Forecast be Danged!

24. January 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Eric's Life

This morning, Scott and I dutifully watched Channel 6 weather so we would know how to plan our day.  That dreaded four letter word was used.  Snow.  But, the good news was we were told we could expected a few flurries, and a light dusting.

It’s been snowing steadily, and heavily, for the past 4 hours.  We have two inches of snow, the roads are a nightmare to drive on (as I discovered) and getting in to my driveway took 4 attempts.  The tracks my car left on the driveway resemble the tracks a sidewinder leaves on the desert sand… I kid you not!

Now, 2 inches of snow really is not a lot, I know that.  I know of one city in our neighbor to the north that would LOVE to receive this snow.  I know of another up thar that would sneer at our measly pittance of precipitation.  It’s not really the 2 inches… it’s the fact we were promised flurries and a dusting!  But, my oh my, it is sure pretty to watch!

Scott has spent the afternoon working on homework.  His first 2 semesters, Scott took 2 classes a semester.  This semester he got motivated, and is taking 3 classes.  He’s finding it a bit much, I think.  Three classes aren’t in and of themselves that heavy of a load.  But, Scott is also working full time, and remains heavily involved at church, working 5 hours every Sunday, 3 hours every Thursday, and generally has a meeting or two every week.  So I toughed up and cooked a gourmet dinner for the family tonight so Scott could get his assignment in by midnight!

There’s nothing like chili-cheese dogs and Doritos for a gourmet dinner!

Things have not changed much for me.  Still no job, and still no job in sight.  No one is hiring, and my friend who indicated that he would probably have something after the 1st of the year has now told me that they had another hiring freeze in place.  I’ve made it a habit at night to not go to sleep until I’ve reviewed all the good things I have in my life.  It’s not a hard challenge at all!  Life is good.  I can look at all I have, all the wonderful friends in my life, all the things I’ve accomplished in my life and know how truly blessed I am.

You know, this snow is gorgeous!  The temperature out there isn’t really all that bad.

But I’d love to move somewhere warm and sunny.  Is there such a place?

Princess Nikki

04. January 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Eric's Life, Pets, Ramblings

Scott and I share our lives with Princess Nikki.  Or is it Princess Nicky?  Or Princess Nicki? Or… well, we never have, really settled on a spelling for her name – but that’s neither here nor there.  For information how this little darlin’ came in to our lives, you can read about it here.

Perhaps I’ll just settle for Nikki.  That spelling is as good as any.

Nikki loves the three of us.  She dotes on me; she’ll bypass everyone else to greet me when we come home.  I like that.

Nikki has her challenges in life.  She’s a dear, sweet, timid little girl.  Scott and I and Gary are her little family.  But when anyone else comes in to our home, Nikki becomes very fearful.  She barks ferociously, but prefers to do so from her hiding spot behind my legs!  If Scott or I aren’t around to protect her, she will run and hide wherever she can, though preferably beneath our bed.

In addition to her fear, Nikki has some other little issues.  Nikki does not like to be watched while she… does her business.  We must turn our backs on her… but not too far… so that she can peacefully do her thing.

Nikki also does not like water, in any form.  When it rains, it is very difficult for her to relax enough to… do her business.  And, because of this, she really hates bath time.  It used to be that we literally had to tranquilize her in order to bath her.  We’ve overcome that, but bathtime is still a very stressful time for our little princess.

In my previous post, I told about the nearly 30 inches of snow we have on the ground (and are expecting another 7 in the next 72 hours.)  Snow makes it very hard for our princess to go out to do her business.  After the last big snow, it took her nearly 3 full days before she just could not contain herself longer.  Fortunately, she found a relatively private location on our driveway on the other side of our car.   When fresh snow arrived, we made sure to go and clear a path to the “dark side of the car” for her.

She has another issue.  Her paws are ticklish.  Because of this, she doesn’t like getting her nails trimmed.  But yesterday, we finally had to do get her claws taken care of.  We grind them with one of those “Peticure” devices.  She doesn’t like this, either, but she does tolerate it.

