I had another good day today mostly because I made plans to hit the beach after work, again.  It is a regimen not unlike medication I have prescribed myself.  A couple times a week, one of those a weekend day, I am demanding that I go to my happy place.  In my case it is the beach or near the ocean.  I would say that I am lucky to live by the ocean but the truth is I work very hard so I can live here.  I put in very long, challenging days to be near the water.  Today I went to another favorite spot called El Porto.  This surf spot is at the northern end of the famous “Strand” which lines its way through Hermosa, and Manhattan Beach.  Nestled at the doorstep of some of the most extravagant beach homes in the world is a pretty good beach and surf spot.  Beach volleyball was made famous here, on this very beach.  I had a really good session made extra fun by the lack of people around and the abundance of non-humans and, well, some of the humans.  There were dolphin swimming around and seagulls floating about through the line-up.  Watching pelicans fly in formation, close to the surface of the water and actually surfing the air pressure wave in front of the water wave is one mesmerizing sight.  The trip was capped off by a group of locals hanging around talking and complaining about how the rent has recently skyrocketed in the area.  I overheard one guy say that he pays $3200.00 for a one car garage “but hey, I can be in the water in sixty seven steps.” Sounded like a deal to me.  As I finished tying my board to my truck, I overheard one of the locals say “Hey! Look at that whale out there! It is in the line-up, man!” I was pretty sure there was no whale out there, not that close but likely a dolphin.  I looked in the direction he described and was shocked to see a full sized whale surface and exhale not fifty feet from the line-up of surfers.  I guess I came in a little too early.  Maybe next time I will be so lucky to be that close to a creature as amazing as that.  Truthfully I was stoked to be as close as I was being in the parking lot.  Medicine taken, time to head home and enjoy the rest of my hump-day.  Find out what makes you happy then write a prescription to yourself.  The side-effects are minimal, trust me.

As many of you know, I have written a book.  The title of my book is “My Aumakua” and is set to be published within the next sixty days.  I am very excited to report that my good friend Ken Morsette, whom I met in the Army and have stayed friends has painted a beautiful work of art for my cover.  Ken is a truly gifted artist.  He lives in Box Elder, Montana which could be about as far away from the ocean as anywhere.  What he painted is truly wonderful and I am not about to spoil my cover surprise here.  Isn’t it amazing how the mechanism of friendship works?  I lost touch with Kenny when I was transferred to Pearl Harbor, HI, only to reconnect thanks to the wonders of Facebook.  I sent him a copy of the manuscript, well, what I had at the time and he looked it over and painted by inspiration.  What he came up with is truly awesome.  I cannot wait to share.  You will be hearing more about my artist friend as I will be showing you a lot of his material and accomplishments in the future.  Ken, if you are reading this, I cannot thank you enough.  You are gifted and I am proud to call you my friend.  #MyAumakua

I work in South Central Los Angeles, California.  The area is well known throughout the world for its spicy history.  Most of the notoriety the area possesses is due to gang activity and crime, unfortunately.  I personally don’t find it to be all that bad but I do go in to work very early and am usually out of there before the sun sets so maybe I miss the spicy stuff.   Today, someone decided to celebrate the Chinese New Year with firecrackers.  Outside my office window that is along the street a couple guys were attempting to stave off evil spirits for the new year.  I could hear someone talking outside my window and at one point I even looked out through the security bars.  When the firecrackers were lit, and then exploded, my Army training kicked in and I hit the deck.  I literally dropped on the floor.  The others in the office were sitting, stunned and frozen with fear.  When we realized that they were firecrackers and not a gun we all breathed a sigh of relief.  The chances of the noise coming from a gun in that area are pretty good, firecrackers, much less.  I wasn’t even embarrassed.  It did get me thinking about the world we live in today.  It is a shame that a couple guys celebrating their cultures holiday could be mistaken for something terrible right outside my window.  So Happy Chinese New Year everyone, may all the loud bangs you hear in your future be from firecrackers too.

Growing up, I wish I knew that people were subject to placement into percentages.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately,  all I knew was that you had to do the best you could, and if you did better then the other guy, well, you won.

