Make my day

We got right into software tools and her preferences and since I apparently knew something about something and was willing to engage she took right off. A breath of fresh air. Chelsea is a recent MIAD grad glad to talk about her work at the front end of a promising career. 

She did have a very well-done business card she was happy to share with me and later online I found this Tweet for me:

"Shout out to the sweet shuttle guy at the Toyota center who chatted with me about my illustration work. Made my day!”

Made her day? Made MY day!

It’s not that difficult to raise one another up. Let go of your self for a blessed second. Actually, there is relief for you in that act alone.

ChelseaLinaeve.com
Illustrator and Natural Scientist

Chemistry and connection

Even though he’s a chemist by profession we often talk about marketing, branding, the buying public. Sometimes we get into colors and fonts. Maybe it’s because I’m not a chemist. He has talked to me about batch sizes and production capacity in general ways a couple of times. I’ll bet I could get a tour now that I think of it.

This last time I saw him I was having a very difficult day with the service advisors and their communications with me. There is no central dispatch for my time. There is a core of about six guys that direct my travel schedule. We could easily imagine another four or five people at least that might ask if I can get something or someone for them. Occasionally I have to say “No, get someone else. I’m already committed." I also have to keep in mind the space/time map. The morning driver is the one with the composite picture of the potential afternoon route. 

So, communication; sending and receiving, senders and receivers. Claudio and I talked about gaps and missed signals. He talked about his wife getting upset with him that he does not remember that she told him something. We talked about joint responsibility in effective communication. The sender needs to be clear that the message was received. The receiver needs to acknowledge receipt. Whether there is comprehension or agreement is another layer or step.

Although I have heard him say “You know, David, I think it’s more like …”, Claudio is very much a “Yes, and” communicator. Yes, and .. not necessarily in the improv comedy sense, but in finding the agreement that keeps the lines open and moving.

Claudio usually has some Christian radio or CD running in his car and we might have a chat about that. I’ve been working on this idea for a bit and wanted to run it by him. I can easily leap from the communication of sending and receiving to writers and readers.

That the Bible is actually a divinely inspired work depends on the level of inspiration of the reader. The Bible, all by itself … fill in the blank. Does it not take a reader? A Reader? An inspired Reader?

One can have the biggest body of water backed up by the dam, or the largest solar array imaginable but if it is not tied to the grid, and ported to your door … if you are not plugged in, it doesn’t matter. Senders and receivers. Writers and readers.

“Yes, and ...” he said, “I have something for you."

His company does not buy a lot of swag but he found a little stash and, knowing how much I like caps, brought me one as a present. And then, as we were stopping right outside the service door, he pulled a copy of my book Drive Time out of his satchel and asked for my autograph. What a guy. That is so sweet.

Real people. What fun.

The slip I was given for Beata said she was going to 108th and Layton. The truth is she was visiting a friend while her car was being serviced and did not know the address. As we are arriving in the general vicinity she does not recognize any landmarks and is getting a bit apologetic. I have time. Not to worry. We’ll get there. The truth is I drove her to S. Foxwood south of Beloit Road at about 123rd St. over a mile and half further on. I am really glad she knew where her friend actually lives.

On the way we had me practice her last name. It took me three times before she was satisfied.

She’s been seven years in America and recently completed some coursework at MATC that allows her to become an intake nurse at a hospital. A first step toward greater things. She is going to need to work on her English if she expects to be hired for an important position like intake.

When I went to pick her up there were a a few people in the front yard including two younger boys - one of them selling lemonade. I bought 50 cents worth from my window seat and gave him a buck. He’s way down in the suburban weeds in the middle of a hot morning. He’s not going to sell much. There’s no one there and no one driving by. He needs a little encouragement.

Anyway, there’s an older guy with Beata that turns out to be her father. She says he only knows a few phrases and so … I test him a bit. Hi. Hello. How are you? I think he knows more than she says.

In my day-to-day life I don’t get to hear much Polish being spoken. I ask her if she can tell me something; a story, a recipe, or a joke. She relays this to him. He laughs a bit. It’s quiet. He’s thinking. Then he gives her the run up to an old family joke they both know. She laughs and then proceeds to tell me in Polish. She gets to the end and they both laugh. Then I laugh. Then she wants to know if I want to know the joke in English. No, I say, I just wanted to hear you talk. She tells him that and we all crack up. 

Laughing with real people; strangers just a few minutes ago. What fun. 

The Missing

Today, the last Saturday of August, I've listened to more than 100 audio clips and, either named them, or deleted them. I easily have a hundred clips to go. Some of them go back two years to my previous smart phone. It's not 'live' anymore but it does have the data.

I am gathering the stories for the next book. And I notice some of what is missing; those folks that I have not recorded merely because I collected their business card or made some other paper note.

Chelsea, the illustrator and natural scientist. Sam, aka Professor Lego. Albert Lo, PhD and SCORE counselor. Bob, the SeaDog sailing captain. Mike, the robot integrator. Gypsi, the energy worker. Qiao Qiao, the young Chinese entrepreneur that could not admit to wanting to hook me up with the Market America business plan.

These are the cards and notes surfing the current wave that washes over my workspace.

