Of course, the activities were planned and put on by the Boy Scouts. They had all kinds of fun things for the boys to do, including the highlight of every fall camp, BB guns and Archery. But I spent the last month getting out the information, signing people up and collecting money, registering with the scouts, and then answering the fifty million questions that come up from the new people. And the occasional last minute emergency, like the family that didn't know until 4 days out that they were supposed to come and the boy couldn't be left by himself. Problems, stress, silly questions...

So why do I do it?

On our way to one activity, our Cubmaster was leading the way with me bringing up the rear of this parade of little boys. He was using his hiking staff and one of the boys asked another "Why does he have that stick?"
   "Because he's old," was the answer. Now imagine 30 8-year-old boys going "Oooooohhhhhhh", Reminds me of the little green aliens in Toy Story. "The claw"

High temperature Saturday 82, not a cloud in the sky. Lows at night 52. Perfect sleeping weather, and keeps the bugs down. MARVELOUS weather.

We were sitting in front of our tents resting when one of the new scouts came running up from the woods. "Mr. Dan! Mr. Dan! Look! Look!" I looked, and he was carrying a skeleton skull of what we think was a deer that he had found out there."Isn't this great! I'm taking it to school!"

There was one little boy who had never been camping before, and he was the most excited, enthusiastic kid you ever saw. Every move he made he reported to me in detail. At the campfire Saturday night, he was grinning so big making s'mores that I thought his face would split. He was talking up a storm, then suddenly he was quiet. He'd had such a big day that he fell asleep almost in mid-sentence. Friday night we could hear him whispering to his dad in the tent for a long time. Saturday night he begged his dad to be quiet and let him sleep.

We did a flag retirement ceremony Saturday night at the campfire, a very formal, solemn affair. To be brief, the flag is cut into pieces so that it's no longer a flag, and each piece is laid on the fire. The Union with the stars is not cut because Lincoln said after the Civil War that "no man will separate the union", and it is put on the fire last in one piece. One of our new parents is a veteran, and recently retired. We asked him to do the union. As he stepped away, parents and scouts gave him an ovation. Without prompting.

Those 5 examples are why I do it. There are several others from this weekend. What a great trip. What an honor.

Long Day

If you get up at 4AM, right now (8:48PM) is late. I'm tired. I get off work at 1:30, go home for 30-40 minutes, then drive downtown to pick up the boys from school. Got home about 4PM, then left at 5:15 for Middle Tennessee State's Reception for Seniors at LP Field. Got home just before 8, then had to pick up Joshua from scouts at 8:30. Long day.

I knew MTSU was a good school, but didn't realize how high their national rankings were. Highest undergrad enrollment in Tennessee. #4 healthiest campus in the country. #47 best educational value for the money in the country. #51 best academics in the country. Very nice reception there at the stadium.

The reception was held in the club level at LP Field. Man, could I enjoy going there for a Titans game! Had a great scenic view of downtown on one side, and a line of concessions and so forth on the other. You could see the luxury suite doors on the upstairs level, and through the hallway was the field. Very nice! And of course, TV's everywhere so you wouldn't miss a minute of the game.

Then at Scouts I find out: I need to set up an Eagle Scout Court of Honor and this Friday night at our camping trip, we're an adult short at the troop campsite so I need to provide one from our pack (probably me). Which means setting up my tent at the pack site, then driving over to the troop site to sleep, then driving back in the morning to my site. Pain in the rear end. But we volunteered to help IF NEEDED so that the troop could go. I was afraid that once we said if we had to we'd do it, that then we'd have to. Pretty automatic.

Ugh. I'm going to bed. 4AM comes awful early.

The other day I shot an elephant in my pajamas...