This is not the way reality works.  So sorry to be the one to bust your bubble.  I spoke of “awards” before but, this is different.  When I joined the Army the first thing stripped from me was my identity,  the second was my acceptance of loss.  You lose, well, YOU LOSE! Suck it up and drive on!  DRIVE ON.  Don’t whine, and don’t cry, DRIVE ON!  Keep at it, whatever it is you are after, keep driving.  I have a friend  that worked really hard toward a degree while working a seemingly menial job. After achieving this degree the difference in their life is astonishing.  The amount of effort is unfathomable to the majority of us, but to them, the one percent, it is, well, it is what makes them the one percent.  If you are willing to put the time, effort, and pain into placing yourself into the 1%.  I support you…100%  You really have to put in the effort.  Nothing in this life will come to you for free. If you want it, work for it.  Work your ass off for it.  If you don’t get it...KEEP WORKING!!!!

Today I had the appliance repair man come by to fix my washing machine.  Any of you that know me, know that this is unusual for me to call a repairman for anything.  I will try to fix just about anything on my own.  There are a few things that I will avoid trying to fix, however.  I will not mess with brakes on a car, any kind of flooring, and electricity.  The washing machine is a combination of water and electricity so when it goes on the fritz, I call the professionals.  The guy came in and within about thirty minutes he had the washer washing again.  Wonderful! I was now able to enjoy the rest of my Saturday, my favorite day of the week.  I decided that I should do a little spring cleaning and organizing around the house and in my vehicle, so that is what I did.  I rummaged through everything and was able to toss a lot of needless and useless junk.  I organized all the other needless and useless junk leftover until the next round of cleaning where this stuff will make it to the trash.  I had a good day.  I will be waking up very early tomorrow to go to the beach and get a surf in.  Should be a good time for it as most people will be preparing for their Super Bowl festivities.  I am not that big of a NFL fan to begin with but I sure am not interested in who is in the big game this year.  Sunday’s are special days for me though so I am always looking forward to them.  I call my family and friends on Sunday’s.  Tomorrow I will be getting my fix of surf, sun, family, and friends.  What are you doing with your Sunday?  Go ahead, get your fix!

Today I went to work prepared for what I was going to do after work.  I brought my surfboard, wet suit, booties, towel, and a deal with myself to go straight to the beach after work.  The surf is up at the moment so I knew the day was going to end well.  When I closed up shop, I ran out of the building like it was on fire.  I jumped into my truck and took off for the beach.  I bobbed and weaved through traffic like a seasoned cab driver does in Chicago.  As I got closer and closer to the beach I could actually feel the stress melting away.  The weather in the area has been on a warming trend and is to be almost “summer-like” this weekend.  This gets me very excited because, well, its the reason I live in California.  I love the weather here.  So I got to Redondo Beach, put money in the meter, and got ready to hit the waves.  I was able to get a good hour in the water and had a few fun rides.  Strangely, I was all alone today but that is perfectly fine with me.  One thing that is almost impossible to find in CA is a surf break with nobody in the line-up.  When you are able to score this rare treat you need to take advantage, so I did.  As the sun becan to hang low on the horizon I thought to myself how wonderful it is to enjoy my view.  Yes, I claimed ownership of the view I was enjoying.  It occurred to me that really anyone can do this, and should do it more often.  Next time you are buzzing around doing things or getting somewhere because you have to do whatever, take a moment to enjoy your view.  The view changes every second after all so don’t you want to log as many views as you can into memory?  I know I do.  So here, I’m going to let you enjoy my view.  Happy Friday.

