Ouch! I've Been Tagged

If you read Mike Hyatt's blog you'll know that I've been tagged. It now falls to me to reveal 5 Things You Don't Know About Me and invite five others to do the same. Here goes....

1. I was raised on a working cattle farm - It gave me an appreciation of nature, animals and hard work. My dad is a pharmacist who worked in town, so I grew up around farm hands and the "pin hookers" who bought and sold at weekly cattle auctions. I emerged from that experience as a workaholic (there's always something to do on a farm) with a really nasty mouth. Both of those have mellowed with age. Multiple hip surgeries forced me off both the farm and the football field.

2. My Hobbies are flower gardening and guitars - In a job where I deal with people almost constantly, my down time is generally solitary or with just immediate family. You can't tell that I like flowers by looking at our home right now; we moved last Christmas to Nashville and spent this past summer just trying to grow grass on hard clay. The fall seeding seems to have taken, however, and I have high hopes for the spring. I play a McKnight custom-built OM acoustic that I purchased at Artisan Guitars in Franklin about a year ago. I take lessons from a great young guitarist and instructor Danny Combs; during the winter its the highlight of my week.

3. I have a Master's Degree in Geography (of all the strange things!)- Actually, I specialized in regional economics for locational studies. My interests as a student were where to put the factory, or convenience store, etc.... based upon the cost of land, labor, utilities, construction, etc... in any given location. That interest in locational differences in labor costs eventually spun into a specialization in compensation studies that eventually led me into HR. I am still, however, and will always be a Texas Aggie.

4. I am the husband of a breast cancer survivor - Although you might think that's more about my wife Vonnie than about me, living with a loved one facing a serious illness shaped my life as a husband and father (of a daughter). She's 14 years cancer-free and blessed with good health. Still, once you've faced the possibility of losing the one you love, whatever the two of you were fighting about at the time becomes supremely trivial. That perspective helps keep me from getting overly excited about workplace problems as well.

5. My best buddy in the whole world is: Benson (our 9 year old Cocker Spaniel who follows me everywhere)



















I am now tagging Joel Miller, Bob Cooper, Brian Hampton, Luke Gideon, and Dax Edwards.

Jim

Comments

Luke said…
I have listed my five things and tagged five other people here:
http://luke.gedeon.name/five-things-you-may-not-know-about-me.html
Thank you for the opportunity to join the conversation.

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