Storm Clouds

Most nights of the week, I go to the gym about eight o'clock. On a typical evening I'm there between an hour and an hour and a half, depending on the level of commitment I'm feeling. That usually puts me back home between nine and nine-thirty. Last evening was far from typical, at it allowed me to knock another thing off my bucket list. Most interestingly, it wasn't even something I ever thought was on the list.

If you aren't from around here, or, if you didn't see the news about this area today, you may not know that we had a “Rain Event” last night. Depending on the report that you use, you could argue that we had between 7-10 inches of rain in 2-3 hours. It overwhelmed all the infrastructure that was built to take care of rain.

Now, I had always believed that when someone talked about flash flooding, it was something that happened in the low spot that looked like an old river bed, a natural draining point when there was more rain than the regular streams and rivers could take. Last night, I discovered how inaccurate that thought was. 

When I finished working out, I waited for a break in the weather to get to the truck. I thought the biggest issue I had to deal with was getting wet. I headed home by my regular route. Toward the bottom of a long shallow hill, I realized that I was in relatively deep water. I decided to make a move for the local Kum and Go, cutting into the parking lot with water rolling over the hood of my truck. I was fortunate to remember one of those weird things that someone taught me when I was young: of you're in deep water, drive with both feet keeping the RPMs of the vehicle up so that the water doesn't stop the engine. Glad I listened that day.

Anyway, I got into the Kum & Go which was high and dry and decided this was my place to sit and wait. Before long, the power in went off, making the whole thing feel just a little stranger. Over time, I came to a couple of realizations. First, I knew that the rain was slowing and that large amounts of water would start to find ways to get to the regular places that drained water away. Second, I was relatively sure that I wouldn't be able to get home by my regular route. Knowing this, I reversed course and headed for the Interstate, thinking that I should be able to get around all of this and get home from the other direction.

That thought process made perfect sense at the time, but I was so wrong! About halfway between two exits, the one I used to enter and the one I was going to use exit, we came to a stop. Now, be clear; I don't mean that we slowed down, I mean that we came to a stop. Apparently, in Altoona there were some 50 cars inundated on the Interstate and traffic had backed all the way to where I sat on the western edge of Des Moines. Not only that, but all the off ramps in between were under water. So, we just sat.

After an hour, or so, we did something that I thought I would never do (here is the Bucket list moment), drivers (including me) turned around on the Interstate and drove back up the shoulder to work our way off the on ramp where I had begun this entire mess. I ended up at the Toybox, where things were high and dry. After waiting  for another hour or so, I finally made my way home. At that point, it was sometime after midnight.

As I looked around today, both in the media and by driving the neighborhood, I recognized my great fortune. We had at least one lost life in the water last night and the number of vehicles that are damaged or destroyed is simply amazing. I have heard it said that fire and water are unrelenting, and I know that I have a much healthier respect for the power of moving water after some of the things that I saw last evening.

We sometimes fail to remember how frail we can be when facing the full force of nature. It is important that we all remember this and make sure that we take every precaution possible. I will tell you for sure, I will be looking at the weather app before I head for the gym on any evening when storm clouds threaten.

I hope you all have a great Fourth of July celebration.

Hair on Fire

I am not sure about you, but this is the time of the year I feel as though I'm running around with my hair on fire. Whether or not this is a real expression for how busy you are, it's always been part of my life. Of course there are always things that you are busy with in your work world, but at this time of the year, you layer all of the family get-togethers and holiday preparations on top of that to create complete chaos. That actually reminds me that although I have my Christmas letter written, it doesn't count if I don't send it out. Like last year. I wrote a great letter that never went anywhere. 

At the moment, the real thrust of what I'm thinking about are the large number of projects needing to be accomplished in the shop. I will try to capture all of them here.