Unfortunately we put it off so long (we could hear her anywhere in the house because of her clicking, clicking, clicking claws) that we discovered her dew claws had grown so long as to curl back on themselves.  It even appeared that they had pierced in to her paw.

Nikki also is losing hair on her sides.

So, this morning, Nikki and I braved the –17 degree cold and visited another of her great fears… the veterinarian!

The visit was good and bad.  The dewclaws weren’t as bad as we feared, easily trimmed, no surgery needed.

But, the hair loss has a rather nasty treatment.  Our poor Princess Nikki must have her semi-annual bath tonight.  And Thursday… and next Monday… and next Thursday… for a total of four weeks!

I’m not sure who dreads the baths more… Princess Nikki or her Daddy!

Out of Touch

23. December 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Eric's Life

Hi all,

I’ve been a little out of touch.  My laptop has developed some issues with connectivity, and for a while I couldn’t stay connected for more than a few minutes at a time.  In the end, I had to completely reformat my hard-drive and reinstall Windows.

I’m still in the process of loading software, and some of the more important stuff has gone missing at some point (Microsoft Office 2003 & Outlook – my email package).

So, in case you’re wondering where I am, that is it.  Of course, this doesn’t explain the long periods of time between blog posts.  That’s a different issue!

All Rolling Pins are not Created Equal

17. December 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: Eric's Life, Stayings at home

Scott and I have lived in our home for over 10 years now.  We’ve done a lot of remodeling in that time.  Floors, kitchen, walls.  We never had a house-warming, and we’ve really done very little entertaining.  Just once about 5 years ago, we invited a few friends over.  In the interim, we’ve hosted dinner a few times for people that one or the other of us were working with.  But nothing either of us really consider entertaining.

This is the year that changes.  We have decided to host a Christmas Party for some friends from church.  I decided that I would like to do some baking for this party.  On the menu would be my favorite, rum balls, and Russian tea cakes, and frosted cookies in the shape of stars and trees and bells and the like.

The rum balls were easy to make.  I made the dough on Thanksgiving morning, and that night, Scott and I stood shoulder to shoulder and rolled out the balls, dipped them in powdered sugar and hid them well.

The Russian tea cakes were a little more difficult.  I didn’t let the butter soften at room temperature, so it was a bit of a chore to mix it.  But, eventually that succeeded, and we have 3 dozen delicious cakes… I know: I’ve sampled them!

The cookies proved to be a bit more of a challenge!  Now, those who know me well, know I do not like to cook.  The concepts involved are just far too complex for me!  I can make a main course.  I can prepare a vegetable.  I can heat up biscuits and rolls.  But getting them all to be done at or about the same time is just rocket science when it comes to my abilities!

One of the problems I have with cooking… and it really becomes obvious when I try to make cookies from scratch… is the meanings of terms.  Lightly floured.  Roll until thin.  What’s thin?  Is paper thin too thin?  Is a quarter inch of cookie dough thin?  Or is it too thick?  And what should cookie dough look like to know if I’ve too much flour or too little in it?

Then there’s the preparation.

When we remodeled the kitchen, we put down tiled counter tops.  They’re very nice… but it’s difficult to roll out cookies on tile!  So, we hunted down a sheet of Plexiglas at our local Home Depot.  We wanted one of those old Tupperware pie thingies (that’s the technical term, I think) but can’t find them in the shops we visited.

We have a rolling pin.  So, we didn’t need to buy one of those.  It’s a nice one.  It’s set on an exposed shelf in our kitchen for nearly 10 years looking nice.  It’s never been used until I ground up the vanilla wafers for the rum balls.