Have you ever had one of those days where it seemed that just about every person you came in contact with was just a little off?  Well, today was one of those days for me.  Right from the first customer I had to the last, some challenge, test, or strange question would be presented.  One customer asked me what the list of ingredients in a roll of roofing material is.  I chucked and said “well, a lot of things.”  She looked at me stone cold and said, “no, I am very serious, what are the ingredients?”  I have never been asked that and honestly I have no idea.  I went to my computer and asked Google.  An answer came up so I printed it and handed it to her.  “This is ridiculous,” she said before walking out the door in a huff.  Not five minutes later another customer came in and I jumped right in. His question was “Do you have anything to patch a leak?” I told him we carry many things that could possibly help him out but I need a little more information.  “Why?” he asked.  Two for two.  I asked him to give me a second and I asked my inside sales person to take care of him.  I had a funny feeling this would not go very well with me.  This went on all day long.  It must have been something with me, I mean, if everyone else on the road is a bad driver, is it really everyone else that is the bad driver?  Anyway, I felt like I had a target on me all day today or there was something in the air causing craziness.  I will say this about today, however, I’m glad I got it over with.  Days like these don’t happen too often so good riddance weird day.  Lets see what you got for me tomorrow.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t multitask my way out of a wet paper bag.  Let me clarify.  I can walk and chew gum or check email while going to the bathroom, but working on five different yet closely related things is a bit too much for me.  Today at work I had four requests for quotes come in in a thirty minute time span.  This while I was taking care of walk-in customers at the counter.  I was simultaneously trying to work out a delivery issue for another customer and get some material picked up for a separate job from a factory near San Diego.  By the time the customer I had on the phone, with one line holding for me by the way, repeated himself for the third time I realized that I was deep in the pit of multitasking.  I placed the call on hold and said out loud to nobody “Jason, you know better than to try and do all this at once.”  I picked the phone back up and focused.  Done.  I started one of the “on deck” items and a customer walked in so I put the item back “on deck.”  I am coining the new term “multimistaking” so know you heard it here first.  I am a multimistaker and hey…knowing is half the battle I hear.  I’ve realized the more tasks I take on thinking I can handle them, the more mistakes I am actually making.  The more I am forgetting to do.  The more details that are falling away only to come up down the road by someone who is relying on me to make sure those details are included.  If you are a multimistaker as well, there is a cure.  Be realistic with yourself and your friends, family, customer, coach, whoever.  Second, take your time, one at a time.  Those depending on you will thank you for it.  Multitasking = Multimistaking.

Last Friday, Amazon delivered a DVD containing one of my favorite movies “Arthur.”  On my drive home today I actually laughed out loud when I thought about one of the scenes in the movie.  In LA when you glance at the car next to you in traffic and the driver is laughing you usually want to get as far from them as possible.  I couldn’t help it.  I thought of the scene where Arthur is talking to his future father-in-law in a room filled with trophy animal heads on the walls.  His drunken focus was on a moose head.  The father-in-law was quite angry with Arthur because of his drinking and was giving him an ultimatum when Arthur pointed at the moose and said “you must have hated this moose”.  Now, don’t ask me why I find this so funny because I won’t be able to tell you.  I just do.  Isn’t it wonderful when a memory brings a smile to your face?  Isn’t it ten times better when a memory brings actual laughter?  I am so thankful that so many creative minds came together back in the 70’s and made that movie.  Thank you Entertainment industry for helping me have a laugh after another day at the grinding wheel.  Do yourself a favor and go rent or buy a favorite movie you haven’t seen in years.  Entertainment is crucial however you choose to get it.

I woke up late today.  During the work week I have to wake before the sun.  On the weekends, I choose to wake with the sun.  Today, I woke up after the sun.  He fooled me.  Today was one of the rare days in Southern California where cloud cover and rain were in the forecast.  It was a bit blustery and cool with mist and rain blowing around.  It is winter, so I guess I can deal with the odd day out of three sixty five of crummy weather.  My only full day off in two weeks I was determined to enjoy the day no matter what.  Every idea taking place outside and most requiring me to drive somewhere fell flat.  You see, in Southern California the weather is usually perfect, so when it gets even the slightest bit sketchy it’s best to stay off the roads.  I wanted to go to the store for a couple things but knew that getting in the car would be nothing short of aggravating.  I spied my pair of neglected hiking boots and my all weather jacket and decided that today, I would walk.  I grabbed my backpack and headed out the door.  The wind was blowing and there was some moisture in the air just like the weatherman said.  I had to think to myself, “when did you become such a pansy-ass?”  Sometimes you just need to take a walk.  Things come to the surface of your mind to think through.  Things come through your other senses that you haven’t thought about in a while.  Some of those things will make you sad and others will make you happy.  I thought about the difficult walks I have taken that left my heels blistered and bloody.  I thought about the walks along the many beaches I have been to and the footprints I have left in the many miles of sand.  Erased, all of them.  None of them will show their face until you take that walk.  It feels so good to just walk around and see, smell, and just plain ol dredge up things in your mind that need to be seen and smelt again.  Take a walk and leave the excuses on the mat.