December 2008

Things change and I guess it's all about how you react to them good or bad. At the end of the year, we just found out we are getting a new boss. The company did a geography shift of peoples area and we were are now associated with a different group of employees. It's kinda odd, for December we still have the previous person and the new gentlemen is trying to get acclimated to our situation. It's just a coincidence, but there seems like a lot of THINGS going on right now. There's a new employee search, a couple of new "in the works" business deals plus the day to day work make our days plenty full. I hope as we move into the new year the excitement of these new challenges will continue.

This week, I had a follow-up visit with the neurologist. Not a place that you expect to be as your life winds along, but there I was. She did the usual evaluation, pricking, pounding, and asking questions, all of which I have had done before. The doctor comes in, they confer and she relates to me that she is very pleased with my progress so far. She also took a few minutes to review the MRI of my brain to satisfy my curiosity. What a great tool to look at the inside of your body. I assume that's why she makes the big bucks because she knows what to look for. After all of that she said "congratulations" and I don't need to come back only if something new comes up. When I left the hospital 14 months ago I had follow-up visits with 6 different doctors for different things and this week I now have none.

As I continue this journey people ask how am I and my standard response is " I'm happy to be here." Merry Christmas

Need a job

I haven't written in here in a while and now seemed like a good time. The "quirks" are still hanging around, you know the tingling finger tips on my right hand. There are times I just kind of forget it's there, but it's still there, not as predominate as it was though. Life goes on though...

During the last couple of weeks, I had been kicking the idea around about changing my position in the fire department. I am the assistant chief now and I had thought about moving up. I weighed the pros and cons, mostly the cons and decided my work situation didn't offer me that opportunity right now. I just can not leave my job during the day, because there is not anyone else there to do the job, the cows are still there waiting for me. Many customers have a regular time requirement on when they expect us/me. It sounds like a odd reason, but right now it's the right reason. I enjoy what I do there and I will certainly keep doing it......

On the work front, we are labor challenged again. On the first of Nov., we lost a good guy that left to live with his wife, who had taken a state job on the other side of the state. Certainly the right move for him, but right now it's leaving our team a bit short. I guess that's an understatement. Were making do with a couple of part-time people to get the job done right now. One person works Tues, Weds. and Fri. and the other person works Thurs., Sat. and Sunday. It's working... right now with an emphasis on the right now part. The first person is really a farm wife and second is a college student . Really, we're a little better off this year than we were last year about this time, remember why I started this blog, at least we have the part time help. So I guess this presents a job prospect for anyone that wants a challenge. The training is complete and the pay is good. I'm just putting it out there. The Internet is a big place.

September 25th

A day of reflection, a day in history and the ironic thing about it was that I don't remember anything about it. Mostly, just the sequence of events as they were relayed to me. My personel experience didn't start for about a week, ya a week..... If you are new to this blog, check some of the early ones in 2007 and they will fill in alot of the gaps.
Coincedently, I had the day off again and I offered to help out in the harvesting crew driving truck. I thought being home and not working might give me too much time to time to reflect on the last years events. I know it changed the future of my life probably forever, but that is yet to be determined. I continue to tell myself, no matter what, I am still on the right side of the grass.
I also know that atleast for now, I don't take anything for granted. Making my sons JH soccor games, none of which I made last year, are a priority. I am a little more diliberate, maybe just being sure of where I am putting my body, situations I get into I guess. I don't dwell on it, but just walking through a barn I keep alittle better eye on what I could bang my head on. Stuff I didn't really watch out for before. That's one of my 2008 goals, don't hit my head again....

Smile, life is good.. You really don't know what tomarrow is going to bring good or bad. I am really thankful for what I have, the relatives that care about each other and the friends I keep.

rabbits

It's been a busy week, alot of activities to get my mind around. Early in the week, a team member decided that he was going to a different group closer to his home, and not work with us any longer. So, after the 21st, our labor force is going to be smaller again. I guess the bigger the number of people that you work with the bigger the chance that there will be personel changes. It's not a great situation, but it will give us all a reason to reflect on why this person decided to leave for less money..... I recently read that "people leave people not companies". But, I wouldn't disagree that no one is replaceable and we will find a replacement, but we will have a time period again of transition.