Tuesday, the day came.  I gathered all my ingredients together, and started mixing them.  I sifted flour (did you know 3 cups of sifted flour is about the same as 1 and a half cups unsifted?)  Finally, I had a peanut butter consistency dough and put it in to the fridge to chill “for a few hours or overnight”.  By the time Scott got home from work, several hours would pass.  I wanted Scott to supervise the next stage… he knows what he’s doing!  But “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was on TV and we watched that, first.  Then we watched a saved episode of CSI:Miami.  And then, it was time for bed!

Wednesday, I was gone from before 7 a.m. until nearly 8 p.m.  And I was totally exhausted.  So, no cookie rolling Wednesday.

This morning, I finally squared my shoulders, looked at the dough, and thought “Oh, how hard could this be, for cryin’ out loud!?”  I dusted the Plexiglas with a half cup unsifted flour.  Slick Plexiglas does not dust well!  I grabbed about half of the dough, plopped it down on the mound of flour, grabbed my marble rolling pin and rolled.

And that’s when I discovered that not all rolling pins are equal!  The dough stuck to the pin like peanut butter to the roof of a dog’s mouth!  And it clung there for dear life.  After peeling off the dough in great gooey gobs, I washed the pin, and looked at the dough.  I put my hands in to pull out a mass to try again, but it was like trying to get a handful of peanut butter.  It stuck to my fingers.  But just enough flour had adhered to the dough from the first attempt, I got the idea “Hey, maybe I didn’t put enough flour in the dough!  So I mixed some… a lot of some… flour in to the dough and kneaded it like a 2 year old with his play dough!

Then, I saw the parchment paper for the other item I intend to make, so I tried covering the dough with that and then rolling!  Success!  From there, I pulled out my new cookie cutters, and cut some santas (they came out looking like oh who knows? How does one describe those shapes?) and candy canes… another disaster shape.  I finally  discovered that stars, bells and trees were the easiest to make.  Each batch I rolled out got easier than the last, as each batch had more and more flour added to it.  I think I REALLY under-measured the flour when I made the dough.

Nikki got quite a bit of dough… my disasters ended up in her mouth.  Or mine.

But, I now have sugar cookies.

As I worked, images came to me of making cookies with Mom oh so long ago.  The wooden rolling pin.  The wooden surface she brought out for cookie making.  The consistency of the dough.  The next batch, should I decide to make them, should go so much more easily!

Now.  A question for my gentle reader.  Should I attempt that Buche de Noel?

Rambling

04. November 2009 · 1 comment · Categories: Eric's Life, Ramblings

An Idea, an idea… my kingdom for an idea!

That’s what these past two months of silence have been like.  I mean, sure I’ve been doing lots of stuff… but none of it has seemed to be something I want to write about.  This past week, I’ve opened my “Live Writer” every day.  And every night I close it, nothing written.

It just seems that nothing has been weighing on me, or inspiring me to write about it. 

Over the past two months, since I blogged last, I’ve been on the run.  Of course, I’ve been to interviews… no luck.  I’ve been to Scottsdale for a wonderful family reunion.  I’ve developed a system for actually keeping the Hays-Strom household clean… something rather remarkable in and of itself!

But none of that says to me “Sit down and write about this.”  In deed, what’s being written right now is an attempt to jump-start my creative juices.  And I’m going to be NEEDING those creative juices! 

After a recent email to my family filling them in on my life, my job search, and Dad’s health, my aunt wrote me to tell me that she felt I wrote the most wonderful letters.  And she suggested I take a writing course.  And I jumped at the idea.  I start next Wednesday.  (And here’s a public THANK YOU Aunt Jeanie, for not only complimenting my writing, but making the suggestion AND then, topping it all off by paying for it!  You’re a very special lady, and I really really hope you know that.)

“A Writer’s Guide to Descriptive Settings” is the class I’ll be taking.  If it goes well, I may very well invest in another class.

My writing has taken me in some rather exciting directions.  Elsewhere out there in the “blogosphere”, a wonderful lady, a published author, whom I met online through conversations with a mutual friend, picked up an article I wrote some months ago and published it.  Another blogger in England picked up the piece from her and posted it with commentary.  A very lively conversation ensued between the 3 of us and several  other people.  One of those has even suggested I write a book!  Right now, that seems a bit unlikely to me.  But who knows?

