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Club Selection

Tim May

Next week Tyler and I venture to the flatlands of Kansas to join other family in a “Gentlemanly Pursuit” (as Tyler writes) game of golf. It is fast becoming a highly anticipated round – one that has already been met with arrival time coordination, sleeping arrangements, practice range practice, and yes…”ungentlemanly” smack. The event is for a good cause: a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, aka Relay for Life (Mom has a great vantage point and will be our Field Marshall that day). Continue reading “Club Selection”

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21-Bizarre Salute

Tim May

A couple months ago marked an anniversary of some family bizarreness. The event is one that has been talked about and laughed at by many, many times. I am delayed in documenting this event through my weblog for various reasons, but the one most apparent is I finally found my notes…and I wanted to be sure I captured the accuracy of the event. Yup, I admit my age and memory has caused me to invest in several hundred 3”x5” note cards that I scatter about in a number of different places (so I don’t forget where I put just one stash).

Here’s my story and I cannot be persuaded otherwise:

In the winter ’07, I made a collegiate visit to my alma mater to do recruiting for my company. The timing of the event just so happened to coincide with one of my brothers visiting another, in a city about an hour from the campus. I decided I would take advantage of this coincidence and spend time with my siblings and their spouses. I folded up my vendor booth at the end of the day and took to the road for a visit.

Typically, our brotherly reunions are laced with friendly and sometimes down right mean barbs and jabs about college sports (they prefer the rival state university over my degree-giving institution of higher learning). I expected the same would be the case this time, but I would get to at least drink my brother’s cold beer while enduring the grief. Little did I know how this reunion would turn out. Continue reading “21-Bizarre Salute”

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A Memorial Trip

Tim May

Many times our hectic lives cause a failure to ask the questions of family that are important when painting the picture of who we are and how did we get here. For the most part (and most of us) we all know who we are – name, address, parents, siblings, etc. – and we snicker a little knowing how we literally got here.  One should however pry a bit deeper with someone that knows. Some will not volunteer family histories but when asked, a whole new family education and heritage emerges. Then we pause (or should) and reflect on the similarities of this life versus those that preceded us.

This weekend I had a special opportunity to share time with my Father…back home. It’s always a cherished time when I’m able to see him and have the one-on-one time. This trip, this time, was infused with serious weather (another blog forthcoming) but we managed our usual how-is-everybody conversations, television watching, golf talk, arguments over who is paying for lunch, and so on. The Memorial Day holiday posed a unique experience with Dad. Every year since I can remember my parents have tended the gravesites of relatives in various cemeteries on Memorial Day weekend. The last time I remember being a part of this tradition was when I thought girls were from another planet.  On this weekend, for the first time in oh-so-many years, Dad and I together made the “cemetery run”. And he shared with me a few things to make me pause and remember family. Continue reading “A Memorial Trip”

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What you need when stranded

Tim May

For the first time in many years, I had a professional job performance review with one of the company’s four owners today. It went very well. A 90-minute meeting turned out to take nearly twice that. Not because of my performance or that I’m a trouble-maker amongst the ranks, we actually had a productive, informative, frank, enjoyable conversation. For anyone that wonders (or cares), I was encouraged to continue the good work happening in the office and was given additional assignments and questions to ponder and for comment.

 

The point of this posting you might ask? The annual evaluation process with “The Company” involves employees filling out a self-evaluation. This evaluation has a rotating series of questions (the next guy will most likely not get the same set of questions) for response. Of the 15± questions, one answer in particular took a significant amount of my time. It was one that I’ve never really thought about and it caused several late nights of thinking, writing, and editing leading up to the appointment. (As far as I know, spelling and grammar did not count against me.)

 

How would you respond to this question?

 

If You Were Stranded on a Deserted Island But Could Have Any 3 Things…What 3 Things Would You Choose?

 

Give that a thunking would you. I tried to not state the obvious – cell phone, water, shelter, voluptuous scantily-clad beauty fanning me with a palm leaf, etc. – and think as an aspiring upper-management-with-this-company type of guy.

 

Here was my official personnel file response: Continue reading “What you need when stranded”

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Tyler’s doing and boomerang mail

Tim May

I use much of the available technology these days to stay in touch with family, friends, and for business. Then favorite son Tyler plants this bug in my ear to start a blog…suggesting I use WordPress (like his at tylerandtammy.wordpress.com). Perhaps “Beeba” thinks I can better communicate and express myself to my network audience via this media. Hmmmmm, I probably have several from that lot that may not want me to reach out and communicate any more than I already do. So anyone that happens to read this, please continue the personal and work email correspondence, text messaging, cell phone, home phone, U.S. Postal Service (who?), etc. We will see if this works out as an outlet of and/or for creative expression. In the mean time Tyler, you’re going to have to show me all the bells and whistles of the blog site cause I might just come up with something to say, sometime.

And speaking of the U.S. Postal Service, here’s a blog first story for y’all – it has played out over the past several days: Continue reading “Tyler’s doing and boomerang mail”