Let's Get Spicy

 I'm changing. As a person. Even at my age, I am still learning new things about myself. I am learning to do away the old ideas I have lived with for so long. I have learned that your horizons will never be broadened if you're unwilling or afraid to try new things. This applies to everything, but since my life has become entirely about food, I'm thinking about spice.

I was never a fan of spicy food. I always dismissed the very thought of it, saying it made no sense to eat something that caused pain or discomfort. But I am changing and I am trying and it's opening the door to new experiences for me.

I still don't see the point in eating foods so spicy that they endanger my life. I doubt I'll ever do that, but I have opened up to red pepper flakes, jalapenos, and other low-end spicy things that never would have gotten near my plate.

Let's think about this. What are the basic flavor profiles?

Sweet

Savory

Salty

Umami

Sour

Bitter

and last but not least...

Spicy.

You can't live a complete life without experiencing every one of these flavors. You may not like them all. Some people don't like sweets. I do not understand these people. These people are not from the planet earth. I am not big on fermented stuff like sauerkraut or kimchi. I don't hate it, but I am not a huge fan. But I've tried it.

Spicy food gets a bad rap and I think it's unfair. I think we should experience the spice, the sweet, the funk, the salt, and any conceivable combination of all the above. I think it makes us more complete as human beings.

I once read that a mind, once expanded by a new idea, can never regain its original dimensions. I believe the same applies to the palate.

So eat the spice! Don't say no jalapenos, ask for them on the side, and eat them! Even if you don't eat a ton of them. Eat one little piece, then another. Give it a fair shot. You might be surprised.

First and Last Impressions

We took a drive yesterday to a small town about 90 minutes from our house. We went to visit friends and also to check out a tacos and margarita themed food truck invasion and festival. We are in the process of building our first food truck and it's important to check out the competition. Besides, who doesn't like tacos and Margaritas?

To say we were underwhelmed would be an understatement. We were disappointed and fairly disgusted.

There were a handful of trucks and some of the local restaurants set up tables. We picked up food from two of the places and were barely able to finish the food. $70 all told and for what? We had McDonald's on the way home.

The town we visited is new and rapidly growing. It's still a small town with very few restaurants. These restaurants are benefiting from having essentially zero competition. It shows because they make zero effort.

One of the trucks was a barbecue outfit with an attached smoker and a very professional outward appearance. The meat was smoked well but that was where the effort stopped. There was very little attention paid to the rice and beans that accompanied the tacos. Basmati rice, which makes no sense next to a taco, and black beans straight from the can. No seasoning, no effort beyond a can opener and something to keep them warmish.

There were only five items on the menu. I ordered two of those five items and they somehow got my order wrong.

We bought tacos from a stand set up in front of the Mexican restaurant in town. Literally no seasoning on any of the food unless you count an odd, flavorless heat on one of the tacos. We ordered a Margarita, which turned out to be little more than warm lemonade.

Another food truck was Mexican-themed and while I didn't try their food, a friend of mine did and had to stop for a potty break on the way home. Their truck was cute but there was no contact information on the outside of it and they kept their windows, which were covered in the same style of graphics that covered the truck, were closed. This does not inspire confidence.

Another food truck, one selling carnival foods, was plain disgusting. Their side door was open and you could see their supplies piled on the floor. Where's the health inspector when you need the bugger!

I am not simply insulting my would-be competitors here. If I wanted to hurt them, I would post their names and pictures here. I would slam them on Yelp! or other social media. Rather, what I'm trying to do, what I always try to do, is find the lesson in this.

The lesson is that your image, the impression you make, is very important. These small businesses, which are in a very competitive space, decided to phone it in. They made very little effort because they know they have very little to lose. They are the only game in town.

Competition is good for all of us, not just the consumer. I run my businesses as if I can lose everything at every moment. I treat every customer as a precious gem to be treasured. Don't get me wrong, I have fired customers on more than one occasion, but the majority of customers are worth keeping. And if they're worth keeping, they're worth doing your absolute best for.

That means seasoning the food. It means having forks and napkins (the Mexican restaurant told us we had to go to the restaurant to get these things - so much for street food) and salt and pepper and all the other things that make your customers' experience the best it can possibly be.

It means keeping your place clean and smiling at your guests. It means thanking them for choosing you. It means doing things well. It means giving a damn about the people you are there to serve.