...how he got in my pajamas I'll never know. - Groucho Marx

http://www.wavlist.com/movies/064/stg-humor.wav

Commander Data  Star Trek: Generations 

I always do my elephant hunting in Alabama, because there the Tuscaloosa. - Groucho Marx

A man goes to a bar, sits down on a bar stool, orders a beer, and the bartender brings it over. The man sits there a few minutes, chit-chats with the bartender, watches a little TV, then, picking up the full, untouched beer, goes into the restroom. There he flushes it down the toilet.
He comes back, sets the empty mug down and asks for another round. The bartender complies, and the guy sits there for a few more minutes. Again, he takes the full, untouched beer and flushes it down the toilet.
"OK, barkeep," he says, " one more time then I gotta get going."
"Buddy, " says the bartender "It don't matter to me, you're paying, but you've taken the last two beers without taking a sip, and flushed them down the toilet. What's up?"
The guy says "I'm tired of being the middle man. "

"Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?"
"Look like the backstroke to me, sir."

"Waiter, there's a fly in my vegetable soup!"
"We don't charge extra for the meat, sir."

I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back. - Henny Youngman

I was so ugly growing up, my father carried around a picture of the kid who came with the wallet. -Rodney Dangerfield

If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of TV, we'd still be eating frozen radio dinners. - Johnny Carson

I always like to go to Washington, D.C. It gives me a chance to visit my money. - Bob Hope

Volunteer Issues

Not issues with the Volunteers, but with volunteers. Or more specifically with volunteer organizations.

When Joshua was little, I enjoyed being around him. He was a pleasant kid, and my youngest. But as he got 4 or 5 years old, I felt like we had little in common. Now, Ricky had joined Cub Scouts in the 5th grade, and it was a pretty good experience as far as the camping and the activities and so forth. Now he moved on to Boy Scouts and I went along as an adult volunteer. Joshua was going into first grade, and he wanted to be in cub scouts, so we joined him up too as a Tiger Cub. To be brief, he stayed in cubs all the way through 5th grade, earning every rank and eventually getting the Arrow of Light, the highest award in Cub Scouts, while I was there as Committee Chairman. Now he's in Boy Scouts. That time we spent together in Cub Scouts did EXACTLY what the program is designed for. It brought me and my son closer together through the shared experiences. We became more than just a dad and his kid. We are truly Father and Son. And I was afraid it wouldn't happen.

Anyway, I'm still Committee Chair of the pack, plus some leadership with the Boy Scout troop. I interact with other volunteers often, and I must say that they are good-hearted, well meaning, enthusiastic people who are in Scouting for the right reasons. They want to contribute to their son's and the community's future. They want to be involved in activities that provide service to others. And they want to go camping and hiking and such. But...

Long term volunteers often get what my very good friend calls the "Eeyore syndrome".

You know (deep, slow voice): "That won't work, the boys won't like it. " "It'll probably rain, and then what?" It gets frustrating. And when you're getting their opinion on something, you have to keep that in mind.

I also interact a fair amount with Boy Scout professionals, those who work for the BSA. And they for the most part are good people too. But the difference is that they have a career and a living to worry about. They get certain ideas in their heads about how things should be done, and you can't hardly get it out of them. I don't mean that they don't want the best for the boys, by no means, because as far as this type of deal goes, they're about the best, but when you try to do something a bit different, it has to fit their plan for what they are trying to accomplish career-wise. And it sometimes doesn't. That gets frustrating too.

Yes, a situation came up in the last couple of days that makes me think along these lines. And it will all work out. But I just wish that there was more of  Christopher Robin "How can we make it work?" and less Eeyore.

Why Go To College?

Well, that's ONE reason...

Many years ago, I was between jobs. I was tired of the restaurant business, and decided to get out of it. We were in fairly good shape money-wise at the time so I said "I'm only applying for non-restaurant jobs." Now, a restaurant general manager has to know how to manage several different type jobs. He has administrative duties and often has an administrative assistant, so he's an office manager. Turn over of associates is high, he has to hire and train people constantly, so he's a human resource manager. He verifies bills for payment, makes deposits, maintains cash security, so he's a financial officer. He constantly deals with the public, so he's a customer service manager. Not to mention the government agencies (health department, Wage and Hour, OSHA, etc) so he has to be a compliance manager. You get the picture. I had been doing this for roughly 20 years. So, for the next thirty days, I diligently searched newspapers and stuff for opportunities. I sent out something on the order of 40 resumes in that 30 days. Guess how many responses I got, not to mention interviews.

