Comments on: Three Amazing Truths, Part 2

By: Middle Zone Musings » All Entries - What I Learned From Transportation

Middle Zone Musings » All Entries - What I Learned From Transportation — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:01:32 +0000

[...] Three Amazing Truths, Part 2, by Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings [...]

By: Robert Hruzek

Robert Hruzek — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:09:49 +0000

Allen, how many of us have had similar experiences with unpredictable vehicles? But I have to admit, it was a character-building time, too.

Oh, and I remember the lead-foot syndrome, too. But ’nuff said about that!

By: Allen S

Allen S — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:45:23 +0000

Your post brought back memories of my high school days.

The Ford Fairmont I drove scared me to death sometimes. A left hand turn was always a gamble. When I pressed the gas pedal, I never knew what was going to happen. Way too many times, the car would get out into opposing traffic and then just stall. As I gained more experience driving the car, I learned to compensate for this unpredictable behavior by waiting until there was a huge gap in traffic before proceeding through an intersection. The drivers behind me must have thought I was crazy for being so cautious. I cannot blame them, but they had know way to know as much about my car as me.

Funny thing is, giving enough acceleration time, the Fairmont was a fast car. Once, it clocked an official cruising speed of 90 mph (which landed me in a different kind of trouble).

By: Robert Hruzek

Robert Hruzek — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:11:59 +0000

@Karen – Yes, that darkness thing was something of a revelation to me too. Imagine – a genuine usefulness for those deep, dark, scary times. Who knew? (But we know the answer to that one, too, don’t we?)

Thanks for your kind words, Karen.

By: Robert Hruzek

Robert Hruzek — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:08:49 +0000

@Ulla – Oh, my; I hate it when that happens!

I had a similar experience as well. During a consulting gig back in 1999, I tried to tell a colleague how to do a particular function on Excel, but he just couldn’t seem to get it. So I asked him if I could show him how.

I sat down at his computer, performed the function, then somehow – I still don’t know how – erased the file he’d been working on for 3 days! I felt like crawling in a hole and covering it up.

I’m glad these are experiences we can look back on and – well, if not laugh, then at least learn from!

By: Robert Hruzek

Robert Hruzek — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:03:16 +0000

@Brad – Thanks, Bud; I feel for ya, truly. Anything I can do to help, my friend, just let me know. Except a ride from the airport; can’t help you there (kidding!)

By: Karen Swim

Karen Swim — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:00:10 +0000

Robert, I agree with Brad, I loved the story and the lessons. One thing that really grabbed me this morning is sometimes needing the dark to see clearly. That was a total revelation! So often in the dark periods we only see well the darkness. Yet, the beauty of the stars can only be seen in the darkness of the night, and the darker it becomes the more brilliantly they shine. I have had my share of dark periods and I know more are to come, because that’s life. Faith has always sustained me through each one. In addition to friends, God often sends a word of encouragement (or loving correction!) through an unexpected source. This two part series is one that I will return to again, it truly blessed me!

Brad, you have my support and prayers and always a listening ear.

Karen Swims last blog post..SELL Is Not a Four-Letter Word – Part II

By: Ulla Hennig

Ulla Hennig — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:49:40 +0000

One of my darkest before dawn experiences on work: Do you know pagemaker? Well, this is a layouting program which was very popular before everybody used to go into Indesign. Well, I used to do a newsletter, three columns, headings, subheadings, graphics and the like. It was almost finished. I made backups all the time long, until the last 10 days. I worked on Apple which was said to be super safe. And backup always took some time which I could use for other things. I made a change in a heading. Clicked on the “Save” button. Nothing happened. clicked again. Then a window opened which showed a very neat bomb (Apple did this to show people that they had to restart the system). I was a bit irritated – but still thought “well this small change can be done once again, no problem” and restarted the computer. Then I clicked on the file. I got the message: file corrupt, can’t be opened. Slowly I realized that the whole newsletter on which I had been working for the last 10 days was – gone! It was really bad. The only thing which helped me in the end was: Colleagues talked with me and said: “Ok, there’s nothing to be done, you’ve got to do it again. Getting crazy about it doesn’t help. Take the rest of the day off.” I left the premises as fast as I could. And decided for myself: Never forget to backup important files!

Ulla Hennigs last blog post..Off-Topic – What I learned from Transportation

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:45:40 +0000

Robert, great story, but I like the lessons even better. I think I'm going through one of those times now, so I can use all the help I can get & look forward to the conversation! Brad Shorrs last blog post..4 Star Social Media, Writing, and Marketing Links