We went to this event partially to have a good time, but we were also scoping out the competition. I will admit that I was a little concerned about what I would find, but I left with my confidence soaring. If your competitors look at your operation and feel you're not a threat, you have a problem. I want my competitors to stay up at night worrying about me, because they spend a lot more time in my mind than I would like.

Adolfo Jimenez is the co-owner The Cafeteria Company, HoneyBee Party Rental, and Bubba's Hangover Diner. He and his wife, Abby, invest in small businesses and serve as consultants and mentors to small businesses. Adolfo is the author of several blogs and over seventeen books, including The Successful Vendor.

Why Shop Small?

 Why shop small?

It’s a serious question. One that, as a small business owner, matters very much to my success, even my survival. Why should people shop small? Why should people walk into your store? Why should they visit your restaurant? Why should they choose you, or me, over Amazon or Walmart or Chili’s or McDonalds? 

Give me one good reason why customers should choose you and I don’t want to hear the tired cliches about how buying small helps an entrepreneur pay their mortgage while buying big helps some fat cat CEO buy another ski chalet. I am a consumer. None of that matters to me. What matters to me is price. Well, not really price but value. All other things being equal, price is the deciding factor so I guess that means small businesses should probably shut down because we’ll never be able to compete against the big boys. Right?

Probably true, but the good thing is that we don’t have to compete against the big boys, we can easily be better instead of equal. But we do have to work. Being small and opening your doors isn’t enough. We need to each find our edge. We need to find what Warren Buffett (no little guy) calls a durable competitive advantage. I believe as small business owners, there are a few easy ways to do this.

Be nice to your customers. My wife and I walked into a small shop in Charleston, South Carolina yesterday. The shop sold crystals and the like and had a yoga studio attached. A very nice, and inviting space. There was a clerk behind the counter. We said hello, she said nothing. Others walked in, carrying yoga mats and dressed for yoga. She was all smiles and hellos for these folks. They were people she knew.

Our daughter is a collector of crystals and although she wasn’t with us, souvenirs are a regular part of travel and I would have liked to have bought her something from this store, but alas, we bought nothing. The clerk finally did acknowledge us but it was only to let us know from across the room that we had to leave because the class was going to start and she had to lock the door since there would be no one to keep an eye on the place.

The clerk did inform us that she had called the owner, but the owner wasn’t around and so she had to ask us to leave. We were welcome to come back and spend our money when the owner deigned to show up. This wouldn’t have irked me so much if she had acknowledged us in the first place. The clerk may not have thought about her actions or maybe didn’t care, but she was rude to us and that is why zero of my souvenir budget will be spent at that particular shop. If she had been nice to us from the moment we walked in and walked over and explained the situation instead of calling across the store that we had to leave, we may have returned and spent some money with her. But no, she doesn’t deserve my hard-earned.

The sad thing is that the clerk doesn’t care or even know why the way she treated us will echo in her career, too. I will never spend my money there. I would never recommend this establishment. I would discourage people from visiting this establishment. I may even go so far as to recommend other places where the same goods may be acquired along with service and a smile.

Acknowledge your customers. Maybe this point should have come first but I want you to be nice. Don’t acknowledge a visitor just to turn them off with a scowl.  Be nice and acknowledge your customer. Say hello when they walk in. let them know you’re nearby and happy (not just available or willing) to answer any questions your customers may have. After all, if I want to be ignored, I can go to Target.

Anyone who knows me knows I am a bookworm. I found a lovely bookstore and went inside. The clerk behind the counter, who maybe was the owner, raised her head from what she was doing, looked at us and only said hello after we did. We wandered through the store without a word from her. I love books and I love buying books from small places but I walked out empty handed.

Contrast this to my favorite bookstore in West Yellowstone, Montana. I walk in and someone says hi. Employees roaming through the store offer assistance. The cashier makes small talk. I never leave that place without a book or three.

We walked through the market in Charleston and got both kinds of treatment. There were some vendors who made eye contact and smiled and bragged about their goods like proud grandparents. Others sat behind their tables and mumbled prices or said nothing at all, treating potential customers like an inconvenience.

Know your stuff. One of the greatest things about shopping small is getting to speak to someone who really knows their stuff. I don’t just want to know what the product is. I want to know its provenance. I want the person behind the counter in the small store to come out from behind the counter and tell me why I should spend more at her store than I would have to at a big box retailer.

