Work-Life (Im)Balance or “My Why”

I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling this is how we balance work and life in Corporate America. Actually, I should’ve tipped the scale a little more toward work.

You’ll never find this guy in an airport. Driving the country enables you to enjoy life and see the country. Photo by Carolina Bird Club

A glass-bottomed boat captain told us it would bring five years of good luck to have our pictures taken standing in the embrace of this tree. So here we are. Not that we’re superstitious or anything. Photo by Anita

This post originally appeared on the Hermit Haus Redevelopment website on 2016-06-09.

When I used to work in the corporate world, management had this thing they called work-life balance. They understood on some level that you couldn’t just work people to death. One even told me with a straight face, “We work to live; we don’t live to work.”

Unfortunately, management always lost sight of that goal at some point, no matter how much Mahogany Row would like to. Between product release deadlines, understaffed departments, and the unending goal to “do more with less,” the employees (if not the management) began referring to the work-work balance. In other words, “How do I work hard enough to keep my job without going crazy or postal?”

Well, that is one of the reasons I love running this company so much. You haven’t seen me post on [the Hermit Haus] blog in over a week because we ran away to Florida to celebrate Sue Ann’s high school reunion in person. No, I’m not putting a number to the reunion. (Sue Ann says, thanks.)

We chose to drive, because I think you miss out on so much of the country when you fly. And driving lets you avoid being treated like a piece of pink slime in the airports. But seriously, when was the last time you saw a roseate spoonbill in an airport? We saw several—not to mention countless other interesting birds—in their natural habitats while driving through Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. Did I mention the Everglades?

I got to meet a lot of my wife’s oldest friends, and I liked all of them. I’m not usually good in a crowd of strangers unless I’m on stage or have a microphone in my hand. But I have to admit all of the folks she’s kept in touch with are genuinely nice and interesting people.

I have to admit; I didn’t leave my phone at home. We participated in the daily huddle meetings while driving or from our hotel rooms. Nor did I stop marketing. We told everyone we met about the business. Almost all of them brought it up first. We sprinkled a pleasure trip with business contacts. We also looked at projects wherever we stopped. You can truly do this business anywhere.

So that’s one of my “why’s.” Sue Ann and I were able to take a week off and drive across the country with minimal involvement in our business. While we were gone, work continued on all of our active redevelopment projects, and our acquisition pipeline kept active. I met old friends who may become new partners. And I had a genuinely relaxing and good time while doing all of this.

After decades as a wage slave to corporate America, I can finally say I have achieved that elusive balance between work and life. And that’s not counting my dad’s adage: “If you love what you do, it’s ain’t work.” That attitude kept him planting corn when he was 92. I hope to be redeveloping houses at 100.

A Day in the Wilds

This bee was having a good time on what Suna tells me is ice flower. The larger version on Flickr would make a nice desktop.

Calling Central Texas is a bit of an exaggeration. Would you believe a big exaggeration? All right, it’s an outright lie.

Suna wanted to go for a ride today. Her main objective was Old Oaks Ranch, a place where they raise their own alpacas and make their own yarn. It has a yarn shop (no big surprise there), and they give lessons. We watched a woman show how to turn a pile of raw alpaca fur into a felt fedora. I placed some pictures of the alpacas and other pictures of the ice flowers with bees in a Facebook album.

Then we went to Wimberly, which has become something of a tourist trap of late, in search of a guitar shop that seems to no longer exist. Wimberly is a town that was built to hold about a thousand people. Probably two-to-three times that number are there at any given moment on a weekend.

Finally, we went on our lovely drive through the hills. We didn’t take any pictures of the route, just enjoyed the vistas and wild flowers.

We wrapped up the date with dinner at the new Monument Cafe in Georgetown. The food is as good as ever, and they have expanded the seating. The exterior of the building looks exactly the same as the old one. One interesting design choice: instead of men’s and women’s restrooms, they have a series of large private restrooms. While nice, I don’t see how this choice can do anything other than raise operating costs. I would rather they worked on keeping the prices reasonable than try to become some hoity-toity spa-like thing.

A Reasonable Limitation of Speech

Cell phones and cars don’t mix.

Photo source: Geekologie

Yesterday, I talked about free speech. Today, I’m arguing for limitations on speech—not what you say, when you can say it.

California has joined at least 17 other states, including Texas, in banning talking on a cell phone while you drive—unless you use a hands-free device. And I’m going to argue that the law does not go far enough.

The exception for hands-free devices comes in spite of studies showing that the danger of using cell phones while driving stems not from taking a hand off the wheel, but from multitasking. Apparently talking on the phone uses so much bandwidth that it reduces the bran’s ability to process other data, including spatial relationships.

And the California law fails to ban texting, checking your email, or setting an appointment on your calender. I’m not sure about the Texas law, but all of these activities should be banned. Not only do they use much of your brain’s computing bandwidth, they also take your eyes off the road.

Am I a hypocrite about this? Yes. I have been known to drive with a phone pressed against my ear. Shame on me. If you see me doing so, feel free to honk and tell me I’m number one. I’ll know why.

Farewell to OldFriend’s Littlest Sister

Image Source: Moon Angel

Today we say farewell to OldFriend’s littlest sister, who was found dead in her bed by one of her children. She was several years younger than me, but she had lead a very hard life—mostly as a result of a series of bad decisions—bad decisions anyone could have made, and some did make but then reversed.

So, I took a day off from work to travel to the funeral, but I spread it over two days—half today and half tomorrow. Suna took me shopping for the right clothes to wear to the funeral. We picked out a tan silk jacket, a dark gray shirt (not for today. I wore a white one I bought from the Overpriced Outlets north of town), some dark brown slacks, and a tie to tie them together. We had a really nice lunch at Mother Fudd’s. Now I’m off into the wilds.

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The trip down was interesting. I took SH71 south, but it took forever to get to it. There was an accident or something, and US183 was stop-and-go most of the way across town. Then when I got to Houston, the Troll Road was a parking lot. Imagine paying good money to sit on a Troll Road. But I made it with about 10 minutes to spare—and conveniently less time to interact with X2B. This was supposed to be about OldFriend’s family, not my current situation.

The funeral was very Catholic, even though many of the siblings no longer are. I paid my respects to all the siblings and to OldFriend’s parents. They said that they appreciated me making the trip to show support for them.

Afterward, I visited shortly with RemainingBrother and drove home.

All-in-all, it was a long day—tiring and draining but, at the same time, rewarding.