Wednesday Musings

 It was a slow day at work.  It is the calm before the storm.  However, I met one of our new employees and found out she was from Brookfield.  She was surprised when I told her that I am in Brookfield all the time, since Brookfield is now a member of the GRC.

I added some new pages to the GRC Website.  I had Common Opponent pages for Football and Basketball.  I have now added ones for the other team sports: Softball, Volleyball, and Baseball.

I am still in the process of adding all of the Volleyball scores back to 2016.  I added 2023 tonight and will add one year for each night I am home (and caught up on photos).

Tuesday Musings

Not a whole lot went on today.  We went to Hy-Vee to order the food for the Bootman Reunion.  Penny's grandma on her mom's side was a Bootman.  We are expecting 44 people (which includes 8 kids) at the Reunion.  There will be some people there that I have never met.  The reunion is on September 28 at our church.

We are continuing to work on Lucas's mediation.  We submitted a mediation request with the state yesterday and gave the School District a copy of it today.  We now wait and prepare for mediation.  We are also going to take Lucas for an independent speech evaluation on Monday.  We believe that he regressed without any speech therapy in the summer.  

I run the website for the Grand River Conference and update it with scores every night.  Softball scores are easy to find, but I am starting to do volleyball this year.  It may be more challenging.  Teams post their scores on the MSHSAA website, but not always on the same night.

Penny and I have been reading the bible every night.  Our goal is to go through the entire bible.  We have a 52-week plan that we started on June 12.  We have missed some nights because I am out of town, but we have been consistent most nights.  I have read through the first 7-8 books in the Old Testament and have read over half of the New Testament.  I am hoping to learn new things as we read the bible.  I have also been reading Revelation and am currently in Chapter 8.  

Labor Day Musings

 I have tried journaling in the past, but have not been consistent.  I am in a men's group called The Lion Within Us.  Last week, when we met, it was suggested that I start keeping a journal.  In a Mastermind class tonight, the topic of journaling came up again.  Obviously, God keeps putting the desire to journal into my heart.

With Labor Day today, I took off for a four-day weekend.  And it was busy.  On Friday, I visited Maysville to speak with one of their classes about my work with the Grand River Conference.  I run the website and social media for the conference.  In addition, I take photos at games.  

I had attended three jamborees the week before (Football, Softball, and Volleyball), so I also spent some time the past few days going through my photos.  Additionally, I attended a football game on Friday night.  In total, I took over 3000 photos over the last week and a half.  Last season, I got behind on my photos, but I am trying to keep up to date after the games.  My goal is to go to 1-2 events each week.

Our grandson, Lucas, has Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS).  We are battling with the school district to get the speech therapy that is needed for a child with CAS.  We submitted a request for mediation with the state today.  Penny and I have been doing a lot of work to help build a case for him.  

I also cleaned the garage today, which was badly needed.  

Busy Week

It has been a busy week in the Benson household.  Our big news is that our grandson, Lucas Joseph Browning, was born yesterday at 11:15 am in Kansas City.  Because of COVID restrictions, we have not gotten to see him in person yet, but will tomorrow.  I can’t wait.  I shared his pictures on Facebook, emails and texts with over 100 people.  I am very excited about being a grandpa.

Our oldest son, Theron, finished graduate school last week with a master’s degree in Public Health.  He is applying for jobs.  Please pray that he is able to find a great job.

David started his sophomore year of high school last week.  In addition to his core classes, he is taking computer programming this year.  He is thinking about going into Computer Science, so this gives him the opportunity to see if he likes it.  He is also taking his first college class this year, which is an introductory IT course.  The class is technically online, but the teacher of the class will be in the classroom if David has any questions or needs help.

In other big news, we are having new siding, windows and gutters put on our house.  They are starting the work today.  All of the materials were delivered yesterday plus a huge dumpster that is sitting in our driveway.

Other than that, our lives are pretty boring right now.

Caravan

Next year in June, I will be going with a group of high school students on a trip across the upper midwest, northeast and Canada.  This trip is one that our church does every 4 years.  We call it the "Caravan".  The term caravan comes from a group of people traveling together.  When they started the caravan, it was a group of vehicles traveling together.  Now, the "caravan" uses a tour bus.  