We walked into a jewelry store a while later and the clerk took the time to tell us that all the pieces were handmade by the artist who owned the store and that she only made a couple of each piece. This immediately made the products more desirable and made price less of an objection. She asked us where we  were from and it turned out she was about to jump on a plane that very evening and head toward our part of the world. She also took the time to tell us about some other unique places we can visit and told us about a great restaurant we could go to for lunch.

She earned my business. Big Time!

So be an entrepreneur. Set up your business. Stock it, market the hell out of it and sell! But do the little things that are going to give you an advantage. Most people are price sensitive, but many of them will make price a secondary consideration for the right product, and maybe more importantly, the right experience and the right person. Be the right person and provide that experience to all your customers all the time. It costs you nothing, but will pay off handsomely.

Adolfo Jimenez is a small business owner and writer living in South Florida with his family. He is the author of The Successful Vendor, a guide to succeeding in the competitive world of small-scale retail.

How To Everything 3

 Have you ever lost your keys? Everyone has. Does it happen to you often? Did it happen to you today? Do you know where your keys are right now? This has happened to me since as far back as I can remember; since as far back as I've had keys.

I still misplace my keys from time to time. It's something I need to work on constantly. I'm not a naturally organized person. In fact, I'm a downright disaster. The only reason it doesn't happen to me every day is simple: I put a place aside for my keys, wallet, etc. 

In other words, I created a system.

I have created systems for all of the routine things in my life. There's no way to add excitement to the routine things, but there is no need to add frustration. In the businesses we run, we implement systems for ourselves and our teams. We find that problems we encounter can often be directly attributed to a lack of systems or failure to follow the system.

In the cases when a problem occurs because there is no system, we create a system to avoid a repeat of the situation. We're a young company and we are growing every day. Rather than let the growing pains derail us, we learn from the experiences and get better while moving forward.

These systems make us more efficient, which makes us more profitable, which makes it possible for us to invest in other businesses or hire more people. When you look at it this way, being organized and systematizing many aspects of your life and business feels like a moral obligation as well as common sense.

Adolfo Jimenez is an entrepreneur, author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here. Adolfo is the co-owner of The Cafeteria Company, a commissary outsourcing firm. He also co-owns Soup -n- Sam, Le Velo Macaron, and Starlight Catering.

How To Everything 2

Yesterday I ranted about productivity. I'll admit, I'm not as productive as I'd like to be. I would say I am among the most productive people I know personally. After many years in the corporate world and now as a business owner serving the world of academia, I can say most people waste time. I am among those people. The difference is I am aware of it.

A good deal of my workday is spent with customers. From making sales and taking orders, to collection calls and the occasional dispute. I am in the food service business, so I also spend some time everyday in the kitchen, actually cooking. I often run inventory. I have to place orders and receive them. I review invoices and I balance my checkbook. I even run payroll. These are useful and necessary activities that I could delegate, but I feel they are good ways for me to keep an eye on the business; a finger on the pulse, if you will.

I actually spend some of my down time (when there are no customers and no calls to make) stocking coolers and racks and even shopping. This also keeps me in touch with the business. I will often listen to audio books while I'm doing this kind of work as I'd rather engage my mind in learning while performing tasks that don't require too much thought on my part.

Audio books are a great time saver. You can get through books during time that would otherwise be wasted like when you're stocking coolers or walking your dogs or sitting in traffic. I probably get through just over one book per week. You can always buy audio books or you can download the Libby app to your phone, which works with your public library so it's free! I do some of both, but I will admit I love Libby.  And, it's not really free. My taxes help pay for the local libraries so I might as well get some of my money back in the form of self-improvement.

I tend to use audio books when it's a subject I want to learn about, not one I need to learn about. The reason is there will always be distractions. People will call or approach you with a question or some other thing. I have a short attention span (now known as ADD) so it's easy to lose my place even when listening. I'll often "rewind" and re-listen to the portions I missed.

I know this may seem obsessive or, at the very least, uber-nerdy, but I believe in learning and bettering myself. I also believe that time should be treated like the valuable, limited resource it is, so I find ways to not waste it. This is one of them.

Adolfo Jimenez is an entrepreneur, author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here. Adolfo is the co-owner of The Cafeteria Company, a commissary outsourcing firm. He also co-owns Soup -n- Sam, Le Velo Macaron, and Starlight Catering.

How To Everything

 4:07 AM

I've never been much of a sleeper. I get by on about five hours, though. I prefer six. Every now and again I come home exhausted and I will plop down on my bed and try to nap. I usually end up staring at the ceiling and then answering emails or reading.

