Some Experts Ain't

From the 4th Edition of Webster's New World College Dictionary: n, a person who is very skillful or highly trained and informed in some special field. Did you notice that definition left out credentialed. So, I suppose if you did a thing for [blank] amount of time you will be expert at it.

OK, let's see how that works. I've been riding my Knucklehead for 7 years. I'm an expert at riding that particular bike, right? Don't have a piece of paper stating I'm expert at Knuckleheads, just a driver's license. Worked as an electrician for 15 years which makes me an expert at electricity, right? My wife and I have been married for 34 years. We are both experts at keeping marriages together, right? Do you feel like something is missing here?

You betya. No one can know all there is to know about a thing. Each of us can be a so-called expert on different aspects of the same subject. If you wanted to know how to ride my particular type of bike then you would want to know all that I know. But don't count on my expertise to help you ride a rice burner correctly. I worked as an industrial electrician. Wouldn't be much help in wiring your house. My lovely bride and myself managed to keep our bonds together but we wouldn't have a clue as to how to tell someone else to keep theirs. Expert? No such thing.

All I'm getting at is be leery of "experts". Especially if there is some kind of political agenda going on. My experts can beat your experts any day of the week and twice on Sundays! I would never tell you I'm an expert and that there is only one way to do a thing. If I did that it wouldn't take long before someone stepped all over my toes. And I'm not into pain, believe me.

Now, if I can only find an expert to tell me what all this means!

Shiny Parts

When I built the bike that you see in the picture back in '00 (that's year 2000, not 1900) I purposely thought through the project so that I would not be tempted to put shiny parts on her. It was expensive as it was without the added prices of all the neat shiny parts one can get for a H-D. Besides, that is what most folks do when they get a bike, trick it out with all the stuff they can find, so as to make their bike, their statement to the world. Which is OK, if you have the bucks.

And now, it starts over again. Do you realize how many shiny parts there are for a PETERBILT? Chrome appliques for the windows, headlights, door trim, around the oval emblem on each side of the hood, naked women profiles for the mud flaps!, yeah buddy, triple train horns, and on and on and on. Not to mention all the pretty lights! Geez Looeeeez. And I'm sure that every part will place an additional horse power or two to the load. Right.

Well, I've lived long enuff to know when just the right amount of shiny parts will make a statement and too much is overkill. Same goes for other areas as well. Take your health. Exercise, eat the right foods in the proper proportions, and getting enough sleep will maintain you for years. It's not a bad idea to add some supplements (shiny parts) that make up for some lack in your basic plan but you don't need all of them. Get with your doctor and nutricianist to map a plan just for you.

Have you ever seen one of these? Man I gotta have it for the truck!

Commit

Sleepless nights, sweaty palms, unable to focus, a fashion nightmare in public, all the signs that a really big decision is about to be made. A decision to commit to a course of action that has no guarantee of success. Or failure for that matter. O, if only life came with a waranty.

But it don't. So, I've made the decision. I've made the committment. My new career in trucking starts today. There is nothing like putting money where your big mouth is! Getting into this business is very costly. The truck, the trailer (which is the big determinant in what you haul), the insurance, the fuel, the yada yada yada. That's the money part. The jobs will come with the right attitude and work ethic. And a belief that this is the right thing to do for me. With God's blessing, I ain't gonna fail. No way.

I look at like this. I had to commit to a program to get healthy and stay that way. It took time and lots of effort. Research this, buy that, stick a pin in all my fingers to get the blood for the sugar meter, draw blood for analysis for both doctors I see regularly, and so on. Today that committment is paying off big time. I eat right (most of the time, I had pizza last night) and I exercise every day. I weigh 158 now so I am able to maintain a constant near 160, which has been done for 6 months straight. Proof that this time I'll keep the pounds off for good. It was hard in the beginning but now it ain't no thing. Second nature.

So, in twelve months or less I'll have the truck and trailer paid off and a successful business that will provide for me and my family well off the ground. Success for me now is second nature.

Shifting Gears

I have one more week of Class A driving school left before the big drive test at the DMV. I'm a little nervous but that is natural. Failing the test is not even a concern, I got it in the bag. But a week ago I could not have even considered taking the test. My double clutching was more like double grinding.

And you know what? It's been like that for every kind of standard vehicle I've tried to drive. For instance, I had a 1974 Kawasaki Z-1. That bike had 83hp, 4 cylinders, and the gosh darndest clutch. You either stalled it or smoked the rear tire. It took me about 3 weeks to master that clutch. It was quite the adventure in traffic till then believe me! And that ole '56 Ford with 3 on the tree and mosquito fogging motor was what I learned to drive as a youngster, as did my older syblings. I was surprised it still had teeth on the gears by the time my turn to learn arrived. And all the farm equipment, county dump trucks, various hot rods, and small economic cars since then helped me master standard shifts.

But you know, I still grind em every now and again. I still stall at the most dumbest of times. It's part of the territory. I have those OC moments (O Crap) yet. That stuff don't bother me any more. Now it may bother whoever is behind me but that's their problem, right? When I do those things it's because I lost concentration and focus for just a moment not because I'm still trying to get all the coordination down. I slip it in gear, put that I meant to do that expression on my face and drive on!

It's kinda like learning how to lose those pounds and live a healthy life style. There are gonna be lots of OC moments, especially starting out. You can't expect to give up all those goodies without your body rebelling. It wants to eat bon bons and drink 44oz cokes. Come on! But keep the focus. Enjoy the stalls and grinding when it happens. But don't do it too often. Soon you'll have it down like white on rice. Natural.

Believe me, there's nothing like mastering the size and complexity of driving a big rig, unless, of course, it's mastering the old self. The one that got you to where you are today. Life is meant to be enjoyed. Now, go learn how to do that with less weight.

Time -- What, When, HOW

How now brown cow?

Cute. Remember that one? It was a way to inquire about the goings on in one's life since speaking last. How you been or what's up are another way to do it. So, it's been awhile since I last posted so I'll tell ya what now from this brown cow.

My life has been busy on several fronts. Getting ready to move. Started Class A driving classes. Began classes on FOREX trading as well. Paid off all my bills from the sale of my townhouse. O, just enjoying life in general. But more important is that I did not let any of this get in the way of my health.

Distractions are the bane to success in anything that one does. I bet that you started out to do something on your list of things to do and BAM, the phone rings, the front doorbell goes off, the kids start fighting, the water heater springs a leak and so forth. Soon, you forget what in the heck you were going to do in the first place, right? Well, that has been one of my biggest problems throughout life, letting distractions get the better of me. Not now, not ever again.

So, how am I goin to do that? By making and keeping focused on a plan. It has taken me a year to get to the weight I'm at now and eating the foods (or not eating as the case may be) I eat now. I do it per plan. The driving classes could have put me way off the track. Though it did modify my schedule time wise it has not prevented me from doing the plan. The plan is what gets me back on track when something or someone makes me deviate off course just a little bit or a lot. In the old days I would just go off tangent and be gone for years!

That is why planning is so important in all areas of life. For instance, the sale of my townhouse went longer than planned. It got to the wire. I spent down all my savings and no job. Talk about stress. But I had planned for that as well. It kept me on track and sane. I had confidence. I had faith. I did not panic. Praise God. And now I have time to put into play the other parts of the plan to reach my ultimate goal of a debt free and care free and money free and healthy retirement.

A slave to no hard-and-fast rules, he developed a course that is as real as the measles and twice as much fun.