Bloggers Unite On December 17

Bloggers Unite, a part of Blogger Catalogue, is encouraging bloggers to write about some good that they have done to kind of show the giving side of the people who write blogs.

I am known at my day job as a bit of a free spirit who is usually in a good mood, doing goofy things to lighten the mood, singing Christmas carols in July and August when the temperatures in Houston are high and high humidity is a given. I joke and kid around, often at my own expense, to try to keep a pleasant working environment. On a daily basis, I try to make at least 3 trips through the workplace to talk to everyone, ask how things are going, if there are any questions, concerns, or problems. I try to have lots of positive reinforcements for the work that everyone does.

Lately, however, our company has been experiencing growing pains. We have taken on several new, very large clients. We have had to change the way we do business in order to meet the requirements of these new clients. It has been a learning and growing experience for everyone from the top down. One of the "joys" of my job is that I am the bottle neck of the hour glass. Almost every operational directive and decision that must be given to the hourly workers, goes through me to be passed on to the crew. Almost all information, ideas, reports, and suggestions from the crew goes through me on the way to upper management. This has gotten even more intense as we add these new, larger clients. I often joke that on a scale of 1 to 10, my stress level is about a 16. My boss was recently diagnosed with "stress induced" diabetes. When his doctor asked him to list his stress level on the same scale, he said only 13. I told him I must be doing a good job if his was that "low." We both laughed and made promises to not let things get to us as much and to rely on each other a little more when things get on our nerves.

I mentioned all that to say this, I have gotten away from being the goof ball and free spirit that I am. I have snapped at people more. My patience has been almost non-existent. I would still talk to people and try to help but I was not the normally cheery and encouraging person that everyone remembered.

Last week, I became determined to get back to the normal me. I spent the weekend kinda thinking about the world around me, my job, my relationships, and the meaning of life. (That is just a fancy way of saying I was doing a lot of pondering on things!) I realized that I had gotten to where I hated going to work. This was a job that I had loved at one time and found myself dreading having to work everyday.

I am a firm believer that each of us determines what our attitude is. I had given up that freedom of determination by allowing the pressures of work to bring me down. I wake up each morning now realizing that me and me alone is responsible for determining what my attitude is going to be for the day. I am starting my day by determining that I am going to have a positive outlook on everything that comes my way. When troubles arise, and they are almost guaranteed to several times a day, I realize I have a choice. I can let myself get down and negative and be irritable or I can choose to maintain a positive outlook. Either way, I still have to deal with the issues but it is much less stressful by keeping the positive outlook.

So what does this have to do with doing some good or showing my giving side? i have gotten back to being a positive and supportive manager for my crew. Several people have noticed that much more like the old Eddy and people don't cringe when they see me coming their way. I am seeing better attitudes by my crew and that always translates into better production. I try to uplift and encourage even the people doing the most mundane of tasks. The Christmas season can be a very stressful time but I have noticed that many of crew don't seem as bothered as they did just 2 weeks ago when I was also stressed and bothered.

I would like to think that my renewed attitude had something to do with it.

Merry Christmas to all. This season can produce large amounts of stress but let me encourage each of you to remember, you are solely responsible for your attitude. You have do deal with the issues you face whether your attitude is good or bad. Make a choice that you are going to have a positive attitude and see how much easier it is dealing with even the most difficult of times.

(c) 2008 Eddy Seegers

A Poem

This is a poem that I wrote on April 28, 1988 for a young lady friend of mine named Karen. We knew a young engaged couple. On the Tuesday before the wedding, the groom-to-be was working as a delivery driver when he was killed in a freeway accident. Karen was a new Christian and was struggling to understand how God could allow something like this to happen. After many nights on the phone trying to help my friend through this difficult time, this poem just came pouring out of me. All of the events vaguely referenced were from actual events in my life.

Life, it is a time of no sure things
As we walk in the meadow, enjoying the cool breeze before the bee stings.

Why is there pain, suffering and sorrow; why do the good die young?
The musician puts forth a beautiful melody,
but the singer must leave before the song is sung.

A young man falls in love with a woman, and she with him-they pledge to become man and wife.
Why, oh why, when love is so true and full, that the young man loses his life?

A boy, in his teens, with a future to look upon,
Can only see the present struggles, says goodbye to only himself
and now is gone.

Sadness, sorrow, and suffering abound in this world, why is there so much pain?
Darkness throughout this world, every way we can see. Is tragedy all we have to gain?

