"A Year Goes by Like Nothing"

The title of this post is the tag line of a comic book series entitled "The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers." I have no idea whether it is still in print. Three hippie roomates and a cat shared a run down house that would make Martha Stewart run screaming into the night. It was published only once a year, hence the phrase a year goes by like nothing.

I use that phrase with this posting because it has been a year since I posted anything on this blog; a really busy year. The demands of my work and family life have consumed nearly all of my creative energy. I like my work and family, but throughout the past year, I've frequently had ideas that I thought would be nice to write about, but little energy for the writing.

I have just reached the five year anniversary with my job. My work requires creativity, executive vision, managerial diligence and good secretarial skills. In addition to everything else, I am called upon to shovel snow, push a broom and water the garden on a regular basis. I like my work. In five years I've taken what was essentially a smoldering crater and turned it into a happy, productive and growing organization that may one day be financially self-sustaining.

During the last year my organization has done nearly $500,000 worth of renovation work. The day to day grind of having construction under foot, scheduling around it and dealing with the surprises it uncovers has been a real challenge, but it has been worthwhile. One of the things it has taught me is that the milestones in an organization like this one are most clearly visible when you look back on them. Miracles come about incrementally. When you're looking at the individual increments you have no idea that it's going to be something amazing once all of the increments have been realized.

I'm more patient than I was a year ago. I'm a lot more patient than I was five years ago.

Catching Up

I realize it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I didn't realize it had been since July. Usually summer is a slow time for me at work. This year it was anything but slow. Building renovations that didn't go as planned (what do you expect with a 120-year-old building) and special events going on made it impossible for me even to take all four weeks of my allotted vacation. I intended to take the last week of it between Christmas and New Year's Day, but a Christmas Eve blizzard put an end to that hope. We had more than two weeks of constant below freezing temperatures and several inches of snow on the ground (and the roof, which is what really kept me awake at night) for the entire time. It's melting now.

I did take a trip to Iowa at the end of August. It rained, which kept me off the tennis court, but allowed for some unplanned sightseeing at places I had never visited before or hadn't seen in a long time. A few pictures accompany this posting.

Last fall was equally crazy with fund raising, continuing work on the building and special events. I haven't had much of a break for more than a year and it's starting to wear on me - so much so that the day off scheduled for Monday - Martin Luther King Day has taken on an air of anticipation usually reserved for something with a bit more "once in a lifetime" character. Oh well - it's a worthy occasion to celebrate and I'll take my leisure when I can get it.