Cleaning up Had someone stop by and ask who they should see to get their office area vacuumed more often. I went out on Amazon and bought some cheap (but good $80 vacuum cleaners). Nothing at all wrong with taking a few minutes to vacuum your area at the end of the day, or when…
Category: Work, Writing. Reading, Watching
Stories from my prior life in the corporate world and now as a writer
T -66 Days: Food geography
Some foods you never forget, and will always be associated with a specific place and time. Here is my list. To qualify, I must have actually lived there, and eaten it many times. Most can still be found, some are gone forever: Kansas City, Missouri… BBQ (of course!), so much of it, everywhere. LeMars, Iowa……
T -67 Days: Martin Manley
Martin Manley turned 60 years old on August 15th, 2013 Do you know the story of Martin Manley? Self proclaimed smartest person in Missouri (he had the test results). Prolific writer… thousands and thousands of articles published. Blogger. Famous sports statistician. If you are a long time Kansas City Royals or Chiefs fan, you have…
T -71 Days: Leadership against all odds
I actually work with some pretty cool people. One of them has presented me with book after book on servant leadership, building team culture and the impact of positivity in the workplace. I have been fortunate enough to have previous exposure to the concepts, and have lived them in a couple previous organizations. It takes…
T -77 Days: Sometimes you just have to say
I have always been a worrier. Worried about today, worried about tomorrow, worried about 10 years from now. Not wanting to make a mistake. Playing it safe. My favorite professional football team has a coach whose first instinct is to play it safe. He had a quarterback who played it safe. He had a defensive…
T -79 Days: Failure deprived
Failure Deprived When I was an elementary school kid back in northwest Iowa many years ago, I discovered the joy of playing basketball. It quickly became an obsession. No parents, no leagues. Just neighborhood basketball every day. No matter how hot, or cold. Even thru the winter, we’d be out there shoveling off the court,…
T -83 Days: Tom Petty does freedom
Every now and then I get down to the end of the day I have to stop and ask myself why I’ve done it It just seems so useless to have to work so hard And nothin’ ever really seems to come from it But then she looks me in the eye and says “We’re…
T -102 Days: Driving down a river
MAPS Remember these? Before Google Maps, before Apple Maps, before Waze, before Garmin… this was the way we navigated. Oh, the tension in the car, with kids, my wife the navigator, me driving. And lost. My wife has many fantastic skills… map reading is not one of them. There we were on one memorable trip,…
T -107 Days: The Last Ice Storm
The Last Ice Storm It was a few years ago, here in Iowa. The day before, I had told my ice storm story from yesterday’s blog, at a staff meeting when we were discussing this upcoming potential ice storm. And now it was very early in the morning, my wife was getting ready to go…
T -108 Days: Ice Storm III
Ice Storm III I had joined a new company in St Louis that fall. Over Christmas we had a major ice storm. It was the kind where you felt you could put on ice skates and cruise the subdivision. But since it was Christmas, it was really a non event for me… we had nowhere…