Those of you who are new to the blog aren’t familiar with the older man below.
You don’t know that Grandpa Wilner was among my biggest cheerleaders and that if I had robbed a bank he might have excused it and said it was ok because I needed the money.
Or that if I had punched some guy in the mouth he would have said the now toothless man had it coming.
Fortunately those are just theories because I never robbed a bank nor knocked out every tooth in a man’s mouth with one shot.
Although I suppose if I had I might have considered becoming a professional boxer or MMA fighter, but I digress.
The reason I share those things with you is because I have never forgotten the one time my grandfather looked me in the eye and said I should calm down because my temper was going to get me into trouble.
That got my attention and I listened to what he said.
It is funny to me because chances are I would have calmed down pretty quickly anyway but it was so unexpected to hear that from him it took all the fight right out of me.
Can’t say I would have calmed down so easily or quickly when I was younger but at the time I was almost 40 and I had ample responsibilities.
Not to mention the benefit of life experience which had made it easy for me to see that most things weren’t important enough for me to waste energy on.
It is a life lesson I want my children to learn and one they have heard me talk about more than once.
Maybe You Shouldn’t Blog While Angry
But the joy of being human means you and I are subject to not always doing the smart, rational or logical thing.
It means sometimes stupid crap or a collection of stupid crap and one serious thing pushes that one button that sets us off.
That is what happened to me.
A collection of a thousand paper cuts and one minor irritation found my button and I am…irked.
Irked with some people I know who haven’t done the right thing and irked with a few who keep sniffing and poking around in ways that make me wonder what they are up to.
A part of me played around with outing them here with a note asking them why they insist on poking the bear while another said watch, wait and then pounce.
But I didn’t see the benefit of that and it would contradict the advice I give to my children not to invite long term trouble for a minute of pleasure.
Ask my son how many times I have told him not to do things unless he is willing to face the consequences of those actions.
Be A Man With A Plan
I sat down at the computer, put on my headphones and started a classical music mix on Amazon Prime music.
The marketing text said it is supposed to help me focus so I figured now would be a good time to test it out.
It got me thinking about how many different interests I have and how little time there is to pursue them all.
Got me thinking about how many different stories and adventures are waiting to be discovered and I wondered how I could determine where to focus.
It also got me thinking about how much clutter there is in my place now.
The movers brought my furniture today so I am surrounded by boxes.
The Beauty Of A Bed
I have been sleeping on an air mattress since August 29 and cannot begin to tell you how excited I am to see my bed.
It is part of the original Texas adventure.
I bought it when I moved to Texas the last time and now we’re back.
This time around the bed is joined by all of my clothes and most of my stuff from LA.
It is kind of surreal to see it all here and in the storage facility I rented here.
But I was determined to write a different story this time around and took steps to make that happen.
So as part of the plan and effort to make things go the way I want I am going to sign off of here and get back to unpacking and uncluttering.
Might as well see if my dead friend Mr. Emerson is right about ambition.
sailwawasee
Boy, oh, boy do I dislike unpacking. I’m almost finished but we started a small project (tore out the for aesthetics-only fireplace) to give the living area more space. It required a number of different contractors like hardwood flooring, drywall, and painters. It postponed the hookup of TVs, etc.. Now I can not get the flooring guy to show up and the dry waller and painters can’t work until he’s finished, and the electronics guy can’t install until everyone is out. Needless to say, all the furniture has been bunched in the center of the room for almost three weeks. The beds been here though, so we’ve got that at least. Oh, and one TV to watch that’s sitting on the floor. Fun times! Here’s to feeling settled soon.
On a side note… Going to see the Cubs tonight. They are due to clinch the division here at home, and Arrieta is up to pitch, I believe!
Joshua Wilner
When I worked as a project manager for a general contractor I used to tell people the reason they wanted to hire me was because I made sure all the subs showed up so that you didn’t encounter a situation where one guy held up the entire job.
Unpacking makes me crazy too. I have a tendency to get caught up for a few moments wrestling with the best way to set it all up.
I always get it done but those moments of internal arguing…