Turned Around

PROLOGUE

Sunday morning my best laid plans for getting to the Learning Solutions conference in Orlando, Florida got turned around. News about flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi, my direct route, and word of more of the same on my alternate route through Arkansas encouraged me to play it safe. So I made it as far east as Austin, Texas and and turned around for home.

GIVING MYSELF THE GIFTS OF TIME AND FLIGHT

In Austin I decided to try for my alternate route through Arkansas. Increasingly dire warnings on the news and Facebook friends postings about heavy weather nixed that idea. I emailed the conference producer that I wouldn't be able to make it to present my session. I felt a kind of despair for a little while. What made the fear fade was hearing from a friend that I needed to ask God for guidance then decide then let go. So I did.

A hundred miles west of Abilene, Texas for no particular reason I pulled off Interstate 20 and walked around a bit. I had my BeBop drone with me. I wanted to take it aloft but was cautious as it was windy. In the end I let it fly. And then I was rewarded by this photo.

I decided then to go off the Interstate. I got to visit several very small Texas towns. I experienced life through others' lenses. I flew my drone under a bridge over the Pecos River. I got to look down into what I think was a mine entrance. I fumbled a bit trying to fly over and around a moving train. I have to work on being steady at the controls though. But I did get to peer down into some of rail cars passing below.

EPILOGUE

A few days before Christmas 1977 I decided to take a couple weeks leave from my posting at the US Navy's training command at Corry Station, Florida. Early one Saturday morning I packed my sea bag into the trunk of my lemon yellow Toyota Celica and headed west on Interstate 10. My goal was spending the holiday with my family in Colton, California some 2200 miles distant. I recall it was quite foggy as I sped along. Around Mobile, Alabama it started to rain. Hard. It continued to rain well into Louisiana. The gas stations I stopped at to refuel were inundated by water. In Louisiana there's this long stretch of Interstate 10 that's elevated. I have a strong memory of my Celica and me hydroplaning over the flooded bayous. By the time I got to Beaumont, Texas the clouds and rain had mostly given way to clear blue sky. Topping off at a Texaco station I asked the attendant how long to El Paso. His reply remains vidid in my memory: "Worry about that tomorrow."

So here I am, my 60 year old self, enjoying another tomorrow. I have time.

 

5 a.m.

INTRO

It's 5 a.m. on a Saturday. I'm on a path that I'm not sure where it goes.

FADED PHOTOGRAPHS OF VIVID MEMORIES THAT MAY NOT HAVE HAPPENED, YET

I'm on my way to #LSCon, the Learning Solutions Conference, produced by the eLearning Guild. But that's not what this post is about. I'm on my way to Orlando, Florida where the conference is held. To get there I have to travel along a path from my distant past.

The end of 1977 found me at Corry Station learning the finer points of being a technical sailor in the US Navy. Corry Station, in ancient times, was a naval air station. I have a vivid memory walking across the old runway apron and tripping over an old aircraft tie-down cleat. It was set, recessed, into the concrete, a small loop of rusted iron. At least that's how I remember it. I think I took a photo of it. If I did I lost it. It isn't in my Flickr, one of the apps I use to record photos.

At this very moment I'm in El Paso readying myself for today's travel. I'm connected to the Internet via a 3G Verizon mobile device. In its day it was fast. Today it's like molasses. A few minutes ago I was in Flickr looking for old photos. After about two years of pictures the screen turned gray. The photos are there, on a server somewhere, but not here in front of me to verify my memory.

I hope to travel 600 miles today just like I did yesterday. Except that yesterday I barely made it 400 miles. I kept stopping, for reasons of health and curiosity, to pass some time among memories. I flew my BeBop drone to give me a perspective I didn't have back then. If you follow me on social media expect lots of fisheye views of the ground from 30 metres up the next few days.

OUTRO

In 1977 parts of Interstate 10 hadn't been completed. Today, I hope to find a detour I took around one such unfinished section. Only I'm not 100% sure where it was. One end was at Fort Stockton, Texas. I recall a cattle watering tank and an ancient Ford Aeromotor (a windmill). If I find them, expect a flyover. If I can't find it maybe I'll do a sketch of the vivid memory of something I think I saw 39 years ago for a moment.

 

 

Focus Operandi

PROLOGUE

There are lots of things vying for our attention. Maintaining the laser-like focus many of our jobs demand can actually distract us from innovative insights.

FOCUS OPERANDI

Erik Wahl, guest writing in the Kids Deserve It blog notes that innovative insights often occur during times when people are intent on doing their jobs. The problem is, given how busy we are, it’s easy to miss ideas that flit in and out of our consciousness during while we’re busy doing our thing.

Wahl suggests setting aside moments to let our minds wander. Hopefully we’ll notice and be able to cajole some of the insights to stick around long enough for us to get our minds around them.

EPILOGUE

Storytelling and sketching are what I do to open and rest my mind. It helps me focus on something quite different from what I’m usually doing. If only for a few minutes I listen to my little voice of wonder and curiosity hoping to hear something cool.