As a child, I remember waking in the dark. Where is my mother? Why won't the sun shine?
But soon the night would surrender to the day, all things would now be fine.

We have the hope of the morning, we know that the sun will rise.
God gave us a Son that gives us a morning in the darkness,
a morning the is sought by the truly wise.

God's Son was killed but arose from the dead,
giving us a reason to enter into each day with cheer.
He lives, He walks, and He talks with us as we allow him,
helping us to face the darkness without fear.

The hope in my heart is Jesus, to whom I will join in just a short while.
Yes, life is full of uncertainty, but I can live life with cheer and show it with a smile.

(c) 1988 Edgar Seegers, Jr.

No links or encouragement today. I pray that each of you that reads this will find Peace and Happiness in your life that comes with the promise of eternal life. Merry Christmas.

Ramdom Ramblings

**I heard news reports of all the “door buster” sales where stores opened at 6 or 5 or even 4 a.m. the morning after Thanksgiving, so-called Black Friday. My sister works for a major retail clothing chain but it was a particular mall that was opening at 1 a.m. and staying open until 11 p.m. that had her, a District Manager, working from 5 until 1 in the afternoon. The store had to have people working from midnight to midnight. Maybe I am a too lazy or too much of a Scrooge, but I have yet to see a sale that would get me out that early. The news channel reported people camping out since 3 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning to be first in line.

Would I ever do this? What?!? And miss Thanksgiving football? That is heresy in my world.

**People that are not college football fans miss one of the true pleasures of life. Rivalry games. The build up, excitement, and energy that comes from your team playing their arch rivals. If you want to see the best rivalry, visit the state of Alabama the week before Auburn and Alabama play each other. When I lived there, there were 2 major religious influences, Southern Baptists and Auburn/Alabama football. They talk about the game 364 days a year and play the game on the 365th. Not being one to take sides… Ah, who am I kidding? WAR EAGLE! BEAT BAMA!

**Some of the most sour and depressing people I have ever met are vegetarians. I think one of the reasons they are so lacking happiness in their lives is that they miss out on the joy of an over-the-top Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner and leftover turkey sandwiches.

**Once again, we enter the Christmas shopping season, and economic experts are predicting doom and gloom. Excepting those with a political agenda, can anyone remember when a true economist had a positive outlook? We have entered the shopping season and the “end is near” forecasts are making headlines again. I wonder how much stronger the shopping season would be if we weren’t being bombarded with all of the dire outlook reports.

**Speaking of gloom and doom economic forecasts, why do store and retailers cut workers and sacrifice customer service when it looks like business might be a little slower than hoped. In my truly non-expert opinion, I believe stores lose more business during difficult times, not before of a slower economy, but because they forget to take care of their customers. Then they say, “Gee, I sure was smart to cut payroll. Business was terrible this year.”

**I heard a news report several years ago that said that the average American gains 8 pounds during the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s holiday season. My goal is to lose 5 pounds during the month of December. Call me Don Quixote and continue to check back as to the status of my battle with the windmill dragon.

**NOW you can start playing the Christmas music!

Keep Smilin’!!

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Reaping What is Sewn, An Important life Lesson

There is a passage in the Bible that tells us that we reap what we sew. A common cliché that gives a similar message goes something like, “you’ve made your bed, now you have to lie in it.” A message that I have been giving as part of my speaking programs, business presentations, and advice given in general is also along the same vein. “Choices that we make now will always have some kind of consequences in the future, both good and bad.” There is an excellent book on this topic called “Choices” by Shad Helmstetter. Hypnotist and motivational speaker Marshall Sylver puts it another way; in five years (or ten, twenty, etc.), we are going to have either regrets or rewards based on our actions and decisions that we make today.

This past Sunday, I was given a sad and very personal example of the truth behind the concept mentioned above. Sometime around 8:15 in the evening of November 16, 2007, at a nursing home in Florida, my grandmother passed away. Except for a hospice worker who arrived about 20 minutes before she died, my grandmother died alone. Sadly, her being alone was expected and predicted by many in the family, especially by her daughter, my mom.

To say it in a nice way, my grandmother was not a very nice person. In honor of her memory, I will not go into the specific details of why. After all, she still was my grandmother. And in her defense, from what I understand, she was very much like her own mother.