* Jaye's teardrop trailer - I have virtually all of the interior work done on the trailer now. All that remains (I make myself laugh) is to complete the outside work. I'm going to cover the outside with birdseye maple veneer and several coats of marine varnish. Then I will finish the doors and the aluminum trim.
* Sara's kitchen - After finally coming to agreement on what the new kitchen should look like, it's now time to build. I am quite excited about it, but there are in excess of 800 parts that need to be roughed out, cut to final size, assembled and finished. Honestly, in order to even think about finishing the kitchen cabinets, I need to get the trailer out the door.
* Barrister's book case #1 - Made from quartered white oak. This is for the guest room and will match the rest of the furniture I've built.  This is a Christmas gift for Sara, so don't tell her about it.
* Barristers's book case #2 - Made from white maple. This is for my office at work because it seems ridiculous that I have an office with Sauder particleboard furniture in it.  It was imperative that I correct this and since I was making one set, the second is pretty easy.
* Several cutting boards - Typically during the holiday season, I have situations come up where people that I know and love need gifts quickly either for gifting, or in some cases as "door prizes" for various organizations. I try to be ready to help.
* Etsy - This isn't woodworking, but it is something that I need to return to. I need to show the world some of the things I am working on, and see if it sparks interest.  You never know when one project will lead to an idea in someone else. These times that we live in, Etsy and Pinterest are great places for this kind of iterative thinking.  Take an idea, tweak it a little, you have a whole new thing.
* Top secret - At Thanksgiving I was asked to be involved in a woodworking project that is quite exciting, but I can't tell you about yet.  More to come on this one.

Those are the things I have going at the moment, along with all of the activities that come as a part of the holidays.  I know that the things that come out of the shop are well thought of and are often items that will remain in families for years.  This makes me smile and makes me very proud of what I do.

I would love to know what you are doing around the Christmas season. Are you working on projects that will make another smile? Send me  pictures or comments if you have a chance. The amount of talent that exists in the crafting/building community is amazing.

One last thing. I want to say a special Hello to a woodworker in Dade County, Florida. I don't know who you are, but I know that in the last while you were in a class taught by my cousin Jan. Yes, in fact, she is my cousin. We grew up together riding bikes and laughing through our summers, and I miss her. I was informed through the family grapevine that you and she had met in a class in Florida and that you had been skeptical that I was actually Jan's cousin. Track me down and say Hi. I would love to know more about your woodworking.

By the way, have I mentioned to you how incredibly small the world can be?  Reach out and find a new friend or another woodworker.

Am I Square With You?

I grew up in a small community in Southeast Iowa. As a county seat, the community was important. One thing I learned while growing up in Sigourney was how that community of people took care of each other.

The person I am thinking about today was a developmentally challenged gentleman who lived in town. If I remember right, his name was Thollie. Now, had he lived in a larger town or city, he probably would have ended up as one of the homeless living on the street, or maybe in some type of institution. In Sigourney, though, he had a place to live and a whole group of people who looked out for him.

If you ever spent time with this man, the last thing he would ask before leaving you was, "Am I square with you?" The question was important to him, as was your answer. He would wait for you to respond.  He didn't want to feel as though he had ever shorted anyone in the dealings he had with them. It was almost as though he realized how fortunate he was to live in this type of environment.

As I look back, I realize just how blessed I was to live there too, but I was less likely to notice it. It is amazing to think about how many times people helped me out because we were part of the same community. It would have been just as easy to have fallen to the other side of the equation and been very harsh. One April when I was in college, I ran into Rob Marget. I knew I was overdrawn at his bank, actually by several hundred dollars. All Rob asked me was if I had summer employment and would I get the bank paid back when I had that job. No overdraft charges, no penalties, and no interest for what was actually a loan. He just wanted to make sure that in the end, we would be all right, that we would we be square. This was my experience living in that small town and I know that others had similar experiences.

I laugh at some of the students I went to school with at Drake. Generally, the student body at Drake came from a different economic status than I did. They were much more likely to have arrived in brand new cars and an allowance that was far beyond my family's means. From everything that I could tell, they lived in communities more like the one I live in today (Des Moines) than the one I grew up in. But as an undergrad, in a time where everything was quite surreal, these same students LOVED the cheese I brought from home for grilled cheese sandwiches on Sunday nights when the dining hall was closed. For those of you that haven't already made the intellectual jump, this cheese was square, came in about a three pound block and was part of the surplus food items available to families under a certain income level. Yup, my friends just loved the government surplus cheese. Again, though, it was a way my community took care of me and the people I surrounded myself with, even into my college years.

