My Mom Thinks I’m Lazy

(Hi Mom, I love you) The other day my Mom said I could work hard and focus when I want to, but otherwise I’m lazy. She’s right the fact is I just don’t get things done. Examples? The garage. The shelves Dad and I built for Mackenzie’s room are still not painted. The kitchen is not organized to my liking. Photo albums of Mack are not made. I could go on and on. Pretty easy to see what Mom said is related to some of my most recent blogs.

From the outside looking in I can see why someone would think that I’m lazy, but I think it is more complicated than that. To start with the definition of lazy from dictionary.com is, “Averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion.” That isn’t me at all. All I do is work. I’m always moving, doing, straightening, cleaning, writing, playing w/ Mack or reading. The only time I rest is when I’m sleeping. I don’t even watch that much TV. I do play on the Internet and Facebook a lot though, but that is still doing something.

Maybe it’s a question of focus not effort. Outside of work I do not stay on task, and you could make an argument that I don’t at work either. I am bouncing around almost constantly. Touching this or that task/project only briefly and moving on to the next before any one is complete. Leaving a million different things half finished, barely started or still in conception in my wake.

The other half of this question is when something has to be done. I am an obsessed terror that cannot let it go for even a moment. I’ll work day and night nonstop. This has become a very rare condition in recent years. The problem is it has to be a real deadline. I can’t fake it. If I know it’s an arbitrary deadline I will work hard but it will not trigger my obsession. So most likely I will not finish on time. I’ll get closer though than if I had not set the deadline. So recently I have been trying this technique to some success. The garage is moving closer to clean. Of course I have a real deadline there as well as some arbitrary internal ones. The truck is coming November 7th.

Got a Little Story for Ya Ags!

To put the story that follows in context I have to let everyone know I’m Texas A&M Class of ’96 (graduated Christmas ’97 on the 5½ year plan).

The t-sip shirt my daughter is wearing in the pictures below was in a bag of clothes a friend of ours was nice enough to give us for Mackenzie. When Kay came across the shirt I naturally said we should give that one to Goodwill. Kay being a good wife agreed wholeheartedly and put the shirt back in the bad to be discarded in a manner befitting it at some later point in time.

Next morning I’m getting ready for the day when Mack finds the bag of clothes and the shirt. For whatever cosmic twist of fate she takes right to that shirt and wants to wear it to daycare. I dodge that bullet by telling her it’s dirty and we’ll have to wash it first.

Next scene. I’m home probably facebooking on the computer in the bedroom when I hear Kay come home with Mack. Before I can get out to the living room I hear Kay tell Mack that you’ll have to ask Daddy about that. When I come into the living room Mack is holding the shirt and Kay says she wants to wear it. What am I going to do here Aggies? Am I an ass and deny my little girl the simple act of wearing a shirt that she has no real idea what it is. I could be. Yes I could. No, I couldn’t. This girl has me wrapped around her finger like any daddy’s girl worth her salt. So, enjoy my Texas friends. I’m sure it won’t be the last time you see her in this shirt.

Thomas Sowell Quote

After political crusades for "affordable housing" ended up ruining the housing market and much of the economy with it, many of the same politicians are now carrying on a crusade for "affordable health care." But what you can afford has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of producing anything. Refusing to pay those costs means that you are just not going to continue getting the same quantity and quality-- regardless of what any politician says or how well he says it.

A Fish in the Hand...

If you give a man a fish he will have food for a day.
If you teach a man to fish he will have food for a lifetime.
If the man catches three fish and you take two why would he keep catching three fish?