The last few weeks, many of us have been dealing with stress. The impacts of Hurricane’s Harvey and Irma were not only physical but emotional on the psyche of our nation. Seeing the pain of our countrymen and women can be very challenging and hard to bear. And if you were impacted by these events, the stress you feel over your own loss and the losses incurred by your neighbors can be immensely stressful. As the Chainsaw Gang went out to help Hurricane Irma victims, I came up with five ways to help me deal with my own physical and mental stress: 1) What is most important? When I was in the military and learned basic first aid, the mantra was, “Stop the Bleeding, Start the Breathing, Protect t
In 2004, I organized a group called “The Chainsaw Gang” in response to Hurricane Charley that wreaked havoc on Florida. This group of Rotarians volunteered their time and talents to cut up downed trees and clean up debris. Unfortunately, the Chainsaw Gang didn’t get much of a break with Hurricanes Frances and Jean right on Charley’s tail. It was a massive clean-up effort and our crew did an amazing job helping out when and where it could. For the past 13 years, we haven’t utilized the Chainsaw Gang. Which is truly a blessing! But after reading the NOAA reports that this could be the year our state could have big issues, I decided to reconstitute the Chainsaw Gang. So, I broached the idea to
When I was a child back in Waldo, preparing for a hurricane was a little different than it is today – but in a way, some things remain the same. Since there was no bottled water, we filled every container we had with water from our well. I remember going back and forth to the well with a bucket to make sure all the containers were kept full. And, even though we had gas pumps, they, of course, wouldn’t work without electricity, so we gassed up our car and pumped some extra into gas cans. My parent’s bed was on the screened porch, so we had to move their bed into the inner room of our living quarters and then we’d put plastic over the screens to keep the rain off of the other furniture that oc
Not long ago, a friend presented to me a business plan that seemed to have merit. He was quite excited about the potential return on investment and asked me if I would loan him the money so he could move forward and take advantage of the opportunity while it was available. As much as I liked this guy and respected his business acumen, my immediate reply was, “I don’t loan money,” which was (and is) true. My quick response was from programming myself that “I” am not in the loan business - the bank is in the loan business. Therefore, my position was not in judgment of his business idea, but that my “I do not lend” answer would always be the same. To this day, I do not loan money. Of course, th