Mom Mom as we called her, spent her adult life treating others as she had been treated. She hurt many people. She lied and cheated. She was a con artist with truth and rumor eventually merging together so the reality of many of the things that she did has been blurred. That being said, I personally witnessed many of the hateful things she did. Slowly but surely, she pushed everyone away from her. Many of us cut contact for our own protection. We were protecting our sanity and well-being, if not our physical well-being. Again, some of the stories did lead a few to believe that your physical health could be threatened if you remained involved with Mom Mom for any length of time.

Sometime around the middle of the 1990’s, my grandmother’s mind began to fade. She slowly had to rely on family to take care of her. Many of these people took advantage of her. Most of her personal possessions have long since gone missing. Much of the generosity that was shown to her was because of the belief that she had hidden wealth and items of value. If it had ever been there, most if it was gone by the time she was finally placed in the nursing home where she would spend her final 11 years. Many of the relatives that remained close to her have died. Others have moved on once they realized that there was no longer any money to be taken from her. Until my mom stepped in, I honestly believe that the previous relative taking care of her affairs was stealing whatever wasn’t taken for her nursing home costs from her social security checks. Even though Mom had been estranged from her for many years, when she heard of the treatment, Mom stepped in to at least see that Mom Mom was taken care of in her final years.

It has been just over 20 years since I last spoke with my grandmother. She was trying to con, and I emphasize con, me out of a rifle given to me when my grandfather died. From the time of my birth, my grandfather had said that he wanted me to have that rifle and I still have it. But she had other ideas and knew how much it meant to me. For me, that was the final straw. It has been even long since I had seen her.

Some distanced themselves before me and some distanced themselves after me. But eventually, my grandmother spent her final years, months, days, and hours alone.

I feel bad that I don’t feel bad, but with her passing I see directly, the truth behind the message in my first paragraph. My grandmother did indeed, reap what she had sown. I thank the nursing home workers that took care of her. I thank the hospice worker that was there with her during the final 20 minutes. However, she spent her final days with the harvest of the seeds she had sown so many years before.

Mom Mom, I thank you for a valuable lesson. Taught in the wrong way, but a valuable lesson, none the less. I loved you as a child, and even though you pushed me away like every one else, I loved you to the end. May you find peace in death that you never seemed to find in life.

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Christmas Music at Wal-Mart

Yesterday (Sunday), I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things I had missed on my shopping adventure the day before. Maybe I did not notice it on Saturday but I am usually fairly observant when it comes to this type of thing. It was November 4th and the Christmas music was playing over the speakers in the store. It just seemed sooooo out of place even though the store was probably 90% decorated for Christmas already anyway.

Now I do have to put a little disclaimer in right here. Yes, I am known for singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Winter Wonderland throughout the summer. I do it mostly for the silliness of it. When people as me about Santa Claus is Coming to Town, I respond that I never said when he is coming, just that he is coming. And as for Winter Wonderland, it is a great way to take my mind off of the heat and humidity of a Houston, Texas summer. Like I said, I do it for laughs and to see people's reactions to things that are out of place. I have a pastor friend that likes to preach an Easter sermon during the Christmas season and a Christmas sermon during the Easter season. It makes people sit up and think a little more.

Now back to the music at Wal-Mart. I am a Capitalist. I believe in making a profit and I do my best to never deny any man, woman, or corporation from earning a profit, as long as it is earned honestly and morally. When the unions protest Wal-Mart, I make a concerted effort to do a larger percentage of my everyday purchases there. Wal-Mart may have its faults, who doesn't, but I will support a capitalistic venture over socialistic unions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

To my dear departed grandfather, who was a devoted member of the Meat Cutter's Union, I am sorry for the last sentence of that previous paragraph. Sorry Pop Pop. However, that is what unions have become. I will save any further rants on unions for another time.

So now that I have pledged my loyalty to anyone out to make money, I finally get back to Wal-Mart playing Christmas music. The reasoning behind it is simple. Expectations are for a slow holiday shopping season so to encourage shoppers to buy more, stores are starting sales earlier and breaking out the decorations and mood music early. While I am neither an economist nor a marketing expert, I feel that their thinking is off. I think it may give them a bit of a head start on the holiday purchases but it will hurt later in the season. As heard at the store, children are pushing for anything "Christmas-y" now, it is my gut instinct and consumer-based point of view that people will be burned out on the holiday festiveness by the early part of December and people will start avoiding the stores and malls except for necessity.

Another point that I will delve into deeper at another time is that I feel that Wal-Mart, other major retailers, and malls are reacting out of fear. Fear does not lead to good, solid business decisions.

