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Take a walk on the mild side.
February 2008 - Posts
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What's so special about an anniversary? Well, lots of things. First, it's a milestone; a way of saying: "Hey, we made it another year!" There's something special in citing longevity. It's an achievement all its own. We like to know that we accomplished higher numbers, three is better than one or two. This is a good things because the numbers stand for an onward procession of years. That's what the word anniversary means, a yearly recurrence of the date of a past event. Second, an anniversary recalls the original event. Since the original day was a happy event, then remembering the happiness is having another opportunity to relive a known, or familiar, joy. It's guaranteed to be happy. Third, anniversaries provide another chance to perfect what was started three years ago. When singles unite to form a couple, they get more proficient in loving each other as time goes by. They learn to love each other more deeply. And, what is love if it is not knowing someone at the deepest level? An anniversary is special because it's another chance to say, "I love you."
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I try to do a little bike riding on my lunch hour most days at work. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to drive to a bike trail, so I ride around near the office. When deciding between riding on the sidewalks with the pedestrians or on the roads with the cars, I always pick the sidewalks. It isn't likely that a pedestrian will come up behind you and knock you down. There are other hazards, though, when choosing to ride on the sidewalks:
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Dead leaves, loose sand or gravel -- not a problem if you go straight through, a BIG problem if you try to turn.
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Telephone poles in the middle of the sidewalk.
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Trash cans on the sidewalk on trash pick-up day.
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Sidewalks that deviate abruptly around a tree.
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Lawn mowers spewing cut grass and dirt into the air.
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Cars that block the sidewalk when turning out of a driveway.
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No sloping curbs on cross streets.
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Sidewalks on only one side of the street.
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No sidewalk at all.
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On my commute to work, it seems like half of the drivers I see have a cell phone pressed up against their head. I'm sure even more drivers are using the "hands-free" kind where you can't tell if they are talking to someone or just singing along with the radio.
How many times have you been standing in a store and you hear someone exclaim "Hey! How are you doing?". When you turn around to find out which friend you've run into, you find someone staring vacantly into space while appearing to have an animated conversation with nobody. That is quite unnerving. I don't like the cell phones that are so small people can clip them to their ears. The phone looks like they have a giant cockroach crawling on their head. Now that REALLY creeps me out. I have to fight the urge to go up to them and slap the bug off of their head.
My car was hit by an SUV with the driver on a cell phone. The crazy part was that he had just pulled out of his driveway when he hit me and he was already talking on his cell phone!
My sister, Kate, has a young daughter about 4 years old. Kate will take her daughter to the grocery store with her, plop her into the cart, call up our mother on her cell phone, then hand the phone to her daughter. So grandma winds up "babysitting" the kid over the phone so my sister can do her shopping in peace.
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Another chance to say: "I Love You". Originally this day was set aside in honor of Saint Valentine. He is a Christian saint who died around 270. I wonder how it changed to a day of giving affection to loved ones. We all look forward to February 14th because that means we will likely get cards and candy, or other tokens of affection from those we hold dear. Of course, most of us don't need all those sweets. They just contribute to the waistline (or saddlebags). What would be a better gift?
One way we could show affection is to actively remove stress from someone else's day. We know what our friends enjoy and despise. Why not brighten their day with something useful? A kind word or compliment, especially when it isn't earned or a gentle touch, or an unsolicited smile. These signs of affection really mean something. We know our friend's personalities so we ought to know what would please them the most.
Happy Valentine's Day! 
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The internet has generated many new words that have been added to our language. Of all the interesting names and expressions, I think "blog" is one of the neatest. It says what it is in one short syllable. No guessing or confusion. Even people not very technical or computer savvy, have heard of a blog and most know what it is.
It makes me wonder, though, if it would have caught on as well if it didn't have as good a name as it has. You know the name is a good one when people turn a noun into a verb. (How many times have you said you "googled" something?) Not only can you have a blog (the noun), but you can also blog (the verb) or spend time blogging. And that would make you a blogger. I haven't yet seen it used as an adjective, for example "that sounds very bloggy", but I'm sure it will come in time.
What if it had been called a "diary web"? That is what a blog is anyway. It's a personal diary on the web. We could be saying things like, "Did you diaweb today?" And this website would be called "Diawebiversity". Nah, that just isn't the same.
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Whew! The price of gas is killing me! Fortunately, we live near a gas station that has the best prices for gas compared to the rest of the city. I'll see the gas prices holding steady for several days, but the morning that I stop to fill up my tank, I find that the gas prices jumped up over night. How do they know that I'm going to stop by?
I used to drive a sports car that required premium gas, and so I was paying the premium prices. The regular maintenance services for the sports car also cost a fortune. $900 for a tune-up?!? (It would have cost $1200 at the dealership.) Any little part that needed to be purchased was also outrageously expensive. I did the smart thing and traded in my sports car for a van. The van does get fewer miles to the gallon, but it runs on regular gas and the check-ups aren't nearly as expensive. The van also has a lot more room and all of the seats come out to haul large items. The back seat of the sports car was about useless -- no one could fit back there. It was really more like a shelf.
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We are in the process of selling our house. It is a terrible time of year to be doing that and it is also the worst time for real estate in general in about 30 years. I'm not worried, though, because I know our house will be selling soon. How do I know this? Because a new Wal-Mart is being built that is closer to us and not out of the way. Any time I am about to move or have just left an area, either the roads are greatly improved or new businesses are built that I would have found useful. The most annoying part is when they work on improving the roads and I spend months driving through the construction area with narrower lanes, slower traffic, and road hazards everywhere (potholes, nails in the road, etc.), and then I move just before they finish. That seems to be a recurring theme in my life.
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