grace two

I'll take an incomplete for my last post.

A thunderstorm was headed my way while I was writing and I reckon I was only half done when I quit. My PC lives in fear of Ohio thunderstorms and so does Snickers. It was simply more important to stop writing and to comfort the little one.

The subject was about handling what comes our way with grace. It is easier to write about people who do not handle things with grace because examples are always at hand.

We are busy at work and we are doing ten hour days. There are people who don't want to be in there those extra two hours so they do what comes naturally to them, nothing. That is as long as they can get away with it. The idea that getting the work done will end the overtime does not enter their mind.

I would say they are not handling the issue with any sort of grace.

I will have to let this topic drift along this week. However much I may want to write this morning I have to get ready for work and be on my way. I've got my own ten hours to put in.

Comments on this subject very welcome.

grace

If you're interested in auto racing, not just NASCAR, but all forms of auto racing then you should have heard about the disaster in Indianapolis this past Sunday. F1 was in town for the US Grand Prix, a once a year event , and people came from all around to see the race. I use to travel over 400 miles to see this same once a year event when it was held at Watkins Glen, New York.

Well people spend thousands of dollars to see this race. They spend a weeks vacation for the event and look forward to it all year long.

People won't be doing that anymore.

You see there was a little problem this year at the USGP. Michelin supplies tires to 14 of the 20 cars in the series and by Saturday it was decided that these tires weren't safe to use. Well a lot of bargaining and negotiating went on about what to do and in the end nothing got sorted out so those cars didn't start the race! That left 6 cars in the race and 130,000 cheated fans in the stands.

I'm not going to go into all the different things that could have been done, I'm going to talk about one thing. The other tire manufacturer should have shown the grace to say "Let's do whatever we have to to have a race."

They didn't, it wasn't their problem, and that was a mistake.

When there is a crisis step forward and take charge if you can.

I really like this picture

Here is a picture posted on eBay. Click on the picture to see the full size version.

I really like this picture. It's not perfect but I would be very happy to have taken it. Remove four objects in the back ground and it really shines.

I'm going to write the seller and ask what camera he used.

These pictures are on eBay's server so I expect they will be gone in due time. When that happens I will delete this post.

The bike is a Honda CB750K, very low miles. It is really all most of us need (but not what we want) in a bike. The brakes could be better. Bikes stop much better today than they use to.

having takes

Enthusiasm. Who has it? Do you? Did you? I'll bet you probably did at one time.

Enthusiasm is wasted on the young. Those who have less means are likely to be the most enthusiastic about something. Enthusiasm for things tends to evaporate as we get older. Why is this?

I have the time and money to be really creative about something but I am not enthusiastic about anything enough to get started. God knows that I have projects in great need of my enthusiasm.

The key word there is have. If you did a spread sheet on the subjects that I have some interest in, guided by the books and magazines that I own, the list would be too long for a lifetime. Add in the objects you will find in my house and the work to be done on the house and yard and the list swells again. Throw in the demands placed on my time by family and work and the list is fatter still.

Of course it has not always been that way. Once upon a time when I had little I could muster enthusiasm at will. I could devote myself to my physical condition to the point where I could run twenty miles all at once, clicking them off at an easy eight minutes each. I could ride my motorcycle across the country, putting in two hundred miles in a day or one thousand miles in a day. I could play basketball for a couple of hours almost every day, I could read a whole book in a day, I could just go away on weekends and see something.

I can't do any of this anymore and I think the reason is because now, unlike then, I have. Having takes away the quality in your life and it doesn't give anything back except for the desire to have more.

I have to figure out how to get enthusiastic about getting rid of a lot of my stuff so I can live a little life in the time I have left.

Be careful about having.

let go

One of our hardest chores is letting things go.

Ideas or objects, we just love to keep them forever. If we can add some more to the pile then it's even better.

I don't see how this is much use at all.

Stop and think about what is happening when you keep things. Are you keeping them or are they keeping you?

rant

What a silly pathetic lot we humans are! Most of us need to be motivated before we get to work and do what we need to do.

We keep on smoking even though we know it kills us. How much more motivation do you need when you already know that what you are doing will cause a painful and untimely death.

We keep on eating when our weight is already out of control. How much more motivation do you need when you can barely do simple tasks, things that you did without notice just a few short years ago.

We are satisfied with our jobs. Yes, that is something to complain about. There are many people working for someone who have the talent and abilities to work for themselves.

This whole sit on your but and let life happen trick that most people employ one way or the other is a primary reason of a lot of the misery in this country.

Get off your duff, make a plan and get moving. Life is passing you by.

dogs

Dogs aren't like us, they want to be but they just can't. Sounds like a few people we all come across once in awhile, doesn't it?

I don't expect the same thing from my dog as I do from my nephew. I react accordingly.

