October 13, 2008 - Many Thanks - Blast From the Past - Butt Flickers - Senior Moments
Here in the Dominion it’s the Thanksgiving holiday and during our families annual turkey and-all the-fixin’s get-together - with my 11 year old granddaughter Mackenzie working the video camera - we all recorded the things we’re thankful for - for me, first and foremost - family - a wonderful, creative group of individuals all anchored by the incomparable wife/mother Audrey - also, the fact I’ve been able to beat the insurance company’s survival statistics for by-pass surgery - every day a much appreciated bonus.
I was also going to add I’m thankful that according to the World Economic Forum, Canada has the world’s strongest banking system with the world’s financially soundest banks - but I didn’t - that would have returned the world’s economic crisis back into the conversation - as it was in the pre dinner discussions - not a topic for this festive family table.
In this critical financial times, being bombarded as we are by "the world is going to hell in a hand basket" headlines it difficult for many to reflect on the good things in life - but, this is the exactly the time we must really grasp all that is good in our live.
Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California - author of "The How of Happiness - a Scientific approach to Getting the Life You Want" suggests that we should take the time to count our blessings on a daily basis - not just at Thanksgiving.
"It’s like losing weight. You have to stay on the diet and exercise regularly for it to work."
Professor Lyubomirsky offers up a few tips on how to be grateful:
Keep a gratitude journal - jot down the things, people and situations for which you are grateful.
Pick a time of day or the week to simply think about the things your grateful for.
Try different methods of expressing gratitude. Write a journal once a week, visit or call a friend another week, make some art the next.
Express your gratitude - Email, fax or write a letter to someone you owe a debt of gratitude to for something in the past, such as a friend or a teacher. The letter doesn’t have to be mailed.
I uncovered a blast from the past on YouTube - I had one - an 1960 Ford Galaxie four-door hardtop - the damn thing was so wide it could seat three NFL Linebackers with room left over for a couple of cheerleaders - did I think I was King of the hill even though the payments strained the limits of an already tight family budget - I think I paid around three thou - 32 years old, married with three kids, I should have known better - but the devil made me do it - remember when -
More car video and thanks to not yet retired buddy Bill McKay for sending this in - great commercial - I would have loved to have been in on the creative brainstorming session at the ad agency who dreamed-up this commercial series - The Trunk Monkey.
While on the subject of brainstorming sessions - I have something to offer up - at no cost - to the women who might browse this Blog - retired or not retired - young or older - a brainstorming manual that could help you make a few extra bucks via the internet even if you haven’t a clue how to start and you’re a computer novice - which describes my situation a few years ago.
This FREE brainstorming manual centers on WHAM’s - work-at-home-moms but it also works for WHAM/GRAM’s.
I admit I’m not the most dedicated of tree-huggers, but I try. I faithfully use my city’s recycling and compost garbage programme - I have five green bags for grocery shopping - that is when I remember to get them out of my car’s trunk and take them with me into the supermarket - and I have thing about litter.
What is about people who thoughtlessly toss stuff on the ground instead of in a container - especially when there’s a garbage can not more than five feet away?
I’m beginning the think that the pig population in our community is growing despite all the "Save the Earth" publicity - which brings me to a section of the pig population that is perhaps, the worst litter offender of them all - the Butt-Heads who Butt Flick - you see them everywhere - just before they enter a building - they will flick their cigarette on the sidewalk or roadway - and then in an attempt to illustrate their concern for public safety, they’ll stomp on it as if they’re eliminating a fire hazard but completely ignoring the dangers to the environment.
As Linda McAvoy, writing in the Toronto Star points out - "filtered cigarettes contain synthetic polymer cellulose acestate, which is not biodegradable and discarded butts leach chemicals into the environment posing health risks."
I bring this up after witnessing two employees of a shop in a neighbourhood mall who, forced outside to have a cigarette, tossed their butts onto the driveway and returned to work totally unconcerned - they were
standing four feet from a mall installed, sand filled, 3 foot high, 24 inch wide, cement ashtray - Oink-Oink.
But the most dangerous of the butt-flickers are the ones who flick their butts out the car window - one study in the scientific journal Tobacco Control. Reported that 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year worldwide - plus, there have been numerous report about medians, forests and countrysides ignited by passing car butt flickers - How many times while driving at night have you seen the red-hot shower of sparks when a burning cigarette hit’s the pavement?
Where is my Sunday paper? the irate customer calling the newspaper office loudly demanded, wanting to know where her Sunday edition was.
Ma'am, said the newspaper employee, today is Saturday. The Sunday paper is not delivered until tomorrow, on Sunday.
There was quite a long pause on the other end of the phone, followed by a ray of recognition.... as she was heard to mutter 'Oh crap... So that's probably why no one was at church today.
Now lets get working on your creative retirement job and ladies - get your FREE copy of the WHAM or GRAM manual and earn extra revenue via the internet - (Go to URL)
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