Mid-Week Weekend Roundup

This weekend I hung the second kayak from the garage ceiling.  I hate to admit the season has ended so early, but I think if it's snowed 2 or 3 times before December 1 and almost gotten to zero, it's time to face reality.

Does this shirt say "going to a rodeo" to you?  One guy at work on Friday said he thought it did.  For the record, I wasn't going anywhere except to work.

I took a break from a nap on Saturday to re-read some Calvin and Hobbes.  For some reason this one struck my funny bone even if it is a month too early.

I procrastinated a little bit too long and didn't get the leaves raked that I had planned to rake last weekend.  Oh well.  Maybe the snow will cover them.  Or maybe there will be another nice weekend in which to do that.

May all my readers out there have a lovely Thanksgiving.  I went to yoga three times last week, and I think all of them ended the "practice" by telling us to think about what we were thankful for or reminding us to be thankful.  Really, every day should be Thanksgiving, right?

Yesterday my massage therapist was talking about how she wasn't all that excited about Thanksgiving because her husband has to work and her husband doesn't have any family, her dad and his family is in Florida, her sister is going to the in-laws, and her mom's relationship with the mom's side of the family is on the rocks at the moment.  And it made me thankful to think about how I will be spending my Thanksgiving.  If you're able to sit at the Thanksgiving table with friends and/or family that you love and enjoy spending time with, that's a big blessing right there.  Because not all people have that.  Sometimes I take that big blessing for granted.

Assortment of Thoughts

Ananias, I think putting your bare feet into sweaty shoes is about as uncomfortable and gross as putting on sweaty socks.  Plus, then you have to carry your sweaty socks in your hand as you exit.

Today at work one of my co-workers retired after 37 years of working at the company.  That is longer than I have been alive.  I never had the privilege to work with him closely because we worked on different types of products.  Everybody who ever worked with him only had good things to say about him.  He was a very quiet guy who didn't like the limelight, but I'm told he always had a corny joke.  Mostly he just loved simulating circuits and designing circuits that drove lots of watts, particularly into motors.  In fact, his nickname is "Lots of Watts".

I mentioned a few posts ago about what kind of legacy you want to leave behind.  I don't know that I necessarily want to be known only for driving motors, but I think I would want to be known as a good person to work with.

The AT&T call yesterday was somewhat acceptable.  On the less annoying side at least, but still not great.  Now we will see if they "truly" adjust my bill and service as promised.  If they don't, they have lost me as a customer forever.

I think that's about it for today.

The War is On Again

AT&T is messing with my internet bill AGAIN.  So my war with them is back on.  More than a month ago I called to have them reduce my bill cost and thus reduce my speed, but instead they INCREASED my bill and kept the same speed.  What?!?!  I will be calling customer service tomorrow.  It's being quite charitable to call them customer service in my opinion.  Because it's more like customer inconveniencing.

It's highly likely there will be a parting of the ways between myself and AT&T because my demands for retribution will be high.  Which means my internet may be limited for a while.  I'm sure I'll find an alternative, so hopefully you don't experience too much of a lull in blog posting as a result of my dissatisfaction with my service provider.  Wish me luck!

Stuff

Few things feel as nasty as putting sweat-soaked socks back on your feet after you've taken them off to do yoga.

Last weekend I went to the corny state to do some scrapbooking with "the gang" (Bex, Woodwind, Jax, Jenx, Karmx, and some others).  It went well as usual.  At least I got a good start on scrapbooking a foreign trip.  Checking one thing off the bucket list related to that is looking feasible if I keep my nose to the grindstone on that.  I don't feel like bullet points are needed for that.

Few things demotivate me as much as feeling like the project I'm working on is useless and without a clear plan.  And, what is even worse is that me pointing out the lack of plan and resulting delay is falling on deaf ears.  At least that appears to be the case.

Well, I think that's it for today.  Sorry it's a little bit negative today.

Personal Development

I think I heard or read somewhere that people mature physically in their teens, mentally in their 20's, and emotionally in their 30's.  I think I would probably agree with that.  A friend who is 5-10 years older than me told me once that your 30's are a good decade.  For the most part I think I would agree.  But sometimes, all that emotional development can be stressful and involve some growing pains.

