Florida or Bust

Early Morning on the Beltway

In olden times we would be in a prairie schooner with the words emblazoned on the side. Today we are in the car some time about 0230 with Florida in front and home behind.
And so we are off and are already south of DC.
With the radio blasting it reminds me of being back in college when I used to make the trek from Ithaca to Miami.

I'm going to be a real bore

No, I'm not on vacation, yet.

But by this time tomorrow I should already have miles behind me as I trek to the beach climates.

And I love that I can instantly blog via email and with pictures from my iPhone. Did I say that I really like my iPhone. I still can't believe that I have adapted to it after so many years as a Blackberry high power user. (Thanks, Chris)

The packing is mostly complete--the last use items are being loaded into the bags for quick access.

We are still getting rain--last night I would guess close to two inches. Fortunately the lawn got mowed last evening just before the rain began. Literally, the rain was beginning to fall as I was making the last pass on the yard and parking the tractor back into the garage. My rain estimate is based of course on the level of water in the pool--so it is close but not scientific.

As for an update--Makayla is doing much better. We kept her on a water diet yesterday and began giving her boiled rice last night. The spewing has stopped and her eyes remain bright. She wasn't amused that I wouldn't give her my last piece of toast this morning--but we want her gut to really settle down before we start loading it up again with food, treats, and junk.

I really wish I didn't have to go to work today. Yesterday was a killer--just shy of 12 hours. Reminds me of high school when I used to work Fridays (or during the Christmas season) with Dad at the clothing store-- 9 to 9. Except there we got breaks for lunch and dinner. Yesterday--I didn't even have time for lunch and managed to straggle home for dinner. Thank goodness traffic was moving on the beltways as I was coming back from an afternoon meeting on the other side of D.C..

It is funny--as I sit here I can imagine the smell of beach in Jupiter and the tickle of the sand on my toes.

Like my puka shells, it transports me to a happy place.

And so with strains of Willie Nelson playing in my head--I head off for my last day of work for July 2010 and then it will be off onto the crowded roadways to add my small assistance to help sustain the economic recovery.

Early Morning - Makayla Wakes us up Sick

I heard the whine--and then I smelled it, the sure signs of a sick dog in the bedroom.

Never a pleasant way to start the day--especially when it is 4am and the mess is substantial--and not just confined to the bedroom but as we soon discover, is also in other locations around the house.

And the clean up is not easy--the washer will be busy all day cleaning rugs, towels and even bedding as the mess increased in size.

Makayla is being put on a strict water diet and confined to her cage until her gastrointestinal system settles a bit.

She hates the cage--but is taking it like a trooper. For our point--we are trying to contain the mess because it is really awful.

So we are up early watching TV and we are listening to a unhappy dog squeaking from her cage. Trying to settle her stomach and keeping her quiet.

A long day starting early. A sick dog and a huge mess still processing through the washer and dryer.

Vacation is only days away.

Monday Musings - July 12, 2010

1. The Orioles have a four game winning streak, tying their longest winning streak of the season and also, they completed their first road four-game sweep over another team since 1995. Is the season beginning to turn around? Will something miraculous happen during the stretch run to October?

2. It is amazing how quickly it passes--I noticed this morning that already the dawn is just beginning to break when I let Makayla out for her morning business. Just last week it was full daylight.

3. Well the World Cup is completed and Spain won. I was cheering for the Netherlands. It seems that the losers in this tournament were the teams I was cheering for.

4. BP is still playing in the Gulf of Mexico--but based upon their reporting, their stock increased in value overnight. Really? What about the clean-up efforts?

5. Is is vacation week--when the packing is done and the car is fueled sometime Wednesday night or very early Thursday morning, the blog will be heading south for the rest of the month!

6. There is a song that sings about "suntanned toes in the sand" --I'm so there.

A Pair of Kees

Sunday afternoon and a pair of keeshonden are lounging on the family room floor.

They love getting together and playing and eating.

They especially get excited when the Orioles complete their first road four-game sweep since 1995. Wow!

Sports Debacle: LeBron James

We have reached a new low with sports.

The self-proclaimed king is no king but a pathetic wanna-be.