Zero

Well, that's not entirely true. From one company I got a form letter postcard saying thanks for the resume. I couldn't wait any longer. I sent out three resumes to restaurant jobs and was back to work within a week or so. There's a  friend at work facing the same deal as we speak. She was told that retail experience is a "joke." I'm convinced that it's the lack of a college education on that resume. Just that one line that says "B.A. Auburn University 1978" (I went there to take Commercial Art. I lasted two quarters, September '74 - March '75)
A college degree says "I can focus on one thing for four years and finish." It shows that a person can complete a laid out, systematic method to reach a goal. If the degree is applicable to the job under consideration, it says that the applicant has an aptitude for that field.

THIS IS WHY MY BOYS ARE GOING TO COLLEGE. I want them to have options. I want them to be able to change careers when they're 35 and ready for something different. I don't want them stuck in a field or job or career or organization or with a supervisor they detest because they were too lazy to go to class. They're good kids, they deserve the chance. And somehow, someway, I'm making sure they get it.

Staying Busy

Thursday 6PM Hume-Fogg High School: Seminar on applying for college
               6:30PM Edison Elementary: Cub Scout meeting
Saturday 3PM Kroger: Popcorn Sale
:Sunday   7:30AM Arlington UMC: Community Breakfast
               11AM Arlington UMC: Mayberry Hoe-down Lunch
Tuesday  5PM LP Field: College Fair
              7PM: Hamilton UMC: Boy Scout Meeting
Get the idea? I didn't include work shifts or picking up kids from school. We certainly manage to stay busy. But from what I can gather, I think most families are in the same boat. People want to be involved, they want to spend quality time with family and kids and friends and groups and charitable organizations and on and on and on. With a senior in high school, we want to make sure that every event that sheds light on getting into college gets investigated. Every time I see something about financial aid or scholarships or grants or fees or tuition or whatever gets my attention. People ask me where he wants to go to college. "Wherever will pay him", is my answer.

I knew we weren't doing a good job of getting ready financially for them to go to college. Now I know what my dad meant: "Every time I got two nickles to rub together, something went wrong with the car." Something just always seemed to come up. And I kept thinking we still have time. And now basically time's up.

This started out as a piece on our schedule, and it's moved into college prep, so let's roll with it. Not only does it cost a fortune to get through college (tuition, room and board, and books basically is $10k/year), it costs a fortune to get in there in the first place. The ACT (with the writing part) $75. SAT (early bird fee) $50. Submitting an application to a college (MTSU in this case) $25 (and much more for others). If you screw up and leave a school off your free test score list, it's $14 per. Not to mention transcript fees, phone calls, travel fees (if you can afford college visits), and the psychiatrist I'm going to need before it's all done.

It's not too late for you. I heard this from people for years, and now I know how true it is: START NOW! Some of you have 15 years to get ready for this. Even $10/week can make a difference.

Next blog: Why my kids are going to college, no matter what I have to do.

I Am Blessed

I had two conversations at work with friends today that got me thinking how lucky and blessed I am. One friend mentioned that today would have been his mother's 76th birthday. She died unexpectedly in 1991. Even though he talked freely about some good things about her, I could feel the pain and loss that he still felt.

I, on the other hand, am fortunate that my parents are both still with us. Mom is 83, and Dad will turn 80 in December. Both are still mentally clear (or if not, they fake it well!), and both are in good shape physically for their age. (I kid Mom that she takes so many pills she rattles when she walks). What a blessing that I get to enjoy them still!

Another friend mentioned today that she had "failed" her physical therapy yesterday. See, she was in a very nasty car accident a few months back that, frankly, she's lucky to have survived. She failed because of some exercise that involved moving her head diagonally up and down with her eyes closed, She failed because it made her dizzy and nauseous. Still.

I, on the other hand, have never had a broken bone or been admitted to the hospital. I had a fractured collarbone when I was like 7 or 8. I was chasing my little brother with murderous intent and slipped and fell into the corner of the TV. Now this was probably 1962 or so, and TV's back then weighed as much as a small car does today. I was in a sling for a while. I had hernia surgery back in '08, but other than that, I never get really sick (just a bit under the weather sometimes) and I'm blessed with pretty good health.