I’m reticent to post that article here, or even tell my readers (all those thousands and thousands of you out there) where to find it elsewhere.  I’ll have to think about that.

health

18. July 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: Eric's Life

Hello all.  This has been a pretty lousy weekend, so far.  It started yesterday.

Actually yesterday started out pretty good.  It was unseasonably cool yesterday.  I made a run to the CB Recycling center to dump a load of tree branches that I’d picked up at church, then to Home Depot, Best Buy and Bed, Bath and Beyond.  As I was driving home, I became aware that I was experiencing some discomfort.

Now, time for an aside.  Beginning back in 1999, I’ve had a bunch of experiences where I’ve experienced chest pains.  I’ve gone to the ER a few times, spent the night in the hospital on one or two occasions.  Generally speaking the end result is, nothing was wrong, at least with regards my heart.  I spent several years seeing an electro-cardiologist.  And there IS a slight issue with my heart, but nothing that was considered threatening.  About every two years or so, I end up in the ER, and each time, nothing.

So, when I experience discomfort like I did yesterday afternoon, I tend not to react very quickly to it.  I got home, spent some time doing odds and ends.  Then I cleaned out the refrigerator.  By the time I was done, my chest was really beginning to hurt.  “Some discomfort” no longer described what I was feeling.  So I went upstairs and lay down.  That was a bad idea.  As soon as I was prone, I really, really began to hurt.  I spent about 10 minutes in bed, but during that time, my jaw began to ache, my left shoulder began to hurt.  My left hand began to lose sensation… not numbness, just less sensitive.  And the fingers tingled slightly.

So, I called Scott, told him I was going to the ER.  Then got dressed and drove up to Jennie Edmundson, our local hospital.  The staff there responded very quickly.  They did x-rays and drew blood.  Finally they gave me a breathing treatment with Albuterol and then a nitro glycerin tablet.  Scott arrived about an hour after I did.

This time, the pains were different.  And they were far, far worse than I’ve ever experienced before.  Through most of the time I was there, I felt like my heart was in a vice.  I estimated my pain level at between 7 & 8, sometimes receding to a 6.  But, periodically throughout, I’d also get sharp jabbing pains in my chest that approached a 9… some of the worst pain I’ve experienced.  We did finally begin to notice that the pain was worse when I was prone or near prone, and receded when I sat up.  During these jabbing pains, I’d either not be able to breathe at all, or only in short ragged gasps.

After about 3 and a half hours they sent me home.  And once again, no real diagnosis.  The discharge papers say: “Musculo-Skeletal Pain” and “Chest Pain (Non Specific)”.  They did give me a codeine/tylenol medication, and a prescription for more of them.  Scott had to drive me home, then walk back to the hospital to get the truck.

The rest of the evening I sat in front of the TV, dosing off now and then, thanks to the codeine.  At 10 we went to bed, and I took another codeine to help sleep.  During all this time, the pain really had not receded very much, though the “vice-like” pain was now in the 6 – 7 range.  At 3 I woke up, fighting for breath, and in extreme pain.  So I got up, took another codeine, then slept on the recliner so I could be sitting up a little.  Sleep from here on was fitful.  I spent some time awake on the computer, and some just resting.  I dozed fitfully.

When Scott got up at 8, I was just coming to from a nap.  Pain this morning was bad.  I’ve been experiencing cold sweats, and a little nausea.  But now, as the afternoon progresses, the pain is almost completely gone.  I think now I’m just coping with the after effects of the narcotics.  I took the last codeine at about 8 a.m.  At 11 I took Advil.  So, I’m hoping I’m on the mend now.

These “episodes” have never lasted this long before, been this painful, or been accompanied by such a range of symptoms.  And we still don’t have any real idea what is happening!

time for a survey: stupid policies

13. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Eric's Life, Ramblings, Ranting

May I take a moment to post a little rant?  I hope so.

