Saturday, October 30, 2010

Big On The Road Month

Things got a little out of hand for the next 6 weeks. I'm currently in Connecticut visiting O-I, the Dad. Including this trip, I've got 21 days of travel out of the next 35 consecutive days. That includes trips to Chicago, LA, Monterey California, Dallas, and Tampa (for fun - Thanksgiving with the Pulisha clan). See you if you happen to be in an airport or airplane :)

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Weekend Doing NM Tourist Stuff

With my sister and her husband in town, we ended up doing all the tourist things that we almost never do ourselves. On Saturday we drove through the Jemez Mountains.

This was the scene of a forest fire just a few years ago. Already, there is new growth filling in.
We really lucked out that we caught the leaves changing just about at their peak.

Next we went to the Valle Grande Caldera




This is the remains of a gigantic volcano that blew up over a million years ago

It started to rain and we ended up in the town of Jemez Springs looking for art work. When we came out we were greeted by this great rainbow.



On Sunday Wife and Sis went on a hot air balloon ride. But the Bro-in-law and I went hiking. In the afternoon we took the tram up the to the Sandia Mountain crest. I've hardly ever taken the tram up. I've mostly hiked up the mountain and taking the tram down. It's a different experience going up which I captured photographically

Leaving the lower terminus


Going past the first tower

Starting to slide by the upper slopes



Past the second tower

At this point we are over a thousand feet over the ground and you can see the other tram going down.



There has already been snow at the top of the mountain. It was 58 degrees when we left the terminus and it was 27 when we arrived at the top.


Upper terminal in sight.

My Brother-in-law was actually terrified during the whole ride up.

Looking East from the top.

And West.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Nice End to the Week

Much as I wrote in my last post, taking advantage of the moments seems to be a real opportunity for me. I'm very lucky that those moments are available and that I'm in a frame of mind to recognize them and take advantage of them.

Earlier in the week was very, very busy. On Tuesday I had six meetings starting with breakfast and going through dinner. I was a pretty tired camper. But on Friday, I had to take the old Durango in for transmission work and I was forced to stay at the office in the Tower. So it was a much more relaxing day and productive too.

Since my sister and her husband are coming in for the weekend, I decided to play hooky and run out for a little hike in the afternoon. It's been cloudy and stormy here. It's pretty freakin' neat that I can literally walk out of my door and in 45 minutes hike here.


Then in the evening I was able to catch yet another beautiful New Mexico sunset.

We'll be taking Sis and BroinL around so I should have some different pictures after this weekend.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Just Working

Life has been mostly about work. That's a good thing. Work means income, means solvency and eating. All kinds of good things. But as an entrepreneur if you want more, you have to do more. Not a complaint, just a truism.

Now there are those who say, well you should stop and spend time doing this or that. But that's subjective. I know what I give up and why I give it up and what I expect in return for the things I give up. Lot's of people don't have that kind of awareness and as a result get very frustrated because they are spending lots of time where they don't want but not getting any of the things they do want. I call them clients :)

I do make a habit of grabbing the moment. For example, I am writing this in beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico. I have 45 minutes to kill between appointments. I'm sitting outside a Starbucks, in 60 degree, beautifully dry weather in the sun, checking out the blogs, and it a few minutes I will be back in the game. This isn't bad!

Last weekend I did do one of my favorite longer hikes. I took some pictures but they look like the same pictures I posted the last few times I did it. It was wonderful nonetheless.

Enjoy your moments.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Musings on One's Relative Position in Life

I've been meaning to write this for a few days but I'm in LA working up a storm (Yay! Thank you great business Gods for blessing me!) and I'm off to Austin tomorrow afternoon.

Going back to a couple of years ago after the kidney donation experience and the long recuperation, the awareness of age, limitations, and the requirement of having to keep going for quite some time (making up for a past business failure in my 40's) has kind of weighed on my mind.

In the last year, my two best hiking buddies have both retired, Wild Bill and Gaius Derf. A lot of age peers who are professionals in Albuquerque are definitely winding down. On the other hand, my business seems to be building up. Not just in terms of actual numbers (clients, revenues) but in terms of our capabilities...we're doing new things and we're doing better at what we've been doing.

Then I had the trip recently to France and Italy and I came back totally motivated. I felt great. My energy was great. And my head was saying, "I can keep doing this. I can work hard so long as I get these great rewards on a regular basis". It was very freeing because it really made age a non-factor.

Another thing, one the age issues relates to all the aches and pains, the physical stuff that start to build. That's another thing that just drags you down. Another change that took place is that I just don't seem to be paying attention to them as much any more. It's not that they aren't there. They are. It's just that I seem to have made some internal decision that they don't matter because I can do what I've been doing with them being there.

All very strange and interesting.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Miscellaneous

It's always hard for me to find posting material after one of my trips. I look at traveling as great fodder for writing. Everyday life, not so much.

I came back from Europe really energized. We walked all over the place and never felt any of the aches and pains that have been gradually becoming the undercurrent of my life. I realized that I want to do a lot more of that which means working hard and continuing to make money. Which is fine because I like my work and I earn in proportion to the work I do. In a lot of ways, my life pattern is about 10 years behind my peers. I'm realizing that not only do I have financial desires that are more in line with someone in their 50's but I have the energy too. So I'm just going to keep on truckin'

There's lots of business travel coming up. I have a client in Texas that I have to fit into the normal LA monthly trips. And I'm giving talks in November in the Monterrey-Salinas area plus we're visiting the 2-2B family for Thanksgiving and have a trip to see o-I as well.

Still harvesting stuff. Lots of raspberries coming in along with the tomatoes and peppers. We have a couple of different kinds of melons and a picked the first of our leeks.

I'm picking up my hiking. I've moved to trails on the west side of the mountain since it's cooling off. Did a nice longer hike on Saturday.

Pretty much life as usual