There was a time when I didn't let these extra hours go to waste. If I couldn't sleep, like this morning, I would get up and do something. I would usually write. I have written over twenty books, at least as many screenplays, hundreds of poems and short stories and essays. 

As my new business, which requires that I start very early, has grown, I've abandoned my productive ways. I lay in bed and ponder when I can't sleep. Pondering is nice. Action is nicer.

We were closed for Spring Break last week. I woke up early and wrote every day. I completed a collection of nine short stories that I plan to eventually publish. I also got a lot done around the house as we are in the middle of a renovation. I spent time with my wife. I walked my dogs. I had dinner with friends. I cleaned my pizza oven. I got stuff done. I also read two books.

I listen to audio books. It's a great time-saver and it's easy on my eyes, which are 50 years old and counting. I still do read the old fashioned way, which is not easy on the eyes, but is something I can't live without and a big reason I am a moderately successful person.

I have two very close friends. One, I've known for about twenty years, the other for nearly forty. The three of us keep in contact via a group text. I admit I am often lost as they spend a great deal of time discussing the TV shows they are watching. I watch TV, but not nearly enough to keep up with the average American. I try to be productive instead.

I have no patience for people who whine about not having time to do anything with their lives, but are up to date with the latest shows, or can tell you who in America's got talent. Not crazy about people who say they're broke but can tell you what to order at all the trendy restaurants. Those people drive the nicest cars, have the best clothes and the latest gadgets.

I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy nice things, I am saying you need to invest in yourself. You need to care about your life as much as you care about the lives of others. You need to treat your limited time with respect. You must treat time like the valuable, non-renewable resource it is. You must invest in yourself, rather than just treat yourself.

I hear too many people whining about how hard it is to get ahead, then watch them drive off in a car they can barely afford to an overpriced rented home to watch four hours of TV while overpaying for mediocre food that was Ubered to their home. Never once do they think to take time to learn a skill or read a book or get a part time job or start a business or a side hustle.

I have no pity for you. Live with your choices. In fact, we all live with our choices, so start making better ones.

I'm a little grumpy this morning. It's been a while since I've gotten out of my warm bed to write this early.

Adolfo Jimenez is an entrepreneur, author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here. Adolfo is the co-owner of The Cafeteria Company, a commissary outsourcing firm. He also co-owns Soup -n- Sam, Le Velo Macaron, and Starlight Catering.

The Un-Importance of Parking Spaces

 I'm pushing a flatbed cart along a parking lot. It's loaded, piled high with goodies for my business. This is my second such trip today but will not be the last one I make this week. I visit warehouse clubs several times a week to buy product for my business. I run school cafeterias as well as a couple of ghost kitchen concepts, a bakery, and a catering operation. This is in addition to the deliveries I have made once or twice a week.

I buy a lot of stuff.

I buy this stuff so I can sell it. I work a lot of hours. I am typically up before five and I am at work before 6:30. Oftentimes I store supplies in my garage at home. I have an upright refrigerator/freezer and a deep-freeze in my garage for this reason. Dry items and paper goods will often spend the night in my van. 

I wake up early because I walk my dogs and I like to take a little time in the morning to think about the day ahead. Nothing formal, just visualizing. Sometimes my thoughts wander. This lasts about ten minutes. After that, it's off to the races answering emails, checking electronic deposits, walking dogs, loading stuff, waking my wife and getting my kid up for school. I am busy from ten minutes after I wake up until I go to sleep.

This is why I don't wait or even look for a good parking space. It's a waste of my time. People will spend ten minutes looking for and waiting on a "good" parking spot when they could park just down the way and walk an extra two minutes.

This doesn't make sense to me. I don't have the patience or the time to wait for parking spaces. I spend so much of my day walking and carrying things that I don't need a gym. I could still stand to lose a couple of pounds. (Maybe a couple dozen but who's counting?)

I treat my time like the precious, limited commodity it is. I am not going to spend an extra moment of it waiting for a parking space. I don't have that kind of time or patience. I would be embarrassed to be the kind of person who does that.

If you are one of those people who searches and waits for the perfect parking space, examine your life. Think about how many hours you have in a day that are truly yours. Think of how many years you have left to live. Then think of how many of those you want to spend waiting for a parking space. Time waits for no one. No one should wait for a parking space.

