Paul Merrill
So we had a flat. What made it fun was that our spare tire had no air pressure. The result was not as bad as it could have been, but an hour of our lives and our rescuer’s life could have been spent doing more fun things than recovering from that minor crisis.
Tip: check the air pressure in your spare tire every once in a while. I promise it will save you some hassle.
Life often provides a plate of unclear choices. Heather and I are in one of those places. Our plates are full.
There are several ways I can react to this lack of clarity:
1. Frustration
2. Work my butt off trying to find the perfect answer
3. Ask tons of people for advice
4. Take one day at a time and do the best I can each day
5. Relax
6. Pray
Each day gives me a different mix of which solutions I gravitate toward. The only one that I would argue is wrong is number one. That leads to nothing but anxiety.
What’s your mix like today?
Over the weekend, we flew to California for my sister’s beautiful wedding. Fun was had by all.
To add to our fun (in other words, “my fun”), we paid a little extra and rented a Fiat 500. The road between San Francisco and Mendocino was amazing – super twisty with nicely banked curves. The Fiat had enough oomph to go as fast as my nerve would allow.
The more I reflected on the experience of my driving fun along that world-class road, I realized that I enjoyed myself nearly as much as if I had been in a Ferrari. And the Ferrari costs about fifteen times what the Fiat does.
Context is important. Ferrari owners live and breathe in a world of extreme luxury. My normal drive consists of a pedestrian Toyota sedan or our family minivan. The Fiat 500 provides a lot of contrast.
So enjoy yourself today! See how much fun you can have on a limited budget.
p.s. That’s my daughter in the photo. She enjoyed the sunroof as much as I enjoyed the car’s little engine.
My wife and I have this debate. She is happy with a postal delivery person carrying our mail to the box right by our front door. I am happy for the march of progress. I wouldn’t mind if one of the newer mailbox sheds (or whatever they are called) replaced the individual boxes in our neighborhood. I understand and appreciate the efficiency they represent, particularly in light of how the US postal system is getting in deeper debt every day. Also, the “sheds” offer better security (not that we’ve ever had anything stolen from our box – at least to my knowledge). I do admit to their complete lack of romance and beauty.
Heather likes the convenience of delivery to our front door.
Which do you prefer?
I took these photos in rural Colorado. I thought it was interesting to see the old and new side by side.
“You rode like the wind! Even on that dinosaur of a bike.”
That’s what a man told my son last weekend. My son just finished the Copper Triangle, a very challenging 80-mile race up and down three Rocky Mountain passes. The comment was made by a man who had a multiple-thousand dollar bicycle. Jay’s Mercier (less than a year old) cost all of about $350. Jay was able to complete the course with a significant margin over the fancy-bike man.
It’s all about the rider – and not the bike. This concept applies to just about anything. A true artist can make an amazing painting with house paint and dime store brushes. Many wanna-be artists spend thousands on supplies, only to produce paintings that are only seen in their own living rooms.
un. Sometimes our blogs need just a little injection of life.
I found this great site by Jessica Hische called Daily Drop Cap. If you know just a tiny bit of html, you can add fun drop caps to any of your blog posts. (Thanks, Jessica!)
Now I’ll add some lorem ipsum text, courtesy of Hipster Ipsum, just so you can see what another of the drop caps look like.
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This is just a quick reminder that you need to give yourself a break. And even a small break is better than no break.
A few weekends ago, Heather and I took a one night break from normal life. It was so refreshing. Just being in a different place than our suburban home was enough to refresh our souls. We took the opportunity to talk about things that wouldn’t fit into normal days’ discussions.
So if you haven’t taken a break for a while, do whatever it takes and get away. You won’t regret it.
I snapped this photo in the “back yard” of the place we stayed. It was part of a huge sundial that someone built more than fifty years ago.
The shootings at a theater in Aurora were tragic. A man with untold problems decided to take the lives of many innocent people. My first reaction was that if gun control laws were more restrictive, the killer may not have been able to get the gun he needed to kill so many people.
A very good friend believes the opposite. He would argue that if a sane person in the theater with good marksmanship skills were carrying a concealed weapon, that person could have killed the shooter before all his killings were completed. We argued extensively about gun control a few years back and finally realized we could not convince the other to change his mind. We put the argument behind us and our friendship has grown deeper.
I am not going to argue here about gun control. I will say that with great freedom comes great responsibility. As the parent of two teenagers, I know the feeling of handing over the keys to a car for that first solo run. Anything could happen. As a society that has handed the controls of lethal weapons to nearly anybody, anything can happen.
My son went to a midnight showing – the same movie on the same night, at a different theater 15 miles from the tragic location. My family is not very different from some of the families whose sons and daughters were killed. My son could have been killed. Your daughter could have been killed.
I am thankful for our freedom – but I am sad for the frequent abuses of that freedom. I would be willing to give up a little freedom in exchange for a little more sanity.
I got hit with a red-light camera ticket.
A good thing is that the traffic violation does not go against my insurance record. A bad thing is that I can think of a million other things I could have spent that money on.
I realize that these cameras may prevent a few serious accidents. But truly drunk or impaired people who might run a red light probably aren’t thinking about red light cameras. (They will be when they get their notice in the mail.)
I also understand that local governments are hurting. Like almost everyone else, they are having a hard time making their income match their expenses. And collecting taxes this way is very cost-effective.
Currently, only 21 states and Washington DC have these cameras. I happen to be in one of the states that taxes their residents this way. Have you been taxed this way lately?
The photo, by the way, is of the envelope I mailed the check in to the civil authorities.
Heineken amused me.
Their latest print ad touts how awesome it is that their beer is imported. However, in England, Heineken is not imported. For English consumption, the Dutch beer is brewed in English breweries, under license from the Dutch corporate headquarters.
What’s the big deal about “imported” anyhow? “Chinese-made” used to mean poor quality. Now, nearly everything is made in China, and often with very high quality built in. “American” brands and “German” brands are made all over the world. Even Swiss watches may be assembled elsewhere.
Having said that, I still prefer certain countries of origin for certain products. What’s your favorite imported product and why do you like it better than the alternatives?
