No President rules my life.

People get so worked up when the presidential elections roll around. It affects some people physically. They pour over the news and polls and stories, they obsess. They think that the person who they want to win will change their life and the other guy will ruin it.

I remember when I was a kid around 7 years old, when Carter imposed a grain embargo. My family farmed and still does farm for a living. I don't remember much from age 7 but that day I remember like yesterday because I can still see how upset my Mom and Dad were sitting in front of the TV when it was announced. They didn't say much, they didn't have to. I could not tell you if the embargo affected our income that year or not. They never let it show. We still had clothes, food and still went on vacation (which was a big thing for us kids). I am sure if it did affect us, that Mom and Dad did what they always did and still do, work harder to make up. We made it through.

The first presidential election I voted in was 1992 and I haven't missed one since. I don' t think I have missed any opportunities to vote. I have lived and worked through Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton, and W. Bush. As a result of MY hard work, I have a house and two funeral homes, along with a great wife and four wonderful kids, one of which is not with us anymore.

Regardless of who the President was I continued to improve my life. None of them had a role in that. I honestly don't think any of the last four Presidents created either a obstacle or opportunity for me directly or indirectly. Sure I know who I am voting for next week and I hope he wins but either way I still have a job to do and a family to care for and neither of them are going to help me with that and I don't want either of them to.

I encourage everyone to vote. It is vitally important that you do that. The thing to remember is, there is only one person who can truly improve your life or make it worse. That person is not the President of the United States.

The Days Ahead

Other than one totally awesome act of kindness by someone (you know who you are), today has been pretty crappy. Lots of things did not go correctly at work, though fortunately the end result was just fine.
We have several things going on at home in the next month. Wifey's surgery and also Ed-boy has surgery on his foot on Wednesday. If you will recall in January I took him to Shriners. In between these two surgeries we have Jessica's First Communion.
We also have several things going on at the funeral home in the next month. I have many engravings to do and many monuments to set. Everyone expects theirs to be done before Memorial Day. In addition to that I have tons of yard work (my own home included).

Where is this leading? Well, when I do have a bad day like today, I am told that it is because I am (you need not pick just one)
A. Under stress from lots of things
B: Bottling things up
C: Not accepting what is going on in my life.

My question is, why can't I just have a crappy day because crappy things happened that day? I woke up in a ok mood. Tomorrow I expect to do the same. I will wake up with the expectation that the day will go fine.
I know what is expected of me in the days ahead and I accept that. Please don't expect me to be happy everyday, and don't read into it more than it is.

Morning Routines and unintended changes

Ever wonder why you do things a certain way? Or you realize that "Hmm, I've done this for a year now, why did I change it?"

My immediate family members can attest to the fact that I have a set way for getting ready for work in the morning. It rarely changes and only changes when I allow it to. If something happens to mess it up...well lets not go there. I have mellowed out some, when you have three kids a morning routine cannot revolve around you alone. Wifey even knows that certain things just have to be done in my order, ("Hey Honey, I grabbed you some socks...oh sorry you're not to that point yet are you?).

I always have a cup of coffee in the morning. I have one of those Black and Decker one cup deals that brews before your eyes. It uses a coffee pod. Well I ran out of pods yesterday so this morning I had to drag the ole drip maker out of the closet. The stoopid thing takes 15 mins to make coffee. HOW DARE IT MAKE ME WAIT! Suddenly I realized something. When I switched from drip to instant brew a year or so ago it completely changed my morning routine. It actually made me lazier. I used to get up, set up the drip maker, then, knowing how long it would take to brew, run get a shower and get dressed before it was done. Now, I get up watch my podmaker brew instantly and then sit around and be lazy until the last absolute minute I have to wake the kids up.

One simple change has affected the way I do something, and as I came to realize today, has made me less productive. Look...I am even blogging in the morning! You wonderful readers know that I rarely do that.

When something changes in my life, work, whatever, I try to remind people to look for unintended consequences in what they do. This especially applies to my village council work. "Is this law going to have the desired effect or will it bring on something totally different we don't like or didn't expect?"

Well I am gonna grab a shower and get dressed BEFORE the kids get up.