Sat, 31 Dec 2011

Happy New Year 2012!

From our house to yours, a happy and prosperous new year.

I thought I'd pull out last year's blog and see if my wish for the world came true. Although the media keep claiming that the economy is getting better, I don't see all that much improvement. Sure, the rich are richer, but the poor seem to be doing as bad or worse and I don't call that improvement. The U.S. is out of Iraq and, THAT is an improvement as far as I am concerned since I thought it was a mistake to go there in the first place. I'm uncertain whether we actually achieved anything by being there other whan wasting our soldiers' lives and lots of money. I am sure someone MADE lots of money by us being there, otherwise, we would never have gone and stayed so long, but all-in-all Iraq was another Viet Nam. We can only hope that we will be out of Afgahanistan soon without much more loss of life or waste of money.

Happy New Year, 2011!

Another one gone by. The last two have been pretty tough with the economy and all. We can only hope that 2011 will be the start of a better period for everyone. I look forward to a productive and peaceful year for everyone and hope that we can learn to compromise in our politics and show compassion in our lives.

posted 13:07 [/Thoughts] permanent link

Thu, 24 Nov 2011

Family and Friends -- a blessing

I am thankful for the blessing of my family and friends . . . and no, I won't be lining up at midnight or earlier for the black Friday savings at any store. I'm thankful that we all have our health and are together.

Thank you, Father, for having created us and given us to each other in the human family. Thank you for being with us in all our joys and sorrows, for your comfort in our sadness, your companionship in our loneliness. Thank you for yesterday, today, tomorrow and for the whole of our lives. Thank you for friends, for health and for grace. May we live this and every day conscious of all that has been given to us.

posted 08:32 [/Thoughts] permanent link

Sat, 06 Aug 2011

The Quest to be the Best gets Wierder

Professional and dedicated amateur athletes are continually trying things to be the best, but you have to take a look at this . . .

Baseball sent a warning to its major and minor league players last week that may sound odd, if not comical, but is a sign of these drug-testing times: stop ingesting deer antler spray.

source

Yep, you read right -- deer antler spray. According to the article,

. . . chemists have figured out that the velvet from immature deer antlers includes insulin-like growth factor, or IGF-1, which mediates the level of human growth hormone in the body, and is also banned by MLB and the World Anti-Doping Agency, among others, for its muscle-building and fat-cutting effects.

Pertty wierd if you ask me.

posted 06:48 [/Thoughts] permanent link

Mon, 04 Jul 2011

Happy B'Day U.S.A.

We're having a cooling trend -- it's only supposed to reacy 98°F rather than the 100+ it has been for the last couple of days. We've had the neighborhood parade with reviewing stand, the flocking of the neighbors, a trip to the neighborhood pool, and are looking forward to an excellent fireworks block party extravaganza this evening. It's our typical celebration of the founding of our country and a good time is had by all. Hope you are enjoying your Independence Day with the rest of the country.

posted 14:48 [/Thoughts] permanent link

Sun, 17 Apr 2011

Walmart Downsizing

OK, not the chain, but some of their stores. They plan on opening 40 "mid-sized" groceries and express stores according to this article on NPR. Retailers have always been scared of the giant chain and its monster stores. Now even the little guy -- the dollar stores and pharmacies -- need to quake in their boots. You kind of wonder, thought, whether Walmart will have to hire smaller greeters for these down-sized stores?

posted 07:32 [/Thoughts] permanent link

Sat, 19 Mar 2011

Take a turtle for a walk . . . and let him set the pace

I heard this the other day in passing and thought it was a good idea for all of us. The point is to slow down and look around. It's been said a number of ways, including what is probably the most famous

Stop and smell the roses

But walking with a turtle at his pace has a bit different aspect to it. When you stop to smell flowers, you are maintaining your usual hectic pace, stop for a bit, and resume the hectic pace. You may only stop to smell the roses because you know they are there and you stop regularly or because this particular patch of flowers has a particularly strong, appealing smell which reaches you.