We are expecting about 30-40 kids on the trip.  We will be starting out in Kansas City and making stops in the following places:

• Nauvoo, Illinois
• Indianapolis, Indiana
• Portsmouth, Ohio
• Kirtland, Ohio
• Niagara Falls, New York
• Palmyra, New York
• Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Eerie Falls, Ontario, Canada
• Detroit, Michigan
• Chicago, Illinois

The trip will be focusing on mission, church history, issues facing our church and society today, worship, and team building.  Plus we are planning some fun activities for the kids.  I have been working with Craig Hidy as co-coordinators.  

Over the next 9 months, we will be raising money for the kids to go on the trip.  We will be having fundraising activities, but if anyone would like to donate, message me and I will give you more information about how to help.

Habits

I have heard that it takes 21 days to develop a good habit.  Various studies have suggested that depending on the person or the habit, it may take as long as a year.  I have been trying to develop better habits:

• Walk every day
• Drink a gallon of water each day
• Eat more fruits and vegetables 
• Sleep at least 7 hours a day 
• Read every day
• Blog/journal each day
• Lastly, Pray each day

I have gone through periods of times where have have been able to do each of these consistently, but then something happens, and I break that habit.

This spring, I went 47 out of 50 days where I walked at least 7000 steps (which is about 3.5 miles).  Many days, I was over 10,000 steps.  But I got out of that habit and have had a hard time getting back to walking.  My goal is to get up at 6:00 and go walking each morning.  

However, I also want to make sure, I get enough sleep.  During the time when I was walking every day, I was also able to sleep well.  But I am having a harder time falling asleep lately.  I am going to try some techniques to help me fall asleep by 11 pm so I can get at least 7 hours sleep each night.

I have been able to drink a gallon of water each day.  I bought a gallon jug over a month ago.  I fill it up each day  in the morning and keep it with me.  I have only gone 2 days where I didn’t finish it.  So I hope I can keep up that habit.

I am now on Day 2 of starting to journal in my blog again.  So I have a long way to go in that endeavor.

I also don’t take the time to pray enough.  But I find that when I am anxious or am not focusing on my goals, prayer helps me refocus. 

What habits are you trying to develop?

It’s Been a Long Time

 Back in 2007, I started a blog and was writing each day.  However, it didn’t last very long.  I went back through my blog tonight and read all of the entries.  One of the themes that I noticed at that time was that I had been struggling with worry and a negative attitude.  I had talked about asking God to help me with both of these. 

While I can’t say that I never worry or don’t have negative thoughts creep in, i have put my trust in God and know that He will help me through any situation.

Emily is going into the hospital next Tuesday to be induced.  Our grandson should be born either next Tuesday or Wednesday.  We just had a baby shower at our house on Sunday and they got a lot of gifts to help them out with a new baby.

David starts his sophomore year of school tomorrow.  He had a very good freshman year.  I am excited as he is going to be taking computer programming this year.  This will help him decide whether computer science is an area that he might want to pursue in college.

The start of the school year also means the return of high school sports.  I am running two websites related to high school sports: grandriverconference.com and mo8mancoaches.com.  I am looking forward to going to games and following area teams.

My goal is to start writing again and be more consistent. Wish me luck as I share my thoughts each day. 

25 Untruths about me

I posted this on facebook several years ago.  So here is an oldie, but, well you decide.

