Friday May 23rd

Was a long hard day. It started at 5:30 this morning (after getting home from an Astro's game last night around 11:30..more on that at another time). I hit the snooze a couple of times and then finally drug my sleepy self out of bed washed the sleep out of my eyes took care of other normal morning duties and responsibilities, pulled out my jeans (because it is blue jean Friday at work for those who made donations to United Way.. and my whole team does it because my management and admin folks area truly great folks) and my FedEx golf shirt, got dressed and headed for ... La Unica. I picked up a pile of breakfast burritos for a meeting I was having this morning. I got to the office around 6:30 a.m. and pulled out the TV and DVD player, the overhead projector and the projection screen. I had all the food set out, the presentation equipment and materials ready to go by 0700. I walked around and talked to some of the folks that were there. Oldfart (who is still working for me) told me about seeing me on TV last night while watching the Astro's game. I visited with a couple of other employees, contractors and drivers and then started on some morning reports. I didn't finish because it was time to get this meeting going. It was about 7:15 so I sent a text to all my contractors reminding them of the meeting in 15 minutes.

Took a walk around the dock 10 minutes later and tried to get everyone in. I made the presentation and reviewed the "settlement enhancements" the contractors were getting in the new fiscal year that begins in June. It took about 3o minutes to present and cover questions. Big thing #1 done.

Worked the dispatch window for about 30 minutes and then went and put my morning reports together and sent them off to the region. Took a glance at my blog and blog friends and then it was time to do a performance review.

It was time for one of my employees and I to sit down and do her performance review. I know most employees have anxiety about reviews but when I'm being reviewed I'm usually pretty calm. Doing reviews with my people is usually pretty much a snap. They all know what to do and do it well. I still like to review their areas of responsibility and critique things to help them grow. That takes some time and energy. We were done with that after 30 minutes or so and so she went home.. Now it's time to go through our HR manual and look at all the charts and guides to see what I can do regarding a merit increase. Fill out the paperwork copy the stuff and Express it to the region office. #2 and #3 done.

Cleared my desk of a few days of forms and reports and filed them. I pulled together a few things, checked my fantasy baseball team, e-mails, etc. #3.5

I had one more major thing I had to do today. I never like these things. It is an admission of failure in my part and it has significant negative impact on another human being. I have to pull all the paperwork for review and discussion. I also have to type up a mandatory form letter that the legal department has laid out for us to use. I get all that prepared and now I wait.

I've got several hours before I can address the issue. I head to the house and the TV is on. I don't pay attention to what's on the tube. I go make a turkey and cheese sandwich and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I sit down and realize it's the end of "Wyatt Earp". I've never seen it but know the story well enough from watching "Tombstone" that I know what it is. I eat my lunch and then one of my favorite movies "Hunt for Red October" (and one of my favorite books too) is coming on. I finish lunch and am watching it and doze off. I get awakened by my son busting through the front door with food from "Sam's" and asks me to help bring it in. He had been helping his mom with grocery shopping this afternoon.

I'm fully groggy with heart pounding now so I might as well go back to work. All I can do is wait until he returns to the building from the route.

#4 Another very energy draining event. He is sad and disturbed but he knew it was going to happen too. He admitted he had done it to himself. He's quiet and somber. I don't feel guilty as I always over communicate to all if there is any possibility that they may be getting in to trouble. I still empathize with what is happening. I'm concerned about their future. I do try to pastor to people in these moments but it is hard. This was a calm meeting but still draining.

#5 Then the paperwork. Documentation of the event. Processing in our on line system. E-mails sent to the appropriate company officials. I finally left the office around 6:50.

It was a long hard day.. time for a margarita at Cheddars where I saw Katie Anderson. It's always a joy to see her.

Oldfart prayed for me regarding what was happening today. I think..no I'm pretty sure it helped. Praying always helps. Pray for the person I had to deal with this afternoon as well. I will be.

Todd, perhaps you can see why I didn't want to do my "tagged" today. This "5" things I must do today wasn't very fun. I hope to get to it tomorrow.