Todd P Paul

How to spend $1000 at 4:30 am and not enjoy it

3:30 am
I wake up to noise in the living room. It sounds like Sam, my dog, wrestling around. We have a new mouse friend, so I think she must be playing chase with (and hopefully killing) Mr. Mouse. Go back to sleep.

4:15 am
Wake up to Jen yelling at me about something. I slumber out of bed to find Sam down for the count on the kitchen floor and ALL her body functions spread around the living room. She is alive, but barely. She can't hold her head up or steady. She is drooling all over herself and she can't stand up.

4:30 am
Trip down a half a flight of stairs carrying a 67 pound dog. Lucky, I am met by a fire extigisher box. Sam is really pissed now. I get to the street to wait for the cab to the hospital.
The cab comes - going the wrong way, down a one-way street - and the driver yells at me to watch his new seat as I try to get my half dead dog into the back of the cab. At this point, I bit my tongue and refrain myself from killing the cab driver.

4:45 am
Arrive at the Animal Emergency Room. They work her over, give her some valium (breakfast of champions!) and give her some charcoal (yea, like the little brick you put in your grill - minus the chemicals).

5:45 am
Doc is not sure what happen, but guesses she ate some poison on our late night walk in the park. She puts Sam on an IV and more medicine.

7:30 am
ER says I have to take Sam to the local Vet, because they close at 8 am. They make all the arrangements for the transfer and hand me a bill for $955. (Holy Shit!) If Sam was not the best dog in the world and one of my best friends, she would have been in trouble at this point. At least for the $955 they called a cab for me.

7:45 am
I carry Sam, her IV bag, my bag, and a emergency first aid kit to Cab #2. The driver is walking to the car in front of me and does not even bother to open the door for me. Already livid at his profession, I politely (okay, there may have been an F-bomb in my request) ask him to get the door. He just looks at me while I put Sam on the trunk to get the door open. The whole way to the other Vet, steam is rolling out my ears. I think to myself, " When we arrive, I should put his money in the top of the door jam and shut the door so he has to get out and open the door to get it." I refrain from this action, against my better judgement, for Sam's sake.

8:00 am
Arrive at Uptown Animal Clinic, the neighborhood vet, with Sam. She is a little further from death's door at this point, but not as much as one would think after $955 and 3 1/2 hours. I go over the morning's events with the new Vet and they say she needs to stay there for the day and eat some more charcoal. She is on the Vet table and I am having to hold her head up. She is in ruff shape, black charcoal all around her mouth, her eyes wobbling around in her head, and an IV hanging out her paw. The Vet tells me they will watch her for the day and let me know if anything changes. They get her squared away in the back and I head home.

12:00 p.m.
I call the Vet to get an update. They say she is a little better and is making good progress. They say call back around 4:30 p.m.

My best guess is she ate something while I was not looking in the park last night. I can not imagine what, but it worked her over really good and very quickly. I hope she will be able to come home tonight and will not have to go back to the ER for after hours care. If 3 hours cost that much, I don't want to think about what an overnighter would cost me.

Wish Sam luck over the next few days. She is going to need it. Hopefully she will be better in a few days. She better, because we are putting her out on the street corner to make some money back.

How will the religious right get on without Jerry Falwell?

This is a continuation on the Economist article mentioned earlier.

The evangelical movement that was prodded out of its slumbers in late 1970's will remain a powerful force in American political life. It will continue to put abortion and gay marriage at the heart of politics. But it needs to broaden its agenda to include issues like the environment. And it needs to embrace a new generation of leaders who are cut from a rather different cloth than Mr. Falwell.

I think this is the major tension point of the Christian church over the next twenty-five years and beyond. Can the institutionalized church move past its present state, toward a new movement that works contextually in Generation Y? The track record with Generation X has not been so good, and the traditional church has not seemed to realize. As traditional churches become more and more cultural irrelevant institutions and the mega-church thrives with a specific demographic, what happens to the rest? The writers of this Economist article have an important point. The need to broaden the cognitive bandwidth of the western Christianity is direr at best at best.

God without the godfather

Interesting social commentary from this weeks Economist.

What do you hope people say about you?