What brought that to my mind was some in-person training that I went to yesterday.  It was part of a leadership class that I'm enrolled in.  And the instructor was talking about how leading people is a privilege.  We spent a lot of time learning about how you coach people and develop them rather than just doing everything yourself.  Overall, it was interesting.  We reviewed the DiSC profile as part of that training, which I mentioned before.

They talked about leaving a legacy, and what legacy do you want to leave?  I suppose that applies to both your personal and professional life.  The instructor talked about how somebody's mom died, and right at the end of the visitation someone showed up and was so thankful they hadn't missed it because they wanted to pay their respects.  They had only worked with the deceased lady for 4 months about 13 years before that, but the person had made such a good impression and had such a good legacy that the lady wanted to go to her visitation.  I'm thankful that I have so many good, living examples of people leaving a great spiritual legacy.

Another interesting concept was that we can't only say what we won't do as a leader.  We also need to clearly define what we will do as a leader.  This reminded me of what Jesus said about the man who cast out the devils and swept and cleaned his house, but then he left it empty.  And soon, the spirits came back and were worse than before.  We not only have to try not to do evil, but we need to be filling that void with loving God.

It was mentioned in the training that for "S" and "i" people, trust is given/assumed up front and is broken later through experiences.  For "C" and "D" people, usually trust is not given right away, and trust must be earned.  I found that interesting.

Based on the pre-work we had to do for the class, I was afraid the training might get too touchy-feely for my taste, but I actually thought they did a very nice job of highlighting how leading people is mostly about people - coaching them, encouraging them, correcting them, etc.  We learned about addressing people's personal and practical needs.  They approached the training very logically and explained things well in a practical way without getting pie-in-the-sky.  Of course we had to do lots of group activities and role playing which I dislike, but I also realize how helpful it is to do role-playing sometimes.  And, they balanced it out with other things.  I was also lucky that the training was at the luxurious training center with the fancy food and delicious snacks.  I lead a life of great hardship.  ;-)

I sat next to one lady who is an extreme "i" personality.  SHE was too touchy-feely for my taste.  She talked about "telling your truth" and some stuff like that.  And she invaded my personal bubble within 15 minutes of meeting her.  I appreciate people like that sometimes because they are very much everything I am not, but usually I like to appreciate them in small doses.  :-)  However, opposites attract I'm told.

That's all for now.  Have a great weekend.

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 43 & 44

Checked off the list:  #22 - Make homemade granola bars.  They taste good, but they are too gooey in the middle.  I may need to experiment with pan type and oven settings in the future.  Perhaps I may also need to experiment with the liquids-to-solids ratio in the mix.

Weights and Measures

So I'm working on losing a little bit of weight.  Somehow a few pounds snuck on during the summer/fall.  I'm not doing anything extreme.  I'm just making sure I get to the Y more regularly and try to eat a little less and more healthfully.  I've been fairly successful at going to the Y, but not as successful at eating less.  And maybe I've lost one or two pounds.  But I think I've been gaining muscle as well.  At least that's what I tell myself.

I tell you this because it explains why I weigh myself at the Y fairly regularly.  Just for the fun of it today, I did something different.  I weighed myself when I arrived at the Y.  Still too heavy.  Then I went to the bathroom  to eliminate some waste and weighed myself afterward.  I lost about one pound.  Then I exercised for more than an hour and probably burned at least 800 calories.  Then I weighed myself again, and I had gained half a pound from the last measurement.  So my theory is that I drank more water while exercising than I sweated.  Or, that scale isn't all that accurate.  Next time maybe I'll weigh myself three times consecutively to see how repeatable it is.

This nerdy segment has been brought to you by the number 3.

Elections

So...is there some kind of election going on tomorrow?  It seems like no one is able to tell me where I can go on the internet to find my polling place.  I believe my state also requires showing ID to prove your identity before you vote.  How will I successfully make it to the polls with all these restrictions!?!?!  Yes, that's sarcasm.  Everybody and their brother has left a message on my home phone telling me where to find my polling location.

Have you noticed how low the gas prices are?  Pretty nice, huh?  I noticed that diesel costs more than $1 per gallon than gasoline.  I guess the politicians are trying to win the vote of individuals who own cars rather than the vote of businesses who are paying to transport all their cargo.

Remember to vote!  Exercise the right people have fought to gain for you.  Exercise the right you have in this country that many people in other countries don't have.