Personality

This is the third time I’ve taken this test and come up as an ISFJ, so maybe it has me pegged.

Me, Robert E. Lee, Jimmy Stewart, Barbara Bush, and Mother Theresa.  Could be worse, I suppose.

So tell me again why I’m in sales?

It’s Always Something

As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, “It’s always something.”

Today, the “something” was news from an HVAC technician that our heat pump is officially dead beyond any reasonable hope of repair, having exceeded its life expectancy by over a decade.  The bottom line is that we need to replace our entire system.  We’ve known this day was coming, but the timing is less than ideal, considering tomorrow’s forecasted high temp of 99 degrees.   

Ugh.

So, after spending too much time on the phone lining up appointments for estimates, it was off to KMart to buy fans to see us through until we can get the A/C back online.  I was a bit worried that fans might be hard to come by since we’re on the eve of the annual UVa student influx, but I found an ample supply and hope that we’ll now be able to keep our ambient temperature down in the low ’80’s.

If you see anyone in our family over the next several days and we seem a bit, um, cranky … well, you know why.

Patience

I’ve always thought of myself as a patient person. 

But, the older I get, the more I realize that it’s just not so. 

I like the idea of being patient.  And, judging from comments that I receive from time to time, others seem to believe that I am patient.  However, I think they are mistaking a diplomatic manner and a sense of outward calm for a patient inner nature.   

I’m generally OK with standing in line, or sitting in traffic, or waiting my turn for something (although I have often wondered why it’s acceptable for a doctor to keep patients waiting in the reception area for a half hour past their appointment time, something I could never get away with in a law practice or corporate setting).  I will admit to angling for the shortest line in the grocery store, but I generally take the wait in good humor as long as it’s clear that the wait isn’t caused by inefficiency or poor customer service.  I guess the distinction with this sort of communal waiting is that it’s just that – communal.  If there is a traffic jam, or a big crowd at the bank or grocery store, that’s just the way it is.  I’ll resign myself to waiting my turn with the rest of the assembled masses – I certainly have no more right to quick service than anyone else does.

Reasonableness goes out the window when I am expecting something in the mail, however.  I lose all touch with reality.  We drop our girls off at summer camp in Pennsylvania on a Sunday, and on Tuesday afternoon I’m calling home to see if we’ve received any letters from them.  College and law school applications, job interviews – same thing.  All the while telling myself that I’m being silly if not downright obsessive-compulsive, I will calculate the earliest possible date that I could receive a response, and start checking the mailbox accordingly.  Email has taken this to a whole new level.  Snail mail is only delivered once a day, but if I’m waiting on an important email, I can wear out the ”check mail” button.

So why am I ‘fessing up to my lack of patience?  Better late than never, I guess.  It’s taken me a long time to realize that I’m not nearly as patient as most people seem to think I am.  With the benefit of that realization, I can hopefully save myself from the delusion that it’s perfectly reasonable to expect that the time-space continuum will be warped whenever I am expecting to receive an important communication.

Enough of that.  Time to check my email….   

  

No Surprise Here

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far)Southern People used to hate Southern accents but now everyone wants one.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Thanks to Charlottesville Words for this fun and accurate (in my case, anyway) quiz.

Don’t Think

The church league softball season continues. 

I had a batter’s box epiphany the other week:  don’t think.  Somehow, someway, I managed to shut out all the “I really am a decent athlete and should be able to hit a freakin’ softball except I’ve gotten up here before and struck out to the amusement/consternation/disbelief of everyone watching because you’re not supposed to strike out in slow pitch softball and I really don’t want to go through that again why can’t I just focus focus focus focus….”  

As I said, somehow I managed to stop thinking and shut it out.  I didn’t so much focus as I did calm down.  And I went 4-for-4 with good solid hits.  When one of my teammates congratulated me on the hitting, I shared the secret of my success.  He gave me an incredulous look and said “well sure - any ballplayer will tell you that you’re not supposed to think up there.”  Too bad it took me 43 years to figure that one out!

If only I could do the same thing with a glove….    

Epilogue:  Last night’s outing wasn’t quite as successful.  I went 2-for-3, with the 2 being dribblers where I made it to 1st base only because I ran faster than the catcher threw.  The third was a line drive right into the shortstop’s glove.  Felt good, anyway. 

How Long Do We Have?

At this writing, it’s 28 degrees, everything outside is coated with an icy glaze, freezing rain continues to fall, and the forecast is calling for another half inch or so of ice before it’s all said and done. 

It’s only a matter of time before our power goes out.  We are surrounded by oak trees, and all it takes is one ice-laden tree to fall, or even a just a heavy branch to snap off and land on a power line, and we’re in the 19th century.  Living by candlelight isn’t a problem - the kids love it, anyway – and we can deal with the lack of heat by bundling up.  Living without water, though, is no fun.  We’re on a well, and when the power goes, so does the pump.  We have enough drinking water to last for a few days, but the flushing (or lack thereof) is another story…. 

Real Concerns

My last post looks a lot whinier than I had intended. It was not a good morning, no question, but well, everyone has bad mornings now and then. And, in the grand scheme of things, was it really such a bad morning?

The same morning that I was fretting about paying the vet bill and crumpling some woman’s bumper, there were people in the world dealing with real concerns. War. Genocide. Famine.

