Final Flood Thoughts

More acts of the weather gods. Last Sunday’s lightening storm knocked out the electricity in Old Town and West Alexandria on Monday, effectively knocking me out of work again. I was able to get my media training PPT done. Apologies for not blogging as promised.

My company has leased a car on my behalf, a benefit of being the owner. It’s an Acura TL, which actually came in cheaper than a fully loaded Volkswagen Passat and a Toyota Avalon on the lease side. Actually the payment represents a more than 20 percent reduction from my old car, the Audi, and that’s pre-tax dollars. Not bad. It’s a sweet ride, one of the pieces of silver lining that’s come out of the flood. The color is red, perhaps an early sign of a flood-induced mid-life crisis?

One thing I will say. The amount of help we have received from people has just been amazing. It’s really made me believe in the human race again… with the exception of insurance companies (if you are shopping for insurance, stay away from SafeCo. We’ve had a very bad experience with them).

Preferred Offices really saved my business from suffering more than it has, and family and friends have come together to make our living situation as tenable as possible. We think we will be back in the house by this weekend, and the basement should be refinished by Labor Day. Thank goodness.

It appears the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project was the cause of the Cameron Run flood. VDoT is denying culpability, but now we are organizing. My neighborhood has become my new pro bono client. That’s about it for flooding from a business standpoint, back to work, really.

It’s a short week, but it would be good to have amore than 40% productivity week. That’s my goal, get back to basics, think about others, my clients, my business associates, my friends.

Here are this week’s quotes for you:

“Leave selfishness behind you, and you cannot fail.”
-Musashi

“Do nothing that achieves nothing.”
-Musashi (Yes, I am listening to the Book of Five Rings on CD)

“If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.”
-Herodotus