As I begin my rant, let me say this quite clearly: Omaha World Herald, I hope you do some kind of daily yahoo or google search to determine what your readers think of you.  Why?  Because YOU HAVE A REALLY STUPID POLICY! 

I’m specifically writing about your online subscription policy.  I don’t mind paying for an online subscription.  I don’t mind paying full price for an online subscription.  What really has my shorts in a bunch today, you idiots, is that not only do I have to pay full price for an online subscription, but I also have… HAVE… as in AM OBLIGATED TO… take delivery of your paper daily.  So, for two weeks, your papers pile up on my front porch (where they are hidden from the neighbors view by a nice brick wall) until the bi-weekly collection of paper recyclables here in Council Bluffs.

World Herald Management, do you have ANY IDEA HOW INCREDIBLY STUPID THIS is?  Do you have any idea how WASTEFUL this is?  How many trees am I, through YOUR stupid, STUPID, incomprehensible policies responsible for killing every month?

I want the Sunday paper.  I faithfully read the daily papers online, but I want the SUNDAY paper physically in hand.  Why don’t you bozos save YOURSELF money, ME the hassle of tons of unwanted paper, the LANDFILLS the burden of my unwanted papers?  How hard is it for you to figure this out?  If you want, I’ll be glad to hire myself out to you for $100 an hour to figure out a method of working around this STUPID STUPID STUPID policy of yours.  I can guarantee you you’ll only spend $100.  ‘Cause I have the answer for you.  My neighbors 8 year old would have the SAME answer for you.  This is not rocket science.  I have a better idea.  Instead of complaining about the high costs of running a newspaper, and cutting off an entire section of the state of Nebraska from home delivery of your paper, since they seem to want it, why don’t you get off your rumpuses, DO YOUR BLASTED JOB, and fix this?  It is not hard.  Repeat after me: It.Is.Not.Hard.We.Can.Do.It!

You CAN do it! YES YOU CAN!

Sigh, since  the OWH is run by overbloated corporate executives with their heads up their… dark unsunny places… I doubt they’ll ever do it.  I dare you!  Prove me wrong!  Of course, my huge readership of, what… thirteen?… readers will be waiting with baited breath for your compliance.  No, wait, they better not.  I value them too highly!

Okay, now for the survey part of this: Faithful readers, tell me about your gripes with stupid, resource wasting, money wasting practices!  I’ll post them here!  Really.  I will!

UPDATE:  I decided to do something other than rant.  I wrote to 3 of the senior staff at OWH.  Their Circulation Director, VP of Sales & Marketing, and Executive Editor.  I didn’t rant.  I was nice!  Perhaps a little cheeky.  See for yourself:

Gentlemen,

First, I’d like to compliment you on the quality of your newspaper.  I think overall you all are doing a wonderful job!

Second, I’d like to compliment your circulation department for the high quality of service you provide.  I just got off the phone talking with one of your very friendly, very courteous people who, unfortunately was not able to help me.  I’m impressed because generally speaking, when one deals with big "faceless" corporations such as yourselves, courtesy and friendliness are frequently lacking.  But this brings me to the real point of my email.

I receive your paper 7 days a week.  I really only WANT to receive it on my front porch on Sundays, as I read it online the other 6 days.  There’s something nice about sitting with the paper and a cup of coffee with my partner on Sunday mornings.  The rest of the week, your paper sits, piling up in useless, WASTEFUL heaps on my front porch.

So, I called to ask how we could stop this waste of paper, but was told that if I want to be able to read the paper online Monday through Saturday, I have to also receive the hardprint version on those days.  Now, gentlemen, just about everyone I know from the age of 4 through 104 recognizes that this is a frivolous, costly waste of resources.  It really is, excuse the strong language, very, very stupid.