Adolfo Jimenez is an entrepreneur, author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here. Adolfo is the co-owner of The Cafeteria Company, a commissary outsourcing firm. He also co-owns Soup -n- Sam, Le Velo Macaron, and Starlight Catering.

Why Dreams Matter More Than Reality

I am a business owner. I enjoy what I do. I enjoy making decisions. I like the fact that people depend on the services I provide and the paychecks I sign. It's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. One of the most rewarding. Not the most rewarding. 

I am, behind the entrepreneur/business owner facade, an artist. I am a writer. I am a performer. I enjoy getting up in front of a crowd and presenting whatever it is I'm presenting. I've been a corporate trainer. I taught a comedy class. I've done improvisational comedy. I've made corporate presentations. I've given political speeches and invocations.

If I had my druthers, I would write all morning and dazzle audiences all night. I haven't my druthers. I have... priorities. I have responsibilities and I have commitments. My dreams must continue to be on hold. This is a situation of my own making. I took a seat on this runaway train. I must remain seated until it runs out of steam or goes off the rails.

It's a sad feeling to know that you made the wrong turns. It's sad to know that you zigged when you should have zagged. There's no choice like no choice. I can't blame anyone else. I allowed it to happen. I was not just a passenger on the train. Oftentimes, I was the conductor. Make the decision now, before you're painted into a corner. Make the decision while the decision is still yours to make. If you allow the world to make it for you, it will probably be a decision you won't like.

The world is a screwy place. We don't know what tomorrow brings and we don't know if we'll be here to see it. We only know where we've been and where we are at the moment... sometimes. It's important to pursue your goals and keep dreaming your dreams. Pursue them, too. Make your dreams your goals. Or, at least, make your goals rest stops on the way to your dreams. Do it and you may get there. If you make it, that's great. If you don't, at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did your best and that your life was spent in pursuit of attaining your highest purpose, not something as common as money. The pursuit of happiness is all that matters.

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here.

The New Cool

Spend a little time on social media and it's hard to see how cynicism has become the new cool. I will admit that I am something of a cynic. I was first told this when I was about nineteen years old. I dated a woman in her late twenties (I was mature for my age.) She was intelligent and sophisticated and had a couple of college degrees. I did my best to keep up but when you lack education, as I did at the time, you try to follow along as best you can. (I am still much less educated than I would like to be, but them's the breaks!)

When she called me a cynic, I wasn't a hundred percent sure of what it meant. I know now, and I guess I could say I am a part-time cynic. I spend a lot of time around politics, I read some news on occasion, and I have a Facebook account. How could I not be?

But there is a side of me that wants there to be meaning to everything. There's a part of me that looks for meaning and even tries to create meaning in the most ordinary of things.

But it's so easy to be a cynic. It's practically forced upon us. We're told to hurry, to move along. We're convinced we don't have time to be kind and thoughtful even as we sit on the couch and binge-watch every episode of "Friends" for the third time. Humor, real humor, has been replaced with sarcasm. Good deeds are viewed, you guessed it, cynically.

I think I'll try to become a little less cynical. I'll do my best to see things in a more open and accepting way. I'll try to prove that old girlfriend wrong. Not that's she'll notice. We haven't talked in decades and she'd probably on season whatever of the latest must-see rerun. Oops! There I go again!

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here.

What If I Don't Like Cake?

Today is my 50th Birthday! Holy crap, when you say it like that. All the cliches apply. I don't feel any different. I look the same as I did yesterday. Everything still works the same, for the most part.

I used to refer to my birthday as inventory day. I would take the day to reflect on the previous 365 days and determine if my life was moving in the right direction. Some people call it a Cake Day. I don't think that's fair to people who don't like cake. I love cake. Don't believe me? I can take my shirt off to prove it. We re-brand everything. This is nothing new, it's just that our re-branding, like everything else, happens faster than it used to. You hardly get used to the new word for something before it becomes the old world for something.

My wife and I have been together 21 years. We realized a couple of days ago, as we were signing documents for work to be done on our house, that it was the 18th anniversary of the day we moved in. It's nice to know that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Being married to the same woman and living in the same house for so long may sound unexciting to some, but I am happy and grateful, and while there have been some low points, we really manage to keep it exciting, fresh, and interesting. We never had a honeymoon, so we decided our life now will be one very long honeymoon with breaks for work and family, etc. Life gave us lemons. We froze them for a while and now we're making margaritas!