Oh, well. Like I said, I am not a marketing expert. I love Christmas music and, although my Christmas music collection will not come out until the Friday after Thanksgiving, I will enjoy listening when shopping. Even if it is almost 3 weeks too soon.

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful..."

Keep Smiling!!

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(c) Copyright 2007 Eddy Seegers

Clear Your Mind

I briefly scanned an article listed in Yahoo News this morning that stated that psychological studies have determined that talking too much about a problem or problems causes anxiety. To me, this study falls under the category of "Duh! Ya think?"

This is one of the life lessons that I learned a long time ago. If you obsess on something bad, it was going to cause stress and anxiety.

One of the problems that I see, and from my reading it is a problem that is rampant in the United States, many people do not know how to relax. It is time for my disclaimer here. I am one of the worst at allowing myself to to obsess on problems. How am I going to be able to pay all of the bills and still have gas money for work? Inventory is happening in two weeks and we do not have the people or technology in place to do it correctly. And I could go on. Problem after problem.

I actually felt myself tensing as I typed out the previous paragraph. I had to take a brief moment to take some deep breaths, relax my shoulders, and let my mind clear.

And that is the point of this blog. We all need to find how we can relax, even if it is for just a few moments. My reading and research has shown me one of the quickest method of relaxing is deep breathing. One of the best advocates of the importance of deep breathing is Matt Furhey. Matt has many web sites. A good place to start is mattfurhey.com. Looks around and you will find links to many of his other pages. I am on his emailing list and I look forward to his emails everyday.

I find that for myself, taking long full, deep breaths get me on the fast track away from tension. I breath in through my nose, taking in as much air as my lungs can take, holding for about 3 seconds. I then exhale all the air until there is no air left. I also hold that for about 3 seconds and then relax as the air comes rushing back into my body.

I repeat this several times, depending on how much stress I am banishing. I also focus on me. I focus on my breathing, trying to clear as much out of my mind while only paying attention to the flow of air in and out of my body.

Most of the time, deep breathing does the trick and allows me to get back to going about my business without anxiety and stress weighing me down. On the rare occasion that this does not complete the task, I do something physical to kind of loosen the muscles that are wanting to hold on to the tension. If I am able, I go for a long walk. I focus only my walking and things immediately around me. The pace of my steps. Sounds of birds or crickets or frogs. Plants or trees. I do my best to focus on the very here and now, nothing outside of the moment that I am in.

If I am somewhere I can't go for a walk, I will try to clear my mind while relaxing my muscles. I will try to shake out my arms, imagining that they are like 2 ropes connected to me at the shoulders and I shake while the muscles are totally disengaged. I will also do what I have heard called the "washing machine." I rotate my upper body back and forth, letting the arms swing free but trying to keep the lower body still as possible. Sometimes I shake my legs as if I am trying to get rid of something off my shoe. I do this one leg at a time and repeat several times or until I start to get funny looks.

These are some things that I do to help me to not focus on problems. They let me clear my mind. I feel better and function better when I am not a half a step from an anxiety attack. I encourage anyone who reads this to try to find ways to help you relax. Think of ways to take brief mental vacations. Life is too short to go through it full of tension and anxiety. Does this mean we need to ignore problems? No. At the same time, we can't let the pressures of our world dominate our lives.

The best thing that I have found about my mental vacations? Often, they start me down the right path to discovering the solution. And that is the best way to get rid of anxiety, solve the problem.

Keep Smiling!!

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(c) Copyright 2007 Eddy Seegers

If You Can't Lose, You Can't Win

I have a habit of falling asleep with the television on. I have a sleep setting on my remote which will cause the television to automatically turn off after a set period of time but sometimes I fall asleep so fast, I don't even have time to set it. Then I awaken in the middle of the night with an infomercial blaring. Now don't get me wrong here. I have absolutely nothing against infomercials themselves, but as with all things, I think we need to take the claims with a grain of salt.

The other night I awoke after falling asleep with the television on. As usual, there was an infomercial on and I really did not pay that much attention to it. I just found the remote to turn the tv off. As I was in the process of finding the remote and hitting the off button, I heard the host say, "With this offer, you can't lose." As for this specific offer, it may be was true but many life lessons have taught me that is usually not the case. However, it was at this moment that my subconscious mind took over as I fell back asleep in a matter of seconds.

Throughout the rest of the night it seemed like my mind kept repeating, "If you can't lose, you can't win." Over and over.

