• What about now by Chris Daughtry

It has been raining a lot lately, very gloomy and things seem very depressing no matter where you turn. As for most businesses in our area, they’re thriving, many are focusing on cost cutting rather than revenue generating since it’s a hopeless situation to bring in more business.  It’s riding out the tough times, number crunching for many that work in the Accounting department, having nightmares about cash flow.  It used to be that if you rubbed shoulder with the owner, then you have a job security, but not anymore, it’s most definitely you earn your keep these days.  One thing that I’ve seen and learned, you don’t take your personal problems to work, and you don’t take work home, the two just don’t mix, Max knows what I’m talking about.

It has been a while since I last posted about my garden, the Summer just flew by and now we’re heading for the Fall season. I’ve decided to plant some Fall vegetables, mainly because I want to expand my garden, and have more planting space in the Spring, but I still have a lot more work to do.

Lee is putting her little touch in “her” garden, her latest additions to the garden were the mushroom and birdbath, and her job is to make sure there’s clean water in the birdbath daily.

Believe it or not I still get string beans, just last week that I saw new flowers, and this week more beans.

My herb garden looks more like a Spring garden rather than a Fall garden.

I harvested all my peppers to make room for my Fall crops except for this one.

Some Fall crops.

My new planting bed for Fall crops, still a few more to go.

Another year of Water Hyacinth take over.

And my two Gardenias next to the driveway are in bloom.

Have you ever been in a place or situation that it’s so tense and the air is so thick that you could cut it with a knife? I’ve been there and living it.  I think many people don’t think before they speak, or maybe we just don’t see it coming, but as for me, I have to say that I am thinking more than I speak this day.

This made me think of a book that I read in December of last year, it’s called the Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.  It’s over 200 pages, and I read it in one sitting because it’s that good.  The book is about a lady by the name of Kathryn Peterson who took a job as Decision Tech’s CEO, she faces the ultimate leadership crisis and has to unite a team that is in such disarray that it threatens to bring down the entire company.  This book defines the dysfunctions of a team, but I think it can also be applied to any relationship, not just work related.

The first dysfunction is absence of trust. Trust is the foundation of real teamwork, and so the first dysfunction is a failure on the part of team members to understand and open up to one another, great teams do not hold back with one another, they are not afraid to air their dirty laundry, they admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal, and the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.

The second dysfunction is fear of conflict, if we don’t trust one another then we aren’t going to engage in open, constructive, ideological conflict, and we’ll just continue to preserve a sense of artificial harmony. The conflict here is not the same as passive, sarcastic comments, and false harmony is a result of people holding back their opinions and honest concerns, and I agreed with the book that I’d trade that false kind of harmony any day for a team’s willingness to argue effectively about an issue and then walk away with no collateral damage.

The third dysfunction is the lack of commitment and the failure to buy into decisions.  When people don’t unload their opinions and feel like they’ve been listened to, then they won’t really get on board.  On a personal level, I think it’s very discouraging to be a part of a team that the lead person makes all the decision because s/he can, it’s not important of what you think because your opinions don’t count.  I hate to be a part of that type of team and dealing with that type of people, and I’ve to say that I’ve met many in my lifetime.

The fourth dysfunction is avoidance of accountability, people just don’t want to take responsibility of their actions and it’s easier to blame on other people, also making endless excuses for themselves, and as a result setting a very low standard for the team, then it’s a downward spiral of progress from there on.

The fifth and last dysfunction is inattention to results, status and ego. Trust is the foundation and is at the bottom, but the ultimate dysfunction is where a tendency of team members to seek out individual recognition and attention at the expense of results.  We see this all the time, it’s all about that person and s/he would do anything at what ever cost to reach that goal, to feed his/her ego.  When I see or meet people like that, it’s such a turn off to me, and I’ve met one too many.

