Work Feels Good!

I spent the day with one of IBM's clients, yesterday, helping them figure out how to grow faster. I was part of a team that is run by David Thomson. He wrote a book called "Blueprint to a Billion" www.blueprinttoabillion.com last year and it's in a fifth printing already. The book is driving a market for follow-on workshops.

We added a lot of value in a short time. We were able to get agreement on a road map that would get this company from it's current $500 million dollars in revenue to over a billion in three years.

It felt great to be back to work again. This is the third workshop that I have been able to do in three weeks. I still need to rest a lot before and after the workshop, but I'm definitely improving my stamina.

We are looking forward to an easy weekend. We still have some settling in to do, but we are in no rush to finish.

18 Holes!

I managed to finish 18 holes of golf yesterday. It wasn't pretty, but I wasn't tired. My game is completely changed. My swing is different because I weigh so much less. I have little strength. I don't hit very far, but that means I'm not hitting so many homes and cars. I have to rely on rhythm to get any distance at all. My short game is better. My putting is excellent. So, when all is said and done, my score is about the same.

It was glorious being out of doors and away from the moving project. We are getting more settled every day.

Today, I fly to Orange County to prepare for a workshop that we will do with an IBM client tomorrow. I was able to write a proposal to one of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory clients this morning.

Life feels much more normal.

Clear Day

Pacific Grove is famous for it's cold foggy months of July and August. There is a marine layer of gray cloud that hangs over the ocean at about 500 ft that stretches from here all the way back to Hawaii. The layer is receding by 9:00 am and the rest of the day has been clear and warm. The season has changed. We are into a September weather pattern. Our summer starts now and runs to November.

I look over my computer screen at rooftops and cypress trees all the way to Monterrey Bay. I get a peek at the bright blue ocean and the distant Santa Cruz hills on the other side of the bay. Warm air settles on my shoulders and massages them until they drop about two inches. The pain in my back, a residual result of surgery, recedes with the fog.

We cleaned up all of the last boxes in the house this morning. We are now truly moved in and living here. We've waited for this day a long time. Tomorrow, Sharon starts attending a program at the University of California Monterey Bay on ancient cultures. I will play golf all morning. We are not disappointed.

We've Moved!

We moved last Tuesday and have made some real progress. We started shoulder deep in boxes. Now we are only calf deep. This is hard! No matter how much we cut back on what we have accumulated, we still seem to have more than we can fit.

Sharon's sister, Joyce, saved the day with three days of help. I am still operating at about 65%. Sharon has been incredible at organizing and staying on task.

My health continues to improve. I"m eating more and most of my food aversion is gone. I'm still not hungry, but I've had items such a lamb chops, french fries, and spare ribs. Meat is still hard to swallow and digest, but I really need the calories and protein for awhile to stop the weight loss.

My breathing continues to improve as well. I've been able to work a few days and I'm planning to do some work for IBM in Los Angeles later this week. I'm also lining up more work for September. It looks like we will be picked up enough by this Tuesday that I can get out to play some golf and get to the gym again. Moving has been good exercise, but I need more aerobics.

Our new address is: 409 Congress Avenue Pacific Grove, CA 93950. Our business/home phone is 831 333-1337. My cell phone and Sharon's cell phone are still the same.

Gettin' past it!

Everything continues to go well. I've managed to do some light assignments for clients that amount to about three days of work in August.

We are continuing to sort and pack for our move to Pacific Grove on August 21. The move has been very difficult because we are reducing our living space and consolidating two homes into one. Suddenly, pieces of furniture that we really liked in San Carlos are the wrong color or size in Pacific Grove. Little pieces of art that remind us of this trip or that family gathering can't be accommodated in our smaller space. Each decision to shed something becomes painful when you value your history as much as we do.

I completed a follow up endoscope. That went OK. I'm not sure what they used to knock me out, but I felt GREAT all day after the procedure. Now I know what great feels like again. Unfortunately, I was back to feeling like a recovering surgery patient the next day. We discovered that I had some thrush infection (from the inhalers that I've been using) in my esophagus that needed seven days of medication. The medication upset my stomach and I didn't feel great for the past week as a result. It felt like I was going backwards. I'm past all of that now. I feel much better today.

The doctors are predicting that I'll regain my strength by the end of December. In the meantime, I'll be able to do more and more each month.

Surgery plus 73 days

I'm continuing to improve. It's a slow process. We are in San Carlos this week continuing to sort and pack for the move to Pacific Grove on August 21. I'm talking a lot with clients to see what has happened since I left work in January. A lot has happened. I get very fired up with each new client issue and want desperately to get back to work. One of my clients said yesterday that it takes at least a month to recover from each hour that you are sedated in surgery. I think that formula may apply. By that measure, I should be fully back by the end of October, five months of recovery for five hours of surgery.