Definitions are endless when it comes todescribing attitude: A mood, conditioning ofthe mind, demeanor, and propitiousdisposition, to name a few. It was in 1947 thatI learned about attitude. Mother said “Jim,you’re acting like a little jerk!” Well, I didn’tknow what a jerk was so I continued to actlike a jerk. Then I heard this voice of thunderlike it came from God. “Son, you need anattitude adjustment.” I was sent to the sideyard to cut my own switch. (An instrumentused to correct; the Bible calls it a “rod ofcorrection”) Needless to say, my first switchwas too small. Attitude. Amazingly, we allhave one.

I read this story I will share. David received aparrot for his birthday. This parrot had a badattitude and an even worse vocabulary. Everyother word was an expletive. Those thatweren’t expletives were, at the very least, rude. Theornithologist certified that the parrot was veryintelligent. David tried hard to change thebird’s attitude and was constantly sayingpolite words and playing soft music. Nothingworked. He yelled at the bird but that onlymade matters worse. He even went so far asto shake him but the bird’s attitude gotprogressively worse. Finally, in a moment ofdesperation, David put the parrot in thefreezer. He heard the bird squawking, kickingand screaming then suddenly there wassilence. David was afraid the he might haveactually hurt him so he quickly opened thedoor. The parrot calmly stepped onto David’sextended arm and said “I’m sorry that I mayhave offended you with my language andactions; please forgive me. I will endeavor toadjust my attitude”. David, astounded, wasjust getting ready to ask the parrot what hadchanged him when the parrot said “May I askwhat the chicken did?”

One positive thought can not only changeyour attitude but can tell your body how toreact and can lead you to that one tiny actionthat can change the course of your day, yourweek or maybe even your life. Can you

believe that as a teenager Michael Jordan wastold he was not good enough to make the cutfor his high school basketball team? At thispoint he could walk in defeat or develop anattitude that would force him to practice farmore than his peers. His inner attitudeenergized him and propelled him to greatness.Oprah Winfrey, Arnold Schwarzenegger,Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice all haveone thing in common; they brushed asidenegative attitudes and made positive choices.You and I are no different. We all have thepower to make choices regarding our attitudes.Good, bad or ugly go ahead; it’s your choice.Your day starts with what you say to yourself.

As inspectors our environment isn’t alwayspositive. The birds aren’t always chirping. Infact, they sometimes relieve themselves onour windshields. You may go days, weeks ormonths without any positive reinforcement.You can’t allow that to upset your focus.Don’t allow negative thoughts to creep intoyour inner attitude.

As a child I had a Sunday School teacher whobefriended my family. She was always upbeatand her attitude was always 120% positive!Although we had known this lady who waslike family to us for 40+ years, it was notuntil she passed away that we learned herdrunken husband beat her every Sundaymorning and Wednesday night before shewould leave for church. Wow! In spite of thisshe made a choice to influence the life of myfamily, as well as others, in a positive way.

Let’s test ourselves. Starting Monday morningwhen we get up let’s listen to what peoplehave to say. As a whole, people love to talkabout themselves. Listening is the mostneglected of all communications. Listen! Dothey complain about every insignificant thingin their lives? Are they constantly makingexcuses or finding fault? Just listen. Are theyhappy? Do they seem content or fulfilled inany way? What about their body language?Watch their breathing; is it strained orlabored? Are their shoulders hunched over?Do they have bags under their eyes? Observehow people react to others and how productivethey are. On Monday it’s usually a littledifficult to get back into the swing of things.Everybody has an occasional string of badluck. But those with continual negative attitudeswill live in a constant problematic world.

On the other hand, have you seen thosepeople who are constantly chipper? Nothingseems to get them down. They can appear sooverly optimistic that you begin to wonder ifthey’re on some illegal medication! They arewilling to take on realistic dreams with greatambition. Even when negative situations arisethey seem to brush them off as if they’re nobig deal. They seem to always smile and tothem the glass is always half full. They createtheir own environment and their enthusiasm is infectious. These are folks who makedecisions with the right attitude. To somethese people seem downright odd! We allhave choices. Of the two examples you’vejust read who would you choose to spendtime with? Who would you want to hunt orfish with, work with or spend casual timearound? Chuck Swindoll says it like this:

“The longer I live, the more I realize theimpact of attitude on life. It is moreimportant than the past, than education,than money, than circumstances, thanfailures, than successes, than what otherpeople think or say or do. It is moreimportant than appearance, giftedness orskill. It will make or break a company ... achurch ... a home. The remarkable thing iswe have a choice every day regarding theattitude we will embrace for that day. Wecannot change our past ... we cannot changethe fact that people will act in a certain way.We cannot change the inevitable. The onlything we can do is play on the one string wehave, and that is our attitude ... I amconvinced that life is 10% what happens tome and 90% how I react to it. And so it iswith you ... we are in charge of ourAttitude.”

