Every Sunday Morning, Early

I'm awake at 6 a,m, every Sunday morning. Not any other morning. Just Sunday. Early Sunday morning is the quietest time of the week. The birds aren't at the feeder yet, and the sun rises above the canyon in the back.

Sunday in Cambria

We are headed home tomorrow after a week-long adventure with the Rin Tin Twins--our annual visit to Cambria. It's cool and fresh here, and the big political issue on Tuesday, as always, is water. In the 21 years we've been coming here, there's never been enough. No new water meters have been issued here for at least ten years--many people who own buildable lots have watched their value fall to almost nothing.

They're planning a desalinization plant, but there's still controversy, especially over how it will be paid for. There's at least one no-growth candidate on the ballot. (They're electing representatives to the Cambria Community Services District.) Some no-growthers don't want anything at all done about water. They like things as they are, thank you very much.

I've always thought of this as a fairly conservative area, so I've been surprised at the large number of Obama yard signs.

Turkeys in the Yard

A few minutes ago I was making coffee while watching turkeys in the yard from our Cambria kitchen window. If you look hard, you can see one of them in the picture above.

A Daily Observation

"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it."

--Ellen Goodman (1941 - )

Back to Work

Object of the Week

They're Back!

Quote of the day:
“I agree with the governor, it's a complete waste of time. For those people against same-sex marriage, all I can say is that they should get a life. I'm too damn busy working, trying to pay my bills, and just survive in this economy to worry about something that in no way affects me.”
--jfawcett1, leaving a comment this morning at signonsandiego.com

A good week, this.

Merrie is feeling good and getting lots of sleep. She had a routine trip to our doctor who confirmed she was doing fine, and recommended more rest.

Also, resident and migratory birds are hanging out here. The trees are louder than usual this time of year. There are mockingbirds nesting nearby, and a bevy of happy finches, sparrows, hummingbirds and doves.

A huge red-shouldered hawk regularly watches over the canyon from a perch just on the other side.

To top it off, the first migratory grosbeaks showed up this morning. Always a big event.

There’s a ground squirrel who appreciates the bird-feeder overflow, and seems to enjoy the sound of German Shepherds barking at him.

Now if we could just have a brief talk with the car-mirror-obsessed starling roosting in our driveway.

Beautiful Day for A Wet Roll in the Dirt

Quote of the day:
“Even the best of friends cannot attend each other's funeral.”
--Kehlog Albran, "The Profit"

The four of us went for a long walk on Fiesta Island at 3 this afternoon. The temperature was about 78 with a bright sun and an ocean breeze. A perfect day.

There were very few people and dogs there. Most folks were at work or engaged in Friday-afternoon responsibilities.

I thought about that a little as I watched Sophie tear into the water and out again, with Sherman herding her back to us. I was glad to be where I was.

Just Six Weeks Until Memorial Day

Quote of the day:
“Four decades after the murder in Memphis of a friend of the working man—a hero who was always being denounced by the FBI for his choice of secular and socialist friends and colleagues—the national civil rights pulpit is largely occupied by second-rate shakedown artists who hope to franchise ‘race talk’ into a fat living for themselves.”
--Christopher Hitchens, in yesterday’s Slate

It’s time for another burst of work. Spring breaks are done. Memorial Day is six weeks away, and summer another three after that.

Now it’s the old nose to the grindstone, and work hard to find ways to escape to Starbucks or even to that long-delayed dental appointment.

I’m fascinated by the rhythm of the work year--how most everyone seems to be on about the same schedule of work during several periods each year. These are the times when the freeways are really clogged at rush hour, food stores are jammed after five and people are generally tired and cranky. The beach is clear as far as the eye can see.

The most-intense work bursts are several. The worst is mid-September through October, which includes very heavy business travel and conference scheduling in October. It’s relieved by Halloween, which has become a much-more-important holiday over the last ten years. That is followed by gradual “loosening” as Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, with the latter bringing on serious partying.

Early January through mid-February is tough. In addition to the grindstone we have to deal with darkness and cold. That’s why we need both Presidents’ Day weekend and Valentine’s Day. After that, there’s a gradual easing until spring break, which continues and accelerates as summer approaches.

In between these work periods there are long-weekend times off or weeklong times when we’re officially at work but the mood is not work. An example is the week between Christmas and New Years. The week before Labor Day also qualifies. In fact, all of summer really qualifies. Think about it--what serious work conferences are held in the summer?

