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I was reminded today that it had been Thanksgiving since my last post.  Sorry about that.  My problem lately has been motivation.  Today my motivation is politics, specifically national politics.  And since the State of the Union speech is tonight here’s a political cartoon I received today via email:  

 A LOT has happened since Thanksgiving.  And a lot has happened in national politics in just the past week.  Can you believe that just one U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts has derailed an entire political party’s agenda? 

As I listened to Scott Brown’s acceptance speech I found myself getting excited.  Finally, after 2 LONG years I heard someone espousing the same political ideology as me.  My favorite line of his speech, in reference to terrorism, was when he said (paraphrased) “I want to make sure we’re spending our money on weapons to eliminate terrorists instead of defending them in court.” 

Since Tuesday, January 19, which by the way was the one year anniversary for the current administration, the majority party has fumbled around trying to redefine themselves.  It’s almost as if they want to stick their finger in their collective mouths and then hold them up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.

I hope that our elected officials will finally, as a result of Senator Brown’s election, show us, the electorate, the courtesy of listening to what we have to say rather than continue to snub us and look down their noses at us and tell us they know better than we do what’s good for us.  How arrogant and pompous.  I’m not sure how long it will last but at least it appears Senator Brown’s election has, at the very least, gotten their attention.  Time will tell…

I know, I know, I’m late with this month’s post.  But, hello… November IS hunting season!  I’ve been on the road a lot this month.  Back and forth to Fredericksburg a couple of times, one weekend on retreat and, oh yeah, I’m working too.

All that said, this morning finds me in Fredericksburg waiting for Noon for dinner and then off to the lease for the rest of the weekend.  Sitting here I’m reminded how hectic our lives can become.  Some of it is neccessary, much of it is self inflicted.

So for just a moment, whenever you have the opportunity to read this I hope each of you pause and reflect on what’s hectic in your life.  If you can eliminate something, I hope you will.  It’s really kind of uplifting to consider and discard some burdens.  For me, the most reassuring moment is when I realize they weren’t as important after all, as I thought they were.  What’s important is today and what you choose to make of it.

What’s not important is all this garbage about stores opening at midnight or 4:00 AM for Black Friday.   But I’ll save those comments for later. 

May God Bless and protect the men and women who protect us by their service in the military and may God continue to Bless each one of us.

Happy Thanksgiving.

There’s a song that goes something like, “I was country when country wasn’t cool.”  Well, to paraphrase, “I was an Internet provider before anyone really knew what the Internet was, including me.”  In late 1992, early 1993, Mark Foreman and I were working the bugs out of transitioning ”Pink’s Place” BBS (Mark was a fan of Pink Floyd) into what eventually became Public NetXchange, PNX, Internet service.  [Read the rest of this entry...]

About 6 years ago, Elaine’s Mom and Dad bought a house on the bayou in Bridge City.  Before they moved in we went by to take a look at the house and hear their plans for remodeling and making it their home.  On the back porch, off in one corner was a hot tub.  At first glance it was obvious it had not been used in quite awhile.  I didn’t really pay any attention to it.  That, maybe, was my first mistake.

I learned later that when they signed the papers on the house one of the conditions they made was to have the seller repair the hot tub and return it to good working order.  At some point, Elaine’s Dad told her once the hot tub was restored, he was giving it to us…  Elaine was excited.  What do you think my chances would have been at that point to say “no thanks?”  No, I have to admit that initially when she told me I thought it would be OK.  What I had to do now was figure out how to have the hot tub moved from their house to our house.  It couldn’t cost too much, after all the hot tub was free. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Next month will be a year since I sold PNX and closed my retail store.  Some of the aspects of being self employed I miss.  I miss the pace and the interaction with my customers.  I always enjoyed the challenge when someone would come in and ask “Can you do so and so?”  Most of the time, I’d tell them yes.  Then, once they left the store I’d get busy and figure out how I was going to do “so and so.”  Many times I had no idea what I was going to do to meet their expectations but I loved the challenge.  I would usually brainstorm with my staff on how to solve the problem or I would pick up the phone and call someone I knew could help, depending on what the challenge was.  I can’t remember a single time I had to call someone back and tell them I wasn’t able to take care of their request.

[Read the rest of this entry...]