Sights and Sounds...

Thanksgiving was a great time to reflect and recover (my horrific dental visit and a ruptured disc). Our five children had other plans this year so we took advantage of it and went north. We had a simple but wonderful dinner - just the three of us. That would be me and my hubby with dog "Teddy" in tow. (Although tempted to set a plate and put the dog in a chair, we refrained and allowed him to receive tidbits throughout dinner from our hands.) Teddy is obviously spoiled, but as empty nesters, he has become our "child". He's a mini-dox.

I took my first walk in the woods and across the foot bridge to the island, since my back went out some months ago. I paid the price but it was worth it. The otter wasn't around but we saw numerous deer tracks and trails to cross our stream to the other side. A motion detection field camera should reveal if any of the deer have come out of hiding yet from gun deer season. We saw plenty of buck rubs though - pretty fresh so I expect to see something on the camera when we bring it in.

I woke one morning to the sound of hundreds of Sandhill Cranes circling overhead and landing in the farmer's field across the way. What a sight and sound. The regular birds were back to the feeding station for a fuel up before the tiny dry snowflakes started to silently trickle down. Frost was clearly present in the mornings. I worked on my Christmas presents while my husband walked the woods and cut some firewood. We had a roaring fire in the fireplace one cold day and it made things very cozy. I've always been enchanted by looking into the face of a fire and this was no different.

I had my husband shoot a picture of a shelf fungi on one of the trees in the woods for my blog. There are far better ones out there, discovered by our daughters, one of which is a professional photographer. She has the best multi-layered pics.  Two of our daughters explored the woods with their father one day while I watched the grandkids and they came back giddy as children with their photographs and little treasures dug from the woods to use in terrariums. There are so many wonderful treasures just laying about that I failed to notice while working as a CEO that I now regret. Don't make the same mistake. Regardless of your career path or occupation or station, don't miss this stuff. It's everything.

Time to Give Thanks

Have a blessed Thanksgiving and I will be back blogging after the holiday (and some recovery). With so much bad news these days, let's think of all of the many blessings that we do have. When times are tough, we forget. Let's make this a time to remember...

Excuses, Excuses...

I have a great excuse for not posting for a few days...honest!

I have a bridge in my mouth that is three teeth - three crowns over two live teeth with the center tooth having a root canal. Should be no pain in the root canal tooth - right? Wrong. It has hurt since the day it was supposedly complete. Well, I broke off a piece of the crown over the root canal tooth so I went to the dentist. I figure the Dentist will pop off the three connected crowns (or bridge), take a new impression, send away for a new crown, and put something temporary in its place. Wrong. He took off the crown (after numerous hits to the head with what I call his "dent puller"). He tells me the root canal tooth is the problem because it has broken underneath the crown and now after the entire root canal process, he now has to "pull" the tooth. How bad can that be? After all, it's a dead tooth! Well, after more shots to the mouth (my worst phobia), he tries to pull the tooth. It breaks. He tries again. It breaks again. After numerous dig out attempts, the tooth is finally out. During the ordeal, he slipped while pulling and gouged the inside of my mouth at the gum line. So now I have a torn up inside of my mouth, a swollen face, extreme pain in my bones around my jaws, head pain like a shaken baby... Not to mention that I'm currently immuno-suppressed so I'm on antibiotics for infection. We'll just add this to my ruptured disc and hope I now have your sympathy. Give me a few days to recover and I'll try to post intermittently in between. Thanks for listening!

"Good to Great" - First Who...

I hope you've had an opportunity to pick up a copy of "Good to Great" and have started reading it. If not, there's still time before I begin to really delve into it. However, I thought I'd share with you what I think is the most important chapter of all (in the spirit of "take the best and leave the rest", this chapter is not one of those that you can ever leave), is "First Who, Then What".

You can train anyone to do almost anything. Good people to surround yourself with are those who want to jump onto your 'bus" (your company), because they believe in your mission or something else that excites them about being part of your team, as opposed to simply working for you because they happen to have a skill set that you need. The former will follow you anywhere. You will never hear them say "that's not my job". The latter will fall apart if you make a course correction and ask them to do something different. They will say "that's not my job".

Your people are not your most important asset; the right people are.

In the Beginning... There Ought to be a Law

I've often thought there should be a license to have children. Anyone can have or help create a child - but do they qualify to be parents? Back when I was born, I think it was automatic that you get married and then raise a family. Back then, people who had no children were thought of as unfortunate (there must be something wrong and how sad...). My parents didn't have me (their first), until they were married five years. That was long for then. The next in line was my brother and he was born four years after me - long too. I think my sister and youngest brother were unplanned. I know my youngest brother was because my father used to refer to my little sister as the "caboose" (she had red hair). When my youngest brother was born, my father handed him to me at the door when they came home from the hospital and proclaimed him to be mine. I was thirteen then. It wasn't something new though. I had already taken care of my siblings from the time I can remember. I was six when my sister was born. I recall standing over her bassinet at the foot of my parents bed in the middle of the night trying to quiet her cry. I knew where the bottles were kept and remember trying to get one in her mouth so she would stop crying. I'd hold it for her until she fell back to sleep, nearly falling asleep myself. I don't ever recall one of my parents even waking up through any of that. By the time I had my own family, I felt as though I had already raised one.

I know that things are different today and people do decide not to have children or to have them later, etc., and I think that is a good thing. However, there are still too many people out there having children who should not. And sometimes, the greatest little blessings of all come to those who don't plan on it.

Sights and Sounds...

The birds were back and desperately trying to dig out the remaining seeds that were lodged way up into the feeder; someone needed to shake those seeds down! The otter was back and playing while headed upstream before making his turn and heading back down. The geese were loudly honking at each other in support of flight as they flew overhead in their formation. Off in the distance, you could hear the gun fire of hunters sighting in their rifles for opening season on deer next weekend...

The trucks from the pulp mills and the grain trucks from the local farmers were headed up and down our road. There's a nice buffer of land between us and the road so you know their presence without them being a nuisance. The corn is coming in late this year and the farmers are busy. I find peace in the knowledge that there's a farm right near our property. I love to see the combines move diligently throughout the day and into night during the harvest. It grounds me to the earth.

The days were beautiful fall days in the northern midwest and even though things have turned from glorious color to a fall-like brown, the scenery was breathtaking. With the sky blue with some white clouds and the creek running along, even the brown grasses surrounding the stream were just another beautiful phase of the color changes that occur throughout the year.

The air was crisp and the nights into the high 20's. The daytime air was clean and clear and refreshing when it hit your face. I suspect that we will soon see snow...