The amount of hype around a sports player moving from one team to another team is so out of proportion to things of true importance to the world and life that it is appalling.

The amount of money these guys are being paid to so something most of the rest of us pay to do is unfathomable and truly shows how out of touch these over paid players are with the people that watch and ultimately pay their salaries--most of whom are making less than $50,000 per year as compared to the multi-million dollar salaries they are making.

Teachers make more of an impact on the world than sports figures. They make $30-$50 thousand per year.

It is wrong that someone can be paid so much money just because they can play a game with a ball.

And then they ascend into privileged status.

I didn't watch the special--I don't care about the NBA. But I do know, I'd play MLB for a lot less than all of the players are getting paid. The league minimum is about $400 thousand a year. I'd be really happy with less than half of that to play baseball every day.

It is an example of the worst that our society has to offer. Our military personnel are losing their lives overseas and being compensated with extremely small amounts of money by comparison

Think about it--the President makes about that much and he has his finger on the nuclear trigger.

The Christian Science Monitor put it this way:

At a time when 15 million Americans have no job at all, we should be indignant about pro athletes like LeBron James earning more than $15 million a year.

I urge you to click the link and read the article--but, I am going to reprint the last three paragraphs here. The author Jonathan Zimmerman makes a solid closing argument with which I happen to agree strongly

Who needs to take home $15 million or $20 million per year? Nobody. But we all need to take account of the wealth – and the poverty – in our midst.

Perhaps we can use these astronomic athletic salaries to make a fresh case for higher marginal taxes on the super-rich, just like we had in the old days – and just as many European democracies have today.

LeBron James shouldn’t get paid such an extraordinary sum, when millions of Americans aren’t getting paid at all. And it doesn’t matter how good a year he had.

We need to change our priorities!

Some People--Potential Darwin Award Nominee

I'm not sure if you are aware of the Darwin Awards--they are given to people for trying to remove themselves from the gene pool for doing really stupid, even unimaginable things. They make incredibly fascinating reading. I have a 2010 nominee:

I read the following in the Baltimore Sun yesterday:

A 25-year-old man accidentally shot himself in the foot while intoxicated in a Reisterstown home early Wednesday morning, a Baltimore County Police spokesman said.

Donald Burshnick, 25, of Maine, N.Y., was drunk with other people in a house in the 1500 block of Nicodemus Road, said Cpl. Mike Hill of Baltimore County Police.

At about 3:30 a.m., he retrieved a loaded rifle from within the home and fired a shot into the floor, the spokesman said. "However, he struck his foot," Hill said.

He gave police detectives varying accounts about what had happened before admitting he was drunk, Hill said. Initial reports of the incident described it as a hunting accident. No charges will be filed, Hill said.

So let me get this straight--he aimed at the floor and missed! Hitting his foot!

In a house filled with other people? He discharged a rifle?

Really?

He's lucky he didn't his something more critical--or maybe he should have.

A definite Darwin Award candidate.

As an example, I provide this Darwin Award winner from 2009:

(10 January 2009, Pennsylvania) An embarrassed and seriously injured 17-year-old initially claimed that an explosive had been planted in his backpack by persons unknown. However, police investigators soon extracted the truth from the feckless teen. He found an M-80 explosive at his grandmother's house, took it to his room to examine it, and began to repeatedly light and extinguish the fuse. During one of these cycles the fuse would not go out, so he jammed the red cardboard tube between his thighs and covered it with his hand to muffle the explosion. This plan was less successful than he had hoped.

Commonly thought to be a quarter stick of dynamite, M80's (according to pyrouniverse.com) actually contain flash powder rather than TNT, and only 1/50 the amount--just under 3 grams. Used by the U.S. Military to simulate grenade explosions, M80's were outlawed in 1966 under the Child Protection Act. They are not safe enough to be detonated by the average man on the average street, let alone by the average 17-year-old.

One loud KABOOM! later, our junior pyrotechnics specialist had lost his right hand, right leg, and--very likely--his right to reproduce, earning him a living Darwin Award. * As always, my regrets to the boy and his family.

It is Raining!