There's another good friend there at work that, sometime in the past, lost a child. I don't know the story, but they have good days and bad days still.
All three of these people are among the strongest, most positive people I know. I hope some of that rubs off on me.

I, on the other hand, am blessed with five fine, healthy offspring. They are all intelligent, confident, and well-adjusted (at least, as well-adjusted as kids of mine could be). I feel good about my relationship with each of them, and love them completely.

Our Cub Scout pack has signed up about 40 new kids this month. It saddens me when I see how many of them come with step-parents. My two girls have adjusted well to their step-mother. I hope these scouts do too.

I, on the other hand, never realized just how bad my first marriage was until I was blessed enough to get into a good one. In many ways, Monica saved my life back in 1989. We'll be married twenty years next June. It STILL feels like about four (until DJ wants the car keys). I've heard that one true test of love is if that person's happiness is more important than your own. Hers is.

(If Momma's happy, everybody's happy!)

I often moan and groan and complain and so forth, but I am THE most blessed person there is. I therefore have to work hard every day to earn it. And, I hope, to pass some of it along.

These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For

They say that if you say something loud enough and often enough, it'll start to make sense.

What you say, and how you say it, can make a huge difference on someone's day (I was going to say life, but I don't want to overblow it). Many people today just don't seem to understand this simple fact. People in authority too many times nowadays think that being blunt is being honest, that "I say what's on my mind" is something to be proud of, that management means telling people what to do. After 30 years in management, I got out because these misconceptions were becoming the norm, not the exception.
Yes, managers should be honest. Yes, managers should give direction when needed. But more important than that is realizing that a manager's job is to get a certain job done through their people. The good manager knows enough about their associates on an individual basis to know what motivates them, and how to use that factor to get the most out of them. And good managers remember what it was like to be the associate.

These same concepts work outside the workplace. Your family responds to you the same way; in fact, they need more attention because they know you well enough to respond to non-verbal clues. It comes up to me often in Scouts, where I am basically the General Manager of the pack. My job is to co-ordinate the efforts of a group of volunteers to present a good program to a bunch (71!) of elementary school boys. Think you can brow-beat a volunteer?

So until we learn Jedi mind tricks, simply remembering to respect the individuals you interact with will make your day and theirs much easier. May the Force be with you. Live long and prosper. (Oops, sorry, wrong reference!)

Football is Back!

Yesterday, September 11th, the Scouts had scheduled a 9/11 observance at the South Police Precinct. This is a very noble, civic minded type event, one that I definitely want my kids and the scouts in my pack to be involved with. This was something that I felt strongly about, that everyone should go, no doubt about it.

I found myself wishing they had scheduled it at 3:30.
Why? Because the Titans game wouldn't be over until right around 3.

Settle down now, OF COURSE we left on time, during the 3rd quarter. But sports are big in our house. I have always loved sports. I played Little League baseball, tried a little track in 5th and 6th grade, and high school basketball. I've always enjoyed watching and attending sporting events. Monica grew up similarly, a Bengals fan (I know, right) and Ohio State follower. DJ played football from 2nd grade until his neck fracture last year, as well as wrestling and track. Ricky tried wrestling for a season, and is considering fencing for his high school. (Who knows about Joshua.) So I guess a preoccupation with sports is normal.

Everybody in the family is a Titans fan, except Joshua who doesn't follow sports.I kid him that he was left on the doorstep. So we, especially DJ and I, watch NFL Network regularly, ESPN is on constantly, and there's frequently a discussion of how the Titans will do. (The Predators are a subject of conversation during their season, but it's not with the same intensity). We follow college, but pro sports are the biggie.

We're projecting the Titans to go 6-10 this season and miss the playoffs. The combination of new coaches, new quarterbacks, and correcting the talent problems from last year are just to much to overcome. We think they'll be competitive in most every game, meaning they'll still have a chance to win in the fourth quarter. So yesterday's first half was really disappointing (if you didn't see it, trust me, you're better off). I think that a bit more practice and game experience will help, but it reinforced my prediction.

So if my football posts get a bit... argumentative(?) during the next 16 weeks, forgive me. Warning: don't call the house on Sundays between 12-4. I will sometimes slip and say "we" when talking about the team. I keep telling myself that 6-10 would be a good season, but there's a little voice that keeps going "Well, with Peyton Manning out, who knows..."

