Little successes, Little treasures

Mama and I covered different ground today. She took off for Denton as soon as the animals had been cared for and I stayed home to work though another take of the video I needed to revise. I worked non-stop for four hours to produce a 3 minute 22 second video. 

Some of the first lines in the script I repeated at least forty times. I know this because I discarded 39 videos where I messed up at one point or another in the script. Some of the discarded takes were as long as 3 minutes 12 seconds. Some were as short as 5 seconds.

While I pretended to be a movie star Mama had a great day shopping and returning items. Why women love to return items is beyond me. I would rather throw something away than spend time in the return line - most of the time. But Victoria had several items to return so Mama took the assignment and came out with very high marks.

Mama also went to Sam’s, Kroger’s, Chick-fil-A, JC Penney’s, and a couple other stores in her outing. I did not go mostly because I had work to complete but also because I did not want to hurry her - directly or indirectly. She came home just after I had finished uploading the video for review in quite a happy mood. She had had a very successful day.

The only drawback to the entire shopping foray was that when she went to try on the foot ware she had bought - at a great savings - she opened the box to find only one shoe, or rather sandal,  had made it home with her. Whether or not we will recover the lost mate remains to be seen. She called to announce the loss and the kind clerk who took her call sad they would do their best to find the lone left sandal, but she was not too hopeful.

I expected to get more criticism on the video I shot today but the response was very positive. My mentor pronounced it good enough to move forward. His exact words were “Awesome job. Looks like a pro.” That was encouraging. I am on to my next assignments with him.

Tomorrow Mama and I travel to Brenham to meet with my siblings to assign Mom and Dad’s household items for distribution. It is a sad meeting of sorts but I am praying for a civil if not happy atmosphere as we discuss who gets what of the furniture items, pictures, clocks, rugs, lamps and dishes, etc.

I do not want to build a memorial to Mom and Dad. The heritage they have given me is far more precious than that. But, there are memories that I would like to cary forward with me and each item they collected, now passed on to us as heirs, are little reminders of who they were and what they treasured.

I have no idea what my children will want of what Mama and I have, but I will gather some of the memorabilia of their grandparents to pass along to them one day.  

I read a plaque once that said, “You are either a fountain or a drain.” Mama certainly was a fountain for me today. I have not touched enough lives today to know which I have been, but this weekend I hope to be a fountain.

Frustration

Today was a pure frustration. I spent all morning trying to video myself using the script I had been helped to compose. It was only 530 words long but it took me several dozen tries just to get all the words out properly…and the best video was really not good at all. ( Mama was silently praying for me and I needed it.)

I sent it off for review but I had a feeling I knew the outcome - and I was pretty close. My mentor requested more smile, more life, less reading. And he is right but quite frankly, I am getting worn out with the process. But what can I do but keep going keep improving; make it right. Because our future may literally depend on it.

Meanwhile I am completing work assigned by my traffic coach and have scheduled an appointment with her Monday afternoon. We will see what kind of results that gives me. Again, it is a pretty steep learning curve and I feel like I am living the title of the book James Dobson wrote years ago, “Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back.” But we’ll get there.

In addition to the trouble I had with the video, I somehow messed up my Skype account; lost all my contacts, all my history. So I had to start over there. My active account is timothy.kline3. If you need me on Skype that is where I will be. Hopefully I be able to keep that going.

I did not know when I asked to reset my password that I had multiple accounts open and I chose the wrong one to reset the password on - at least as far as history and contacts. I have no idea if the other accounts will continue to connect to me or not, but I am assuming not. I also have no idea what account I had made initial contact with my mentors on so I quickly reestablished those contacts.

With tomorrow being the only day I have left this week to work toward my business launch, my high hopes of getting started this week were dashed to nothing. (Friday and Saturday Mama and I will be traveling to and from Brenham to see Dad and spend some time with my siblings.)

Like Crazy Clara said to Matthew Quigley, “It’s not uncommon to have a bad day your first day on the job.”

Thankfully, tomorrow is a new day.

Help needed, Non-news

Mama and I were supposed to drive to Wichita Falls this morning but I did not feel that it was the best way for me to start the morning. I have been feeling a good deal of pressure to focus exclusively on getting this business going and to that end I spent all day on the computer. I was able to complete almost all the assignments I have been given by two coaches. I lack a few written statements and shooting a video. I may upload it to the blog when I get it done - not sure yet.

I could use some help. I do not get to circulate much these days and I am being asked to answer some questions which I do not feel I can adequately answer through my own imagination or limited observation. Questions like, what drives people today? What motivates them? 

What are they scared of and what are they passionate about? 

What fears do they spend the most time dwelling on and how do they plan to alleviate those fears? 

What questions are they asking and what are the answers they are hoping for?

What do people look for online?

What excites them?

If you know an answer to one of these questions I would appreciate your help. Just put your comments in the comments section below. If you know someone who could give me some answers, please forward this blog to them and ask them to comment. I need all the help I can get and I am running out of time.

On more of a family note, Brittany and Andrew got disappointing news, but not the worst possible news. He will be assigned to his current post for one more year. Not a bad deal considering where they are. She made Mama promise she would come to stay with them when she and Andrew have a baby. We have not been told about a bun in the oven yet but it is what we are praying for.

Victoria has settled into her work schedule since getting home. It’s hard to tell if she enjoys it or not but she is pretty committed to it.

Grandpa is chomping at the bit to do something - especially on Victoria’s house remodel - but he is setting still for now while his incisions heal. It should not be much longer.

Mama is still my ever perplexing, ever distracting, time consuming delight. We are coming up on 34 year together. People ask me what the secret is to staying together that many years, much less staying happy together that many years. God first. Each other second. Ourselves third, if possible.

No reason to be sad if you fall in the high single digits behind that line up!