It seems we lurch among three modes: working long hours and like crazy, taking time off and convincing ourselves how deserving we are, and sort-of working while pretending that we are still working long hours and like crazy.

Maybe it would serve all of us better if we could simply integrate work and rest better. But I guess we are too obsessed and self-deluded for that.

It’s the old story of seeing ourselves as much more indispensable than we are.

A Year Ago

Quote of the day:
“When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes."
--Erasmus

This time last year, Merrie was in the hospital.

Those days seem very far removed from us, and I guess that’s a good thing. She still takes lots of medication daily. But she is not just stable, she is healthy.

We are enjoying life a lot more this year than last. We’re also enjoying this year a lot more than 2006. That may seem obvious, but for us, enjoying life doesn’t seem to come naturally. We often are preoccupied by something that needs to be done.

Of course, there’s always lots to be done, even for those of us without jobs. The key for us has been learning to be ok with letting go of that once in a while.

So the opportunity has been for us to view life and live life in a more authentic way. It’s taken some trial and error, and a bit of work to figure it out. Or not figure it out, if you know what I mean.

Right now, things are very good. And we are grateful.

Let's Take a Breather

Quote of the day:
"The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we have of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us."
--Quentin Crisp









































I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s white space.

World According to Puppy

Quote of the day:
“Bad spellers untie!”
--Unknown

Our puppy Sherman’s very enticing view of the world consists of just two things: fun and sleep. I can learn a lot from this.

I have always been very focused on work and being productive. Sometimes I make fun into work. I know it’s supposed to be the other way around. But I still do it.

An activity or an attraction gets a great review in the newspaper and I think it will be fun. It requires planning, traveling and paying admission, all of which I do. And I discover lots and lots of other people who had the same idea.

The outing becomes primarily an exercise in dealing with crowds and waiting. It becomes work. Or the planning to avoid these things becomes work.

All the while, I could’ve been having fun.

Sherman’s preferred toys are tennis balls, cardboard boxes and sticks that he finds outside. In addition to a few official toys which he mostly ignores, these things are scattered around our house and yard.

He just picks one of these things up and plays. Sometimes he wants us to participate.

Either way, it’s a simple thing. “I’m a puppy, so it’s time to have fun.”

Then, it will be time for a nap. So I’ll flop down and take one. Sleep is good.

Silent Night

Quote of the day:
“Ho-ho-ho.”
--J.O.E. (Jolly Old Elf)

One thing that impresses me every single Christmas is the quiet.

Last night we got home from church after midnight. We got out of the car in front of our house and it was oh so quiet.

This morning I went out to get the newspaper. Again, there was barely a sound, except for some finches chirping.

You’d think it’d be a little eerie, but I find it comforting.

A really great thing about Christmas is the way it gives everyone permission to stop. Maybe they can rest. Maybe they can enjoy the quiet.

Whatever the case, most everyone gets to simply stop for a while. And that’s a very good thing.

Cyber Monday

Quote of the day:
"A wide awake lad has no patience with that which is namby-pamby. ... He demands real flesh and blood heroes who do something."
--Edward L. Stratemeyer, who created The Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew series.

Alright already.

First it was “Black Friday.” Now it’s “Cyber Monday.”

Today is imagined as the post-Thanksgiving pre-Christmas day when Americans across the land unite and buy things online. Preferably at work.

Online shopping is a major pastime at workplaces everywhere. That’s why no one wants his computer screen visible from his office door. It’s annoying to have to navigate away from Ebay when you hear someone walking by.

This goes on everywhere, but don’t ever ask anyone about it, because it’s a secret.

So I’m not sure we need Cyber Monday. Unless we’re going to permanently modify the workweek. As we did with Casual Friday.

In any case, I sure am glad that we’re naming all these days. Otherwise they wouldn’t mean anything. They’d all be just ordinary days of life.

Not ranked in any way. Not labeled in any way. Except Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, ….

Ordinary days. How unimaginably boring.

Funky Winkerbean

Quote of the day:
"The trouble with super heroes is what to do between phone booths."
--Ken Kesey

Have you been reading “Funky Winkerbean”? If you have, you probably know why I ask that question.

Funky’s wife Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. Now she is in the final stage. Hospice is visiting, and her bed is in their first-floor living room.