I would happily pay the full subscription fee for the ability to take Sunday delivery, but only have online access M-S.  Surely, you have bright, intelligent people on your staff that could figure out how to accomplish this.  You might suggest a brain-storming session to determine the best way to STOP wasting YOUR money, MY back, AND the landfill’s space, to STOP wasting the natural resources of this country.  To STOP killing unnecessary trees, to STOP wasting the fuel required to transport stacks of unwanted newspapers from your printer to my delivery person, from my delivery person to my door, and from my door to the landfill.

I’d bet you that brainstorming session would last less than 10 minutes.

If your bright intelligent people have better things to do with their time than figure this out, I am available for a small fee, to provide consultation services.

Sincerely,

Eric L. Hays-Strom

saturday

11. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Eric's Life, Our Life Together, Ramblings

Well, there’s still nothing happening on the job front.  There’s a tiny little ripple… we’ll see.

Scott and I had a great time at his family reunion last week.  I had hoped to blog about it while there but really there wasn’t much time.  The Hays Family Reunion differs from my own family reunions in that at the HFR, a room is reserved, generally a meeting type space, for everyone to gather.  And about 7:30 a.m. that’s just what the family does… they gather in the room, drink coffee, and chat.  They get caught up with each others lives.  About noon, we all mosey on up to the hotel’s restaurant for lunch, then afterwards stroll back down to the meeting room.

Little units drift off to one of the attractions Branson has to offer, but the core family stays in the meeting room, little circles forming at this table or that.  Conversation continues over a game of dominoes… or wahoo… or a puzzle… or a card game.  Or any of a number of different games.  We sit and chat.

Then around 5 different groups break off and go find dinner somewhere.  By 6:30 or 7 we’re all back together, chatting.  Playing.  This goes on for 2 days.  Towards the end of Saturday, we do pictures.  Pictures of each family.

The Hays Family Reunion is made up of the descendants of Merle & Ethel (Drumgoole) Hays.  There are 8 siblings remaining, children of Merle & Ethel.  These 8 siblings, along with their children and grand-children… and yes great grand-children are who make up the HFR.

So, on Saturday night, we take 9 pictures.  One picture of the 8 siblings, and one each of the families of each of the 8 children.  Did I say 9 pictures?  Well, what really happens is a bank of cameras take pictures.  So you generally have to sit for a photo while up to 20 photographers each take 3 or 4 pictures!  This year, Scott’s mother, Louise… Barb… (her name is Barbara Louise, and you’ll find folks at the reunion calling her either of those names) or Mudder as most of her family call her, asked me to join in the family picture.  Yay!  She said there were two reasons… one was that she’d looked back at all the pictures from the previous 10 years and realized I wasn’t in any of the pictures, and she figured it was wrong.  And the second reason?  Well… just as she was about to tell me, someone came along and interrupted, and I never did learn what it was!

On Sundays, family units start heading home.  The morning gathering has bout 2/3s of the family… then, little by little, the number goes down.  We have lunch, more people leave.  By mid-afternoon, there’s maybe 3 of the siblings, and their families still gathered.  By night, it was Scott and I, Mudder & Pops, Terry, Eleanor and Bethany, and oh-oh… Virgil and Alice, that’s right.

Terry’s a strange creature… she’s Bruce’s wife.  She was driver for Mudder & Pops and the girls.  At midnight we all went to bed.  At 2 a.m., she loaded up her charges and they all headed for Alamogordo.  Scott and I slept until 6, then loaded up and headed home.

I started off this post to tell what I’ve been doing this week, not about the reunion!  Frankly, the reunion is more interesting.

Just before leaving for the reunion, I bought a new trimmer for the yard.  So this week, I mowed the front yard.  Then I ran the trimmer around it.  It’s an electric trimmer, battery powered.  Came with two batteries.  One charger.