25 Untruths about me

1. My children’s names are Gummy Sue, Tiffany, Andie, Gordon, Lizzie, Jackson, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumer, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Rubella, Scabies, Kendall, Caitlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kyra, Ian, Lauren, Q*bert, Condoleezza, Marie, Phil, Birthday, Crystal Meth, Dubya, Incest, International Harvester, Jitney, Witney, and Mary
2. Before I was married to my wife Penny, I had a brief relationship with Padme Amidala before she was Queen of Naboo, but it didn’t work out because I could not use the force.
3. Hannah Montana is my alter ego.
4. Today is the twenty-third day of the rest of my life. By the time you read this, it might be way later than that.
5. I don’t suffer from insanity, I rather enjoy it.
6. I have traveled around the world in an underwater turkey sub. We had a night club on the sub called the Turkey Bacon Club.
7. When I was in college, I dropped out for a semester to write songs for Garth Brooks under the pen name Dan Roberts. One of my songs “The Beaches of Cheyenne” reached #1 in 1996.
8. I have been planning to join Procrastinator’s Anonymous, but haven’t gotten around to it.
9. I have been addicted to placebos since I was 16.
10. Every year on the 100th day of the year, I drive 100 miles an hour down the highway to see if I can get away without getting caught. I then go to the store, buy 100 tootsie rolls, give the cashier a $100 bill and tell her to keep the change.
11. I secretly like to watch High School Musical. I have recorded all three of them and will watch them after my wife and kids have all gone to bed.
12. I gained 150 pounds in college, but lost it all on the cookie diet.
13. Billie Jean is not my lover, she’s just a girl who claims I am the one, but the kid is not my son.
14. I have 1 brother, 1 sister, 2 half-brothers, 1 half-sister, 1 quarter-sister, 3 eighth-sisters, 1 half-mother and a half-dog.
15. I majored in Music Therapy at Appalachian State University. For those who don’t know what music therapy is, music therapy is the scientific application of the art of music within a therapeutic relationship to meet the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of individuals.
16. I parlayed my music therapy degree into a lucrative career in as a professional hobo.
17. I have ADHDD – Analog to Digital High Definition Disorder.
18. I am physic, but I can only predict the present, not the future.
19. I am modest. In fact, I am the most modest person I know. This is often the first thing that I tell people when we meet, just to make sure they know how modest I am.
20. I have two pet penguins that I keep in the freezer in the basement.
21. I used to have hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia – the fear of long words. I was cured when I bought a book called “Phobia Self-Diagnosis”. I am glad that Self-Diagnosis was hyphenated because I almost didn’t buy it. That book saved my life.
22. Iway amway uentflay inway Igpay Atinlay.
23. I still have one phobia that haunts me to this day – the fear of getting stuck on an escalator.
24. I led the state in free throw shooting my senior year in high school under the pen name Jason Benson.
25. I can actually think of 25 funny things to say.

Genealogy

Since my last journal entry, I have been spending pretty much all of my free time working on genealogy.  I have been able to find many ancestors that have alluded me for so long.  The biggest obstacle has been Henry Clay Benson who is my great-great grandfather.  I was never able to find any connection to his father for the longest time.  Last week, I was looking at one of the websites and finally found a source that had Samuel Styles Benson as his father.  This has opened up a world of names.  I have since found well over 100 new ancestors including Kings of England.  I already knew my mom was descended from King Edward I and others, but now I found out that my dad is also descended from King Edward I.  I have been adding all the known ancestors to a software called Legacy.  I am planning to go through wikipedia and work on the royal genealogy from there.

We went to Worlds of Fun yesterday and had lots of fun.  We decided to have David wear underwear.  This would be the first time that we had him wear underwear outside of the house.  He did not have any accidents, so it was a very good day.  Of course, success is not without its setbacks.  Today, he decided that he didn't want to use the potty most of the day and we had several accidents.  I do however think that we are making progress.

I decided to add one to-do to my daily tasks each day.  The sermon today was about giving ourselves to God.  I plan to say a prayer each day to give the day to God and let his will be done.  I can't worry about what will happen and I just need to trust that God will provide for me no matter what.

Table Tennis Again? - 6/18/08

I went back through my previous journal entries and I noticed that in 3 of the last 4, I have mentioned table tennis.  Well, now make it 4 out of 5.  Today, I met with Bill Guilfoil, who is a well known player among the table tennis community in Kansas City and runs the Overland Park club.  He is going to be coaching me.

Today I pretty much worked on forehand and spacing.  I was already feeling like my game is improving from just a few new things that he taught me.  I still have very much to learn.  I am going to let him know when I am going to be in Overland Park and he said he could probably work around my schedule.  I hope to work enough to be able to have some success at the show-me state games in July.

I feel like I am a good player, but there are times where I don't have the confidence that I should to win.  I am hopeful that this will give me more confidence.  I am optimistic about it.  Speaking of optimism, I get a newsletter from Alan Zimmerman each Tuesday.  I had mentioned his book "Pivot: How One Turn in Attitude Can Lead to Success" in some of my previous journal entries.  In today's newsletter, his topic is "Optimism, Pessimism or Cynic".  He basically said that positive attitudes will lead to positive results and that we need to feed the positive thoughts and work on blocking negative thoughts.  I have a hard time doing that when I hit the ball off of the table or into the net, but today I realized that each time I do that, there is something that I did wrong that I can fix, so I my attitude about it is good.

My daughter went to a birthday party tonight.  The party was basically a carnival theme set up in the backyard of one of her best friends.  They had a ticket booth and gave the girls tickets at the beginning to be able to play games and get prizes.  After that, they were able to swim in their pool.  She had lots of fun and I had a hard time getting her to come home when I went to pick her up.