Normally, that would be an expression of frustration and messed up plans. But today, the fact that rain is falling is a great thing. We have not had rain in almost a month and things are really dry.

It is a light soaking kind of rain, too.

The air is clearing of the suspended junk and it is nice to be out in the rain--it is cooling and enjoyable.

Makayla and I took a short walk just to enjoy the drops and see the change in the earth as it is being refreshed by the rain. It even smells good.

Take a moment, if it is raining where you are, especially if you have been in drought conditions to thank God for the rain.

Slogging It Out

It really is a race now.

Trying to make it on the road to my Florida vacation while keeping all the juggled balls in the air long enough to get out of town.

Some of the stuff, I just don't want to deal with--like the power steering problem with the truck. It needs to go to the shop--but, it will wait until I get back.

Other stuff--needs to get done, like the preparation and the packing.

And then there are the outliers--like buying a new sprinkler because the old one broke. Who is going to water the lawn while we are gone? And I wanted to rent a tank of air to do a dive gear check-out. Maybe Saturday because I still have to retrieve Chris's repaired face mask.

And work has turned into a nightmare of its own--strings of meetings that yesterday lasted until 5:30 pm and start all over today with a road-trip meeting which will devour the better part of an already busy Friday. Monday and Tuesday present themselves as more of the same with equally as long out of the office meetings.

And this is July--the pace is supposed to ease a bit as the action and task generators begin to slip out on vacation.

All I know is that when I hit the front door of the house in the evening I force my mind to go blank--but it doesn't.

Like the journey of a thousand miles beginning with a single step--I will continue to put one foot in front of the other and by slogging through one shuffle step at a time, it will all get done. Mostly.

Cylinder of Excellence: A Study in Self Importance

The other day, a friend of mine referred to a situation in our office as an example of the "cylinder of excellence capitol of the world."

I was stunned and amazed--so amazed that I wrote the phrase down and my mind has been turning it over teasing it out in the week since it was uttered.

There was so much packed into those seven words that I still can barely comprehend the complete meaning of the phrase.

The cylinder part was fantastic as it describes an entire universe or work unit. Totally self-contained and self-absorbed with no inputs allowed from the outside.

The idea of a cylinder is that it stands by itself, unlike a sphere which can roll, and it is there for others to see and often trip over. Additionally, there is nothing connecting this free-standing cylinder to the world around it. It is because it is. Kind of a parody of Descartes "I think, therefore I am."

Add into this self-absorbed and self-important environment the self-declaration of excellence. The ego factor is increasing exponentially here. But, in fact, many places consider themselves to be Centers of Excellence--and that title is self assigned. There is no agency designated to bestow upon an organization the rating of Center of Excellence. Leadership does it in its own.

It is often used to convey a message, but in my way of thinking it all too often is a gratuitous title. If, in face, and organization is a center of excellence, then their products and services will reflect that as will the bottom line success of the organization.

And now for the closing phrase-- "capitol of the world!" Of course this is a tongue in cheek comment which really drives home the point that the dis-connectedness and the self-importance of the cylinder of excellence is unmatched and is an example for other "Wanna Be's" to emulate.

What kind of organizations are guilty of this behavior? All kinds--from civic to governmental to private industry to religious.

I have seen organizations in all of these areas pride themselves on being the "cylinder of excellence capitol of the world."

What do we need to do to prevent our organization from becoming a cylinder of excellence?

Stay connected to peer organizations and customers and partners. Also, work collaboratively--giving as well as receiving. Stay in touch.

AND--don't think so highly of yourself that you can't accept ideas from outside.

Break down the philosophy which continues to promote the "not invented here" syndrome. Open the organization to the outside and allow solid connection to others.

It is not good to be a cylinder of excellence capitol of the world--it is much better to be seen as a collaborative, open, innovative organization which constantly reinvents itself to meet the demands of the market or the customers it is trying to serve.

Just because we did it that way 10 years ago doesn't mean we need to do it that way today--but also, it doesn't necessarily mean we HAVE to change, either.

Ask the customers what they need to be successful and then partner with other organizations, if necessary, to meet the need.