I used to love the airport as a kid. We would arrive early to pick up a relative, usually my grandparents, for the holidays. I loved the adventure of it. The parking lot, the long walk into the building and then the security line.

During long walk down the hallway to the security line the excitement would build. I loved every minute of it. No need for a ticket, they just let you roam the whole place.

One holiday, it must have been Christmas, we had two trips to the airport. The first trip was pretty uneventful except I was pretty curious about the metal detector. How much metal would it take to set off? My winter coat had a long row of metal snaps, maybe a dozen in all. I was pretty sure today would be the day I would set of the detector. As I approached I wondered what they would say, how closely they would search me and how loud the beeps would be, it was exciting!

Sadly, no such luck.

I planned my strategy in the car ride home from my next trip in a few hours, I would load my pockets with change.

I was only about five which meant all the money I had was mostly nickels and pennies, it was the metal I needed.

I was ecstatic when I set off the alarm that day, not so much for security and my parents.

Flash forward to today, I am at the airport waiting for a flight. The security lines, masks, and ongoing alerts for safety.

I miss the days of the joys of the airport.

(Years ago I used to take a ton of redeye flights. Transportation to the airport was difficult so I had to show up sometimes as much as six hours early. I loved walking through the empty walkways in the deep night. The quiet of a super busy place is fun to experience.)

The days are long and the weeks are short.

The older I get the faster time seems to go.

This is Sammi at the end of her kindergarten year.

She learned to love reading and never spoke in art class. She was so quiet that the teacher thought something was wrong. Besides fearing the art teacher, Sam loved all things school.

One thing that still puts a smile on my face is her breakfast routine. She ate a normal breakfast at our house each morning. Then she would be dropped off at the grandparents to wait for the bus. Grandma seemed to always have mini donuts, so Sammi had breakfast number two. Then school offered a free breakfast which she never turned down. We had no idea this was happening until she started having some massive stomach pains. Turns out school breakfast was not a wise choice for her.

Flash to today. Sammi is off to her to the spring dance, close to wrapping up her K-12 school career.

As this chapter closes another is starting to open.

Even with two elementary teachers as parents, she has picked that as her major next year.

Eighteen years of listening to our stories, not all where full of sunshine, didn’t drive her away from teaching I am not sure anything will.

I am kinda out of energy but feel free to join edcampstl tomorrow.

Register here – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/edcampstl-22-tickets-259940658507

Also, anyone going to SXSWEDU?

I read this book a while ago about a guy who asked David Goggins to come live with his family for 30 days. The author, Jesse Itzelr, talked about cold calling people he found interesting. The most impressive part is the people on the other end were usually receptive.

A while ago I was getting frustrated with a few things and needed fresh ideas.

I knew there were ideas out there so I sent a few cold emails and was shocked when 90% of the people responded.

So far I have talked with two big tech companies, two universities and a distant school district. I was most impressed at how open they were with sharing ideas and their own struggles with how to grow their organizations.

Three big themes have emerged. Culture, people and focus. In future posts I will go in these in more detail.

I did start looking at the book Culture Code to learn a bit more about what culture might look like and how change up my own approaches.

I also started using Blinkist, it boils down a book in like fifteen minutes.

I love the idea of Blinkist, it helped me focus on some of the main points of a recent book. That started me down a path, wouldn’t this be great for our kids? It is like an appetizer at dinner, it gets you ready to eat and opens you up to new flavors.

One last thought. Much of what I heard was if you don’t have a solid culture, nothing will work. Culture seems to be the foundational piece of everything. My challenge to you, step back and watch how your people move through their day. What happens when they walk the halls, how does the bathrooms look at the end of the day? The cafe floors after all the kids leave? How does staff treat all the people in the building. Who is included and who isn’t? I have started to notice a few interesting trends these past few weeks.

I assume it was the weather. Today was in the low 80s, not normal at all. The warm weather and the sun must have had some impact on what I was seeing, it was like some internal engine was running and we had no way to slow it down.

Then the sister came home and that ratcheted it up a lot. There is something about siblings, they either get along or drive each other crazy.

I am so thankful for a short walk around the neighborhood seemed to have calmed things down.

That is until homework… I hate homework.

Years ago I had this dog, Jingles, and she had this way of drinking in the air.

We would go for a walk and she would stop, point her snout towards the sky and sniff.

I really never understood what she was doing, sometimes it even annoyed me . We were out for a walk and that meant walking not smelling the invisible air.

These past few weeks there have been multiple ice storms followed by multiple AMI/snow days. Cold is the worst season.

Today it topped out at 75. Today I had to travel between few buildings which meant tiny bit of outside weather.

I stepped out of the car, titled my snout back, closed my eyes and smelled deeply. It smelled of summer and hope. I feel we are finally emerging from the deep cold of winter and covid.

That morning I took a quick pic to show how long my hair had grown over the past year.

Now I have a whole new issue, how the heck to style my hair. This is something totally new to me. I even bought some type of hair paste, I’m sure it isn’t paste but it sure seems like it.

Not perfect but it is kinda close. Not sure about the weird curl that keeps twisting out of control, maybe more paste will solve that!

My last real haircut was in 1989.

The is me in the red flannel. My hair was so tall I had to lean out the car window. It was different that the whole hallway would part as I walked to class. It was pretty epic. Mostly because I was invisible until that day I put the hawk up.

Shortly after I cut my hair much shorter.

After the corps I vowed to never cut my hair again. I let it grow wild for about two years until I shaved it all off.

Last March I decided to let it grow. That was the first time my kids had seen me with hair. They were 16 and 14 at teh time. Now a year later I randomly decided to get it cut.

This is the first hairstyle since my that beautiful one I had back in 1989.

Will post a picture tomorrow if I can style it. That is stressing me out already.

Why are these weeks so long?

Will the exhaustion come to an end?

There is a car that is much closer than it appears in the mirror.

When I leave the gym in the morning I have to hit the center turn lane before I can merge into the proper lane.

It never fails if there is traffic. People see me. I have my signal on. I am trying to merge into the lane but someone always speeds up to prevent me entering.

This happens from time to time when I travel between buildings.

Why are people so concerned with someone properly merging?

It is like they are trying to win a prize or something.

This annoys me.

If you are a merge preventing person can you tell me why?

One other traffic issue… when did people stop yielding to fire and ambulances?