My finger is still hurting from yesterday and it is still hard to grip things with my right hand.  I am feeling a litte bit of numbness in my right ring finger.  I am not sure if I cut a nerve or something, but I am hoping it will start feeling better in the next couple of days.

Three Plates, A Coffee Pot and Lots Of ... - 6/16/08

Emily was putting the dishes away and I was working in my office.  I heard a crash like something was breaking.  I went into the kitchen and saw that one of our plates had broken.  No big deal.  I told her that she needed to get the vacuum out and sweep up the little pieces while I picked up the big pieces.  I opened up the cabinet with the plates and more plates came crashing down.  I caught two of them, but after it all ended, there were two more plates broken. 

My wife and I neither one are coffee drinkers, but like most people, we got a coffee pot for our anniversary.  We have had that coffee pot for over 15 years and maybe have used it 15 times.  Most of the uses were when we were first married and I made tea.  I don't drink anything within caffeine in it anymore, so I don't drink tea.  After the plates broke, I started to clear off the counter so that we could clean up the little pieces that had fallen behind everything on the counter.  I moved the bread first and then the can opener.  I then tried to move the coffee pot and crash.  Not only did we have three broken plates, but now a broken coffee pot.

I titled this entry "Three Plates, A Coffee Pot and Lots of ...".  If you are squeamish, I suggest you stop reading for today.  However, if you would like to know what it was lots of, then read on.  We had glass on the floor, on the counter, in the cabinet, in the silverware drawer AND in my finger.  I didn't realize how bad it was until I saw the blood rushing out of my finger.  My son tried to give me a band-aid, but it just diverted the flow of the blood.  He finally had to get some gauze.  However, we couldn't find any tape.  We looked everywhere and finally he found some duct tape.

My finger finally stopped bleeding, but it still hurts when I try to use it.  Anything I grip causes pain.  The good thing is that I use the pin-hold grip to play table tennis instead of the handshake grip, so it hasn't affected my table tennis game.

What's for Supper - 6/13/08

As I sit here and write, I am waiting to eat supper.  I just got finished grilling a whole chicken and it looks and smells good and is making me hungry.  We are having Rice-A-Roni with it, but we didn't start it soon enough because the chicken was done about 15 minutes before I expected.  I used Emeril's Chicken Rub and coated it with a sauce consisting of Worcestershire, Butter, Peanut Butter and Lemon Juice. 

Speaking of food, last night we went to Cheddar's for our anniversary dinner.  I always like the food at Cheddar's.  I had the steak sandwich which is much better than any other restaurant in St. Joseph.

My mom has been sick since March.  She went to the hospital with asthma and it has not improved since then.  She has been back in the hospital one time since and seen many doctors.  She was even diagnosed with Sleep Apnea througout the whole ordeal, but can't wear the mask because of her breathing problems.  She finally found a doctor who figured out what was wrong with her.  She has a dysfunctional vocal cord.  The doctor's said that they had to clear up this problem before they could help with the asthma.  I am thankful that they found the problem, but prayers are still needed because she hasn't been healed yet.

I have completed my first full week using the new time management techniques that I learned.  One interesting thing that happened is that I was so organized with everything that I got a lot more done than I was expecting and felt like I didn't have as much work to do.  This afternoon when I couldn't work on one of my to-do's because of file issues, I was trying to figure out what I should work on.  It is definitely making me more productive, but I may need to add some short-term projects to my to-do's so I won't be sitting around waiting.  I am sure my boss will be happy about it.

I got an e-mail about a Table Tennis Tournament in Abilene, Kansas, but it will be on July 12 which is the day I return from Washington, DC, so I won't be able to play in it.  It would have been nice to have some practice before the Show-Me State Games.  There is also a tournament the last week of June that I can't attend because I have tickets for the Cardinal games in Kansas City.  I am hoping that I can play in 4-6 tournaments a year going forward.

I updated the genealogy site last night.  I put in all of my Grandpa Yates' ancestors up to 10 generations (which would be my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents).  I have more information than that, but I want to start entering some of the other branches.  I have started doing a little bit of research and have found even more information and found some "cousins" that I knew, but didn't realize were cousins.  Thankfully, I haven't found that I am related to my wife (yet).

