New Year

This is a logical time to mark down what is important to me. At New Year I like to set multiple short term goals and long term goals. Some of the goals are shared, so I will be accountable for the success or corrections. I create a list in writing and refer to as the time goes away. I keep the list under password. (My bucket list is there, too.)

This year, I have about one third of my goals for 2008 complete. Sounds like a failure. Only 1/3 complete. However, I have all 1/3 of them behind me. Period.

What became of the other 2/3? (Some I deleted along the way) The remainder may go on the list I will create after today, before New Years Day.

Here is what has become important to me:

My list crosses four areas of my day (life).

1. What I expect of myself this day.
2. What I will have forever behind me after today.
3. What I will have started today.
4. A review at the end of the day, from which I can sleep on the plan for the next day.
5. Some days I elect to not have a list just for the sanity that decision gives me.

Am I nuts?

This process is clearly supportive to filling the day – my way.

I am focused on the projects and goal steps early enough in the day to have them in action at the beginning of the day.

By having my list before the day starts, I get a head start over the procrastination that is fed by a late start on a goal.

I have an outline of the path my day will take if I manage my time.

In doing this planning exercise, I am early on able to see when a planned goal step is outside the plan. I can leave it incomplete and I can plan on when it fits back in – as the plan changes. (A goal step is one of the steps toward an entire goal being complete.)

I have done this on paper for years. Often the day gets so full I lay it on paper to help me catch all of the details.

Anyone want a coach?

I can offer the best source to learn these skills. This coaching has saved me hours, removed struggle, replaced disappointment with accomplishment and freed my mind to support me being who I want to be each day – everyday.

It is sort of like planning the day as a Cab Driver.

I knew when to wait at a Cab Stand for a good trip to the airport. I knew when to be in the Safeway parking lot in East downtown to catch as many as was possible of those short trips with those huge flag drop fees. I knew when to be at the airport to meet those incoming flights. I knew which schools had kids that rode a cab to music lessons, babysitter, or to mom’s or dad’s work each day.

So, let me know if you are serious about having the life you want. I decided a few years ago to go for it. I have not looked back except to smile and swat myself on the back for one of the best rides I have ever taken.
Fare is paid by the great shift in my life.
CABBY

Christmas Day

I went to bed at 1 a.m. when I tried to convince Judy, who had been asleep for hours, that it was 6:30 a.m. and that we'd better get up and get the lumps of coal exchanged so we would have time to fix dinner for 4 p.m. (for seven people)
The ruse didn't work. She opened an envelope with cash in the dark and I went to sleep.
She never even looked at the contents in the envelope.

I got up at 5:30 a.m. and read until 6:30 a.m. when she rushed in (NOT) and we opened gifts from around our world.

They were all perfect. Shirt, VHS to DVD translator transfer machine, Raven for the roof, book about the 60's and its discontents, a recipe organizer binder, three more shirts, a snow flake emblazoned 600 degree spatula, a world class pheasant hunting trip to TX panhandle, Judy's old sewing machine (since I gave her a new one).

No partridge in a pear tree. I did however, see a peacock on a yard wall three days ago over by COSTCO.

We finished the greed part about 10 minutes to 8 a.m. Oh yeah, Judy also got some gifts.

Then our day started:

I sat in a chair alone while Judy fixed posole' for herself. I thought about all those young people all around the world making sure I was as safe as I could be here in the homeland. Doesn't that word homeland have a different meaning since 9-11?

8 a.m. came and went. I was content to recall a Christmas in 1963 off the coast of Okinawa in an APA (208) awaiting the saber rattling to quiet down in Viet Nam where Colin Powell and his troops were 'advisers.' Man did that whole thing change!
That change was not good.

It was good to reflect.

'Thank you' to each of those young Americans who serve each Christmas Day, and today to those who are serving now.!

It is a shame that some of the people of this country cannot sense the good we are doing around the world. It is a wonderful country this experiment of free people. I am so happy to be here. I love this country.

I respect that even though we do not all agree that the conflict in Iraq is noble, that we are at least establishing a foothold for freedom for Women and children and young girls and college students and literacy about the entire world and all of the beliefs that conflict with each other.

Imagine any woman you can. - Now picture her wearing a burqa.

To me that says it all.

Merry Christmas in the best place in the world.

Fare is paid, no one can afford the cab on a holiday.
CABBY

Baghdad time

At 8 a.m. Eastern daylight savings time it is 4 p.m. in Baghdad.
At 8 a.m. Central daylight savings time it is 5 p.m. in Baghdad.
At 8 a.m. Mountain daylight savings time it is 6 p.m. in Baghdad.
At 8 a.m. Pacific daylight savings time it is 7 p.m. in Baghdad.
At 8 a.m. Alaska daylight savings time it is 8 p.m. in Baghdad.
At 8 a.m. Hawaii daylight savings time it is 9 p.m. in Baghdad.
At 8 a.m. Kabul, Afghanistan it is 6:30 a.m. in Baghdad.

During your sharing the joy of giving and receiving on Christmas, If you are inclined, at 8 a.m. pause and consider our troops and countrymen and women serving us for our way of life. Think how differently they must feel right then.

source: time and date.com (time zone converter)
No fare, cab is parked to think of our Combined military forces.
CABBY

Ramadan

The ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar arrives with the sighting of the new moon. The month of Ramadan is a special period for Muslims the world around – a time for inner reflection, devotion to God, reading of the Qur’an, charity, and fulfillment of the third pillar of Islam, fasting. During this lunar month, Muslims fast from dawn to sunset and likewise abstain from smoking and sex. A meal sahoor, is eaten before sunrise and a much larger one, iftar, after sunset. Iftar is often communally celebrated with family and friends. The last ten days of Ramadan are a time of spiritual power and commemorate the revelation of the Qur’an to the Prophet Mohammed. The twenty-seventh night of the month is known as Laitlat al-Qadr, on which the Archangel Gabriel revealed the first verses of the Qur’an to the Prophet. The first three days of the tenth month in the Islamic Calendar, which is determined by the sighting of the crescent moon marking the new month, are known as Eid al Fitr, a period of celebration and feasting.

Peter R. Mansoor “Baghdad at Sunrise” A Brigade Commander’s War in Iraq

This is to help all who have wondered without clarity about a most important holiday in the Muslim world.

Fare paid.
CABBY

Grandsons

All grandsons are entities that have no equal.

Kendahl is mine. I am his only surviving grandpa.

With the only surviving title comes some interesting responsibility and pressure.

I love him. I love the special relationship and all it entails.

He proved himself to be a chip off of his other grandfather and his dad and hopefully me this past weekend.

We went pheasant hunting in the panhandle of Texas.

He was successful in bagging his target and all of the hunters in the group seemed comfortable with his obvious awareness of the seriousness of having a gun in his hands.

Not once did I consider that he had more to learn: Bravo!!

This posting was interrupted by a glitch, at my fault.
I hope all understand how inept I am at this computer stuff.

So, who is next to plese me?

Good job Kendahl. You make your grandpa Dale and I am sure your Grandfather Norris very proud.

Oh yeah, Thanks to Will for doing such a complete job of instilling gun safety in Kendahl.

Fare was paid by my pride of Kendahl this trip.
CABBY (Grandpa Dale)