Over the weekend, we were at an Eastern States Flemish Giant rabbit show, that my wife and son are members of. There was 200 rabbits there and for us it was nice because it was only about 10 miles from our house. Most of the people there were pursuing their hobby and I don't think that anyone there was making a living from their pasion. Our son showed 4 rabbits there and received a couple of first places. Those first places went onto place best opposite variety in the open show and best of variety - youth. From those placings he got a couple of nice trophies. Parents and child are real happy and proud... Just alittle explanation, in the rabbit world, there is no reserve champion placing. If a male wins the color/variety they also award the female from the same color as the best opposite or visa versa, you get the picture. He ended up selling one rabbit and buying another for the same money of a different color, a great deal for all involved. I'll put up a couple of pictures soon. Pretty much an un-stressful, a wind down sort of weekend for all involved. Makes you proud of your kids too.

MRI

I'm a big morale guy. I have been since I have been in this position and it's involved my home life too. You have to make the best of what you have everyday all the time because you just don't know what life will be in a few minutes from now. In sales, if something is bothering you or if your morale is low for some reason you are not going to try to do sales anywhere. It could be as simple as getting dirty at the start of the day. It could be as big as working alot of days in a row with no time off. Maybe your pay check was late this week. It effects peoples performance... We're an outside sales company and you have got to want to pull into that next driveway. Nine out of ten times just being there will result in some kind of sale. I realize that many things you don't have any control over, but I feel that you have to live off the good points.

Today, I had a follow-up MRI to see if anything has changed since the accident. I had the day off, it was raining and it just seemed like a fun thing to do, lay on a table and have a big magnet whirl around my head. LOL You never know what they will find, if anything, but I know today I feel good and I my body is on the right side of the grass! So I had nothing to worry about right. The technician asked me on the way in if I had ever had an MRI before? I told him, yes and no. I had one in 2007 but I was in a coma at the time, so does it count? It was simple, fast and painless and I was out of there in 20 minutes or so. On the way home, I made a follow-up stop at a customer I saw yesterday and made a big sale (200 units) for me. I was pumped and I even delivered some of it too. I could have been down about having to go for the MRI, but I took it as just another thing in life. The good and the bad I guess. So keep your spirits up and try to find something good in every day.

Relativly safe

We had decided to vacation at Sylvan Beach on Oneida Lake. A resort town with out a doubt, but when the weather didn't cooperate there wasn't many out of the campsite things to do. We spent time at the beach, watched a boat parade, went to the amusement park and ate out a few times, played some bingo and generally relaxed. The last day and night were the exciting ones though. There was rain on and off on Sunday and for something to do, we hung out under our tent shelter and played some cards. We were having fun though. About 7 pm. there was a huge explosion across the river from were our tent was set up. There wasn't any fire, no police response,etc. but it sounded like a propane tank exploding. There was a party going on next door to were we saw the explosion and I suppose it could have been a M80 or something like that I guess.... I don't really know. We went to bed and about 12:30 pm. the sky opened up. Thunder, lightning and lots of rain and more thunder and lightning. We had been more or less dry in the days before and the tents had been keeping out the water pretty well I guess. Tenting in a rain storm is not that fun. The night was flashing all around us and were just laying there watching it. We had nice air mattresses which kept us up off the floor so I guess we were relatively safe. My son thought he might feel better in the car, so he spent the rest of the night reclined in the front seat. The tent just dripped inside a little and it held up just fine. We toughed it out and in the morning it was still raining. We went out to breakfast and when we came back we were able to pack up the tent and we headed home, vacation over. It was one for the books, we made out OK and we saw an area we had never been to before...

vacation

We're taking an unforced vacation... Ya, you know one were I went on my own free will and none of it involved a hospital with an extended stay. It's kinda interesting, we only went about 50 miles from home to a new place for us, a campground on a river and a big lake. It's nice, there are a lot of permanent campers and it's quiet too. There's activities every night in town and I think we are just far enough from civilization so it's relaxing and there is no daily push to get stuff done. I don't know if it is good or bad but this campground has wireless Internet in the whole place. It's kinda cool. So, I'm setting at a picnic table by our tent typing on my laptop just for kicks.

My son just joked that I should do a search on the Internet on how to start a campfire. See what the world wide web had to offer. I'll try to get a picture or two in later this week.