All the basic trimming got done Tuesday.  But, I’ve been putting in 2 hours a day of work on the front yard… that’s how long it takes to deplete the power in the two batteries, and in me.  Those who have seen my house may… or may not… remember that my driveway and front sidewalk has cracks in them.  And through those cracks grow weeds.  Pulling those weeds can be a daunting job… Scott and I once spent nearly 10 hours pulling them, and by the end of the day my fingers and his were raw and bleeding from abrading against the concrete.  Consequently, we don’t do it often… a mistake, I know.

So this week, for two hours a day, I’ve hacked away at those weeds with the trimmer until the batteries are too feeble to do anything but blow the leaves of the weeds around.  I have one stretch of sidewalk left to do… about 8 feet in all.  One 2 hour day’s work.  And then what?

I’ll do it again.  But first, we’ll be applying poison to the cracks.  And when stuff is dead, we’ll seal those cracks with tar.  Or something.  And then what?

It’ll be time for the back yard…. screeeeeeeech!  wait, I forgot!

After this weekend, I’ll be taking on the scraping of the front of the house… well, the trim anyhow.  I want to repaint the trim on the front of the house this coming week… it badly needs it.

Actually the whole house needs a paint job.  Just before they put it on the market, the previous owners spray painted the house a dusty blue.  I loved the color.  But, they used cheap paint.  Over the decade we’ve owned the house, the paint has faded, and washed away a bit, and now the house is dusty blue with the white underlayer showing through in many places.  But they ain’t no muny to buy house paint, so it’ll have to wait.  But the trim just can’t!

Dad wants to come over and help.  So, after an emergency dentist visit on Monday, I think that may just be what we do!

Toodles, all!

clm stuff

05. May 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: Eric's Life, Spirituality

One of the things I’ve heard over and over… and it’s generally a truism… is that we shouldn’t let what others think of us worry us.

And yet, I think it’s pretty obvious that is easier said than done!  For better or worse, unless one is willing to completely disengage from the world, what others think about us does influence us and does impact us.  This came home to me this week as part of our latest assignments in “Creating a Life that Matters”, the class that Scott and I are taking through our Church.

As part of the homework last week, we were asked to consider every person in our class, and to write down two words for each of them.  The first word was to be an emotion that the individual invokes in us when we see them.  The second word was to be an essence or quality that the individual brings to our community or our church.

In class last night, we wrote these words down on a sticky note, and then attached that sticky to a sheet of paper for each individual so that they could see these words… though not necessarily who put those words down.  And so, I got to see what others think of me.  In a way, it was an eye opener!

Now first of all, some of the emotion “words” aren’t really “emotions”, as such.  But they are all feeling words.

The emotions I elicit in others are: confidence, tranquility, good, friendship/family/love, awakened, knowledge joy, happy, serious & gentle.  In addition, two individuals said hesitance, hesitation.  Those last two really threw me off!  To be quite honest, they effected me enough that I was unable to complete the remainder of the exercise!  But I think it’s probably true.  There are times I arrive at church, and my “shields” are completely down, I’m approachable, and outgoing.  Other times, those “shields” are at maximum… a proton torpedo could never penetrate!  I’m not really sure what to do about that.  Some days I feel in a very friendly, outgoing, even “pranksterish” mood.  Other days, I’m serious and withdrawn.  My own emotions are pretty much a badge on my sleeve.  People can see very much where I am.  But folks might not really “see” that badge until we actually interact.  The fact of the matter is, when I’m in the "outgoing” mood, I welcome people to jump in and join with me!  And even more important, when I’m in the serious/withdrawn mood, what I really would welcome is for people NOT to honor that mood, but to just challenge me on my behavior… again, I know that’s easier said than done!

