Recharging at Coniston

This past month has been jam packed of lots of good stuff. When we scheduled all of this we were looking at the calendar but did we know that there would be no down time in between all these events. Probably not! Just the highlights which don't include are day to day life events are: 1) San Francisco trip with Bee to see 2 sets of old friends and then sent her off to Taipei for the start of her 9 month comparative religions and cultures class 2) "Quick" trip over the pond to celebrate a sister-in-law's 70th birthday. Those are the major events, and with our normal crazy full lives, I realized on the trip up last night how much I need "Coniston" to recharge. I put quotes around Coniston, because I am not sure it is the place I need but the activity, or lack of activity that I need. Because we have a lot less things up here, there are less chores staring at me, or maybe it is the ever present big front window panes looking out at our affectionately named Channel 1 that allow me to ignore the cob webs and mouse turds that need to be cleaned up. YES, I SAID MOUSE TURDS! OK, these do not make me happy at all, but I guess they are a given when a house is in the middle of all of this wild life. I announced to them that I was coming down the hall last night and made sure they knew that I knew they were more afraid of me, then I am of them. This is was Murg always says, so I said this out loud to reassure myself. Funny story about this concept and Liam the snake. Ask me to tell you this one next time we are together.

Back to the title of this post after that little distraction and I do mean little . . . maybe

We talked almost the entire way up to Coniston last night and tried to answer some big life questions, what do we want to do when we grow up? When do we want to retire? What does it mean to be retired?

One AHA out of that and I have realized this before but not in sure a concrete way as last night, is that when we come to Coniston it is a vacation (Murg actually said this and I have thought about this before). So 2 weekends out of every month, we are on vacation. It helps with how little vacation we get as Americans compared to the rest of the world. That means we have 48 more days of vacation every year if we come up here 4 days a month and there are 12 months in the year.

I don't think in the 18 months that Coniston has been in our lives, that every day up here has been a vacation, but for me 90% of them have.

At the very least, this weekend I have taken the time to post to my blog, which is something I really like to do and have not been able to make the time to do enough in the last month. Enough said.

Back to Channel 1 . . . Here come our wild turkeys

iPhone - what else can I say?

My only real, apparent excuse for not blogging is that I got an iPhone. Yes, I coveted them for a long time and finally broke down and joined the cult. Since I can check my email account(S) on it and check my Facebook on it, I need to log into my laptop, a lot less frequently. That and I have been a bit busy crossing the US by plane, and visiting friends in CA and having a friend from HI visit.

It is also near the end of summer and I like to try to get outside in the waning light.

Red Sox games and Mad Men have been my only TV addictions, so it is not TV that has replace blogging.

I am wondering if this blog is going to become extinct? It is not as if I don't have anything to say or that my thoughts have stopped. A couple of times in the last few weeks, I have said outloud to myself, that would be a great blog topic.

I have not needed to rant about anything for a while, although if I watch Fox TV it is only a matter of minutes before a rant could erupt.

No, it is simple, it is the iPhone. Maybe shorter blog posts on the iphone will start to show up here. You mean 140 character messages, now there is a novel thought.

Now that was a Great movie!

Bee, Murg and I just got back from "Julie and Julia". Don't tell them, but I read this entire book while sitting in a over-stuffed chair at Barnes and Noble. It took me 3 sessions. I bought a latte, wandered upstairs, and sat for a few hours each time while I read.

I love anything with Meryl Streep in it, and she was particularly good in this movie. The movement between the two stories was very good and boy did it make me hungry.

There are not too many movies, where the three of us come out saying "That was a really Great movie!"

I actually want to go see over half of the movies which were previewed. A couple of them, Murg leaned over to Bee and me and said "That is not a Sally movie". Can't watch anything with suspense violence or blood or tense music which leaves out about 90% of the movies made.

This movie was perfect, for me. What a great start to the weekend!

Quilting Project log jam broken

I don't know why I get stalled with my quilting but I do. At Vermont Quilt Festival this year, I realized that I didn't have any BIG quilt projects going. In fact, I bought a quilt kit at VQF,to make another Kaffee Fassett quilt for Coniston. We need more quilts up there in the winter.

Yesterday, I went to visit C who is a fellow quilter. She has a terrific quilt store right around the corner from her house, so of course after sitting on her dock, catching up, watching Qammi swim and swim and swim, we decided to visit Quilters Stash. I forgot how many batiks they have. In a few minutes I realized the color of my next quilted jacket, and about 20 minutes later, I was ready to check out. That was Saturday. Today, Sunday, I have all the pieces cut out and am just about to start the assembly.