I heard a voice in my head all day the following day practically repeating, "If you can't lose, you can't win!" I continue to hear this repeated even to the end of the day.

I has been a week and this phrase continues to scream out to me because in most things we do, there is a chance to lose. I think back to my days in school. I was a good student and many times I was very confident going into a test. A seemingly "can't lose" situation. I knew the material, I did not panic at test time, and a good memory that often helped me in situations that the teacher had covered but I had not studied in detail. But there were times when I read a question wrong or got in too much of a hurry that I missed more than I should have on an exam.

When we start to grow up we apply for a job. If there wasn't the possibility of not getting the job (losing) there would be no need for the application process. We would just show up at a company where we want to work and say I want a job doing this, that, or the other, and we would be hired.

And of course, where many of my life lessons come from, there is the field of athletic competition. It may have been an advertising slogan or just a t-shirt slogan from a few years back, but a popular phrase was, "You can't win if you don't play." The continuation of that truism is that if you play, there is a chance you are going to lose. Probably the most basic examples of this comes from my favorite sport of baseball. On any given play, either the pitcher is going to lose or the batter is going to lose. The batter steps up to the plate and he is either going to find a way to get on base or he is going to make an out. The pitcher toes the rubber and pitches to the batter, knowing he is either going to get the batter out or the batter will get on base. Every single at bat results in one of the two players losing to the other.

But if a pitcher never takes the mound, he can never strike anyone out. If a batter never goes to bat, he will never get a hit. If a baserunner never takes a chance of getting thrown out, he will never steal a base.

It is the same thing in life. If you have ever dreamed of opening your own business, but have never done anything toward this goal, you will never know if you could have become a successful entreprenuer. If you have ever dreamed of writing the great American novel, but never put a pen to paper or tapped out a thought on the computer, you will never know if you could have been a successful writer. There are so many things that can be looked at here but I think you can understand the point I am trying to make.

Yes, there is a chance that if you try to open a business it will not succeed, but if you never tried, how will you ever know. Sure if you write a book, publishers might reject it and no one will ever read it, but again, how will you ever know? Of course, if you don't try, you never have to worry about fear or rejection. If you can't lose, you can't win.

At the end here, I am putting in of my all time favorite quotes. It comes from Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States. Pay special attention to the last few lines. I have drawn strength from this at times when my fear of losing kept me from getting into the game.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. ~Theodore Roosevelt

Keep Smiling!!

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(c) Copyright 2007 Eddy Seegers

Life Lesson: Always Back Up the Play

Playing for Mr. Warren and Mr. Donnelly's Baytown East Little League Minor Gators taught me lots of life lessons. One of the important lessons I learned about playing baseball was to always back up the play. It can make a great difference in the success or failure of a play. Or at the least keep a bad play from getting worse.

One of the first things I learned in computer school, always back up your work.

Sometimes life lessons are learned the hard way. Part of the down time that I have experienced in my blogging was due to computers that were operating with one foot (or cable) in the grave. I was writing and saving my work. I was just saving my work on the machine I happened to be working on. I kept saying I need to put this info on a disk so I have a portable copy but I never followed through. I didn't back up the work. MANY ideas and full articles were lost. Many topic ideas are gone. Worst of all, almost all of the work I had done on my book is now gone. The only thing I have left are the hand written notes that I jotted down when an idea popped into my mind. Pieces of note paper. Scraps off the back of an envelope or on the back of a grocery store receipt. All because I did not back up the play. Or more exactly, my work.

This lesson leads me to another life lesson I want to mention briefly. We all need to back up our lives. When I was in an actual sales position (I believe we are all in sales in some way) or when listening to success coaches speak, there is a statement that has been cliche but it holds so much truth. Paraphrasing the many different versions I have heard, "Nobody plans to fail, but many fail to plan." What would happen if you were injured in a car accident? Could you continue to pay the mortgage or the rent? Could you pay the bills? What if your company gives you the choice of moving cross country or losing your job? You could play "What if.." for days and not cover all of the possibilities.

Think about your life and your position. What are your goals? Is there a back up plan if things change on your way to the goal? I completed a Bachelor's degree a couple of years ago. A degree that I will likely never use directly but the fact that I have a degree has already been beneficial. And if things in my life change sometime in the future, I have that degree to fall back on.

Now I have to go start working on my book again. Back up your work. Back up other people around you. Back up your life as much as you can.

Keep Smiling!

