Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Wasp Sting


This picture was taken roughly 30 minutes after I was stung by a Wasp while out running. Can everyone out there promise me that if you are with someone who gets stung by a Wasp, even if they say "I'll catch up", that you will stop to make sure they are o.k. I was running with 3 other guys. One idiot up front pushing the pace with no care about anyone else and two other fairly decent guys and none of them stopped. Even when they turned a corner on the trail and looked back, saw me walking clutching my mouth, they didn't stop.
Let me tell you what can happen if you are allergic to stings and you get stung in the lip.......Death!
Lucking for me, I'm not allergic. But damn, it was painfull!
By the way, I wrote a note to myself later that day to never run or ride with said idiot again.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

The Year that Was!




Family

Grade - C+

Although in total we had a good year as a family, traveling through our part of Europe, Holidays in the Canary Islands and Summer trips to the Alps and Panama, I don't feel like I was as good with the family as I have been. Besides Panama the trips were all planned by Mary. Mostly because it wasn't easy I did not get involved in Marcos school work. I let Mary do it all. I was a good Dad and I'm sure Marco wouldn't complain but I wasn't great. I was a good husband but I wasn't great and I should be great at this. We have our challenges in the coming year and the majority of my goals will surrond one of the big family challenges but in general I want to raise my level with my immediate family. My final point on the family is the Election. I let my Dads party line politics get to me and I spit my own non-party buisness out through email. It's generally not me and I don't know what got into me.

Business

Grade - B

In genearl the work I am doing is at a high level. My business like most is a relationship business and I've worked really well on that front. I am pleased with the work in Latin America. I think our shoes are getting better and the relationship work to get the shoes better is very rewarding. What I'm not real proud of is letting the big Egos in the business get into my blood. I feel like I became one of the big brand egos. I also need to work on daily motivation. I used to manage 18 people and be one of the go to people in my old company. Now I manage one and I'm just another person on the floor. I tend to lose focus easily.

Financial

Grade - C

Almost everyone except the big time opportunists could probably rate thier Financial system a C. Few people are immune to the woes of the current market. But my average grade goes deaper. We made some errors in our move here and they are costing us. The great thing is we have been so good with our finances over the last 12 years that we could afford a subpar year. We can't afford two of them.

Spiritual

Grade - C

I'll just put it this way. Big ego and a spriritual giving soul don't mesh well. Fix the ego and work spiritually and this can be reversed.

Sport

Grade - B

Early year preperation went well. My goal was Ironman France in June so I had to get humping early. I put on 5lbs of muscle. I put in lots of hours on the bike even in the dark winter days. I had a couple days of 3 hours on the turbo trainer. My swimming was poor but I can usually make it up quickly. So my early season preperation was an A but I did nothing with it. I didn't go to France because I made the right call to take care of our dog (read past blogs). I raced in Switzerland which was a great experience but it was a flat race and I did the Berlin Marathon. That's it.

Total Personal Grade - C+

The great thing about this process is I get to do it again. I have the greatest family I guy could ask for, I try to surrond myself with good folks (thanks to Facebook I still can make this happen) and I control it all so I know it can improve.

It's a good life....

Dave



Sunday, October 5, 2008

Renew

It's time again to renew. The picture of this beutiful tree is from our recent family trip to Poland. This is what Poland looks like right now. Bursting with color!

October is my month to reflect on the year and to set new targets for next year. I use October because the month starts with our wedding anniversary, the Hawaii Ironman takes place and because trees like this one also start new again. They shed the year they've had and start planning the next one. So over the next month I'll reflect a bit on the year that was and set some new targets around:

Family

Business/Career

Financial

Sport

Spiritual

Have a great week!

It's a good life....

Dave