Opportunities, Commitments and end of Harvest.

It’s been an interesting – and challenging – 3 weeks since my last post.

Interesting because of the new opportunities that have presented themselves and challenging because of the weather and trying to do as much physically now as I could 40 years ago.

I planned to write about stoicism this month, this post will touch on that but I will explore that subject more in future posts.

It is quite amazing how many new and interesting people I have met since becoming a member of the Public Speakers Association and more so since becoming a director and starting the Woodstock Chapter.

One of the interesting and challenging opportunities that came my way was an invitation to speak at a service organisation dinner in a small town in rural Ontario on November 19 during the heavy snow storm in this part of the country.

It snowed all day, it was still snowing 2 hours before the event was due to start. I don’t have a lot of experience of driving in heavy snow. I secretly hoped it would be cancelled, it was not. I had committed to the event, given my word that I would be there, I could not let the expected audience of 60 down. Commitment.

I set off an hour earlier than I would have done for the usual 30 minute drive. Conditions were horrific. I was crawling along through snow and slush in the slow lane of the highway with transport trucks the only vehicles overtaking. All I could think of was one of them sliding into my little SUV and crushing it like a can.

At the next exit, I abandoned the highway and continued on secondary roads. Still deep snow and almost zero visibility, but very little traffic. With 4 wheel drive I was able to creep along at 30 kph and stay out of the ditch. It took an hour but I made it in one piece. I am glad I did, 40 people attended. My speech seemed to go over well.

It had stopped snowing by the time I drove home, a much easier journey.

My commitment to the corn harvest has come to an end. Good weather allowed us to finish last week. A big change from my normal life, plenty of exercise which helped me lose a couple of pounds. A few interesting equipment problems which exercised my brain in a totally different direction.

I’ll be back on the topic of stoicism on Friday this week, with a Christmas post next week and then my normal schedule from the first week of January.