Happy Anniversay - 6/12/08

Well, I missed a journal entry yesterday.  I had it on my to-do list, but got distracted.  The source of my distraction was that I found a website called Geni.com the other day.  This website allows you to build a family tree and share it with others.  They are also able to then edit any part of the family tree that they would like.  I had been thinking about genealogy lately and finding this website has re-energized me into looking into family history again.  About 10 years ago, I did a lot of work researching both mine and my wife's family.  I had found (through various sources) over 400 ancestors of my children (including one branch that went 77 generations back).  I plan to adding as much of this to Geni.com as I can when I can.

Today is mine and my wife's 15th wedding anniversary.  We were married on June 12, 1993.  I gave here a crystal clock that was engraved with our names and our wedding date.  She really liked it.  We are going out to eat tonight.  During the first years of our marriage, we always ate at Red Lobster, but we haven't kept up that tradition.  I am not sure where we are going tonight.  I will let her pick.  We would like to go out alone, but we don't have anyone to watch the kids, so we will be sharing our anniversary dinner with them.

June 12 happens to be the anniversay of many other things in my life also.  On June 12, 1996, I defended my master's thesis at Iowa State University.  On June 12, 2003, I started working from home.  I have been working from home ever since.  On June 12, 2006, I started working for Swiss Re.  I didn't change companies voluntarily.  Swiss Re bought my former employer (GE Insurance Solutions) and this was the first official day of work after the acquistion was completed.

Our youngest son, David, is 3 and we are trying to potty train him right now.  He is very stubborn and we have had to clean up many "accidents".  He knows how to use the toilet, but there are times where he just refuses.  The goal is to have him trained by September for pre-school.  We only put pull-ups on him for bed or when we go somewhere.  Last year, we tried to have him go every 30 minutes, but he would just go on the floor.  This year, he at least is going sometimes, so there is hope.

On the work front, I was accepted into the Leadership Development Programmeat Swiss Re.  This is a program to develop leaders (bet you didn't see that from the title).  It involves 3 courses.  The first one I attended in Kansas City last November.  I thought it was really good for the most part.  There are four main topics for the course which are Interpersonal Leadership, Negotiation, Health/Fitness and Financial.  My favorites were the Interpersonal Leadership (where I learned a LOT about things that I am doing wrong in my leadership) and Negotiation (where I got a little heated in one of our mock negotiations).  The second course will be in Hong Kong in October.  I have never been to Hong Kong, so I am excited to go.  The third course will be in Switzerland next year.  They will basically build on the first course I attended in Kansas City

It's a New Start Today - 6/10/08

Last year in June I started journaling.  It was a great experience and one of the big advantages is that I really noticed things in my world more because I was always conscious of what I wanted to write about.  However, I went to India and July and when I got back, I stopped journaling because I was tired.  I have been thinking over the last year that I wanted to get back to journaling, but just didn't feel I had the time to do it (or was just too lazy).

Well, I finally am doing it.  It only took about 10.5 months, but I am here.  This part is easy.  In my journals, I am going to just go over things I am doing or just thinking about.  Keeping it up every day is going to be hard.  What gave me the kick in the rear to start again?  Well, I took a time management course last Thursday (today is Tuesday) and they gave us some very good techniques to use to help us achieve our priorities.  One of the things that was taught in the class was that every week we need to "Sharpen Our Saw".  What this means is that I need time for myself to rejuvenate so that  I can be refreshed to accomplish the tasks I set out to do.  As part of this, we are to pick one thing out of each of the following categories and do it each week.  The categories are Physical, Emotional/Social, Mental and Spiritual.  I picked journaling for the mental part.  The others I picked were walk (haven't started it yet), play on the wii (guilty pleasure) and work on my sermon (which I also haven't started and I am doing on Sunday).  Let's pray that I can continue because I felt it was really fulfilling when I did it last summer.

I have been playing table tennis more the last 2 years than I had previously.  When I was in high school and college, I played all of time.  However, school and actuarial exams got in the way.  Well, I finally finished actuarial exams, so now I have more time to play.  We have had a company tournament in our office the last two years.  Last year, I finished 4th, but my performance was not as good this time finishing 12th.  I felt like I was actually playing better this year, but just didn't perform as well that day.  I have decided that I am going to start competing in tournaments again starting with the Show-Me Games in July.  However, I don't just want to show up and get beat.  I want to actually win some matches.  Therefore, yesterday, I called a person who was advertising private lessons.  He is down in Kansas City, but he said that he is able to teach me over the noon hour if I give him enough notice.  I look forward to meeting him.  Not only will he teach me skills to improve my game, he also has some good stories about the history of table tennis in the Kansas City area.