Now that I'm at the half-century mark, I am supposed to have new perspectives and wisdom. I don't. My philosophy and worldview did not change overnight. From this point of view, age is really just a number. My knees may disagree.

I got my convertible a few years ago. This year, I got a motorcycle. Who knows what sixty will bring?

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here.

The Gray Hours

 The greatest con ever perpetrated against humanity, is convincing people that time is not precious. I am nearly fifty years old. Statistically, I have lived more than half the years I will get to live. I find myself in the interesting spot of anticipating my regrets. I am proactively thinking of things to put in the bucket list so I don't end up regretting things I didn't do.

I have always been an early riser. I also get by on relatively little sleep. I learned long ago to put this to my advantage though I need to remind myself of this every now and then. I need to remind myself that just because the day starts early for me, doesn't mean I get more time. I get 24 hours like everyone else. Wasting the extra hours I don't spend sleeping makes no sense. Might as well sleep.

I am in my new office, at my new desk in my house. I am in the gray early morning with a window to my left that faces east. The sun is up somewhere out there but it's still warming up so there is more shadow than light in this little room. Everyone else in my house is asleep. Even the dogs want nothing to do with the day. I'm glad for it. This is the part of time that belongs to me.

So, use your time wisely. Even when there is nothing that needs doing, don't waste your life doing nothing.

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here.

Staring Down The Barrel

In six days, I will be fifty years old. Damn. It only matters when you think about it. Unfortunately, you think about it all the time. I feel no different than I did yesterday. The same aches and pains have followed me around for years. My fault for living a relatively sedentary life. I do walk a lot and my business keeps me active, but I don't exercise in the traditional sense.

So the years keep coming. Until they don't. Who knows what's next.

Age shows up in strange ways. Like having a coffee with your cheeseburger at McDonald's. And mail seems to be very important to me now. I mean, I check the mailbox on Sundays and national holidays. Yesterday, I got home and I looked and,,, no mail! I was genuinely baffled. I came inside and it turned out my daughter had brought it in. I grounded her. Took away her phone. If she wants to cut off my communication with the outside world, so be it! Two can play at that game.

I find that even though I know I will likely live another 30-plus years, I feel like I have to squeeze in as much as possible. I wish I'd had this feeling when I was twenty. How much more could I have accomplished? God only knows.

I am at once crankier and more laid back. I let things go that used to drive me up the wall, and I am annoyed by things that didn't matter a few short years ago. 

I spent so much of my youth worrying about the world and consuming every scrap of news I could get my hands on that now, when I see the world is burning, I make s'mores.

I am convinced the world is worse than it's ever been, just like my father did. And his father before him, and his father, and so on and so forth.

I am proud of the things I can still do. I miss the things I no longer can do. The ones I remember, anyway.

I am proud to still be married. I am prouder still that I love her more than ever.

I value my time and do all I can to save it and make it count. Then I plop my fat ass down in front of the TV, which is something I didn't used to do.

I am self-aware. This essay proves it.

I have no idea what is going on in the world around me. This essay proves it. (I'm proud of that one.) I let my children live their lives. I only guide when I am invited onto the raft. Otherwise, like everything in this life, I just let them go with the flow.

I guess I should confess that I didn't take my kid's phone away or ground her. But I thought about it.

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here.

Something About A Horse

If you’ve never ridden a horse, you probably should try it. The younger you are, the better. It’s hard on the knees and the hips. It’s also tough to know that your life is in the hands of an animal that can throw you off and trample you in a heartbeat. If it was so inclined.

As I write this, I can feel the pain in my knees subsiding. I spent three hours on a horse this morning. I am in Montana, one of my favorite and least favorite places in the world. I love it here because it is beautiful and it’s where my daughter lives. I hate it here because the beauty and nature of the place makes me forget that guys with knees as bad as mine probably shouldn’t ride horses up in the mountains for three hours.

Not that I won’t do it again. I will do it until the pain gets to be too much or until the wranglers sit me down and tell me that this particular horse has gone to pasture. I did not grow up around horses. I went on my first horse ride two years ago. I am not sure if I’ll be back. 