I Remember Like it was Yesterday

Ten years ago, when I was the Meat Manager at Sam's Club in Murfreesboro, I always closed on Tuesdays. That means I didn't go to work until 11AM, maybe later. So, Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I'm sitting at the computer, just playing around, with ESPN on the TV at the other end of the room. Back then SportsCenter ran in 2 hour loops, so by the second loop I'm only paying half-attention to it.

Until I heard them say "We will break into our programming with any news about this attack on our country". I jumped up in shock, grabbed the remote, and switched to CNN. There I saw my first views of the attack on the World Trade Center. I believe it was a close-up of the smoke coming from the side of the building. As I listened in horror to them talking about what had happened, the tower began to fall. They pulled back to show the entire scene. I called Monica and told her about it. We were using pre-pay cell phones back then, and I asked her if she had a refill card for later. I was getting worried that we may not be able to stay in touch, like maybe the landlines would go down.

Information was chaotic. There were reports of an explosion at the Pentagon. There was an unidentified plane flying toward Washington along the Potomac. There was information that said that, on any given day, as many as 10,000 people would be in the towers. On the way to work, I stopped and got more minutes for the phones. Everyone in the store was scared and angry. When I dropped one off for Monica, I told her to consider getting the kids home early. No one knew what was going on and what was going to happen.

It was empty at work. There were several management discussions on what to do and how to handle the rest of the day. One of the associates left upset because her father had left the day before for a meeting in New York. We all kinda just went sleep-walking through the day. Until about 5:30PM. Apparently word had gotten out that gas prices were jumping because of fear that there would be no Middle Eastern oil. We all got pulled out into the parking lot directing traffic to the gas station. Cars were backed up all through the parking lot and out onto the road. As packed as the pumps were, everybody was very calm and understanding with us. All expressed a desire for military action.

We must always remember how that day felt, the fear we went through, the shock and horror. I can best describe it with one more anecdote: I'll never forget how chilled I got when I was bringing DJ home. As we pulled into the driveway, he said he couldn't get the idea of those pilots with knives held on them flying right towards the buildings out of his head. He was 7. I felt like he had lost a piece of his childhood. And I was sad all over again.

Star Trek Celebrates 45 Years and How it Helped Me

Star Trek Star Trek Cast Celebrates 45 Years, Part 4:

'via Blog this'

On Sept. 8, 1966, I was just sitting around looking for something to watch on TV. I stumbled onto "Star Trek". I was 10 years old. And I've been hooked ever since.

I'm not a "Trekkie" or a "Trekker". I don't dress up. I haven't remodeled the living room to look like the Enterprise bridge. I don't have pointed sideburns. I have watched every filmed episode of every version of Star Trek in all its forms. I've seen all the movies. I've read a lot of the books. I visit Startrek.com frequently. A Star Trek actor in a project will induce me to watch it.

I have a lot of Star Trek memorabilia. I've bought very little of it. Most of it is gifts from friends and family. When Monica and I first got married, her extended family drew names and exchanged gifts for Christmas. I was new to the family. They heard I liked Star Trek. The logical move: Star Trek themed presents. Which I was cool with. One of the coolest gifts I've ever received from anyone came about this way: Monica's Aunt May drew my name in 1994. Now, May owns a jewelry store in Lexington. She was struggling trying to come up with a gift for me. Now, in case you don't know, William Shatner (Capt. Kirk) is a horse-breeder, and owns a ranch in Lexington. His ranch foreman is a regular of May's shop. He came in one day, and they were talking, and May asked if Shatner would autograph a picture for me. So at the Christmas get-together, I open my gift. It's a picture frame with a piece of cardboard in it. On the cardboard is a note "With love, May" and a kiss. "May, this is...great" I mumbled. Then she told me the story, and added that the picture would be along in a few days. It's in that frame, over my desk. And it's not the autograph that makes it cool, it's the fact that she thought of me and did something different and off the wall. May's still one of my favorite people.

