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I remember the last time I bought a house. It was a while ago, but I still remember that nervous feeling of stepping out on a limb that night to say to the owner, "We'll buy it." I was thinking, "Where in the world are we going to get the money for this?" And then the hand shake, the signature on that document that committed most of my working life to paying for it.
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If you've ever given a child a helium balloon, you know you had better tie it to something or you're going to have a heartbroken kid pretty soon. That crazy balloon will just float away and slowly disappear into the sky, and all the while here's this crying child pointing at the sky and expecting you somehow to get up there and retrieve it. Now, when you go from a helium balloon to a hot air balloon-the kind that carries people-you don't want that balloon to just go drifting off somewhere. That's why they put those sandbags on hot air balloons. I think they call it ballast. It's to hold them down; to help control them and to keep them from drifting off. Balloons need ballasts; so do people.
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In the past, the classic retirement scene went something like this, there was a dinner in the retiree's honor, there were some heart-warming but predictable speeches, and if you'd put in enough years, like a gold watch, or at least a plaque or a certificate. And then very quickly the hole that you left in the company closed up, and you wondered what was really accomplished for all those years of service. Well, now it's worse. You may not get to retire. You might be "downsized." You end up asking yourself the question, "What do I have to show for my years of service?" Frankly, I think you can do better than a gold watch or a severance check.
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My regular routine doesn't allow me as much time for exercise as I'd like. In the past, when I had a few days away and my schedule permitted, I would enjoy doing some biking or hiking, or running. Of course, my body always told me that I hadn't been doing it enough. I ended up hurting in places I didn't even know I had places! But it's good to get some extra exercise when you can.
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My first reaction: "No way." Then, "It's true...and it's awful." A man asleep in the middle of the night. Suddenly, what has been determined to be an approximately 60 foot sinkhole opens up beneath the house and literally sucks the man, the bed, and the bedroom in with it. The home has since been demolished, and the next door neighbors were given 30 minutes to grab what they could and evacuate. There was even speculation that the owners of the other two homes would never return.
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If you're into fitness, you'll be happy to know that at times my wife and I have been walking together several times a week. Now, we lived in a place where it was three and a half miles around our local lake, and that was really good. For two reasons: First of all, that walk improved our physical condition-and I know that's something you'd be happy about. But it also gave us time to talk.
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Movies just would not be as exciting without those stunt men. I mean, the stars aren't about to take all the risks that give the viewer those thrills and ruin those beautiful pretty faces. So, every once in a while the script, maybe let's say for a TV show, will call for a man to fall off a building or a cliff. And so the viewer sees this man hurtling through the air backwards, and you know it isn't a dummy because his arms are flailing around. Now you might say, "Oh, he is a dummy if he does something like that." Well, you know what I mean. It sure looks like we won't be seeing that fellow again; this is going to be his last movie. But appearances aren't everything. Oh, it looks like he's headed for a crash, but actually he's headed for a net.
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Spring is a time for cardinals. Like we have cardinals dining every morning at our backyard birdhouse. Oh yeah, and the baseball Cardinals. You know, they gather in Florida for spring training, and the fans start counting down to Opening Day.
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I've been to South Africa several times. I love those accents, but not when they're talking about an inspirational sports icon killing his girlfriend. There's been a lot of fog around exactly what happened, but what we do know is that South Africa's Olympic hero admittedly shot his girlfriend four times. Now, he says accidentally and the police say on purpose.
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Chimney Mountain! I wanted our family to conquer it together. So, my wife and I, and our then three little Hutchcrafts started hiking up the trail. And my wife was a lovely tour guide as we went up that mountain trail. She pointed out for example, "Oh, look at the chipmunks over there! Hey, there goes a squirrel! Oh, look at those roots, they're huge! Notice how they tangled around the tree. Wait, wait, stop, listen; can you hear the wind whispering to us in the pines?" We were having a great time together.