This week has been full of historical events. The passing of Jerry Falwell, the resignation of Wolfowitz, and the resignation of Tony Blair. With all of these events, there has been a cloud of speculation around how history will judge these people. While I have varying opinions about each, I am sympathetic to each of their plights. I am also reminded of two quotes, "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely" (Lord Acton) and "With great power comes great responsibility." (Superman).  Each of these individuals have done great things and less than great things, but what has me thinking is how will history remember them? Which leads to the same question about myself.
As I was watching Tony Blair's speak yesterday in the rose garden of the White House. I could see his conviction, character, and courage. I was also able to remember some of his great accomplishments, also some failures. Jerry Falwell - which Will wrote a good piece on - has a similar story. Although, I am less inclined too appreciate his good accomplishments, I still recognizes some value added. But how will these stories be recreated over time? Will Blair be able to raise above the Iraq war? Will Falwell be able to rise above his comments after 9/11 (among others!)? Only time will tell with these individuals but it is not too late for the one individual I have the most control over - me. So my question to you is how do you hope to be spoken of?
I will post my response over the weekend. I am still struggling with some perception/reality problems. I would love to hear so of your thoughts.

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As I thought about this more over the last few days, I came up with a list. This list is more what I hope to live myself into, because I am well aware I have and continue to fail in quite a few of these (okay, all).

Direct

Hopeful

Caring

Loyal

Straight Forward

On the Road again....

I am traveling the southeast over the next few days. I am working on some rental property in the DEEP south, so communication will be light.

On my trip down, I saw this sign. I thought some of you may be interested in becoming a Ninja, so I took a picture so you could have the 800 number. Enjoy you Ninja pursuits over the next few days!

A day at the office

I thought I would share a little about my day. It has been amazing in Chicagoland the last few days and this afternoon I decided to get out and enjoy it a little. I worked from home this morning, but it was too nice to be inside. After lunch I decided to head to the park to work from there. I was behind on a little reading and needed to do some thought work. What better place than the park down the street. Sam and I decided that this is the way to spend a work day.
She surveys the park and I work on the Blackberry. Despite my love/ hate relationship with the device, it is pretty nice to be able to work from anywhere. I worked out two real estate deals setting right there. Not bad.
Best of all, I got to walk home (in under an hour), open the refrig and enjoy a nice beverage. Yesterday, I brought a 30 pack of beer for under $13. Yes, that is .43 cent a beer. I was snobishly sticking to the PBR bottles, but in light of this new discovery I may be a convert.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a work day. I just wish I could figure out some way to make everyday like today.

Over Educated

What happens to a society when it pushes education and makes it available to the masses? Simple supply/demand economics. You get a society of over educated people. Today's college degree is yesterday's high school degree. So everyone is told to go to college, rack up student loan debt, and come out making less than you would if you would have just started working right out of high school. I know it is about long term earning power.

Continuing the vicious cycle, the wife and I are headed back. Jen is still in the waffling stages. She is thinking Northwestern for an MBA. I, on the other hand, have decided to add more letters at the University of Chicago . I spoke with them last week and it seems like the best fit.

Church?????

This has been one of the most frustrating things about the move to Chicago. What to do about Church, etc... I hate the idea of "church shopping" it feels like cheating on a lover every time you go somewhere new. On top of the inherently weird nature of the event, I have high, unrealistic standards. I have been spoiled over the last five years. I think the hard thing to work out about my expectation is the lack of perfection. I don't want perfect, and worse, I don't want a group trying to be perfect. This seems to be the major issue with the places we have visited so far. The expectation of "church" and all it should be has to happen every Sunday morning in an hour and a half. (Which is to damn long to begin with!) Most places in our area, just have one event - Sunday morning. So, I guess they feel obligated to get everything in during that time. Everyone has been nice and friendly, but it feels forced and superficial. I don't have any answers, only frustrations. Stay turned, it is bound to get worse before it gets better.

The Tipping Point

With all my new found time due to a simplified life, I have tried to focus on reading more. Reading is something I enjoy, but does not come easy. I have to be fairly disciplined about it. My solution to this was to set a weekly reading goal. A few weeks ago I decided that goal should be 250 to 300 pages per week. This was lofty as most of my aspirations are, but so far so good. I just finished The Tipping Point. The premise is that social change happens based on the small things in cultures. Gladwell breaks down a few different cultural and social events and then works out the common threads. I thought the most interesting thing was the personalities - Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen - he worked out as key social change drivers. I will not spoil the read for you, but I would recommend it if you are into culture, change, groups, or any of the related ideas.

Audible.com

This week I got an advertisement email about Audible.com. I have heard of them before, but never subscribed to their service. The promotion was three months of discounted service. So, being a fan of the audio book I decided to join. It is one of the best things. I get the Wall Street Journal on my ipod every morning, which I stopped subscribing to because the FT is so much better and there is only so much time in the day. But it is nice to be able to listen to the WSJ in a hour. On top of that, you get one free book per month with your subscription. Pretty nice to be able to listen to a paper and a book on a train ride.