Snicks and I had lunch today and we both drank the same thing, cold tap water. After lunch I headed to my desk and put Snicks up on the bed. She fussed some and I threw her a milkbone, she fussed some more so I threw her another one.

After a few minutes she darted from one side of the bed to the other, "That was funny." I thought.
She peaked at me from behind the dresser. I thought the sheets looked a little odd, "Just the sun."

It took me a minute, but I got up and looked. She peed on the bed.

Now I know some people would beat their dog, I couldn't get mad at all. This was my fault.

Sop it up, head for the laundry, turn on a fan, take Snicks out.

No sense reacting with anger to things that you are in control of. No sense reacting at all to things that you are not in control of.

Take your time, accept the job handed to you and get it done.

over at 1,151!

I just wrote a piece on short term goals over at 1,151!

It fits in well here. So if your a regular visitor just click this link and have a look.

life change

Why does it take something major to convince a person that their life could be better?

Living easily without having to deal with change is what comes naturally to us. We resist change, we like things the way they are even if we don't really like things the way they are. Do you know what I mean?

No matter where you work or live it is easy to find people who don't care for the situation but do nothing about it, except complain of course.

Even when a major event does spark change many people slip right back to their old habits with all due haste. People quit smoking when they get sick from it and pick up the cigarettes again in a few short months.

I have no answers. I struggle everyday with who I am versus who I want to be, with what I have versus what I want to have, with what I do versus what I want to do. With that thought I think I see part of the answer.

It is the known versus the unknown. Even if the path you are on leads you to disaster you know it step by step and perhaps, you think, you can fend off that disaster the next time it shows up. More likely than not that disaster will happen anyway, even if you see it coming.

Fear of the unknown then is an obstacle to change. You know, that is a pretty easy fix, just make the unknown into the known.

How do you do that?

Create a concise vision of who you want to be, what you want to have and what you want to do.

Then just do it.

I paid a visit to my friend Tony on Sunday. He had a heart attack this past week and is in the process of recovery. He was looking a bit banged up from the experience but otherwise doing alright.

In the emergency room he had faded to a shade of gray with blue ears. It wasn't the place for it but I wish someone had taken his picture.

Why? Simple, capture the moment when you have sunk lower than you want to go and keep it for inspiration.

You know, I should take his picture now, capture him as he is, banged and bruised, without tone, tired posture, love handles and all. Then I should work the picture over on the computer, put gray and blue into his skin, remove the twinkle from his eye. Then I could turn the picture over to an artist, "Here paint this on a six foot board."

While the artist does that I'll create another picture, Tony smiling, looking healthy and strong, chiseled and lean. Here artist, "Paint this one too."

When the pictures are done we hang them on the wall with a mirror in between them.

Tony look at this, "Where you've been on the left, where you're going on the right and where you are now in the middle."

This might come in handy sometime when he wants a cigarette or a hot dog.

a list of books

A friend of mine recently had a heart attack. He will be taking it easy for six weeks so I am lending him some books off my shelves.

Here is my selection.

• Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, Robert Pirsig
• The sun also rises, Ernest Hemingway
• On the road, Jack Kerouac
• The secret power within, Chuck Norris
• A neautral corner, boxing essays, A.J. Liebling
• Roadster, Chris Goodrich
• Excuse me, your life is waiting, Lynn Grabhorn
• Finding a joyful life in the heart of pain, Darlene Cohen
• And some guitar and coffee table books to round things out

Now I just need a box.

what I want

I save searches on eBay.

I save a search for each of the 4 Japanese motorcycle brands and each one is sorted by the bikes nearest to where I live.

Now then I don't need another motorcycle, I am already blessed with my share, I just have to do some work on mine to get them out. It would, part of me thinks, be easier to just fork over a check and ride away on another one. When I find a bike nearby that I like I save it in my eBay, this gives me enough time to just forget about it.

That is just like writing down the things you want and thinking about it before you go out and spend the money.

don't jump into things

So I know this couple, about my age, kids all grown up, both of them working, not making a lot of money, middle class. They paid off their old house, a civil war era home but nothing charming about it, life should have been easy at last. It wasn’t good enough.

They decided they needed to do some home improvement. They called somebody up about rebuilding the roof. It was easy, all they had to do was sign some papers and everything would be taken care of. A new loan on the home and the job would be done plus they could pay off their credit cards, sign here.

Well they signed, $54,000 went to the contractor, and ten Mexicans showed up in one van and went to work, in a few weeks the job was mostly done, mostly, because their son had to finish a few things that the contractor had forgotten.

The son told me later, “You know, the guys I worked with in construction use to talk about side jobs all of the time. The work my mom and dad had done was a $10,000 job.”

“Yea, but they really wanted it.” I replied.

When you want something, write it down and look at it for a while, for quite a while, and ask yourself if you really need it.