So many, many people have said to me that they go to the movies/watch TV/read the funnies to be entertained, not to be challenged or depressed. Often the reason given is something along the lines of “I work hard, and when I go to the movies/watch TV/read the funnies about the last thing I want is to see a downer. I don’t even want to think.”

I’m all for rest and recreation. We really don’t get enough of it. With traffic, work and family worries, becoming one with entertainment inertia can be wildly appealing.

But don’t we rob ourselves of a bit of life when we insist on not thinking or feeling when we encounter movies/TV shows/funnies? We might miss some good stuff.

And Funky Winkerbean is good stuff. The writer, Tom Batiuk, is not trying to be morbid or depressing or funny especially. He is simply trying to depict real, human characters. And the people he brings us are funny, sad, nostalgic and inspiring.

Seeing this strip is a good moment in my day.

Multi-Tasking, Schmulti-Tasking

Quote of the day:
“We would each like to be Tarzan. At least I would; I admit it."
--Edgar Rice Burroughs

I regularly see the current generation referred to as “different.” One way it is “different,” so it goes, it that it is a “multi-tasking” generation.

I have one word for this timorously trenchant cultural analysis. Bunk.

It is true that younger people are doing many things at once. This is obvious if you’ve watched anyone under 30 use a computer or a cell phone, or play a video game. Many of their brains have been trained from an early age to almost-instinctively use technology to search or explore.

But are they better able to handle multi-tasking than their parents or grandparents? Have they made a significant evolutionary step and become so advanced that they can talk on the phone, listen to music, check their e-mail, and drink Red Bull while driving a 7000-pound Excursion?

Have their brains become so multi-taskingly wired that they can process, absorb and analyze simultaneous streams of data from five or six different sources? No.

From an evolutionary standpoint, human beings have changed not one whit from the days before cars and TV. It is true that we are healthier and living longer. But our essential physiological and neurological makeup is unchanged.

It was a mere 110 years ago that our grandparents or great-grandparents or great-great grandparents were walking or relying on horses for transportation. To get information they relied on neighbors, bought a newspaper, or went to hear a speech in the evening. For entertainment they chatted, played games, read books, went visiting, or occasionally went out.

Multi-tasking has consequences beyond any real or imagined increase in productivity, and certainly beyond any notion that you are living a “full” life.

Most people will eventually discover that multi-tasking not only does not indicate a “full” life, but rather an empty one. The fullness of life is found in going deep and savoring, not in rapidly skimming everything everywhere.

Still More on Leadership

Quote of the day:
“Among politicians and businessmen, ‘pragmatism’ is the current term for ‘to hell with our children.’”
--Edward Abbey

U.S. News has published a list of ten “Steps to Becoming a Great Leader.” Yesterday I suggested that the very highest priority is an almost-obsessive attention to the first step:

“Envision yourself as a leader in your own image. Assess yourself and mold your leadership style to emphasize your strengths….”

The next part of it reads “...then plan to outsource or delegate the rest.” Again, this is true for both organizations and individuals. Life will be richer and your organization much stronger if you have people close to you whose strengths are different from your strengths.

When one person’s strengths complement another’s, a very productive synergy develops. This is true in both work and personal situations.

The second step is “Hire cleverly. Nothing is more important.” I wouldn’t use the word “cleverly,” because it connotes manipulation or deception. My word would be “wisely.”

The real truth is is in the second sentence: “Nothing is more important.” These days, hiring and supervision are often delegated way down the organizational chart. Often the people hiring and interviewing are not very experienced, and mistakes happen.

The most-common mistake I’ve seen is too-close a focus on pure resume qualifications. People are chosen because they have a bit more training, experience or education than the next person. The total person, job fit and personality are minimized.

Yet over and over again it has been shown that the factor most contributing to performance problems is not lack of proper knowledge, training or experience. It is rather personal qualities, like the ability to get along with a wide variety of people.

Leadership Part Two

Quote of the day:
“Instant gratification is not fast enough.”
--Suzanne Vega

An interesting list has just appeared in “U.S. News.” It’s called “Steps to Becoming a Great Leader.”

It’s an excellent list--at least the beginning of it is. For some reason there are ten steps. Maybe whoever wrote it had to have a round number. Having so many “steps” weakens the list, because it distracts and detracts from the vital importance of the very first step:

“1. Envision yourself as a leader in your own image. Assess yourself and mold your leadership style to emphasize your strengths….”

