Dedicating Ones Life

When I am on the elliptical machine at my fitness center, I have a choice of four large flat screens to watch. I use earphones and can flip to what ever screen I want. Last week I saw something that perplexes me . On one screen there came on a heart wrenching video from the Feed the Children organization. There were the usual sad photos and videos of children with distended stomachs with flies covering their faces. Then the lady comes on and says she had dedicated her life to providing food to these starving children. The request was for a $19.95 monthly donation. It would be enough to feed one child. A few minutes later, on another flat screen , came on disturbing photos of mangy dogs that were obviously starving. The narrator for the Humane Society said she had dedicated her life to making sure animals would not suffer. She asked for a nominal donation of $19.95 a month so that she could continue her work and save as many animals as possible. My question is , up until the time that there are no more hungry children, should the Humane society be asking for money for animals.

Losing Things

Its a sign of advanced wisdom. (Notice, I didn't say age) and it has been happening often lately. My glasses, keys, phone and this morning my hat. A number of years ago, George Carlin did a bit on losing things. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it on YouTube.

This morning I was going on a bike ride and I couldn't find my hat. I looked in the car, in the garage, upstairs, back in the car. As I went through the frustrating motions, an old family joke came to mind. Years ago we lost a dust-buster and after that when ever we couldn't find something, we would jokingly say, "Maybe its by the dust-buster" 

We had received the dust-buster as a premium for reaching a parts sales quota from Ford. We received many premiums over the years. In 1978, we receive a porta phone. It was about ten inches long and had a clip to hang it on my belt. Since I wore about ten hats at the dealership, it was handy for me. Customers were curious about it as most had never seen one. Often, they would want to call their home to see how it worked. Many would say they wanted one so that they wouldn't have to pay a phone bill. They didn't realize that it had to be plugged into a phone line. 

We had used the dust buster around the dealership for a year or so before it disappeared. It had a charge base and that was also missing , so some one must have needed it more than us.

This morning, after having gone up and down stairs several times. I Found my hat. It was under some pillows on the coach. The dust-buster wasn't there.

I'd Rather

Sitting on the beach and an old song from the sixties comes on." I rather be a hammer than a nail" is one of the lines. It got me to thinking that lately I have been having a lot of "I'd rathers" . A sign of advanced years?

 I'd rather talk then text in a restaurant.

I'd rather shake a hand than pet a dog.
I'd rather make conversation than listen to a MP3 player
I'd rather discuss ideas and concepts than professional sports .
I'd rather listen to a sweet melody than a vulgar rap.

Enough To Get By

A few years ago, when I still had thoughts of going back to work, I was in Home Depot looking for sprinkler parts. A young man came to help and we got to talking. I asked him if Home Depot was a good place to work and how was the pay. He smiled and said, "Its enough to get by, but not enough to get ahead". The store wasn't busy and I was in no hurry, so I questioned what he meant by "not enough to get ahead". He explained his situation. He and his wife both worked. Had two kid in school that had to be picked up by a day care service. Between their house payment, two car payments, two jet-ski payments and credit cards, it was a struggle each month. He said they were not able to save anything and he couldn't figure out how his parents had managed to save money for their retirement after having raised four children. 

I didn't want to make him feel bad, but I knew  the answer. 

Only his father had worked, they had one car, no credit cards and would haven't even dreamed of buying jet-skis if they had been available. 

Checking The Obits

My wife doesn't agree with my reading the daily obits in the newspaper. I like to joke and say that I'am just checking to see if I see my name or photo. If I don't, its a good day. 

A few weeks ago some friends were over and one said  that she was keeping a scrapbook of obits out of the news paper that she planed to leave for her kids. She explained what I already knew.  Some obits go into great detail about work and travel, and are quiet interesting.  Most people don't have the know how to write and publish a book of their memoirs ,so their obit becomes their final memoir. 

