A Picnic--Who Could Resist?

Today we went to a picnic...a real live picnic. A true piece of Americana where the balloon guy shows up and twists those little snaky balloons into amazing works of whimsy. An event where there is enough good ice cream to go around for every man, woman, and child, and no one denies themselves the joy of having a scoop (or two) on a hot summer day. A place where no one gets excited or snarky if you decided to have barbeque AND a hot dog AND a hamburger because they just look so good. A meal where potato chips and potato salad are seen merely as two sides. Most importantly, it's a place where everyone comes together and just simply has a good time. Everyone stands and automatically smiles while watching the little ones bounce themselves silly on the giant, bouncy infatable toys. The participants in the bingo game silently go about their business only to start chuckling to themselves when, in the quiet, a little voice starts echoing the caller's announcements, "B-5" "0-62", the younger voice probably not even understanding the concept, just that it sounds neat to hear the calls and parrot them. 

It's hard to find a person who doesn't like a good picnic; most who don't probably just forgot how much fun they can be...a true example of who we are...food, fellowship, and easy fun. 

Instant Gratification Take a Hiatus

When I started this little venture, I knew two things: I would need to be patient; I would see time fly by as never before. Those two just don't seem to mesh very well. How can I be patient knowing full well that time is passing me by--how can I have 50 adventures at 50 if I don't keep things moving?
This seems to be the situation in which most of the world now finds itself--for too long now we've been in an ever-increasing "hurry up" mode. Fast food, speedy delivery, information in nanoseconds, etc. We've not only learned instant gratification, it's become a part of our genome. If we go to a restaurant and the food isn't served quickly, the place must be lousy; if we go to an event and it doesn't start precisely on time, we pronounce it a failure. If the airline is running late, it's all over for air travel. The list goes on...
Fade to the future...now, for instance. With our economy slowing sliding into the dumper, we're at a crossroads--with fewer people in the work force, the restaurants are operating with less staff, the event centers are operating with less staff, the airlines are operating with less staff--and our "instant gratification gene" is feeling the pinch. We don't like waiting. We don't like being asked to be patient. Our time is valuable. Time is money. And on and on.
Here's the deal...let's just cool our jets for awhile. An odd idea, but one that just might catch on. Think about it; how much less stress would a person carry if, for one day, that person knew that 90% of life's events were totally out of his control? Guess what? That's probably about the average. The minute you bring in another person, another service, or another industry into your life--like it or not--you're at their mercy. But it's okay; we just need to remember that we can't make the planes run on time...not our day. And having others angry or even irritated at us for being on that late plane...please. Yet we beat ourselves up over and over again for things that are clearly out of our range of control. And it's going to get worse before it gets better; we've seemingly peaked--at least for awhile--at having everything at our whim and whimsy.
But it is okay...really :). All we need to do is just climb on that proverbial raft and let the current of life take us. Sometimes the pace will quicken; sometimes it will slow to a crawl. Two things for sure--it won't be the same twice in a row, and we have little control. So, c'mon and hop on the raft that is life...and enjoy the ride. It all gets done...feel those jets cooling? Gooooood...I figure those 50 things will come along in due time; in the meantime I'm going to enjoy the journey.
Have a fine fine day!

Dumb Luck

Who doesn't love a little dumb luck? You know, the kind of thing that happens when you least expect it. Tom and I always make it somewhat of a challenge when we go on a get-away, be it short or lengthy. If things aren't going great, we'll assure each other that "it's about time for some dumb luck" and voila...99% of the time it happens. It's been fun over the years to instill this into Kurt as well...he's a dumb luck fan as a result and has brought along a few converts himself.

I tend to think that attitude has a bit to do with that dumb luck; going through life and grabbing all the gusto available sure seems to help the situation. As far as I can see, there's no reason to think otherwise. We have fun, we take life in stride, and we know that things will go screwy. Nevertheless, there's normally some great little surprise that greets us along the way.

On our way to Indy tonight, we decided to try our dumb luck and look for one of our challenges--a dusty cheap bottle of scotch. Yep...we go through towns from time to time looking for that run-down liquor store that more than likely has one or two bottles of scotch that no one wants. We walk in, blow off the dust and dirt, ask how much, check out the bottle, and make our purchase.  This evening dumb luck appeared in a the form of that dingy little liquor store. We found a great bottle of scotch for 18 bucks and, holding true to our criteria, the box was really dirty :). And by the way...the scotch is great! Nice and smooth.

Ah, the joys of dumb luck.