But you should definitely give it a try. It’s fun and it’s a nice, relaxing way to give up control for a while. It’s nice to be a passenger and not a driver. I am not speaking for experienced horsemen and women when I say this, but you are never really in control when riding a horse. You are driving in the rain at night in  a car with bald tires. You might get through it in one piece but no one would be shocked if you come home with a busted collarbone. You can kick the horse to make it move. You can pull the reins to stop it or pull them left or right to steer the horse. But these are just suggestions. If the horse doesn’t want to cooperate, it won’t. I don’t know about you, but I don’t kick that hard.

Of course, if you do get through it, if you are able to relax enough to enjoy being a passenger, if you are able to live in that particular moment, listen to the birds, admire the trees and feel the breeze in your face, you might come away with a different perspective. You might find something you didn’t know you were looking for.

 

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here.

Swimmin' Without Women

It's Tuesday morning. It's cold in my house. Not because of anything having to do with the climate or the environment. The A/C is blasting as it will all summer. It's actually pretty warm outside although it's not even 8:00 AM. 

I sit down at my computer to write as I do most mornings and I am a little more awake than I might otherwise be. It's not the coffee. It's the pool. I took a little swim this morning. I was letting out the dogs (I guess I've answered that Baja Men question - sorry, it had to be done!) and I decided to do something a little different. I stripped out of my boxers, stepped into my trunks, and went for a dip. I would have preferred to go in my birthday suit but I don't have that level of privacy in my yard, unfortunately. Time to build a taller fence.

I didn't go into the pool with any kind of agenda. I didn't tell myself I'd swim ten laps or do that aqua-aerobics stuff they do at the YMCA pool. I just floated around and listened to the world waking up. I heard the sounds of cars on the road. I heard road construction a couple of blocks away. It was just me and my ears. 

It's a good thing to go out once in a while and just be. You don't need music or even a companion. My dogs were living their own lives, not worrying about me. My family is inside asleep. There is nothing but me and the water and that is all I need. It's a nice transition from asleep to the hectic action that follows on any given day. 

I tried to guide my thoughts toward projects I'm currently working on but nothing doing. I let it go, It was too early and the water was too calm and too warm for anything structured. I let my thoughts go where the wind and the leaves and the noise of the world led them. And that was all right. I'll be out there again tomorrow. Maybe without my bathing suit... maybe not.

Find your quiet spot. Enjoy it. Soak it up a while. 

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.

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Gathering Information

I just came back from a week in West Yellowstone, Montana. It is, without a doubt, one of my favorite places in the world. I stayed in a cabin on a ranch. I rode horses and went whitewater rafting. I went to Yellowstone National Park and to Mesa Falls in Idaho. It was a great, badly-needed vacation. As much as I love my home, my bed, my pillow and my dogs, I hated coming back.

This was my second visit to West Yellowstone. I came back from my first trip very inspired and immediately began writing a novel about the place. I hit the wall at about a hundred pages. So, I went up this year thinking I would find the spark and get the story written finally!

I skipped one of the horse rides we had scheduled so I could get to work on my story. I wrote about a thousand words. A whole new story about the same place. That was a week ago. I've given up... for now!

I think the problem is that I'm trying to force the book to happen. It never works that way. These things come when they want to come. It's not that I haven't been writing. I've been working every day and I've been editing. The story needs a little more time to percolate. Or maybe it needs to marinate. Whatever it is, it doesn't need to be forced. That's a great way to kill what could be a great story.

Gather the facts, breathe the air, feel the breeze, see the sights. Listen to the people talk and learn their stories. Their stories become yours. These people become the characters in your stories. You are not stealing from them, you are immortalizing them. Nobody wants to live forever, but nobody wants to die. And certainly no one wants to be forgotten.

So take notes and bide your time. The story will come when it's ready.

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.

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The Every Day

So... how's your quarantine going?

Ready to go outside?

Oh... riots.

So... how are you passing the time? I hope you're not binge-watching bad TV shows that you've already watched. I hope you're taking at least a little time to improve yourself. Maybe you're reading a book. Maybe you're fixing up your house. Maybe you've taken up watercolors. Are you writing that book you've been dreaming about writing? Get to it.

The pandemic has pushed us out of our comfort zone by locking us in the most comfortable of places: our homes. Home is great when you have the opportunity to leave at will. Otherwise, it's a prison. Some great stories were written about prisons. Stories like Papillon, Escape from Alcatraz, The Count of Monte Cristo, and others. Any of those stories would help you appreciate how comfy your "prison" is.