I’m stopping in the middle of this first step because it’s critical. It’s so critical that you might do everything else on the list but still be miserable and fail because you gave this short shrift.

Assess yourself. Be honest with yourself. Then focus on your strengths (NOT your weaknesses), and find ways of leading from your strengths. This is true for organizations as well as individuals.

The thing is, it usually doesn’t happen this way. For example, it is very common for churches to fret about something missing in their programs. Often it is a youth program or outreach to young adults and families.

Typically the church had some success with one of these programs at some point in the past (maybe far in the past), and has made many failed attempts to bring back the former glory. There is great concern because “all successful churches must do these things well.”

But amid all the fretting, meetings, and planning related to addressing the church’s weaknesses, the church’s strengths (and all churches have at least one) are just there, with little appreciation or special attention. They may even languish.

Imagine what might happen if all the work devoted to doing something the organization is not good at was instead focused on what it is good at. The church would have the potential to be really outstanding in a specific way, and would gradually become known for that.

The key part of this first step is understanding, accepting and embracing the reality that you or your organization simply is not good at some things. And that’s why you don’t have the heart for them at the moment.

This is OK, and the result of fully accepting it is a clear direction toward your authentic passion and strength. Which will ultimately result in the appearance of additional passions and strengths.

Ventura Highway

Quote of the day:
"I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find."
--Ian Fleming, talking about how he came up with the name “James Bond.”

The picture was taken today on the California coast south of Santa Barbara. It was surprising how few people were on the beach, on an idyllic 70-degree August day.

There were about 20 surfers in the water, and the waves were fairly small but coming regularly. A children’s camp was meeting just down the beach. Other than that, there were just a few people (and two dogs, including ours) in any direction.

When Sophie sees any body of water, a voice inside her says, “Oh, boy--run and splash!” And that’s what she does. Without asking if we brought along a towel. Which we didn’t. Oh, well. There’s always air drying.

This is some of the most-beautiful and most-viewed coastline on the world. Hundreds of people see it daily as they motor up or down highway 101. Many of them say, “I’ve seen this somewhere before.” This particular area has been the setting for dozens of TV and movie scenes over many years.

Over all those years, this stretch of coast has changed very little. It’s almost as if it’s frozen in time.

That’s somehow reassuring.

What Do You Take When You Travel?

Quote of the day:
"There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth."
--Marie Curie

It’s interesting what people take with them on vacation. As with so many other things about humans, we are slightly irrational about it.

Some folks takes lots of clothes, so as to not be seen in the same outfit twice by people they are only going to see once. Also, washing machine technology may not have reached the region where they’re going.

Others take lots of shoes, not knowing the terrain they may find themselves in. Or, they just really like shoes.

Some people take favorite foods, being unsure about the ready availability of these foods at their destination.

Others take a big stack of books that they see themselves finally having time to read. And there will be time, if the vacation is 3 or 4 months long.

Others bring a bag full of gadgets--cellphone, laptop, PDA, Blackberry, iPod, and about a dozen vital accessories. Disconnecting is just too big a risk for them. In fact, maybe they shouldn't even go.

Merrie and I are mildly guilty of the last one. But I have a bigger issue.

When I go on vacation I take a stereo. Not a boom-box or a pair of powered computer speakers, but a full-on hi-fi. Actually, it’s just three pieces--my two favorite small speakers and a tube power amp. We plug one of our laptops or iPhones into it and listen to downloaded music.

I don’t do this if our goal for the trip is sightseeing or doing a lot of driving. And I don’t bring the stereo along if we’re flying somewhere (at least not yet). But most of our vacations are for “being” not “doing.”

Color me crazy. If you haven’t already. I even thought of myself that way the first time I did it. But it is so enriching listening to music in a relaxed setting. It’s fun, and we hear things we haven’t heard before in music we thought was familiar to us.

A side benefit is that I get to amuse, baffle or annoy two separate yet equally important groups. The police who investigate crime, and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.

Sorry.

First, I amuse, baffle or annoy those for whom computer speakers or boom-boxes are plenty good enough thank you very much and why would I want to sit around listening to music on vacation when I can do that at home whenever I want anyway and besides I have 990 places left of the 1,000 I need to visit before I die and I don’t have time for music.

Second, I amuse, baffle or annoy audiophiles, whose faces tighten and limbs begin to tremble at the outrageous thought of listening to downloaded music on a good stereo system.

Life is good.