As I mentioned in the last paragraph, this year, I passed my last actuarial exam.  This was a long (sometimes off and on) process that went on for 12.5 years.  My goal was to achieve fellowship in both the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries.  Currently there are only 33 people that have achieved both.  I still have one requirement left, however, before I will be a fellow of the SOA.  I will be going to a course called the Fellowship Admissions Course July 9-11, and on the evening of July 11, I will become an FSA (Fellow of the Society of Actuaries).  It has been a long ride, but I am finally glad to be done.

I look forward to sharing each and every day.

Jet Lag - 07/31/07

I haven't had any journal entries for six days.  My last entry was Wednesday night.  I got on the plane to leave India Thursday night for an early Friday morning flight.  Since then, I have had serious jet lag.

I got home at 11 am on Friday morning and I took a nap.  I was then up all night.  I guess my body was still on India time.  I finally fell asleep at 4 in the morning.  On Saturday, I tried to stay awake, but I did take a short nap.  I was able to sleep, but I woke up at 4.

On Sunday, I fell asleep about 6 and then woke up at 3.  I had to go into the office on Monday.  We also had to go out for dinner Monday, so I didn't get to bed until 11 that night.  I figured that I would be able to sleep a full night, but once again I woke up a 4 o'clock.

Everyone keeps telling me that it will take me about a week to recover.  It is making it difficult to get back into a normal routine.  I haven't been reading every night.  I hope to get back to reading a little bit every night and making sure that I write a journal entry every day.

Akshar Dham - 07/25/07

Yesterday was a very long day.  I got back late last night.  I wasn’t feeling well, so I didn’t write a journal entry.  I wish I could have written about my experiences yesterday because although it was a long day and tiring by the end, it was a very uplifting and spiritual day for me.

 

After work, we went to visit the Akshar Dham temple in Dehli.  The Akshar Dham is a spiritual temple that was built by the BAPS (Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha).  BAPS is an organization within the Swaminarayan faith.  The Swaminarayan faith was started when Bhagwan Swaminarayan began his life in 1781.  The Hindus believed him to be the manifestation of God.

 

At the temple, we visited an exhibit that went through the life and teachings of Bhagwan Swaminarayan.  Although I don’t agree with everything that was said, I believe that the many parts of the message that he was delivering is very relevant to everyone of us today regardless of our faith.  Swaninarayan preached of love, peace, purity and non-violence.

 

Tomorrow is my last day in India.  I came here for one main purpose which was for business.  I hope to that the money that my company spent for me to come here will add some value for them.  However, the value that it has added to my personal life cannot be measured in dollars or rupees. 

 

It will be an experience I will never forget.  I met some new friends and strengthen the friendships of those who were just otherwise aquaintances beforehand.  I experienced a new culture.  I eat new food.  I will cherish these two weeks for the rest of my life.

 

I am now ready to go home.  I miss my wife and kids, and I look forward to seeing them and holding them in my arms again.  Good bye to India.  It’s been fun.

Rules of the Road - 07/23/07

Because of the large population in India, there are a lot of people on the roads.  Jaipur and Agra are also the two most popular tourist destinations close to Dehli.  However, it does not appear that they were ready for the influx of cars on the road.  On our trip to from Jaipur to Agra on Saturday, most of the roads were two lane roads.

The distance from Jaipur to Agra is about 240 kilometers.  If you don't pass stay behind the cars behind you and don't pass them, it would take you about 8 hours to get there.  We had a video player in the van.  The movie that we were watching was Cliffhanger.  I don't remember much about the movie because frankly the drive was much more thrillling than the movie.

Our driver never passed up the opportunity to pass another vehicle.  There were many close calls.  If it looked liked there was an opening in the other lane, he was going to take it.  Because of the high traffic on the road, the government is trying to build divided highways.  However, they haven't done a very good job of directing the traffic to let them know that a divided highway is coming up.  The scariest moment came when we were actually on a divided highway.  We were passing another car and a bus was coming from the other way.  Since we were on a divided highway, the bus should not have been on our side.  It was at that moment when I just looked up and said a prayer for God to just watch over me.