But, when you take the pace of the turtle, you are forced to slow down all aspects of you journey and take a look around. It's like traveling by plane and by train. On a plane, you see your starting point, perhaps the airport where you transfer, and your final destination. All those vast distances in between are missed. When you travel by train, you look out the window and see the panorama of all those places in between as you pass through them.

Do we miss things just because we are speeding through life at a pace which only allows us to stop at those places we have planned or which are especially appealing to our already formed opinions. Or do we take the pace of the turtle occasionally and see what's around us? Are we open to the surprise of things other than the ones we already agree to and know are there? Are we open to new ideas and directions and take the time to actually explore them? Like the turtle, we should make time to not only stop and smell the roses, but enjoy all the sites and smells along our journey.

posted 07:56 [/Thoughts] permanent link

Sun, 09 Jan 2011

Frustrated with Coincidence

On my drive to work, there is the last left turn where a number of things come together. There are left turn lanes in all directions and the light rail tracks cross the major cross street. I have to make a left turn and, depending on the time that I arrive at the corner, it can take quite a while to complete.

The other day, I hit the "perfect storm" of timing and found myself getting frustrated. I wondered why. I arrived at the corner just as the left-turn lane signal went red, meaning I had to sit through the whole couple of minute light cycle. In the middle, the light rail came through. This disrupts the cycle meaning that I had to wait an extra 45-60 seconds or so while the train came through.

My total wait time around 3 minutes. Big deal! Yet, I was frustrated by the whole thing. It isn't like I was late for work or anything or that something vital would be lost for the extra minute I had to wait. It was just that I had to wait that extra minute and it was frustrating.

But that sort of frustration is self-defeating. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it, it has no cause that you can affect, so shine it on. Oh sure, I could have left home earlier or later to avoid the time that I know the train is scheduled to be at that intersection. But what if the train is not on time? I'm stuck again, and my frustration grows, this time because I tried to affect this situation and failed. So I need to learn to not sweat the small stuff. By minimizing my frustration, I improve my general well-being and make the remainder of my day better.

Deal with things you can affect and learn to tollerate those things you cannot.

posted 18:41 [/Thoughts] permanent link

Mon, 26 Jul 2010

Summer, Great for boys and geese . . .

Summer is a great time to be a kid . . . or a goose. But it seems that summer for kids is a lot shorter than when I was that age. I took this picture in the evening at a lake. Both my boys and the goose seem to be enjoying just being part of summer. Summer for my kids--now all in highschool--runs from the end of May to the middle of August. Middle of August! I don't ever remember going back to school until after Labor Day (the first Monday in September here in the US). What happened to those days when you could just be a kid?

Seems like a shame to me. So much summer wasted by being at school.

posted 08:29 [/Thoughts] permanent link

Sun, 10 Jan 2010

Cosmeticize . . .

. . . to make (something unpleasant or ugly) superficially attractive

[source]

This word describes what we tend to do a lot. People tend to want to make something look good rather than fixing the underlying problem which makes it "unpleasant or ugly". This applies to all sorts of activities from programming to politics. I say, let's get under the skin and fix the real problems in all sorts of things.

posted 08:29 [/Thoughts] permanent link

Sat, 12 Sep 2009

Waking Up . . .

Do you ever just wake up? OK, we all wake up unless we're in a coma. I mean wake up when you don't really have to -- like on a weekend? Just wake up like you've slept all you need to and are wide awake, sometimes at the oddest hours? Why is that? Is it some perverse attempt by your body to get back at you for something? Is there some outside influence -- maybe aliens or ghosts or gremlins -- which just can't stand to see you relaxing?

Sometimes, I can see it happening because you are worried or excited about something and your mind just wakes you up like an excited puppy at supper time. After all, I'm the type of person whose alarm never goes off during the week because I wake up before it and turn it off. But the weekend? I'm ready to snooze for a bit, sleep in, enjoy the two days off and -- wang! -- I'm wide awake at 5:30 AM. It's not the week day habit. Most weekends, I quite happily snooze for a couple more hours before waking. It doesn't seem to correlate with the time that I go to bed the night before. I just don't know.

posted 07:16 [/Thoughts] permanent link