Why Star Trek? Because it's intelligent. It's realistic (once you buy the premise). It's optimistic. It postulates a future where all of mankind's petty differences have been eliminated, and all the energy and creativity used selfishly now is used to solve Earth's problems together. There's no war, no bigotry, no classes of people. It shows a world we'd all like to live in. The characters are real people. The interactions between them are real. And it can be rip-roaring adventure.

Happy birthday, Star Trek! Thanks for everything.

Being Grown-Up

   When I was growing up, my maternal grandparents lived in a big house not far from us. Every Sunday evening, we went over there for a visit. My cousins would be there too, at least most of the time, as well as my two aunts who lived with them, so there was a pretty good little crowd there. There was a lot of places to play outside, even though I don't remember exactly what all we did, except that there was an alley that ran behind the house that we thought was pretty neat. And around the block was a Haunted House! (That was our assumption: the house had some kind of wavy type glass in the windows and when a car went by, it looked like a candle running through the house even when no one was there! Pretty creepy when you're 8!)
   But that's not why we're here (although it was getting kinda interesting). I remember one night in particular, all the adults were in the living room, sitting around just talking, the kids were either outside or in the other room watching TV, and I was sitting there at the edge of the living room listening to the adults. Suddenly, my dad leaned over toward me and said something like I should go with the other kids. I replied to the effect that I wanted to stay there, and he said "Don't be in such a hurry to grow up."

Man, sometimes I wish I could have done something about it, Dad!

I guess I was always in a hurry to grow up. I had a paper route at 13 because I wanted my own money, I had a "real" job as a busboy at 16, and I was assistant manager of a restaurant at 19. Little did I know what being GROWN-UP involves. I was going to make a list, but why? It all boils down to one concept: Children are only responsible for themselves. Adults are responsible for others. And that puts a lot of pressure on one. I was brought up at home and trained at work to believe that there is a solution for every problem and you can solve it if you work at it hard enough. And if there's not a solution, it's because you didn't do something in the past to prevent the problem in the first place. And in a lot of ways, I believe that. So I tend to fret about stuff. There is a difference between "fret" and "worry". I don't worry. I fret.

This is another reason I enjoy Scouting. (This just occurred to me as I write this, by the way!). I get to be a kid a lot of the time! If I set up the activity properly, when it happens, I get to relax a bit and play with the kids! So, since this is getting a little long, I'll end it right here by saying that if you don't have something to let you be a kid for a while every now and then, FIND ONE! Your friends and family will thank you.

About: Scouts and 9/11, football, rousing rabbles, and smoking

Just some truly random bits, because I feel like blogging but I don't have anything really to say...

I've been involved a bit today in setting up our cub scout pack's participation in some memorial observations of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 coming up this weekend. On Saturday, the Boy Scout Council (kinda like the regional office) will be accepting flags that are in need of a formal retirement at the office on Hillsboro Pike, and our pack will be there from 3:30 until 5:30pm. Then on Sunday, we'll be participating in a Memorial Observance at the South Police Precinct on Harding Place. These are the kind of things that we feel our boys should be involved with in order to gain a true appreciation for this country.

Of course, on the negative side, it also coincides with the opening weekend of NFL football. I'm really looking forward to the season. I think the Titans will be better than I thought at first, but I still don't see them going to the playoffs. I'm forecasting a 7-9 season, but with us still being competitive in those 7.

Politics is everywhere nowadays as the presidential campaign gets closer. I don't know if I'm ready to hear it all but it's coming up. Without getting into it too deeply (plenty of time for that later), I don't think I'll be voting for anyone from either party who is too much of a hard-liner. The phrase I used earlier talking to Monica was "rabble-rouser". We need people who talk together and work things out, not yell across the aisle at each other.

Last but not least, I've not smoked in 89 days. I'm still pretty damn proud of that! Considering that I smoked for 13,870 days (38 years), that's quite a lifestyle change!
Stock tip: Wrigley's Doublemint gum's going to see a profit increase this year, I bet.

Not childish, child-like!