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(c) Copyright 2007 Eddy Seegers

The 5th of July

For the most part, the barbeque has been eaten, the beer been ingested, and fireworks exploded. One of the common annual events is politicians and political candidates visiting parades, fireworks shows, or just being seen somewhere while they pontificate on the meaning of the 4th of July. It is now July 5th. My first reaction is just how long is it going to take for the self-loathing, hate-America first crowd to start to bad mouth this wonderful country of ours?

While I have never had the opportunity to ask this question of the more public of these folks, but in my many encounters with the rank and file of the "this country is so bad" crowd, none has ever even attempted to answer. The question is, "If the United States is so terrible, where else?" Where else do you have the freedoms that you have here? Where else are people able to make a difference? Where else can people so diverse as religion-hating atheists to radical Muslims to devout pacifistic Quakers all live in the same country without true persecution and able to preach their message to any and all that will listen? Where else can an individual crusade against a perceived wrong and not be thrown into prison or face torture or ridicule or lose his way of life? Where else is a nation so rich in natural resources and industry and opportunity? Where else is capitalism so strong that anyone, including the most oppressed person or group, can succeed and achieve great and wonderful things? Where else?

In answer to my own question, 2 counties come to mind, England and Australia. Now, to debunk my own answer...

I have an online friend that lived in England for several years. She wants to go back again soon and I do not know if it would be on a permanent basis or not. Base on things she has told me, I would love to go visit and spend some time there. Being a history enthusiast, a trip around the country visiting castles and historical sites would put me in geek heaven. However, I am not sure I could live there. I have heard, and I emphasize that I heard and don't know first hand, that their tax system is very oppressive. I also read and hear daily how quickly they forget the lessons of resent history and seem to have an appeasers mentality, especially when dealing with Islamofascist Muslim terrorists. Finally, to help keep this short, socialistic healthcare is something I want to avoid like a skin eating bacteria.

Next is Australia. This is a country where I think I could live if I had to choose somewhere outside of the U.S. of A. I love the "can do" attitude, the sense of rugged individualism, and the fact that they are willing to make a stand for what they believe is right. I wish we could bring John Howard, their Prime Minister, over here to run for President in 2008. Again, there is a however. Their country doesn't have the opportunity, potential, or resources that we enjoy here in America.

This all leads me to the question that I am going to start asking when the opportunity arises. If this country is so terrible, so racist, so oppressive, why are there 20 million ILLEGAL immigrants here? This doesn't include all of the people that took the time, effort, and money to get to this country legally. These 20 million people are so desperate to get here that they were willing to break the law to get in.

I love the 4th of July. I love all of the ways we are free to celebrate the 4th, with my personal favorite being the fireworks displays. (No comments allowed about how you were sure it would be the barbeques!) I love to read, hear, and study about our Founding Fathers and the formation of this country. I enjoyed the 4th this year though, not for any of the typical reasons. I enjoyed the 4th this year because for one day, the America bashers seemed to take a breath. Let's see how long it lasts.

Keep Smiling!

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Let's Try This Again

Well, after a false start with this new location, I am hopefully back to blogging. One thing I have learned is the importance of backing up your (my) work. I changed blog hosts and then, had not one but, two computers go bad on me. I mentioned in my last "restart" article about how I was still writing but not posting. <Looking a little sheepish> Well, none of my work on either computer was saved. What makes things worse is that I lost most of the rough draft of my book. Oh, I do have my old fashioned notes written with pencil and paper. These were the ideas that I came up with while at work or eating or doing whatever and not around a computer. I just have to go back to the electronic drawing board. I also lost many short pieces that I had planned to post when I got back to blogging on a regular basis. That just means that everything will be what is currently on my mind.



It is said that the third time is a charm. I hope so.

Common Sense and Common Courtesy

Common sense and common courtesy. I have thought about these two items for a long time. To be more exact, the lack of both.

I live outside of Houston,Texas and work in the city. As I write this we are thawing out from an ice storm. Every time there is an ice storm somewhere in the United States, there are pictures and reports on television about accidents caused by people driving too fast on icy roads. For some reason, people seem to think that they can continue to drive the same way and at the same speed as they normally do. But where these people really show their lack of common sense is now that the ice has melted but the torrential rain continues. I was driving to work this morning at about 60 miles an hour. This is about 5 miles an hour less than the limit but it was about the rate of traffic in general. For the most part, drivers were going a little slower than normal and keeping good space between cars. A good idea considering the slick roads and the fact that the posted speed limit in Texas tends to be a minimum speed on most highways as drivers go much faster.

