Winners persist because they must, nourished that others depend on them, yet with unshakable core they ensure their own happiness

A Summer’s Day

Unexpectedly sky is so blue

Grass fresh and sweetly cut

In a tumble me and you

Sun always in shine

It’s always down hill

For us there is no time

Fast we run and play

Ever young and free

On endless summer’s day

Wind whistling a joyous tune

Sending dandelion fairies flying

This beautiful summer day in June

Tag your it, now catch me

For I’ll be back around again

For play and fun if you please

This week I traveled… its been every week this year so far, I’ve gone somewhere. This time it was to Colorado Springs for Space Symposium.  I’ve been going on and off for 30 years to the event and it was good, and I had many customer meetings.  Also I saw a lot of people that I’ve known in the industry for a very long time.  I don’t know if in my new job, I’ll continue to go to this conference, and if I hadn’t committed to it many weeks ago, I may not have made the trip.  I will say though, it was nice to connect to old-collogues, even if ever-so briefly.

Returning from that trip, my flight arrived at mid-night.  I went to the parking garage and walked right to where I left my car.  Its not there!  So I fish the key out of my pocket and use the remote to hit the lock and listen for the beep.  I hear it – it sounds like its three or four rows away.  Dang, I must be slipping or just too tired… I walk in the direction of the sound.  I click again, and horn sounds like its behind me.  So I walk back, and again its not there!  I’m now wondering if I’m crazy, but I tell myself, no … its here, you heard it, and sound bounces around in a garage like this.  After ten frustrating minutes of solitary (cause who else is in a parking garage at mid-night) horn beeping and walking in circles, I remember that Star-Trek show, where Captain Kirk saves the day because he thought in three dimensions instead of two (yea, my mind works in odd ways) and I get back in the elevator and go down one floor and walk directly to where I parked my car.

Lesson learned… think in three dimensions… and maybe travel a little less!

Its Tax Season… so I was thinking about how as you pay more you actually get less for it.  Programs and benefits go to those in need, as they should, yet no one seems grateful.  Seems like regulatory oversight is growing, in health care insurance, employers reporting is extraordinary and costly, and with 401K fiduciary responsibility for employees… yes, Dept. of Labor audits are not much fun.  They assume you are doing something wrong when you are giving matching funds to employees, because you want to help them save for retirement… I don’t get it.

So many to the left of me say we should be paying more.  No one says thank you, in fact as taxes get more complicated and you pay ever more, likelihood of being audited goes up.  I’m sure that too will be fun.

At least letter’s I get from the IRS are very nice, they are addressed to Dear Taxpayer 🙂 … oh but without the smiley face, that was my editorial comment.

Well, I’m sure the tax money will be well spent and taken care of by our elected representatives that look out only for the best interests of all the people of this great nation!

Just back from a business trip late in the evening… successful, its like when you may be tired, but you just hit the winning home run!

Restlessness

Restlessness prevails as time slows

Fear of life and living passing woes

Energy and thought direction fails 

Activity without accomplishment sails

Where is my soul and muse today

Inspiration and direction in wild array

Like the boat tossed about in stormy sea

Maybe this writing really isn’t my cup of tea

Ideas and passions surpass my norm

Thoughts and directions refuse to form

Do something, anything to make right

Maybe sunrise will end this dreadful night

Age and time are prevailing enemies now

Daring the waves I’m standing on the bow

No compass, direction, no port to find

Overcome time, ride the waves of my mind

Sunrise brings end to dreary night

Maybe soon I’ll find port with aid of light

Value What We Have

Less than 50% of us vote, nearly 100% of us complain

History and civics are boring, we’d rather be entertained

A civilization built by ancestors fleeing famine, war, religious persecution and terror

They were not inconvenienced by 9 hr. plane ride, but by 30 days in a ship, where they vomited every day

They built our society with laws, labor and ingenuity to be better than all the rest

They fought and died to keep it alive and growing for all of us

They fought and died to keep their ancestral countries from genocide and doom

Because they knew it was right thing to do…

and when our country and civilization was broken they found a way to fix it too

We must value what we have, take care of it and build on it

If we don’t value what we have, we are doomed to have it taken away

Mike

Adventures Sail

Waves beat relentless upon the shore

Like a soft knock on adventures door

Beckoning us to set sail out to sea

To places unknown for you and me

Leave the hustle of world behind

Look to the sea to really unwind

The wind, the waves, the salt air

Challenge the weather bad or fair

The wind and wire and sail singing

The feel of the tiller shudder and ringing

The tilt, the spray, the waves bounce

Going nowhere, and everywhere all at once

Controlling chaos, the wind obeys my will

Onward to adventure, until I get my fill

Then the alarm wakes me and I know

Just a dream I see, and back to work I go

 Mike

Time Change Imagined

Such an idea, daylight savings time

As if to control worlds rhythm and rhyme

Mother Earth cares not of our silly notions

Of time forward or back, matters not in her motions

At break of dawn, birds stir and sing

Not a care about when alarm will ring

Time is one of our human obsessions

To schedule trains, planes, school, work and social sessions

En masse we spring forward, an imagined hour lost

And in fall we’ll get that hour back, and its imagined cost

All we do and all we are in time is imagined!

Mike