I like working hard, getting things done, and having something to show for my labor. This current remodeling project at my house gives me a lot of feedback. Each day we can see the enormous progress we’ve made.

My three sons benefit greatly from working with me. I am an efficient driver of labor, and I understand how to use people effectively. My work crews get a lot done.

Far from being an easy boss. I demand competent, efficient work, and I occasionally chastise my sons for working too slowly. At the end of the day, however, they take pride in what they have done. (I do not stand for shoddy work of any kind; if it’s not done right, it’s ripped out and redone.) They also appreciate the hard cash I pay them when we quit work. I want them to experience the instant exhilaration of gaining cash through well done work just completed. That connection needs to be clearly imprinted on their brain.

Even though I’m tired at the end of the day (we worked 10 hours today), and my ribs still hurt like heck as we crawl around in the attic cutting pink board insulation to fit around all the pipes and wires, I’m still delighted. I like accomplishing things more than anything in the world. Teaching my sons the love of accomplishment through the use of hard work is very important to me.

It will someday be vital to their future.

It’s been nine days since I fell through my living room ceiling, and my ribs and side are still sore. So the doc (Ted Taylor of Gold Beach) suggested I have a CT Scan to see if I either cracked a rib or bruised my liver. Negative! But the scan coincidentally showed I have a bunch of small kidney stones in my kidney.

How lucky! I’ve passed kidney stones before, and it’s like someone shoved a screwdriver in my back and twisted it. It’s pain tantamount to giving birth. Thank God women do that!

But these days they have an utrasound machine that can target and break up the stones so you can pea them out rather than have them tear a blue streak across your kidney. Tomorrow morning I’ll get a “still x-ray” to make sure the stones are large enough to target. How lucky can you get? The chance to avoid kidney stone pain! What a great age we live in.

And my side pain? The doc says I’m probably working so hard on my remodel that I’m not giving my ribs and surrounding muscle a chance to heal. I’ll slow down in another week or two. But I’ve got a lot to do between now and then.

My sons are hard workers, and brave. They realize that hard work is the noblest goal, so they take hard work, with is attendant risks, in stride.