Today I was stocking lettuce at work. Now, that's not uncommon, I pretty much do that every day. The boxes come with a flap on the front so the bags won't fall out. I stack up the boxes from inside the cooler, behind the product, facing the doors. You have to leave that flap I mentioned on the box while you do this or the bags go everywhere (I actually had to demonstrate this to a manager not too long ago; they didn't believe me.Now THAT'S micro-management!"Why don't you take the flap off first?") Anywho, so I get the boxes stacked and ready. I have to go out of the cooler and around to the doors so I can cut the flap off. And you have to hurry, because if you don't, some customer will destroy the appearance of the whole stack trying to rip off the flap so they can get the "freshest" bag. I take my handy-dandy Walmart-approved safety box cutter and slash the cardboard flap off the six boxes, zip zip zip. There's a family shopping a couple of feet away, and I hear this little girl, about 9 or 10, giggle and say "Grandma, did you see what he did? That was cool!"

Don't you wish that you could be so impressed by something so simple? What happens to us as we grow up that we lose that sense of wonder and excitement? One of the nicest compliments I ever got was given to me many years ago when my roommate described me as "childlike." He was using that description to explain why most people liked working for me. He said that things never got old in my restaurants, that people always wondered what I'd come up with next. When I was running the O'Charley's on Murfreesboro Road, on Friday night we often had movie quote night. I'd write an obscure movie quote on the dry erase board, and all night people tried to either guess what movie, or they'd try to stump me. The one that started it I'll never forget: "This town needs an enema." Most people probably know this one now, but back then it was a new movie.

I regret losing that childlike quality, or at least letting it dim. That 9 year old little girl today probably did more for me than any "Positive Mental Attitude" speaker I've ever heard. I'm going to try to get some of that back.

Next quote: "I'm here to kick ass and chew bubble gum. And I'm all out of bubble gum."

It's Friday! ...big deal...

It's Friday, and that's pizza night at our house. DJ is planning to go watch his old football team, Hillwood, play tonight at Antioch. Monica said the other day that she's probably going too. I'd like to go, but I just can't see being gone until after 10PM when I have to get up at 4AM tomorrow. Not to mention that it would make for an awful long day today. I always say that I hate getting up at 4 but I like getting off work at 1:30, but it is starting to get to me. I'm getting tired of being tired all the time. With some of the changes that are coming up with my position at work, I may add asking for a new schedule in there. I keep thinking I should take a nap in the afternoon, but I'm not much of a napper. More than 15 minutes or so and I wake up feeling all groggy and such. It takes about an hour to get over that. So no thanks. We'll just have to see what develops.

The title of this post refers to the fact that Friday is just another day to people like me who work weekends. I've done it all my life, beginning with my paper route at 13 years old, but still, sometimes I find myself going " I get so tired of working Saturdays when everyone else is off " I'm fortunate enough now that my current schedule has me off every Sunday, but I've NEVER had Saturdays off on any kind of regular basis. So sometimes when I see people making such a big deal of the weekend, I get, I don't know, depressed, for want of a better word.

And don't EVEN get me started on the holidays and (to people in retail) that miserable song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"...

A Day Off

I've gotten used to being off on Wednesdays. It's the middle of the week, so it comes at a good time. Everybody else is either at school or at work, so I have the place to myself. I feel guilty some of the time because I don't have the energy or the desire (mostly the desire) to get up and do more around the house.It is my laundry day, so I don't have much of a choice there.

I get to catch up on TV, watch Mike and Mike in the morning, a couple of old movies during the day, read the newspaper at a bit more leisurely pace, and, perhaps best of all, eating breakfast and drinking coffee in the morning to my heart's content! I'll tell on myself and admit to a couple of bowls of Wheaties and 3 or 4 pieces of toast along with a pot of coffee. Then a couple of sandwiches with chips and cookies for lunch, then dinner. I joke that I think I'm making up for not eating that much during the rest of the week!

I also use Wednesday to catch up on my Scouting duties. I can easily put in two or three hours of work doing the paperwork and planning for the Cub Scout pack and the Boy Scout troop. I think the other leaders probably get tired of me, because I can fill up their INBOX like nobody's business! Today it came in handy because we had Round Up last night, so I had 11 new boys to input, plus sending an information packet to the families. But that's why I've taken on the roles I have in Scouting, because most of the stuff I have to do can be done anytime, at my convenience.

