If A Tree Fell In The Woods...

...and there was no one there, would it still make a sound?

By the same token, if someone trips, falls over backwards and there is no one there to see it, is it still funny?

The answer is a resounding, YES! Cracked myself up good; funny bone wise no actual cracked bones. Now several of my long time readers may remember my Belly Flop post from last year. Now this is no belly flop fall, but still funny none the less.

I was in the warehouse getting ready to separate a shipment onto separate pallets. I placed a stack on the floor and proceeded to remove the plastic wrap from the main pallet. As I was pulling the loose wrap away I took a step back. My foot came down on the edge of the pallets I had put on the floor. Obviously I lost my balance. In an effort to regain said balance I took a step back with my other foot. Anyone care to guess where that foot landed? Needless to say I went over the pallets backwards sending the contents of my pockets skidding across the warehouse floor.

Quickly I looked around to see if anyone had witnessed my display of grace. No such luck. I alone was there to enjoy my spill. So, I decided to make the most of it. I laid there for a moment and had a good laugh. Then, at the first possible chance, I told anyone who would listen my tale of coordination.

One would think that my story would end there. No, oh no my friends, it does not. After stacking the product up on one of my stacked pallets, I lifted it up with my forklift and prepared to drive it to the cooler. I drove into the stack of pallets. No worries, no damage.

Wait, there is more. At this point I was down to one pallet on my fork lift and one on the floor. I grabbed two cases of lettuce and began to walk around the pallet on my lift to place the upon it. Tripped over the pallet, again. This time, as I had got a lot of practice in, I was able to maintain my balance and not eat the floor. I think these pallets had it out for me.

The rest of the day went off with no further incident.

Thanks to Jim and Karen for the donation. I am off and running now.

Revelation

This is not a revelation in its purest sense, but it was a moment of clarity.

As most of you know I manage a warehouse. With that comes the joy of managing hourly laborers. It seems that most of these people lack a certain amount of work ethic and like to blame "the man" for all of their short comings. "The man" in this case is almost always the owner of the company. On several occasions I have tried to encourage the guys to work a little harder, pick up the pace, or put in a little more time. The response is always, "I'm not doing anything extra for him, (the a fore mentioned "the man" ie. owner of the company). "He doesn't do anything for me". Oye!

My revelation:

I do not work for "the man". Now I know that technically I go to work, follow the guidelines he has laid out for his company, and collect a pay check from him. So, yes I work for him. However, at the end of the day I do not really care whether or not my efforts have made his life better. Do not get me wrong, I both like and respect my employer. However, I only care that my efforts make sure my bosses business stays open and profitable, to ensure I have a job. I work solely for the betterment of myself and my family. In short, I work for me, and why in the world would I not put in a little extra effort for me? Why would I not put in extra effort for my family? Have you seen them? They are cute, cool and a lot of fun!

In summary:

Be selfish. Work hard for your self and reap the benefits.

On the other hand...

Did you know that you can cut your ear while shaving your head?
You can!

Thanks to my Dad for getting the ball rolling on my Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis fund raising efforts!

FYI: If you click the underlined blue words you too can help my efforts.

Hey, Whaddya Know...

...It's raining!

I am going to look on the bright side of life. Due to the wind and rain the vast majority of our leaves are on the ground. I have only had to rake the yard 2.5 times this year and at the rate the leaves are coming down I only see 1.5 more times in my future. Granted, it will be very hard work, but it will be done.

I spent most of the day Sunday, 9:30 - 2:30 with a half hour lunch, raking. By Monday morning the was very little evidence of my efforts. Today, there is very little visual evidence of grass in our yard.

I should not complain about the leaves. They provide so much shade in the warmer months that we really save on air conditioning. I will just chalk it up to the pride of ownership.

Speaking of complaints, I do have one. I hate cleaning out the gutters. I know, who doesn't. However, in my case the leaves do make the gutter cleaning at my house a special kind of h-e-double hockey sticks. To make it even worse, my ladder broke last week while I was cleaning. Fortunately, I notice prior to it completely splitting in two and sending me through the window. Back to the bright side of life, I got to stop cleaning the gutters.

Have I mentioned that I am running in the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis? Throw me a bone (or donation) people!

One of Those Days

Do you ever have one of those days where you have really been looking forward to something but when the time comes you just can't seem to get excited for it?

Well that happened to me on Saturday before of all things a race. Now just so you understand, I am usually so worked up the night before a race that I can barely sleep. I go over it in my head countless times. When I finally try to sleep I stare at the clock as if I will be able to will the hours away. Once I am up I am pacing the downstairs and trying to hustle everyone out of the house. If I had it my way I would get to the race an hour early.

That was not the case this past weekend. I slept like a baby. Milled around the house in the morning convincing myself that 5 more minutes would not hurt. Once I got there I just did not feel any excitement. I told myself that once I started warming up I would be fine. It must the cool temps that were dampening my spirits. Nope, still did not really care. Surely after the race began my competitive fire would rise and I would be good to go. Yep, that was the ticket.

The gun sounded and I was off. Unfortunately after mile 2.25 I did not care, again. I slowed down and jogged it in the rest of the way. Up to that point I had been running at a personal best pace. That fact was not enough to keep me going. I crossed the line at 21:15. A decent time, but a far cry from the time I had hoped to post.

I am not sure what happened to me Saturday morning, but I hope that does not happen again any time soon. I have been grumpy and kicking myself for two days now. Thank goodness that I am not a world class Olympic athlete. If I had spent years getting ready for an event and then flop like I did on Saturday...Oye!

Hey, since I have your attention, do not forget the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis.

Superman Returns

Sorry about the severe lack of action on the NO Worries Blog. I have been on the run, literally, a lot this spring/summer and now into fall. I am going to take a que from my training for running and keep this short. Don't want to pull a finger trying to type too much on my first post back.

I am returning for the 2009 Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis. Last year you guys were a huge support. Your kindness and generosity helped me rise to the number 2 spot for individual fund raisers. I am calling on your spirit of giving once more. On my end, I am going to try and match last years second place fund raising finish with a top three finish in the race for my age group this year.

In this case green is not my kryptonite. It is my source of power...Let me have it!

I will keep a link on my blog page to my donation page for the run. I just may mention it a time or two as well.

Thanks!