About two years ago, I started spending time in Neola, Iowa, where my company has a facility. It was the first time in years that I had been in a community that small. Sure enough, as I got to know the people in town I discovered there was a gentleman there much like the Thollie I had known at home. The community has things they ask him to do to keep him busy and out of trouble, and everyone looks out for him and takes care of him.

I absolutely know and believe this happens in larger communities as well, but I think it's harder to see. I knew Thollie well while living  in Sigourney. He was part of the community and involved in my daily life. You would literally see him everywhere and he went out of his way to wave or say hello. Where I live now, someone like him could live only blocks from me and I wouldn't know them. For heavens sake, I have a cousin that lived a short distance from me and it took a while to figure that out.

I'm not sure how I can be better at recognizing people who might need my help and then figure out how to help them, but in today's world, it seems more important than ever.

Okay, there is my personal challenge for the day. And  you have all heard it. We will see what can be done. Then, when all is said and done, I want to make sure that whoever I have dealt with, I am square with them.

Preparation

I spent the first part of my adulthood working for a company named Payless Cashways. The company is long gone at this point, but the people continue on. This morning in a post on Facebook, Scott F posted a note which really made me think. He posted a picture of his name tag from back then and said, "Just ran across this, made me realize how many great people I met through the years at a once dominant powerhouse in the industry. Never realized I was being groomed to potentially be a goal-oriented person with many traits from many people I was fortunate enough to work with along this crazy journey."

I thought about this all day. In every encounter we have in a lifetime, good or bad, we take something from the moment. I agree with Scott. Much of who I am today was shaped by the leadership of that company so many long years ago.  I know the way I look at expenses in a business and the relationship between expense and profit is one really solid example. We were all taught early-on how to manage in plentiful times and in times that were not. We didn't succeed in the long run, but I know we kept the company alive a lot longer because of the things those who had come before us taught along the way.

So I ask myself - what am I teaching today? Am I providing good lessons to others that will help them in the future to move lives and businesses along? I hope I am. I know the biggest thing any of us can do is to help the next generation to learn from the past. Not only did Payless do this for me, but my family also believed strongly in this virtue.  I remember walking around the cemetery with my grandmother as she talked endlessly about family that had come before and what they had done and how they changed things for the better. Of course I wish I had listened more at the time, but I did absorb a lot of it, and it has helped make me a more fully rounded person today. So again, back to the question - how am I helping the next group to be more ready than I was?

One of the things I have recognized in the last year or so is just how cyclical the world is. I know this is not new information, but sometimes it just takes time to totally get it. When I was in my teens in the late sixties and seventies, I really couldn't understand why my parent's generation didn't understand the way I looked at things. I also remember thinking I was sure I would never be that way. Fast forward three or four decades, and sure enough, I look at the people coming into the workforce and I think their approach is crazy. If I really stop and think about it, this generation's approach to this decade is no different than mine was to my parent's time. It is just different. And, with this, I have probably gotten a little more set in my ways and less likely to be as open to new thoughts and new ways of thinking. There, I said it.

So Scott, here comes the challenge to both of us, and probably a bunch of others too. The next time we find ourselves in a conversation where we want to tell the other person they are "just crazy" in the way  they are looking at something, we have to stop. We need to think of all of those people that took time and invested energy into each of us to make us better and more fully rounded, and we need to move that forward. We need to stop and listen and work to understand what is being said and why. Then we need to work to find middle ground and work with this next generation to help them to be more prepared than they are now. We need to do this to honor the time and energy that others spent on us when we were still feeling our way. I know that there were things I did and said in those times that I probably should not have been forgiven for, but I was, so I could move forward.  Let's find people that we can help in the same way.

Good God, Son!

I was raised, in large part, by my maternal grandparents. It wasn't that mom was not on the scene, it was just that with working and trying to get everything done, she needed help. The help came in the form of my grandparents. Like so many in our lives, I know I told them thank you, but as I continue to experience more and more of life, I wish I had one more chance to say those words. So, I do it here. I am so thankful for my grandmother, Jo, and my grandfather, Art. They have much to do with who I am today and the way I look at the world. They shaped me at some of the most critical times in my life, causing me to be as inquisitive and questioning as I am.

With that said, there is one lesson Grandpa taught me over and over that I believe has a place in the world today. Of course with the lesson comes a story.

