No Ride on 8-16-08

It’s raining outside, so I am not riding today. This rain is bothering me now, because it makes my xeriscaped front yard look stupid, now that it’s growing grass. The rain does give me an excuse to do some housework that I’ve put off for a while. One of these jobs is to scan a stack of papers into my computer that have been sitting around. Some of these papers are my homeowner’s insurance policy. I had never read this before. I don’t think I’m alone-quick show of hands: who has actually read their homeowner’s insurance policy? Anyway, I discovered that my home is not covered in the event of accidental or deliberate nuclear weapon detonation, whether as a result of war or not. Somehow, I believe if this occurs, I won’t really be concerned with my homeowner’s insurance policy. This did lead me to another silly question. The movie monster Godzilla was spawned as a result of a nuclear detonation. Would my home be covered if Godzilla left a big old footprint in my xeriscaped front yard?

My weekends are the best times of the week. Why is that? I think it has to do with taking back our lives. We usually work five days out of seven, and this tends to make us feel like we live our jobs. Yes, I need money to buy food; to support our kids; to ensure our survival. I think we also work to do more.

I can hardly meet someone from Chicago without saying that I used to manage a major movie theatre on the north side. It’s not important that now that movie theatre is a 24 hour workout gym. A couple of years after I left there, I had doubts as to whether or not I did any good as manager. I had poured my life into that job, and was wondering if I had any impact. So, I called the place, identifying myself as a government employee who had to locate current and former employees. I named off a few, and the person I spoke to hadn’t even heard of me.

Sometimes, I’ll read movie reviews. They usually start by saying, “Clint Eastwood plays a boxing coach,” or “Frances McDormand plays a small town police chief.” That prompts this question, who is going to play you in the movie of your life story, and how will the review begin?

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell had a list of sayings that he kept prominently in his office. One of these sayings was “Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.” We work all through the week, and hope we’re making an impact. I just don’t believe any more that we make an impact out of simple employment.

So imagine the impact I’d make if I wrote homeowner’s insurance policies, and I were the first to add a Godzilla clause…