What's On Your Facebook Page?

          On my 40^th birthday, I created my Facebook page.  We’ve had a volatile relationship, at best.  Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it.  I love the fact that I can connect with friends and family that I don’t get to see often and get to keep up with what’s going on in their lives.  I hate seeing people airing their personal problems or posting something vague and cryptic, then getting offended when asked about it.

          The year I was home, working on a home-based business, the woman training me cautioned me about what I post on Facebook.  She told me that people who are interested with working with me will go check out my Facebook page to check ME out.  Social media has been a real game changer.  What used to be private is now public because we’ve willingly made it so.

          I have seen and heard of cases where people have lost their jobs because of what they have posted on various social media outlets.  Several messages have come out from the Safety department reminding us that they are watching.  I know it sounds very “big-brother-ish,” but it’s just the way of the world we live in.  I don’t care what your settings say.   There is no privacy on the Internet.

          I regularly remind trainees to “pay attention to what you’re doing.”  We   have to do the same thing with our online presence.  Our online presence has consequences.  I guess this goes back to what I’ve said in other posts… be mindful.  Be intentional.  We can’t go through life like a bull in a China shop, crashing around into things and expect that nothing bad is ever going to happen.

Yay Vacation!

While you’ve all been slaving away this past week, I’ve been eating like a pig, drinking like a fish and getting sunburned.  Woohoo!  Yay vacation!

I’m a creature of habit.  This year I took the same cruise I took last year, just on a different ship.  I also took a friend this year.  Originally there were supposed to be six of us, but life happens and in the end, there were only two.  It was still good.

When was the last time you took a vacation?  I was talking to another friend who told me “one of these days, I’m going to get on a cruise ship.”  If you’ve ever said something similar, I would encourage you to take the “someday/one of these days” out of it and get to planning.

It’s been my experience that when someone says “someday, I’m going to…” they might as well replace the “someday” with “never.”  “Never, I’m going to…”  When we say “someday,” our goals remain nothing more than an abstract idea, but when we attach details (timeline, location, etc) they take on a life of their own and we’re more likely to see them come to pass.

So where are you going on your next vacation?

Off the Beaten Path

          I really love it when I get to get off the beaten path and go through the small towns.  Today was one of those days.  I went from Lawton to Elk City (OK) and there is no interstate connecting the two.

          To me, Smalltown America is still Real America.  There are still store fronts and brick roads, old theatres and diners.  I love seeing how the small towns decorate for various holidays. 

          The stretches between the small towns are dotted with farms or ranches.  I can’t seem to go fifty miles without finding an abandoned, run down farm that I imagine in its former glory and think about how cool it would be to buy and restore.

          I’m always glad to get “back to the big road,” where I can make better time, but it’s still nice to be able to get out on the smaller roads, slow down a bit and see what there is to see.  

People Are People

                I was walking into the TA in Barstow Saturday night when a gentleman sitting on the curb - with what I assume was all his worldly possessions in a backpack - asked me for a cigarette.  I was on my way to work out, so I didn’t have any with me and told him that.  When I came back from working out he was gone, but when I came out from my shower he was back.  I deposited my shower bag in the truck, grabbed my smokes and went over to him.

                I sat on the curb with him for about 30 minutes just having a normal conversation.  His name was Jacob and he had hitch-hiked from Oklahoma to California with a plan of doing construction work down in San Diego.  He’d been talking to someone on the internet and was told he would have work if he got there.  He told me that this was the 4^th time he had crossed the country hitch-hiking and told me of some of the more interesting things that have happened to him in his travels.  I asked him if he’d ever considered writing a collection of these stories and getting them published.  We talked about our kids, work, my upcoming vacation and our faith.  (He is a Christian, too.)  I gave him the rest of my pack of cigarettes and bought him a shower with loyalty points and then I had to get to bed.

                If you’re a Christian, you’ll understand what I mean when I say, “I felt like God wanted me to just go sit and talk with him.”  It was the type of normal conversation I’ve probably had 100 times with various friends.  He never asked me for anything but a cigarette.  I never felt unsafe; we were out in public in a well-lit area.

                I’ve thought about that conversation a few times over the past week.  There was nothing profound said, and probably nothing particularly important.  I didn’t do anything great.  I just had a conversation with a stranger.  What was important to me was just following my instincts and doing what I felt I was supposed to do.  I’ve also been thinking about some things that have been going on around the country that show us to be horribly divided; i.e. the Charlottesville riots a few weeks ago.  But, also the images coming from Texas of people coming together to help random strangers after Hurricane Harvey.

                It costs nothing to be nice to someone, but taking the time to do so changes the world… even if it only changes the world for that one person.

Motorcycles For Dummies

          

          Two weekends ago, I took the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s “Basic Ridercourse,” which I have been affectionately referring to as “Motorcycles For Dummies.”  There is nothing derogatory about that nickname; I love the “Dummies” and the “Idiot’s Guide” books.  I relied on those when I was homeschooling my kids.  Those books take you from A to Z on whatever topic.  They’re still my “go to” when I want to learn something new. 

          At the beginning of the course, we all got to introduce ourselves and tell why we were taking the course.  I told them I bought a motorcycle and need to learn how to ride it, which is true.  I left the part about the suspected mid-life crisis out.

          About halfway through the course I realized another benefit I was getting.  I knew this course would make me a better trainer.  It's had been a very long time since I truly felt like I had no idea what I was doing.  I felt like a fish trying to learn how to ride a bicycle.  I was uncoordinated, lacked confidence and wondered if I hadn’t lost my mind.  Voices from my past snuck up on me to tell me I couldn’t do this.

          The motorcycle I bought is at my brother’s house and at one point I considered walking out of that class and calling him to tell him to sell it.  When I told him that he said he would have told me to suck it up and get back in the class.  He knew I could do it, even when I didn’t. 

          The last time I felt like that was June 1991 when I started truck driving school.  It’s been so long ago, that I know I’ve ignored the fact that most of the trainees I get probably feel the exact same way when they climb in my truck.  I think this is going to make me more compassionate and patient as a trainer.  I’ve been driving a truck so long that it comes as naturally as breathing for me.  But it hasn’t always been that way.