This is where the lack of common sense comes in. There were a large number of drivers that felt like it was okay to drive the same way that they would on a clear and dry day. Numerous drivers seemed to think that 75 to 80 miles an hour while weaving in an out of the other drivers was perfectly fine. And then there was the driver who helped inspire me to write this piece.
Traffic had increased as I got closer to town. So much so that, even though we were still driving at about 55, there was no room to change lanes or to go faster than anyone else. However, the gentleman in the oversized Ford Land Barge must have gotten lost trying to find his way to a NASCAR race as he seemingly tried to ride in my draft, inches from my bumper. While inches might be an exaggeration, he was so close to me that there were times that I could not see his headlights in my rearview mirror. If I had had to hit my brakes, there would have been nowhere for him to go except into my rear bumper. This kept up for about 2 miles until it was time for me to exit. As I looked at this gentleman as I pulled onto the off-ramp, I was greeted with his middle finger extended in my direction. I still can't figure out why he was upset with me, because even if I had been able to get out of his way, he would have been only 1 car length closer to his destination.

His extended middle finger leads me to my second point. The rapid disappearance of common courtesy.

The evening after my observations of the lack of common sense on the highway, a trip to Wal-Mart gave me many examples of the lack of common courtesy. My experience began in the parking lot with one of my pet peeves, people that can't walk 20 steps to put their shopping cart in a cart corral. It annoys me to no end to watch someone leave their cart in a parking place when they are 3 spaces from a corral. People like this are probably responsible for more dings and dents in cars than anyone realizes. Anyway, as I was pulling into a space, there was a car pulling into a space in the next parking aisle. Unfortunately for this family, there was a cart that had been left in the space they wanted to occupy. The female passenger jumped out and proceeded to push the cart into the space I was trying to pull into, with me already pulling into the space. I had to jump out and put the cart into the corral that was next to both of our cars.
My courtesy deficient trip continued as I tried to enter the store. A rather large family must have decided that they needed to have a family meeting while standing in the opening of one of the 2 doors. The other door was blocked by a mother pushing an SUV sized baby stroller who suddenly decided to stop and check on her young child, again, right in the doorway. Both doorways quickly backed up and the door blockers seemed totally clueless as to their inconsiderate behavior.

My visit was full of other examples. Numerous people who would park their carts sideways in an aisle, blocking traffic completely, people allowing their kids to run around the store, often screaming, and then, the people who either cannot read or count. Yes, those that try to go through the express lanes with overflowing carts. I would say 80% of the time I have seen someone mention to these folks they were in the express lane, these same people either ignore the mention or get upset that it was being pointed out to them.

I feel that we are living in a time when common sense and common courtesy both seem lost in our society. I have mentioned just a few examples of things that happened to me in just one day. There is evidence of the lack of common sense and common courtesy everywhere. Listen to news reports. Read the paper. Or just observe when you are out and about. And maybe, just maybe, use a little common sense and show a little common courtesy.

Keep Smiling!

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Chinese Fortune Cookie Life Lesson

Upon opening a fortune cookie, I found the following message, "Just because you put tap shoes on an elephant does not mean it can dance."

At first, I thought this was a humorous little message. My very visual mind started to wander, picturing a large elephant wearing these tiny taps shoes and a fifties style skirt and blouse. I pictured this elephant trying do dance but very clumsily. A pretty funny image. So much that I began to laugh out loud to myself. However, I began to in think about the true meaning behind these few words.

In life, we often come across situations that are large clumsy elephants. We are in jobs that we don't enjoy, relationships that we know are destined to fail, situations where we are just out of place. Instead of trying to find a real dancer, we dress up the elephant in its tap shoes, and expect to see a ballet.