In India, there are two main rules of the road.  The first one is "The right of way goes to the one who gets there first."  The second one is "If someone honks, get out of the way."  These two rules are pretty much followed by everyone.  There are some stoplights, but when there are not, everyone follows the above rules.  Even the trucks say the following on the back of them "Please Honk. Wait for Side."

Taj Mahal - 07/22/07

Much of Agra, India is dirty.  The buildings are old and many are falling apart or have not been kept up.  Many of the shops have dirt floors.  For most of us that live in the United States, this world would be a hard world to imagine.  There was nothing in the area that could even resemble one of the seven wonders of the world. 

We had to park about a kilometer away.  They don’t let any vehicles with gasoline within a kilometer of the Taj Mahal.  When we got out of the van, immediately there were people trying to sell us merchandise.  They see any tourist (especially an foreigner), and they are relentless and do not stop asking you if you would like to buy their product until you are out of their sight.

We boarded the bus to go to the Taj Mahal and when we got off of the bus, the crowd of vendors was even worse.  The only way to get them to stop was to tell them to that you would buy something later when you came out because they would definitely ask you again on your way out. 

That all changed when I walked through the gate.  The Taj Mahal is such a beautifual majestic structure.  It is a stark contrast to the world outside of it.  Many of you have probably seen pictures of the Taj Mahal.  It has a large dome in the middle with four domes, two in the front and two in the back.  On each corner are forts.  The Taj is known for its symmetry.  No matter where you are, it looks the same from each side.

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I went to the Taj Mahal with three of my friends from India.  We took many pictures and had lots of fun.  It was a great experience that I will never forget.  I not only got to see one of the seven wonders of the world, I also made three new friendships that I will cherish for a lifetime.

 

I arrived back at my home away from home tonight feeling great.  I miss my family very badly, but my week here in India has been a wonderful experience from both personal and a professional level.

Packed and Ready to Go - 07/19/07

I just finished going through my clothes.  First, I had to go through my dirty clothes and pick out which ones I need to send off to be washed so I will have clothes to wear next week.  I also had to pick out which clothes I am going to wear this weekend for our trip to Jaipur and Agra.

This is my full weekend in India.  When I planned the trip in India, I did not realize that I would actually be taking another trip over the weekend.  I thought that we would just get up on Saturday and go sightseeing and then come back to the hotel I am staying in and do the same on Sunday.  Much to my surprise, I was informed that we are leaving tomorrow (Friday) to go to Jaipur and we will stay the evening in Jaipur.  After activities in Jaipur Friday evening and Saturday, we will then leave to go to Agra. 

We will stay in Agra Saturday evening.  Agra's most famous landmark is the Taj Mahal.  We will visit the Taj Mahal on Sunday before returning to Gurgaon on Sunday evening.  At first, I was nervous again.  I was finally getting comfortable being here in India and being in my hotel.  Now, I had to pack up some of my stuff and get ready for another trip.  However, my nervousness has turned to excitement.

I will be traveling with two companions who are natives of India.  Both of them work for me.  One of them just joined my team several months ago, but the other one has worked for me longer than any other employee.  With them being so far away, I really have only been able to get to know them on a professional level.  I am excited to get to know them more on a personal basis.

Lack of Discipline - 07/18/07

I mentioned last week that I plan to try the Seven-Day Mental Diet that is suggested in the Discipline chapter of PIVOT.  So far I have only accomplished two of the seven days.  They are "Try Something New" and "Feed Your Mind". Parts of those days have been filled with negative thoughts like fear and nervouseness.  Other days have been filled with excitement.  Other days have been filled with jet lag.  I have had a general lack of discipline however when it comes to doing the Seven-Day Mental Diet. 

I have an excuse as to why I haven't been as disciplined.  I am in India on business.  My Saturday and Sunday were basically just travel days and the rest of the time I have been working.  When I haven't been working, I have been pretty tired due to jet lag. 

However, having discipline is about not having excuses.  If I truly am going to be disciplined enough to go through the mental diet, I have to be disciplined no matter what the situation.  Even if I wasn't traveling, I could probably find another "excuse" as to why I didn't do one of the excercises that it suggests in the book.

However, as I look through the mental diet, I do notice that I have been more positive since I have begun my journey.  I have a better attitude.  I have been giving more gratitude to others.  I have been thinking more positively.  I will do the Seven-Day Mental Diet.  I just need to pray to God to help grant me the discipline to do it every day.