The qualities that people feel I bring to our church and community really kind of surprised me, but for some reason, I really don’t have any problem “owning” them!  I may disagree with some, but I can see how/why others might see these in me.  Spirituality (3 people), intelligence (2), knowledge (2), strength, listening, faith, authenticity, enlightenment.  I wonder if the “authenticity” isn’t tied in with the “hesitancy” issue.  I seldom, if ever, hide myself from others.  When I’m in a bad mood, I don’t hide it!  I feel no desire at church to pretend to be what someone else thinks I should be as a Christian or as anything else.  I am, ultimately, who I am.  Others need to accept that or get out of my way!  When I feel something, when I experience something, I will express that.  Sometimes, later, I’ll come back and apologize for that… if I truly feel an apology is warranted.  Though, I do think I have learned, by and large, to try to avoid hurting others in my “in-your-face-ness”.  Sometimes, I just don’t succeed!

There’s a lot of good in those qualities.  And in fact, there’s a lot of good in the emotions I elicit in others.  I think, as I evaluate them all, I can “own” all of them!  And, knowing the two “negatives”, if negative they are, and to the degree that they ARE negative, is good, too.  Without sacrificing my “authenticity”, I can strive to help others feel less “hesitant”.

At least, I hope I can!

not a flash in the pan

29. April 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: Eric's Life, Stayings at home

Scott and I just got back from having dinner with Dad.  It was nice, we ate at Fernandos, a rather 3rd rate Mexican restaurant in West Omaha.  But the waiter was nice and the food wasn’t terrible.  Just too high priced for the quality.  Unfortunately, down in South O there are far better ones that provide much better fare!

I was kind of wondering going in to dinner whether Dad’s interest in Scott’s and my wedding was just one of those things that came up and would soon be forgotten.  But no.  Dad kept asking questions about it.  When were we going to do it?  Are we doing it tomorrow… which in and of itself is quite interesting.  Monday, April 27th was the first day we could apply for a marriage license.  But tomorrow, April 30 is actually the first day we can get married (unless we’d applied for a waiver.)  It was just really interesting that Dad is following all this so closely in the news that he is aware of the timelines.

Next he wanted to know if, after I made Scott my wife, if he’d take my name!  LOL.  Anyhow, I said no, we were going to hyphenate our names… he thought that was pretty good.

Now, that was pretty much the repertoire for Dad.  When are we getting married? What are we going to do about our names?  Oh, and what are we going to wear.  If you know Dad, he has his little repertoire that he almost seems to have prepared in advance.  When we get together, he’ll start in on his questions, and after a couple of minutes, he’ll start over.  So we’ll have variations on the exact same conversation several times for the evening.

In this case it was about Scott and my marriage… a marriage that we’re having primarily because, well, Dad wants to attend it!

In other news on the Dad-front, I got a call this morning from New Cassel.  They wanted to tell me “the whole story” so that if he started in to tell me it, I wouldn’t become concerned… Now that’s a sure fired way to start telling me something guaranteed to get me concerned!

It seems that two gentlement had gone to breakfast this morning, and had just gotten in line when the fire alarm went off.  It was a scheduled fire drill, nothing to be worried about.  After the all clear these two gentlemen returned to the dining room for breakfast, and had to wait in the lobby for the dining room to reopen.  These two gentlemen are a bit slow-moving.  When the doors finally opened, they started their journey towards the door, when Dad, a much faster walking individual came along, and popped in front of them.

One of the gentlemen took umbrage at this tactic of Dad’s, and grabbed Dad’s arm.  A verbal altercation ensued, and the other gentleman shoved Dad.  Dad’s hand was cut and a bit bruised.  But in the process the other gentleman was knocked to the ground (not be Dad but as a result of his own shoving of Dad.)  Dad, being the “wonderful gentleman that he is” (the words of the New Cassel staff) Dad attempted to assist the other man to his feet, but was rebuffed.  Dad was then taken to the health clinic to have his cut cleansed and bandaged.

The staff assured me that in no way did they consider Dad to be at fault.  The other man’s family was called, and they and the man were told in no uncertain terms that the shoving match was not the way to handle conflict.

All in all, it was kind of funny to me… in particular because they weren’t too upset by it either.  In fact the staff person who called me actually kind of chuckled while telling me.

And that is that!

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