Most obits are short and to the point? I find it sad that someones life is reduced to just a few lines. I can't help but wonder what happened to the person during the sixty to ninety years they lived. 

Maybe the fact that obits are paid by the line announcements, keeps many of them short and sweet (short and cheep).

Living On 15 Amps

Americans take their cheep electric service for granted. You don't think its cheep? Well it is. Here in Italy the cost is three to four time what it is in the US.

What's  more dramatic than the cost, is the amount of service available. The basic home service is 15 Amps.  I think the minimum required service in the US is 150 Amps. What does that mean? Well it means that we can't use the oven and a hair dryer at the same time. If we do, the over load breaker will trip at the meter and we loose all power in the house. Then we have to trot down stairs and reset the breaker. We could upgrade our service to 30 Amps, but it would double our electric bill during the months that we are not here and only have seven lights that come on at dark. 

Next time your drying you hair and the AC,TV,Oven and varies other appliances are all on, just be grateful you don't have to run outside and reset the breaker. 

"There Is Nothing Like A Good Man"

There is nothing like a good man" 

 From "Travels With Charlie" by John Steinbeck

     We have been going to our health club since it opened eight years ago. I have always worked on my own and never had used the services of a Personal Trainer. Over the years I had watched them as they worked with club members and never really appreciated their skill. Often times it seemed like they spent more time in conversation than in training. A few weeks ago my wife signed up with a trainer for five sessions. She only finished the first when she started suggesting that I also sign up for a few sessions. I didn't tell her, but I considered it a waste of money. Last week I started talking to another member when I noticed he grimaced with pain as he grabbed his shoulder. Since I had been having some pain in my shoulder for about six months, we started discussing possibilities as to why were were having the problem. (Never considered it would have anything to do with our age) At about this time a trainer walked up and asked if he could help us with anything. My friend walked off and I told the trainer I was only interested in finding help with my shoulder. He asked me to point out where it was hurting and after I did he said , "You got five minutes, come with me". He took me over to one of the large metal stands and showed me how to grab the frame with one hand and twist my body away while pushing with the other hand. He told me to hold that position for a minute. The pain started subsiding after about fifteen seconds. After the minute, the pain that had been bothering me for six months, was gone. I have a personal trainer now. Will start working with him Monday. Steinbeck was right, "There is nothing like a good man".

Right or Left Side?

 

I checked into the hospital the evening before I was to have a surgery to repair an inguinal hernia.   I had been living with the hernia for at least ten years, but it had gotten to the point that it was bothering me too much. I settled into my room and a procession of nurses aided me in pre-operation necessities. As one nurse finished taking my blood, another came in with a release form for me to sign. The release form described what procedure was to be preformed and required that I agreed that if they killed me, my estate would not sue. It wasn’t worded that way, but in reality that is what it was saying.  Good thing I read the form closely because it said that the procedure was for a “repair inguinal hernia on the right side”  “Right Side!!” I exclaimed. “ My hernia is on my left side!”  The nurse who had brought the form was surprised and said “ Are you sure its on the left?” I assured her that after ten years of living with it, it was a pretty good guess that I would know.  She said she would call the doctor.   The doctor agreed that I should know, and had them type up another release that was correct. 

The next morning they did the procedure. They did a botched up job, but I survived. I’ll say no more as what happened could be fodder for another story.

 

A few years later I sold a car to a lady that had just moved into town.  Over time, I got to know her and found out that she had been a surgeon’s assistant.  One day we were talking about different things when the topic got around to surgeries. I mentioned how I had almost gotten a hernia repair on the wrong side, she exclaimed, “Why do you think 

so many people go in for a hernia repair and end up having a “double hernia” repair?” “They do the wrong side all the time!” We talked some more and then I found out that she had been a surgeon’s assistant for twelve years and had quit out of disgust. She said she had assisted with hundreds of appendectomies and had never seen a bad appendix. Her information verified what I had already learned. If someone wants to put you under the knife, get several opinions first. 

©2011