Chuck said it well. I have learned the hardway that you don’t make attitude choices on aweekly, monthly or yearly basis. Attitudebegins every morning when I rise to face theday. Attitude; we all have one.

ATTITUDE: WE ALL HAVE ONEJim Fisher, TAEI Vice President

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The first annual “Cover Tennessee with the NEC” is officially in the

books and what a week it was. John Minick and Susan made a whirl-

wind tour across the state from Dyersburg to Johnson City with stops

at Gallatin and Maryville along the way. Each seminar was met with

enthusiastic response and large audiences. A total of over 1200 contractors

across the state registered to attend a class at one of the four locations.

Monday night, September 24 was the first class held in Dyersburg with

243 contractors in attendance. With exhibitors and power supplier reps,

the total attendance was around 300. Tuesday night, the 25th, found us

in Gallatin for the largest gathering of the week. Well over 400 filled the

hall to capacity and John was given the Key to the City of Gallatin by

Gallatin Mayor Joann Graves. On Wednesday, John and Susan traveled

to Maryville for a great meeting there with well over 300 in attendance.

Thursday night, the 27th found them in Johnson City for the last of the

sessions. This meeting had literally been sold out before the 237 tickets

were even printed.

Special thanks to Susan N. Scearce, Jim Fisher, Don Richesin, and Steve

Chatman for taking the lead at each of the four locations respectively.

Thanks also to all of those who sold tickets, gathered door prizes, set up

tables, cleaned up, greeted folks at the door and did the thousand other

little thankless jobs that make something like this happen.

All I keep hearing is, When is the next one!? More on that in a later edition.

DYERSBURG 9/24/07

GALLATIN 9/25/07

Gallatin Mayor, Jo Ann Graves presents John with a Key to the City.

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JOHNSON CITY 9/27/07

MARYVILLE 9/26/07

Randy Dollar of SEIMENS explains the many benefits ofAFCI technology to TAEI Vice President, Steve Chatman

Attendees received their Continuing Education Certificates atthe end of the class.

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That’s MyOpinion…’oughta beyours! Wow, where do I start! Great job to all whoworked so hard the make “Cover Tennesseewith the NEC” such a success. I’ve heardnothing but rave reviews for John’s presentationand questions about when we’re going to do it again. People were excited to have someonepresent the code to them in such a clear andunderstandable way. It proves that ourcontractors both want and need that type of

training. Thanks to all who did so much tomake it happen.

The one question we keep hearing now is,“When is Tennessee going to begin using anewer version of the NEC”? Good question.One which I’ve yet to hear a good answer for!I know I’m not the only person in the state thatis embarrassed by the fact that we’re laggingso far behind in this regard. The 2008 code isout, and we have yet to adopt the 2005 code.In my opinion these are important life savingissues that need to be adopted into our everydaylives to make Tennessee a safer place to liveand work. My opinion is that we as inspectorsshould always strive to strengthen codes atevery opportunity and enforce them withdetermination. My opinion is that we shouldaccept the code in it’s entirety. So often, I’mreminded of religious folks who only want toaccept those teachings of the Bible that theyhappen to agree with while disregarding those

that they deem to be inconvenient. My opinionis that we should embrace new technologies,whatever they may be, to improve publicsafety. If those new technologies result inadditional cost to a building project then let’snot forget to remember how precious a humanlife is. If you spent millions and saved onlyone life wouldn’t it still be worth it? Let’s doall we can to encourage the adoption of thenew NEC as the minimum standard inTennessee.

Hope to see everyone at the Tennessee Chaptermeeting in Murfreesboro. Don’t forget toattend the TAEI meetng on Friday afternoonfollowing the code class session.

Until next time,That’s my opinion,………’oughta be yours.

Ed Sitton

Need to Contact Us?

Susan N. ScearcePresident TAEIsnewmans@bellsouth.net

Ed SittonSecretary TAEIesitton@bellsouth.net

Scott MulliganTreasurer TAEImully@charter.net

Q: How many electrical engineers does it take to change a light bulb?

A: None. They simply redefine darkness as the industry standard.

Q: What is the definition of a shock absorber?

A: A careless electrician!

Q: What do you call a carpenter working in anelectrical panel?

A: Dead!