Leave Early Today

You’re gonna love this one!

Today is National Leave the Office Early Day. It’s also Say Something Nice Day.

No kidding. If you don’t believe me go online to “Chase’s Calendar of Events.” This site is the best supposit…mmm….repository…for all the special days, weeks and months.

So, here’s my suggestion: Leave early and as you walk out the door look over your shoulder at your co-workers and say, “You know, I’ve enjoyed this week with y’all.”

If you’re from the North please feel free to use y’all, it’s friendlier and nicer than you’uns.

Have a great weekend. See y’all on Monday.

Tough Time Tips

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” Margaret Thatcher

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” Walter Elliott

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” Newt Gingrich

“Fall seven times, get up eight.” Japanese Proverb

“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.” James Michener, Chesapeake

I'm Not Helping Anymore

(this is a tad long, but hang with me)

There’s a philosophy that says if you put something out there, positive or negative—an emotion/effort/comment/thought—it’ll come back to you soon after.

Yesterday morning I busted some of the meatheads in our human herd who were stopped on a bridge after a little fender bender, blocking traffic and creating a dangerous situation for the rest of their fellow drivers.

The payback didn’t take long….three people flipped me off on the highway within a couple of hours.

The first one was at a red light and evidently I didn’t start moving the instant it turned green.

The second was at another stoplight. I looked both ways, saw it was clear, and turned right on red. I didn’t realize some guy in a pickup was doing 119 miles an hour and coming up on my left. He whizzed around me, flipped me off and continued to stare at me through his rear window for at least 50 yards.

The third member of The Exalted Order of The Flipper was my favorite.

I’m on four-lane US 1 and traffic is kinda creeping along. I hear a horn blowing behind me and to my left. I look in my rear view and side view mirrors and I see a beat-up, old Lincoln with the left turn signal flickering with that, “I’ve been blinkin’ for miles and I’m tired” look.

We come up on a stoplight (what is it with the stoplights?!!) and as the car rolls up beside me he honks again. I look over and the windows are down and there’s male driver and female passenger. They both look rough, about sixty or so, and both dress out at around 300 pounds.

I roll down my window (I know, I know) and ask, “Hey, what’s the deal with the horn?” He points at the driver ahead and blathers something I don’t hear.

To which, I answer….

Let me stop right here and say that, yes, I realized that I was going to say something smartass and that I shouldn’t...but, I couldn’t stop myself. Besides, I thought my comment might be helpful.

I said, “Well, Scooter, you’re the one riding forever with your left turn signal bangin’ away.”

Just then the light changed, Thank God. Mr. and Mrs. Shrek screamed something unintelligible at me and digitally told me I was Number 1.

That’s it. I’m not helping anyone anymore.

Are We All In the Same Herd?

It’s about 6:50 on Tuesday morning and I’m watching the local news. They’ve got a shot of a car and truck that obviously had a bump-up in the morning traffic. It happened on an on-ramp coming up to a bridge over US 1.

Both drivers stopped ON THE BRIDGE and the shot showed them out on the highway standing near their vehicles. Traffic was backed up (or, down since they were lined up back down the on-ramp) for half-a-mile behind them.

North Carolina has a law stating that if you are in a minor accident that blocks traffic and your vehicles can be moved you should pull over to the shoulder of the road and wait for authorities.

We all get caught up in situations and our logic escapes us but these dopes seemed oblivious to a variety of hazards.

Is it just me or, considering the number of meat-heads running with us in the herd, are we simply lucky to make it through some days? 

A Memorial Day Thank You to Don McKenzie and the Rest

Yesterday, a friend and I walked about a half-mile from my house to a Buffalo Wild Wings and had drinks, played video games and watched golf/baseball/fights and the end of the Indy 500.

Along the way, no one asked us for our papers, threatened us because we were from a different tribe or religious sect or were a different color, and we didn’t have to carry guns with us.

Here’s why:

Don McKenzie was 22 when he was killed in Vietnam on December 10, 1968.

Don lived at the end of the street I grew up on. He was 6 years older than me so when I was in that impressionable 10-12 year-old time he was one of my high school heroes. He was the first person close to my age whom I remember losing to the war in Vietnam.

For 230+ years all sorts of Americans, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, white/black/Native/Hispanic/Asian and other nationalities, have died to make sure that you and I didn’t have to carry “papers” or guns wherever we go in America. They are the reason we can argue about silliness like whether or not we should censor what’s on television/internet/books, what people wear or whether consenting adults who love each other and happen to be of the same sex can get married.

In the searing light of day and in the dark of night, in mud/sandstorms/typhoons and hurricanes/snow, in the scariest places on earth Americans have heroically died some of the most horrible deaths imaginable so that we can worship wherever we like and then go to a grocery store and choose among 27 types of barbecue sauce.

I’m all for having that feeling of superiority that being an American seems to give us…the feeling that the red, white and blue makes us better…I am unashamedly proud of the feeling of entitlement that gives me.

Now, if you want to feel guilty, let your imagination slide over to what it felt like to be a young guy from a small town in North Carolina, lying in tall grass in a country on the other side of the world and dying of small arms fire. And, he did it so you and I could safely walk out to the driveway each morning without feeling threatened and pick up a newspaper in which are written stories that, in some countries in the world, would get the reporters hung.

Thank you, Don.

Thank you all.

How Stupid Is This?

 A kid in Cary, NC, was stealing stuff from his neighbors’ garages.

In the process he dropped his cell phone.

The cops simply took the cell phone and pressed, “Mom.”

It could be me, but if you are choosing a life of crime you might want to be smarter. But, if you’re choosing a life of crime you can’t be that smart in the first place.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

See you Monday.

Empathy, Not Sympathy

“Don’t confuse ‘soft’ with seeing the other guy’s point of view.” President George H.W. Bush

In the seminar yesterday the word “empathy” came up and I asked if folks knew the meaning. Someone finally said, “You’ve been in their shoes.”

Understanding a little about the other person’s personal and work life is a good thing. You can get a feel for how they might see life.

With whom do you work/live/love? How much do you know about how they see life?