I'm still way too protective of my day off, and I recognize this. After those almost-30 years in the restaurant business, with all those 15 hour days and 6 or 7 day weeks, I still feel like being at home is a rare thing, and must be revered. I know that's where my lack of interest in doing chores comes  from. I'm actually better at cutting the grass or cleaning the kitchen after a workday than on my off day.

So now it's time to get into the evening. Dinner, a couple of hours of TV and some light reading, then that alarm clock going off tomorrow at 4:10AM. Maybe I'll sleep in and set it for 4:15. It's been a long day...

"Age is Just a Number"...that reminds you how old you are

My paternal grandfather, Lawrence McNeeley, died in 1974 at the age of 69. I never knew him. My maternal grandfather, Ermine Doyle (Papa), died in 1964 at 74. That's an average of 71. My Dad, Richard, will turn 80 in December. So I should be good until about 80 or so (especially since I quit smoking in June). I'm 55 years, 9 months, and 5 days old, so I got a good shot of doing this for another 25 years. Now that's encouraging.

I don't know what it should be like, but I don't FEEL 55. Fifty-five sounds old. Just think about it. The double nickle. FIFTY-FIVE. I just sent in a check for an AARP membership. I look at the Dow Jones average and think about my 401(k). For goodness sake, my YOUNGER brother decided to retire from the National Guard today after 30 years in service! When you really start to think of it like this, it's a wonder I don't eat dinner at 5PM, wear those things that say they look and feel like "normal" underwear and keep my teeth in a glass.

Know what makes me feel good about my age? I'm twice as old as some of the folks I work with and I can run circles around them. I'm pretty good on computers because I had to learn how to work them before there was Graphic Interfaces and I had to know basic DOS commands (do you even know what that is?) just to get a program running. I've been through the "wild" phases of life, and the "responsible" parts, and now can find a happy middle ground. And in that vein, I have a couple of new phases coming up over the next decade to experience.I make a big deal of talking about feeling my age, but that's just a joke. The only real change in my attitude over the last, say, 30 years is I've gotten a little cynical, and to be honest, I don't like that! I wish I could still look at things at bit more naively. But that's the way it goes.

So, if asked, my advice to some of my younger friends would be pretty simple: Just do it! You stumble through, and, with your heart in the right place, you make the best choices and decisions you can, and hope for the best. If it doesn't work out exactly the way you wanted, mutter a curse and move on. You'll get another chance to make a better choice soon. Remember, you're only as old as you feel (so I must be 100).

Day ONE

So, I thought I'd give this a shot. I don't know who in the world would be interested in what goes on with me, but I think it may be cleansing sometimes to sit here and empty the brainpan of the stuff that piles up in there.

And I find that a LOT gets in there. My job is such that it doesn't quite require 100% focus all the time, so my mind will wander while I'm working. I catch myself drifting away mentally watching TV on occasion (sometimes it's so mindless). There just seems to be so much cluttering up and getting in the way of what I really want to accomplish and do with myself. And no matter what anyone says, I believe that those plans and goals change on a regular basis. You have to update yourself based on reality and changing events. I had my boss tell me the other day that her goals were the same today as they were when she was 20. Really? You're 55 years old, and you still plan to be rich and a CEO someday? That's what most people I knew then wanted. Or were your goals really that low?

My goals have changed significantly since I was 20, or even 40. Back then, everything was essentially career-oriented. CEO, well-paid if not rich, recognized as a major leader in the company. Now, I'm 55, and my career goal? Not to be fired. Or to put it more positively, to keep my job. I want to go to work, do my job 40 hours a week, and go home. If I was given the opportunity to do something more fulfilling, now that the boys are older, I'd change those goals again. Part of the reason I started this blog was because I've gotten a renewed interest in doing something where I could be creative. But, for right now, my goals are ALL family related. I want the kids to get their education. I want Monica to be happy in her job and at home. I want to make some small, meaningful contribution in other people's lives. You know, those kinds of things.

So anyway, look to this spot for my observations on my day, basically. As the title says, whatever comes to mind may end up here. Facebook and Twitter seem better suited for the quick, down and dirty "Hey it's raining" sort of stuff. I like to think I'm a little deeper than that!