Or how about closer to home? Today’s newspaper noted that for the last 16 years at a local high school, someone from every graduating class has died from an alcohol-related auto accident. That’s 16 families that will never be the same.

Or closer still…. There’s the woman who works across the hall from me whose every waking moment outside of work is spent caring for her husband with end-stage emphysema. There’s the colleague who had to move his family 60 miles away in order to find a school that can adequately address his autistic daughter’s needs. There’s the woman down the hall who will be told this week that our division’s restructuring is eliminating her job.

And I’m fretting about a vet bill and a crumpled bumper. Shame on me.

One of Those Days

After I arrived at the office, I did a quick run-through of my email to make sure that no major fires were in progress, and then picked up the phone to call the vet. Our family’s main Christmas present this year had been a beagle, with which we were all smitten, and she had developed a worrisome sore on her belly. The vet’s assistant said that they could fit her in if I could drop her off in the next hour.

So, I gulped down the remainder of my coffee and hurried back out to my car. Fortunately I had no meetings scheduled before 11, and I figured I’d be back in the office by then. The lengthy to-do list that I’d planned on hitting that morning would have to wait a while longer. I pulled out of the garage and noticed that the new rattling noise from under the hood was getting louder. Sigh. Taking my car to the shop was not in the budget for the month. Then again, neither was taking the dog to the vet.

I made it home, grabbed the beagle and her kennel, and deposited both in the back seat. I headed back out onto the interstate with my head a whirlwind of one concern after another. What if the dog is really ill? The kids would be crushed, especially after losing Wilson this summer. I wonder how much the vet bill is going to be? There’s that worrisome sound under the hood again. It would be just my luck to have the car die on me here on the highway. Am I going to be able to make it back to the office in time for my 11 o’clock? I really can’t afford to be blowing off two hours of work this morning.

I veered off onto the offramp toward town.

I bet that new author is going to leave me a really annoyed voicemail, wondering where his revised contract is. I know I should take my car into the shop, but I can’t swing both a mechanic’s bill and a vet’s bill. So much for our new austerity budget. I wonder how much the vet bill’s going to be? Man I hope she’s going to be OK.

WHAM!

I had just rear-ended the car in front of me. Unbelievable. The woman driver got out, strode around to the rear of her car, surveyed her crumpled bumper, and then swung around to face me. She appeared to be somewhere in between bursting into tears and flying into a homicidal rage. “My new car!” was all she could muster. I raised my hands up in a defensive gesture and half-shrugged. “I’m sorry” was all I could muster.

We traded insurance information, the state trooper came, and he gave me a summons for following too closely. Twist the knife a little harder, why don’t you….

To be continued….

Esse Quam Videri

I have long been captivated by the motto of the state of North Carolina: “Esse quam videri” (“To be, rather than to seem”).

By contrast, some state mottos are so obviously rooted in the past that they run the risk of seeming antiquated. For example, Alabama hearkens back to the Civil War with “Audemus jura nostra defendere” (“We Dare Defend Our Rights”), while my home state of Virginia reaches back even further to the days of the American Revolution with “Sic Semper Tyrannis” (“Thus Always to Tyrants”).

While these mottos may seem dated, at least they are inspirational. Not so with states such as Indiana (“The Crossroads of America”), Tennessee (“Agriculture and Commerce”) and Utah (“Industry”).

And then there’s Michigan: (“If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you”). Not to be outdone, New Mexico boasts: “It grows as it goes”. Huh?

Back to North Carolina. More than any of the other 49 states’ mottos, North Carolina’s presents as much of an individual challenge as it does a state rallying cry. To be, rather than to seem. As society bombards us with the artificial, the superficial and the trivial, we would all do well to adopt North Carolina’s motto as our personal watchword. I’m not there yet, but I’m trying.

So what’s next?

I titled this post “So what’s next?”, thinking about what outdoor adventures are next on my plate since I won’t be running the MCM. Immediately after deciding on my topic I had to laugh at myself, as the sole reason that I’m not running the MCM is lack of training time. (I have a wife and 4 wonderful kids, demanding career, overfull schedule of church and civic activities, and a house that is one fixer-upper project after another). No matter how much I’d like to be training for a marathon, or triathalon, or section hiking the Appalachian Trail, or whatever, I simply don’t have the time. So, I need to do two things: (1) try to scale back on some of the non-essentials (see “overfull schedule”, above), and (2) be deliberate about getting outside, without biting off more than I can chew (see “Gut Check Revisited”, previous post).

So, that said, what’s next? As the weather starts to turn cooler, some day hikes on the AT with my family are definitely in order. One of the greatest gifts that my dad gave me was his love for the outdoors, and I want to pass that along to my kids (ages 12, 9, 7 and 2). I’m fortunate that my wife shares that love, to a point, at least. I don’t think I’ll ever get her on a river, but I have gotten her to climb and rappel!

What else…running some middle-distance races (no marathons for the time being), an occasional afternoon kayaking excursion on a nearby river (although I still need some lake or swimming pool practice with the eskimo roll before I can consider anything too adventurous), some backyard camping to get the kids into it…. The next big adventure possibility that I see is a springtime rafting trip – either the New or Upper Yough. In the meantime, I’ll try to keep things interesting, in life and in this blog.