So WHY? Was it the camaraderie of shopping for fabric with someone else? Was it the fabrics that sparked some inspiration for my next project? Do I not prioritize my time to have time to quilt? Do I really need another quilted jacket? Wait, wait, wait, I don't think you can ever have enough quilted jackets.

So given my history, this project will be an obsession for a couple of weeks until I am at last wearing it. The colors are fall colors, so just in time I will have a new one to wear. Pictures to come soon of my new jacket.

Half Full for sure

I am pretty sure I am a half full person. Recent evidence to this is all this rain we have been getting in New England. Twice today I left my office, went down in the elevator and did not realize that there was a torrential rainstorm going on until I reached the revolving door to the building. I can see outside from my office so it is not just that I could not see the outside. I just did not expect it to be raining. My response each time was, "so I will get a bit wet!" There was a gentleman at the door as I was leaving tonight during the second torrential rainstorm. He was aghast that I was even thinking about leaving to go to my car. So my clothes are pretty wet, but that is certainly not the end of the world.

Glass half full can actually be a problem. I don't see pot holes and step in them. I trust people, sometimes when I should not trust them. I expect people to receive messages the same way I do, and they don't.

I actually think this rain is going to stop some day, maybe even today. My supply list for building an ark is not started. "There must be a pony in here somewhere" is the tag line of a card I once received as the person was standing neck deep in a pile of pony #@$)*(#.

Explanation for "New Knees Please"

BEWARE whining alert . . . Lately, within the last month, I have been biking a lot. I use my Coniston bike up there, and B's bike in Lexington. Gradually I have been covering more ground each day and Monday I was feeling pretty good about my exercise routine. Bike riding 4-5 times a week, and yoga 2-3 times a week was feeling like a pretty good exercise routine when BAM! My "good" knee collapsed. I say "good" knee because this is the one that was operated on in 1985, when I tore ligaments dancing with my sister on my 30th birthday. So "good" in this case is "not" the one most recently operated on. The one I could trust, and did not have to favor. It did not just go BAM! I put my left foot on the pedal, was swinging my right foot over the seat when my iPOD cord caught on the seat, I panicked, swung my right foot back over the seat, placed it on the ground (in the wrong position apparently) and the next I knew, the bike was lying on top of me on the ground, because my "good" right knee collapsed.

Murg wonders why I don't go to the doctor. In 25 years of nursing bad knees, I know what they are going to say. Ice it, anti-inflammatory, and once the swelling goes down, come see us if there is still pain. Early on, I would go visit the doctor for these episodes. I often wonder what will happen if both knees decide to go at once.

This is all very discouraging because I want to be in an exercise routine, a regular one, and episodes like this derail me, delay me and force me to think about moderating my routine. My bike rides for now are out of the question as is the golf game planned for 10 days from now. Walking the dog, until the swelling goes down is out of the question.

The biggest mindset change for me, in the first few hours on the couch after this episode, was the realization that I have been dealing with bad knees for 25 years. 2 years ago my left knee was operated on and is the one I have been favoring for 2 years. For that episode I was literally walking back from town with Murg after a dinner in town. My left knee collapsed and I could put NO weight on it. He left me there in pain, on the sidewalk, while he ran back to get the car. That was a visit to the emergency room and knee surgery in November of that year. This happened a few more times before the surgery which a piece of my meniscus ended up on the wrong side of my knee cap, and my knee collapsed and I could put NO weight on it.

So, now my attention back on the right knee for now. Ice, rest, getting better every day.

This is not all bad, I can walk for exercise eventually, or swim, and probably bike and golf, just not this weekend, or today.

Leadership lessons Part II - "What is the Worst that could happen?"

Today at church E, the past board president gave a sermon on his lessons from the past 2 years as board president. One lesson he mentioned today is another one that has stuck with me. When you are about to do something, or are afraid of proceeding, ask yourself "What is the worst that could happen?" This question is one I use a lot coaching others. It often breaks a log jam in someone's decision making, or in their process around a complicated decision, or a tough personnel issue. I use this a lot in coaching others, but I am not sure I use it with myself. As an HR person, we tend to ask this during a reduction in force, or another difficult HR process.

I learned this technique first, from one of my great managers at Polaroid. I was about to go present to the President and his staff. I had never presented to that level before. H asked me "What is the worst that could happen?" I answered, "They would think I was stupid." H paused and then asked me "Has that ever happened to you before?" I was dumb founded, thought for a minute and then said "No!" He had confidence in me at that point that I did not have, but this simple technique allowed me to go ace the presentation to the Senior Staff.

E's reminder today was a good one. As I have said before "When the student is ready the teacher appears."