I realize this is coming late. I've been a little caught up with other things and I have been ignoring this blog. I've been doing a lot of work for The Liberty Drip, which is a political blog I contribute to, I've also completed a novella, the completion of the Man In The Gray Sky trilogy scheduled to be released in the summer; and a new novel, which I hope to release in the fall.

I also took care of some home improvement projects including an above-ground pool and a nice area to enjoy my backyard. Just in time for the rainy season! Hooray!

So, don't let the lockdown get you down. Don't become a victim of your circumstances. Instead, make the most of the time you have and create something beautiful.

Keep doing what you do!

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.

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The Nomadic Imperative

Often you will hear someone tell you they want to live a nice quiet life. We have been convinced that all we really want is some variation of what we see on TV. A spouse, a kid or two, maybe a dog or a cat, perhaps a witty guinea pig or a bird. We want a car and we want two weeks vacation every year plus weekends off. Except the guinea pig and the bird. They're relatively new. And I'm allergic to cats so I have two dogs.

This has been my life for nearly thirty years and I can tell you I was sold a lie.

This is not to say I haven't been happy. I have been. I am happy. But, I am also restless. I feel like I am cheating myself. I feel like I am giving up on my dreams. I remind myself that I am young enough to still go out and do the things I want to do. Then my back hurts, and I remember I am not as young as I imagine myself to be. Young at heart, old just about everywhere else.

Is this what Thoreau meant when he talked about men living lives of quiet desperation? Is this why I work to fill the void? I don't really know. I don't think anyone could know. I do know it sucks and while the intensity of these feelings increases and decreases, they never quite go away.

I've lived in the same area most of my life. I am, as I write this, 30 minutes from where I grew up, went to school, learned to drive, and lost my virginity. I long to move, but I have responsibilities. I want to walk, to seize the road, but I can't. It would be irresponsible, and I can't do that.

Ernest Hemingway said that to live in one land is captivity. Well, shit. He was right. Not that everyone who lives a stable, successful middle-class existence is unhappy. I can see people choosing this life. I can see its appeal. Maybe it's because I have no choice that I feel the urge to move on.

I feel the urge, but I will fight the urge. I ain't going nowhere. For now. But if I do decide to go, you'll read it here first.

The views expressed by the author are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of anyone anywhere.

Adolfo Jimenez is the chair of the elections committee of the Libertarian Party of Broward County. He is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.

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Self-Imposed Deadlines

Settling into a new routine can be hard. I recently left the office life and I am working from home. It's not an easy transition Because I don't have to shower and shave and get out the door in the morning, I have lost my sense of urgency. I take my time. I write, then I walk the dog, then I come home and have breakfast and then get some work done.

Life was easier when I was racing against the clock.




Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida with his family.  He has published eight books, which you can find here. 

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Easy Like Sunday Morning?

I like Lionel Richie. I also like teasing Mr. Richie about the whole Sunday mornings being easy thing. I woke early and sat down to write.  I still have Christmas lights to take down and Christmas stuff to put up in the attic. I've been busy and haven't had a day off in two weeks.

But I feel good on this not-so-easy Sunday morning because I got my writing done.

Whatever you are pursuing. You must prioritize whatever you are doing to improve yourself or to improve the lives of others. If you're not getting better, you're getting worse. It's a cliche but it's true. Work on you. Every Day. No exceptions.

Keep on truckin'!




Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida with his family.  He has published eight books, which you can find here. 

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Breadcrumbs

It's been a crazy few days. My wife came home sick as a dog on Monday. Vomiting, passing out, incoherent. Sure, it sounds like just another Friday night in Casa Jimenez, but I assure you, this was something else.  We ended up in the ER. She's okay now, at home, recovering from kidney stones and dehydration. It was scary.

This morning was the first time I've written since Monday. I am a believer in writing every day, whether for an hour or five hours. The important thing is to do the work. Do it every day. This is important, particularly if you want your story to feel like one smooth piece, instead of jagged pieces forced together. Who doesn't want smooth instead of jagged crap?

Hemingway used to say that it's important to leave a little in the tank at the end of the day. In other words, don't write until you have nothing left. Stop while there is still something in your mind to write. This helps to keep the flow going. I did this on Monday morning, not knowing what the day and the two days that followed would bring me and I'm glad I did. This morning (Thursday) I picked up right where I left off. I'm back on track.

Don't work yourself to exhaustion. It doesn't help you. Save a little so you have the fuel to get rolling the next morning.

Now get back to work!



Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida with his family.  He has published eight books, which you can find here. 

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