Much of what we did at Grandma and Grandpa's house revolved around the horse business. Grandpa had always been around horses and was very good with them. We also had a reputation for being able to make progress with horses which others had not been able to do much with. One day we had a horse that didn't much want to be trained. Now, Grandpa had approached this horse just like every other, first getting them used to being around people. Part of this was simply working with the horse, getting them used to human contact, and then adding equipment that came with being ridden and driven. One thing we did was take a burlap sack and run it all over the horse, getting them used to being touched. On this particular day, with this particular horse, things didn't go well. Grandpa had tied the horse's lead rope to the corral fence and proceeded to run the burlap sack over her. All hell broke loose. By the time it was over, Grandpa was on the ground, with a horse on top of him still tied by the lead rope to the fence, She couldn't get her feet under her because her head was being held in the air, and Grandpa could not get out from under her. He called for me, had me untie the lead rope and as she got up, made himself the smallest little ball possible. Somehow, he did not get stepped on. Overall, successful all around. We started the whole process over again, much more carefully this time, and things went much better. She wanted to be a good horse, but she had been scared.

Now, from my vantage point, there was really nothing out of the ordinary here. Things like this just happened. You dealt with them and moved forward.

When we were at dinner that evening, I decided that telling this story of the excitement of the day would be appropriate. I told the entire story with every detail I could muster, even digging down into the emotions I felt when seeing my grandfather under a flailing horse. I remember mentioning that I wondered if this would be the broken ribs for the year, as rarely did we make it through a summer without at least one cracked or broken rib. Fortunately, neither happened. As I finished telling everything I could think of - the whole time watching my grandmother's face grow pale, and not fully understanding why - my grandpa said, "Good god, son. Do you have to tell everything you know?"

In hindsight, this summed up the whole situation. I had been privy to something pretty phenomenal and it was just not possible for me to keep it to myself.

I faced these words from my grandfather at other times in my life. Each time he started, I knew I had done it again - not understanding when it was time to just keep my mouth shut.

These words should resound more and more in the world today. With our ability to instantly communicate, it has become difficult to know exactly what should and should not be communicated. I would venture to say that almost all of us run into a story or a situation we would LOVE to share, but then we consider the people affected by our releasing the story and we determine it would hurt more than it would help.

The problem is that there are many who just don't have that filter, They believe a good story, or even bit of untested information should be immediately released to the entirety of the listening world. Off goes another story on a rampage. We must be the line of first defense in deciding what should and should not be told. I will always lean on Grandpa's words. "Good God, son..." is a good place to start. What litmus test will you use?

Mileposts

Each of us comes from a particular time with a certain set of basic information included because of that time. Whether you are a member of the Silent Generation or Baby Boomer or Generation Y - Millennial or Generation Alpha, this is always true. I am solidly a Boomer, born almost right in the middle of that group. It carries baggage, just like being a Generation Alpha will carry, although much of theirs is yet to be seen as we are only six years into that group's life.

One of the things I remember about being a child and young adult in the group to which I was born was how big everything was. Computers took whole rooms in a building and required their own cooling system; televisions were all console models and had to sit away from the wall because of the length of the main tube in the device. Heck, I remember a hay baler my Uncle Norm owned which you could climb up into and included its own motor. And then there were the cars. The first car I owned - a 1973 Grand Sedan - would easily haul eight, sometimes more, and had a trunk big enough to house a small family. I have kidded over the years that I never parked it, I actually docked it.

Anyway, in those days when someone reached 100,000 miles on a vehicle, it was a really big deal. Okay, first of all, the odometers wouldn't register more than a hundred thousand miles, so when you went past that number, it would turn over to zero. This was such a big deal, it was not uncommon to get the family and have them all in the car when this happened. It definitely would have been worth a post on Facebook - if Facebook would have been around.

A couple of weeks ago, I reached a hundred thousand miles on my truck. It was such a big deal I actually didn't even notice it until after the event had occurred. The biggest thing it did for me was to make me consider how long I wanted to own this truck. I decided to keep it for 220,000 miles before looking for something different. One big difference about this milepost from when I was younger is that number no longer indicates the end of a vehicle's life. People routinely put more miles on their vehicles. Many people I know purchase used vehicles with more than a hundred thousand miles and don't think a thing about it. My workplace owns vehicles with well over 600,000 miles that effectively do their job every single day.