There was a time in my life when I was real estate, first in real estate sales and then as a mortgage broker. I quickly discovered that I hated selling homes and houses. I did discover that my natural mathematical abilities seemed to be ideal for the mortgage business, so I changed over to mortgage loan brokering. In California, a mortgage broker has to have passed the state real estate licensing test, so changing over was quick and easy. I felt I was in a field that I was naturally suited to excel in. Oh, how wrong I was. One thing I did discover over and over again is how cut throat the California real estate and mortgage businesses are. Numerous times, I lost customers to other brokers, in spite of the fact that I told them that the other brokers could not offer them anything different than what I could offer. These other brokers would promise that they could get loans at lower interest rates, lower points, or just all around get them a better deal. My potential clients would jump to the other broker only to show up at their closing and find out that the interest rate was higher than they wanted, points were higher, or they had to have much more money than what they felt like they were led to believe that they would need. I would get a phone call, asking what could they do. My response was they could continue and pay the unexpected amount or start all over and still end up paying about the same amount, which was what I had told them in the beginning. And that is what the other broker relied on, that the customer would be backed into a corner with the only options other than forking over the additional dough would be to cancel and maybe start over. I could not bring myself to lower my tactics to this level, so I never really succeeded in mortgage lending. However, I stayed in this field for a long time for one simple reason, the potential money was extremely large. Not that I was making any of that potential money, but since it was in front of me, I was the donkey following the carrot that I would never reach. In other words, I was putting tap shoes on the elephant.

If we all look at our lives, there are times and situations we are putting the tap shoes on the elephant. If we can learn to recognize the dancing elephants in our lives, we can begin to see the situations where we need to stop dressing up the bad and finding the good.

Keep Smiling!!

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My First Lesson Learned in Little League

My First Lesson Learned in Little League
(This is a draft of the first chapter of my book, tentatively titled, "Life Lessons Learned in Little League")
My first formal competitive team was the Baytown, TX East Little League Gators. Mr. Warren and Mr. Donnelly were my coaches. They were excellent for teaching young, beginning hardballers. I also have to give credit to my dad. He played pitch with me. He hit grounders to me. He made sure I was ready for tryouts. I could not have had a better beginning to my athletic career. The very first lesson Mr. Warren taught us and Dad reemphasized was to hustle. Not just some of the time, but whenever practicing or competing. Run on and off of the field between innings. Run out grounders. Give your all. When you are practicing, don't cut corners.
These are lessons that stuck with me thoughout my athletic career. I was not blessed with the greatest of natural abilities. I was, however, blessed with some generally decent skills and a good brain. And I was taught to hustle. Hustle was the edge that allowed me to be considered a better than average athlete at the sports I tried. I didn't run the fastest or throw the hardest nor was I the best hitter. No, I wasn't a superstar but I was a vital cog on almost every team in every sport that I played. Did I have the greatest skills? Again no, but due to my hustle, I made up for it.
How does this first lesson that Dad and Mr. Warren taught become a Life Lesson? I thought back on the roller coaster that has been my adult life. There have been times in my life that I was on top of the world, with bosses and co-workers telling me that the world was mine for the taking. There have been other times when I struggled in my career and in my life. It was during a time of struggle that I was searching for answers as to why sometimes everything seems to come so easy for me and at other times, I felt like an incompetent fool.
It was actually when I had to release (fire) a temporary employee at work, that it hit me. The worker asked why he was being let go. I gave the standard speech that he was a temp and we just no longer needed him. He knew better and continued to push as to the reason for his release. He was smarter than our average temp. He had started out impressively and was a quick learner. Unfortunately for his job assignment, he stopped putting in an effort. He was just going through the motions. In other words, he quit hustling.
It was then that I remembered something that happened to me a few years ago that showed me how hustling was an important necessity in all parts of my life, not just in my sporting life. I was hired by a retail operation that was opening a new store. As we were going through the set up process, I got a reputation as someone who worked my tail off all day long and someone who could get the job done. One day, one of the building contractors who was still working on the store gave me a compliment that really did wonders for me. He told me I was going to be someone special whether for this company or for another if this job didn't work out. I asked him why he thought that. He response was simple but powerful. "You bust your tail. You work like you care."
During that time of reflection, I realized that I had the most success in my life when I hustled. I had success when I worked my tail off. I had success at things in which I might not be the most talented, but because I hustled.
Hustle will overcome deficiencies. Hustle wil get you past those that may have more natural talent. Hustle will get you noticed. Hustle when you don't think anyone is watching. Hustle when you are "practicing" and it will make it easier to hustle when you are playing the "game."
There are many lessons that I learned playing Little League baseball. Many that could have a great impact on your life. But if there is nothing else that I can pass on to you to help you to get a leg up in this world, it would be to HUSTLE!
Keep Smiling!!

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Here We Go Again

After difficulty with my previous blog host, I have moved and will start posting my blog here. I am going to paste some of my past postings along with my new ideas. Just because I haven't been able to post, doesn't mean I haven't been writing. I will start posting soon.

Keep smiling!

Eddy