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I like pizza. So, it's not totally uncommon for me to hit our local pizza place for a 15-minute lunch. Some years ago, we had a nice Italian restaurant near our office. And great food, not just pizza, and they were very busy from about 12:00 till 2:00. I was in there after the rush one day and I asked the owner how she was. She told me she was doing pretty well and then she asked me how I was.
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I hate to be late for a wedding, but I was. I had a carload of teenagers going with me to this wedding, and we were racing to get there by 11:00 A.M. Finally, after I came to a juncture I said, "Wait a minute! Which church is it at?" I'd left my invitation at home. I said, "Oh, I know where it is."
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We kept two special remembrances of our wedding. One was a piece of wedding cake that we froze; the other was a recording of the ceremony. The recording was a much better idea than the cake. We ate the cake on our first wedding anniversary. You've heard of chocolate cake; this was more like chalk cake. Uh-huh, bad idea. But oh, the recording, now that was a great idea. In fact, often on our wedding anniversary we have replayed it. We relive that wonderful day that our marriage began. I know some couples go beyond that. They actually dust off the old wedding dress and reconvene what's left of the wedding party, and do it again on some milestone anniversary. Hey, it's good for a couple to remember that wedding day. It's good to remember where it all began isn't it? In any important relationship a trip back to the beginning can rekindle the spark.
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When I go to the doctor, he sure is inquisitive. I tell him, "I feel sick!" And he insists on getting all the details: What's your temperature, tell me about your symptoms, what about your throat? Let's check your throat. I mean sometimes he even resorts to a blood test. How radical! And if it's serious enough, we even have to get into my mother's health and my father's health, and my family history. Actually, I'd be wise to give the doctor all the specifics I can think of. If I just walk in and say, "I'm sick", that doesn't do much. It's really tough to help someone when they're not specific about what's going on.
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So, the Defense Department has approved women being in combat roles. Well, women being in combat might be new for the military, but they're not new.
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Rosie the Riveter! That's a sweet, fragile name for a lady, huh? How would you like to go out on a date with somebody called Rosie the Riveter? Actually, Rosie was a symbol during WWII. She was a symbol of the millions of women who left their homes to go to work in America's factories.
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Okay, here's the scene: My wife and I are sitting together on an airplane. I'm busy working, trying to be a good time manager; getting my work done on my way to Chicago. And my wife has headphones on listening to whatever program happened to be on the stereo system, and she's laughing out loud. You know how frustrating that is? I'm trying to get work done and she's ho, ho, ho, ho! Listen, that drives you crazy when you don't know what somebody's laughing at.
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I think in a way, life is kind of like 365 deaths and resurrections every year. You know, you go to bed at night. It's kind of like you die, and then you come back to life the next morning. Now I know some mornings those resurrections look a little doubtful, like they may not happen. There's the sound of a buzzer, or a bell, or a radio going on, and then no signs of life. But eventually, sooner or later, there are signs of stirring and the dead person returns to life—another new start in a lifetime full of new starts. Whether or not you find those early moments of your day a little tough, I think I've got something that just might help you get out of the gate each morning.
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One of the most dramatic scientific advances in my lifetime has been those amazing space shuttle flights. Apparently they're behind us now, but man, they sure did make aeronautical and science and all kinds of history. We got to hear space news on a pretty regular basis and watching those dramatic launches. We'd hear conversations from space. We still do from the Space Station. You know, you could hear the familiar sound of the conversation between the NASA Mission Control Center and those astronauts up there. The space day would begin with a wake up song from Houston. They'd play something that would say, "Good morning!" Then they would communicate back and forth all day long. Of course, they were in constant communication. See, when you're living in an environment where so much could go wrong; it's real important to do that.
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I won't be going on a cruise anytime soon. Not that I ever wanted to. But the reports of those passengers on that powerless, drifting cruise ship a while back, oh that clinched it. Fire at sea, everything shut down - from lights to air conditioning to toilets, no communication, little bags as your personal "bathroom," accounts of sewage running in the halls and down the walls, a repulsive stench, sleeping wherever. I ain't goin'!