There are certainly other types of mileposts in our lives, often regarding age. I hit fifty in 2006 and by all accounts, I was a horrible human about it. I didn't want to be there and I wasn't afraid to tell everyone about it. I actually have a couple of friends that have never reached out to me on my birthday since because of the person I was that day. Last year, I hit the sixty number. I actually tried to be more gracious and think I succeeded to some level. Probably still have work to do.

Earlier this week one of our neighbors turned 100. Now, that is a milepost. He has had a life filled with opportunities to learn and see things that others in his group never did. He has a tremendous perspective on all of it. He lives by himself in his own home and still drives his own car. Many of us (myself included) believe everyone ends up in a nursing home, but it is not true. I listened to a great TED talk yesterday showing that the percentage of older Americans living in nursing homes is only four percent and this percentage is actually dropping. Here is the link if you want to check it out.

What I would like to leave you with today is there are tons of mileposts out there. We see and go by them every day. They are only reminders of what we have done and where we have been. They need not shape us in negative ways. Our reaction is completely up to each of us. Yes, I will admit that more of my parts hurt today than when I was twenty-one, but the things I know and have learned in those intervening years are worth the miles.

If you ever watched the movie Dead Poet's Society with Robin Williams, remember the phrase Carpe diem and go out and seize today. For those of you in central Iowa, the State Fair is going on. That could be a great place to do exactly this. For those of you from other parts of the world, why are you not here at the Iowa State Fair?

Rhetoric

Having just celebrated the birth of the nation and thinking about the considerable rhetoric permeating our country each day, I stopped today to think about the way we converse with each other. While this is a much-discussed topic, and conversations take up a great percentage of our days, a couple of things in the last few weeks it made me think about it again.

Two weeks ago, one of my drivers had a wreck. Fortunately, no one was injured. But here is what I find interesting. When I was told about it, the first thing people wanted to talk about was the damage to the vehicle. Honestly, at that point, I could not have cared less. The first thing I wanted to know was that my driver was okay.

In the middle of that conversation I was taken back to the day when one of my kids had a small fender bender. Again, the first thing that they wanted to tell me was about the vehicle. Same situation, I could have cared less.

One of the things we need to concentrate on is where in our conversations we talk about the important things. Given the examples I just wrote about, both times the first thing I wanted to know was that everyone was okay. All the rest was relatively unimportant details to deal with later.

So where this brings me is to ask how many times our personal conversations dance around important topics rather than discussing them first?

My answer, regarding my life and the way I deal with others says that all too often I never get to the important topic. We know each other on a superficial level, having conversations about the news and other minutia around the day.

There are some relationships that I need to think about, work on, and change so that they can be better and stronger moving forward. As my children began driving, one of the things I told them was around exactly this. I told them, and I’ve told everyone that ever worked for me: tell me the important things first. If you’re in a wreck, tell me that you’re okay; if you fail a test, tell me what the plan is to overcome; if you’re changing your life plans, tell me all the details.

When I worked for Payless Cashways, as managers, many of us subscribed to the saying “ask for forgiveness rather than permission.” This worked relatively well for me, right up until the day that my senior vice president asked if that’s what I had done in a situation. It had been. I'd made a decision that I knew if I had asked permission, I would not have been allowed to do it. So I went right ahead and did what I wanted to do and waited for the questions and the consequences. I hadn't expected to be asked if that it been my methodology. When faced with that question, all I could do was answer honestly and truly feel embarrassed at my thought process.

Today, I think about the importance of honest and upfront communication. With all of these random thoughts, the place I land is that it is more necessary now than ever before to be truthful with those people who are important to us.

If you have a boss, tell them what’s really on your mind - you may be surprised at the outcome.

If you have friends and family that you care about deeply, tell them, don’t just think that they will know. Start with the important conversation first.

Think about conversations through the filter that is the way you would like to hear things. This will not fail you, however it may present some different opportunities and directions than you’ve seen in the past.

And for the sanity of everyone involved, if you’re in a wreck, and you need to call somebody, first tell them that you’re okay.

Okay, those are the thoughts of this simple woodworker from central Iowa. I get to go to the shop again today and work on the teardrop trailer for my sister. This is a labor of love, and I am thankful for every moment of it. Have a good week.