You can’t get up until the whistle blows

It was our oldest son’s 30th birthday yesterday. How old can one get? Us, not him. He told his brother, and who knows who else, he would evaporate upon turning 30, he was still here at 6:19 am this morning, Saturday May 1. Reminded me of my generation and the movie "Wild in the Streets". Right, never trust anyone over 30. It doesn’t seem to take long to live through that age and move on the the next birthday
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6:19 am. He was up. But not for long. When he and his brother were still in cribs, they would climb out and go into the living room and turn on the TV to watch cartoons. He and his brother are eleven months apart, so, today they are now a year apart in age, the oldest being 30 and the youngest being 29. I think, actually know, the youngest revels in the fact they are the same age for almost a month. Anyway, we lived in Mexico, Missouri.

In Mexico there is a business Crown Cleaners, I guess Crown Laundry would be its real name. They do commercial linens and such. In the old days, they used steam. At 7am, noon, and 3pm, they would blow the steam whistle. As they got rid of the steam and went to other forms of heat, they wanted to stop blowing the whistle, the town drew up in arms and Crown put in a new whistle. Because we did not need to get up before 7am, and the boys would, the rule in our house was "you can’t get up before the whistle blows".

At times you could hear them talking, wondering if the whistle had blown and could they get up. It is a treat listening to under 3 year olds discussing such important matters. Actually, I am not sure how much the discussions have changed over the years. However, we no longer live in Mexico, so no whistle. We get up around 6 am, sometimes before, sometimes after, but on average 6 am. It is Saturday, so, "At the Movies" is on. We don’t go to the movies much anymore, thank goodness for Red Box. It used to be Netflix, but instant gratification is more the American way. Suzanne used to be the first at Blockbuster, when we lived close to one, and she would rent the new movies, whether she was going to watch them or not, go figure. I think it is like a shopping compulsion. She buys cleaning supplies she will never use, or never use up, as well, thank my lucky stars it is no shoes, clothing, and jewlery.

Ryan and his 2 year old daughter, soon to be 3, came to visit us for his birthday. We live on a very large lake and are out in the woods but only 5 miles from town. When we lived in Kansas City, Austin, Anchorage, Springfield downtown was more like 12 miles and you had to drive through traffic. Now we have to watch out for the deer and turkey and make sure we drive slowly through the Boy Scout Camp. Ryan went to town last night, about the time we went to bed to celebrate his birthday with friends, at a friend’s bar and to sing Kareoke. He was back before 12:30 am, I know this because I was up and took inventory of the people and dogs, checked open doors, which were closed at 10:30 pm, and the lights in the basement were on and he was at the computer.

So, we were up watching our Saturday morning show and heard some rumblings from the bedroom he uses when he is here. He was looking very chipper until he asked the time. 6:19 we told him. He performed an immediate about face and was back in bed before we could ask how his evening went. If only we had a whistle, like the one in Mexico, he would have known it was not even close to time for him to get up. Actually, I think the second whistle is more to his liking when he is here.

The World is a Smorgasbord

The world is a smorgasbord. I know many people see it as a jumbled mess, but it is not. I think of it like a craps table. Most of my friends who go to the casino will avoid the craps tables. They tell me they just don’t understand it, it is just too complicated. The craps table is just collection of several games on one table. Once you figure that out, it is pretty simple. Just play the game or games that interest you. I have the games I play all of the time, and a couple I play once in a while, most I never play. The world is like that, only much more. As a CEO, I embraced the Disney concept on jobs. Our job is a role. To some, their job is their life, but to most of us it is what we do, not who we are, hence our job is a role we play in life. If you can embrace your role you can be happy in it, although I think most suffer through. My costume is a suit and tie. If we study our role and the essence of it, we can be come experts. Many of us only become technicians. However, to most their role (job) is only a means to an end. But do they have a passion they suppress? I know I do. My first passion is food. I started out in the restaurant industry. My stay was short because I was offered a better deal in healthcare (my role). My second passion is related, it is beer. I went to Europe to drink wine and found beer, I still love wine but my passion is making beer. I love to mentor. My wife says I should be a college professor but that is not going to happen. One of my passions is not writing (so here I am) but I have been working on three books. A beer brewing book, a cook book, and a management how to book. I have titles for two of the books. The beer book will be "The Essentials of Extracting". The management book will be "Organizing for Success". The cook book will based upon the "Seigfreid Family Cook Book", a collection of recipes we made during a week long family reunion at Callaway Gardens for our parents 50th Anniversary. I have been toying with a fourth book for years. This would be a daily how for a year on diet and exercise. So, what is the object here? I think to talk about my suppressed desires and to actualize them.

Suppressed Desires 02/16/2010

A long time ago, in a city not so far away, my parents had a suppressed desisre party. Everyone was to come as some suppressed desire. I don't know about you but I think life is like a smorgesbord. There are so many choices to life. Some are realistic and some are more Walter Mitty like. Think about the what if. What if I did or did not? Can one run on two or more tracks at the same time? Can one get derailed and how easily does it happen? We watched "Up in the Air". One of the folks let go had supressed their desire if life and George Clooney asked him if this was not the time to do what he really wanted to do all along? So, here we are at the start. I have several supressed desires. Several projects I would like to complete. Several ideas I would like follow up on and see if they are realistic for me. How about you?