Getting Back on the Ball (Literally)

The other day while #1 son Kurt and I were chatting, he told me that he was following the example of his mom and of Leo Leporte (http://www.twit.com) and he had bought an exercise ball to sit on while working. This immediately rattled my brain reminding me that the work hiatus was indeed over, I was back at work, and I was sitting on...the couch. Not good. A few years ago, after hearing Leo delight in  the virtues of sitting on an exercise ball while working, I purchased one and became instantly hooked. When sitting on an exercise ball, one is never truly sitting...more like gingerly bouncing, sliding, shifting, etc. That has to be good for muscle tone, right? I'm going to run with that. Nevertheless, after talking with #1 son, I made a hasty trip to the basement where my big white exercise ball was patiently awaiting my return.

I have some interesting memories with the exercise ball. One that vividly comes to mind was one nice spring morning when I was working away during our busy season and all of a sudden the exercise ball and I started doing a gyration that neither of us had planned. Once it was all over, it occurred to me that we had just bounced our way through a moderate earth quake. I was correct. My workmates throughout the state started reporting similar shaking at their home offices (although none had experienced it on an air-filled exercise ball...exhilarating!).

The exercise ball and I have a basic routine throughout the day. I always start off seated on it with one laptop on my work station and the other poised on the couch. In this way I have "stereo" laptops and I get a great deal accomplished...or so I'd like to believe :). After lunch, I give my hips a bit of a hiatus and the exercise ball becomes a hassock of sorts. Nevertheless, its necessity is never questioned.

Someday the inevitable will happen--I'm just curious as to whether the ball will slowly deflate as I'm working away until I notice my chin is bumping my laptop or if it will suddenly explode much as the old inner-tubes did on cars when we were kids (remember that?). The former will come as an inconvenience; the latter will come as a complete shock much as it did for the aforementioned Mr. Laporte. I was listening to a podcast one day where Leo was just chatting along and all of a sudden there was a loud noise and apparently Leo found himself on the floor, somewhat shocked at what had just transpired. Fortunately, I don't do many video chats during work hours; I can imagine the roar of laughter in the school lounge later after I implode during a video conference call...of course after checking to make sure I hadn't imploded along with the ball...these are nice people :). Be that as it may, I throw caution to the wind and continue to bounce my way through my work assignments.

The discipline attached to maintaining multiple blog sites has hastened me to get back on a different ball of sorts. Already, as any writer (or hack, given the day and the quality of the work) will relate, I wonder about the day that I wake up, switch on the laptop, and then stare blankly at the blinking cursor with nothing more to say...nah. I haven't shut up in 50 years--no need to stop now! But, I have noticed that my observational skills have been put on higher alert...perhaps that next story is sitting near me and I don't want to be so caught up in my own world as not to see it. Besides, it's kind of nice to take a break and just observe--mighty interesting as well. No shortage of stories to tell.
So, I'm back on that ball--proverbial and synthetic--bouncing through life.
Have a fine fine day!

So Here We Are

At 9:02 a.m. (according to a birth certificate and my mom), I came into being. Apparently a girl was much wanted to round out a family of boys up to this point. As I was growing up, family friends tell the story of my dad zipping around town in his car, honking and announcing he had a girl. According to my dad, my mom was under the effects of ether and was very skeptical when he told her I was, indeed, a she. Nevertheless, the ether wore off and the word got out, and so here we are :).

I've never been much of one to look backward; not much for studying my own history. It seems too easy to carry along unwanted baggage along with all the otherwise good memories. So today won't be much of a day to reminisce about times past (although I might sneak in a couple of fun memories of birthday parties and sleep-overs as a kid--who could resist??)

So today I woke up with the intent to soak up the present (no pun intended)--a pleasant morning in which to enjoy the first coffee of the day while looking through a little stack of birthday cards that have accumulated over the past week, reading good wishes from good people on Facebook, having a daily chat with my mom.
I told Tom I wanted today to just be a day--no big plans. Life gets too planned, and in all that planning, we miss some pretty good stuff :). So today, we just let it flow and see what it brings.

My ultimate present to myself was releasing the pent-up writer; as a result, I'll be launching not only this blog today, but also a food blog (http://allaboutthefoodwithpictures.blogspot.com/2010/08/welcome-to-my-little-foodie-world.html) and simple observations of life (http://www.meanderingsfromhighbanks.blogspot.com) This site is the anchor of these and all additional blogs; I can't begin to describe the fun this has been thus far. Tom asked me what I'd like to do for my birthday; so far,the planning, design, and delivery of this project has kept me happily occupied...I am thinking a little ride "around the block" on the motorcycle couldn't hurt :)).

I hope you'll join the blog or blogs...it's an easy process through google...just follow the directions on the page. I always welcome your comments and thoughts.

And, as one more reminder, I hope you visit these links throughout the year:
http://www.heifer.org, http://www.jills-house.org, and http://smiletrain.org. These are three fantastic organizations that help folks, young and old. I know there are many great places out there to help; we're fortunate people--we can help those who aren't.

Thanks for indulging me in my birthday gift. I hope you'll join me in this year-long experiment with life. God bless.