I sent my first email in 1997 from my cubicle in our first real office. We were on the 5th floor of a building that used to be the corporate office of a company called Allis Chalmers that disappeared in the mid-80’s. The office was a significant upgrade from the mobile office trailer I’d most…
I’m not a fan of the phone, specifically the non-smart part of it that we use to talk to one another. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the value of phones, I’ve just grown not to enjoy them much anymore. I got tired. And annoyed. I’ve been self-therapying a lot about why I’ve lost my…
Every so often I find myself feeling entitled to things. I can’t help it. I tell myself that I deserve this or that and find myself dreaming about what deserving that would look like. Maybe it’s a car or a trip or an expensive bottle of wine. An afternoon spent goofing around, or maybe a…
I’ve always felt comfortable doing what needs to be done. Been that way since I was a kid. It’s not that I’m against talking things over. That’s usually smart. But when the talking’s done, somebody’s got to do. And if that somebody is me, then do is what I do. When Butch and I started…
I can be a shiny object kind of guy. You know, the one who’s drawn to the newest or most recent thing I’ve seen or heard. My wife has learned to just yeah-yeah me when I start talking about something I just heard but for some reason I must pursue, right now. She knows that…
I was making a Target run when I noticed a woman walking toward me in the parking lot. She had a unique gait that caused her to rock slightly right to left as she walked. She wore her purse tight to her left hip. Its strap was on her right shoulder. She was eating potato…
I recently observed a woman at a liquor store in Moab, Utah. I didn’t mean to, it just happened. She may have been my age, but it was hard to tell because she was dressed all ‘back-packy’ like she’d been on the road for a long time and hadn’t had time to wash the trail…
I’ll be the first one to admit that my handwriting sucks. If you’ve ever had to read anything I hand wrote, I doubt you’d disagree. The cow scratch on a Chick-fil-A billboard is more legible (but my spelling is better – most of the time). I can’t imagine all the pain and wasted time I’ve…
I never thought much about how long I intended to live until my Dad died in April 2003 at age 60. Later that same year, in October, my friend, mentor and business partner, Butch, died as well. He was only 54. Years earlier, during the mid to late 90’s when I was hosting (in my…
At a recent Board meeting, I ran into a fellow member that I’ll call Debbie because, well, that’s her name. She was in the process of hanging up her coat in the hallway that I was using as a short cut to the bathroom. We hadn’t seen each other for a few months. She looked…