I have met so many people, experts in their own lives, with expertise in dozens of disciplines. People living with life and death. You will not see them on the news.

You will see them almost everywhere else though. In lines, in elevators, in transit, in waiting rooms; waiting. Waiting for someone, for you perhaps, to notice them. Or, if YOU slow down a bit, they might notice you. Wouldn't that be a nice change of pace?

"Competition is what keeps us hurtling along in solitude. Collaboration allows us a peek into meaning." ~ David L. White

The very next morning

We saw something on television about the theft of babies from hospitals and two days later I meet John who works as a software engineer at a company that makes the anti-theft anklets for those newborn babies. 

He’s telling me about designing the sensitivity into the product; resistance, capacitance, and temperature? No, actually, not temperature. It’s too slow a change to provide an actionable alert. But we could do that. We expect enough and not too much if we are going to lock down a hospital when an alert bracelet goes off.

On another note we see old friend Tom for supper last night and he's carrying an O2 tank connected to nasal cannula; his oxygen for COPD. And this morning - THE VERY NEXT MORNING - I meet a woman who retired a little early to stay home with her husband who is in the end stages of COPD.

I'm working on this reflection idea that we see what we believe and we find what we're looking for.

I'm not sure that's exactly it. If you ask someone 'do we find what we're looking for?' They may say “Hell no."

I wonder if the fractions and distractions of life play into this. In other words, the lack of focus on any one particular thing ends up being a scattering, a smattering, of everything that goes into every day.

If we find brokenness, division, negativity, and those types of things, is it because that's what we expect to see? Do we expect to find fault in order to unload the burden of blame we might be carrying?

If you say no then let's ask the opposite questions. 

How often do you expect to see goodness? 

How often do you actually encounter goodness?

How often do you expect miracles? 

How often do you actually encounter miracles?

How often do you expect serendipity? And synchronicity?

If you don't have a ready answer for the positive questions then perhaps the former questions have more bearing on your reality then you might have immediately admitted to. If. Might.

Raspberry Crazy Ants

Tarry does interior decoration for a living. He runs his own business. Things are looking up at the moment. He has big new homes by the well-to-do in Oconomowoc and the western Lakes area. 

I've met him a few times. He has an ongoing problem with his truck. Toyota knows about it. They've seen a few cases. I think things are getting better. We don't talk about it much.

He is on his way to Florida to help a buddy move back to Crivitz. The buddy spends a few years in either location and then moves again. 

This time the reason is ants. Apparently these are new, tiny ants and they are everywhere. Every where. Apparently they do not bite or sting. Apparently they are in the sugar, the bedclothes and the electronics. I told him to take some pictures. 

I also asked him to stop in Memphis and hose down in a clean room so as not to bring the critters home.

I thought these ants were probably already on Youtube and that I would look.

Lo and behold.

Raspberry Crazy Ants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2k7YNGG2ng

Perceptions, expectations, and definitions

The dealer has two buildings; a repair building and a maintenance building. They have words painted on them. That could have been thought out a little better, but, they have words painted on them. One is north and one is south. Maybe those are the key words. Still customers come in and have to be rerouted.

We understand what we mean when we tell customers which building their appointment is at, but the difference between maintenance and repair makes very little difference to someone who simply wants their car serviced.

We say we have a shuttle service; a customer courtesy vehicle. We have done little to define to the customer what we actually mean by that. My personal definition of shuttle is a group bus ride between two points. That is not what the dealer means by it. The dealer means something along the lines of a route defined by the particular group in a given time frame. So we use a word, twist the definition and occasionally run into surprises.

We have a new afternoon driver. She’s been with us for a month. I have heard that there have been a couple angry folks lately surprised that have not been picked up when they expected to be picked up. I don’t put this all on the driver. It seemed to be less of a problem with the previous afternoon drivers. I do not know how to factor that in the equation. 

 I suspect that the afternoon pickups are a bit trickier to negotiate than the morning. First off people have already put in a full day. I am the morning driver. I do not encounter these problems. Still, I do set some expectations and it finally occurs to me that I might have a say in this. Perhaps I could do more to enlighten the customers to our procedure.

Today I drafted some text that might be used in a sign in the waiting room. I wrote this before I examined my personal definition of the term. Maybe we do need to call it a courtesy car and not a shuttle. I’ll update someone besides you on this idea.

….

Courtesy Shuttle Service

We can take you home or to work and return you when your vehicle service has been completed. 

We regularly shuttle people up to 10 to 15 miles from this dealership.

We leave at 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. and other times as required. There is no set return schedule.

We make the most efficient route possible given the times and locations of those returning to the dealership.

There may very well be other customers on your ride/time.

If you have questions please ask your service advisor.

….

I started driving for Boucher Volkswagen in October 2010. They called it a courtesy shuttle. I don’t recall questioning it then. I called my blog ShuttleBug. Volkswagen. Bug. When I started with Toyota I gave myself the nickname ShuttleDave. Some say you can’t give yourself a nickname. That’s okay. If you ask me my name I don’t say Dave either.

I don’t think I am going to scuttle the shuttle or upend the industry, but it all gives me a little pause.