I recommended and lent this book to people that I know and knew that it would help them in what they’re doing, but only to get it back unread and a reply of ‘I’m afraid to read it because I’m living it.”  After reading this book, I see things a lot clearer, especially in my personal relationship with people, I learned to recognize the dysfunctional signs, and weed out the ones that only think of themselves.  As bad as the economy is this day, it’s still a long road to recovery.

Below is a picture of Ira Cline, this is his last season to greet his strawberry customers, some are his friends that come to pick his strawberries year after year.

Another sad story, when I heard that Ira Cline Farm is closing his strawberry farm, this only stresses the fact that this area is getting hit hard, plus the crop is getting taxing as well.  Ira Cline is a fifth generation farmer, he was born on the Cline farm, and has been growing berries for the past 31 years.  He also has blueberry, which I’ve never gone picking, it’s later in the summer, and this part of the farm will remain.

I think Americans mentality have changed, this was supposed to be a ‘you pick’ operation, but as people have more money, they don’t want to go out there to pick it themselves anymore.  Ira Cline thought that people are getting lazy, I just think that it’s very inconvenient for some to go out there, and money can buy a lot of conveniences.

The crop this year doesn’t look as good as last year, many overripe strawberries on the vine and it’s because it has been raining on and off, this prevent people from going out there.  The strawberries are best picked the day that they ripen, and eat or preserve them as soon as possible, overripe fruit spoils quickly on or off the vine.

This is my dad’s first year of picking, also his last at Ira Cline Farm.

This is also the first year of picking for Little Miss Sunshine.

This one looks like Strawberry shortcake.

It was a beautiful day yesterday, nice and sunny, and I told my second sister that I just love this weather, she looked at me and said, “Are you kidding me, look at me, I’m melting here!” It’s true, she was literally covered in sweat.

• Wind of Change by Scorpions

If you build it, they will come.

When Barack Obama said “…change has come to America,” he kid you not.  I never thought that it’d hit me so hard, and so fast, it comes without a warning, almost like a tornado, sad to see friends, co-workers that I’ve worked with over 10 years leaving one by one.  I’m still thinking that it’s a nightmare, and that I’d wake up from this, but as time passes, the reality sinks in.  I dare say today that not all change is good, might be that I’ve too much put on me, must be some sort of curse, I feel like I’m drowning in my own poo, but yet I’m the lucky one.  My feeling might change tomorrow, but for now, I‘m thinking about today.

Another thing that I learned just now, I was looking for an MP3 song, What About Now by Daughtry at switchpod, a site where I hosted all my MP3 songs that are posted at this blog.  Instead of their normal screen, it has a Final Notice in bold print, and below read: As of Monday May 25th, 2009 the Switchpod service has gone off-line…speechless, I checked my MP3 songs, “file not found”.  Great, at this moment, I’m not sure what I will do, I never did receive an email from them, what do I expect from a free on-line service.

Photo: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Of course, my MP3 situation is not that important comparing to everything else that is going on.  For most of us, we never thought we’d live to see the day when GM file for bankruptcy, it’s unthinkable. When I read that “…A bankruptcy filing for General Motors could come in the next few days…”, I thought of all the people that work there, their families, what will they do?  One of my retired co-workers that works part-time said that it was shocking, she never thought that she would live to see this day.  It is sad indeed, I told her that I think Americans have changed, take her for instance, she switched from American made car to Honda, the boss also switched to Toyota, and the owner switched to BMW.  As for me I’ve always driven a Toyota.

Also sad to hear that Ghost Town in the Sky that I visited last October also filed for bankruptcy protection and reorganization under Chapter 11 in March of this year, and if things don’t get better, this might be their last season.

Most people that know me know that I don’t like changes, but one change that I like to make today is to change my pen name from Ginger back to Nye, the name that most people know me by, I hope this change is for the better.  As bad as situation may seems, it helps to talk to friends or someone about it, and don’t let things bottled up inside, just remember one thing, nothing (good or bad) lasts forever.