My son the genius

My son and a few of his friends have been working on a project with puppets. It is a unique approach to video blogging that recently became very popular on YouTube. It’s a cleaver program providing fun and entertainment while still being instructional. Obviously, he has highly developed creative talent because of my fantastically creative genes. 
Not so much.
He is just good at what he does and I’m proud of him.  That’s what makes life worth while. Just Say’n.
Take a look and have some fun. Click here

Our National Debt Solution

The brilliant minds that run the world are all bothered about our financial problems. In this country, as shown in the above graphic, we have around $15trillion in debt and can’t seem to agree on how to solve the problem. In fact, in Washington DC, I am not sure they can agree on what day it is. 
So here is the solution in round numbers. We implement a national LOTTO. Out of the population of 300million people figure about 200million would play. Every week there would be 3000 people who would win $100thousand. If tickets sold for $5, in five years we would retire close to half the debt and would make a lot of people happy with winning. Heck we pay a lot more than that now, don’t win anything, and watch the country sink in debt. Why not have some fun while we try to recover. Just say’n.

Bragging Rights

My son married a wonderful woman and together they produced two magnificent children. I do believe they are two of the most fantastic children in the universe. 
They are beautiful, smart, and very happy about life.
I like to talk about them because I have a Bragging Rights. 
Well, I don’t really; my son picked his wife and together they had children, so I didn’t really have any part in the activity.
But I don’t care, these are still the most fantastic children in the universe and I’m allowed to share that opinion. Just Say'n

Horrible moments

Watching the debates the other day, once again wondering why I waisted my time. Nevertheless, it was the night that Rick Perry said he had three agencies he wanted to eliminate. Commerce, education, and, and, and, son of a gun, he couldn't remember the third one. Somebody suggested EPA and he went along with it for a minute, but then said no. In all honesty, I think he was praying for a stroke. Those are horrible moments. There is no place to hide, no excuse you can make, you are just caught in your own naked stupidity.


A horrible moment that haunts me (one of many unfortunately) was at a meeting where I was the main speaker. I never met the people hosting the meeting and therefore was not aware of any of their personal life. The wife of the host was a somewhat large woman who appeared to be in the latter stages of pregnancy. I asked her when she was due to deliver …… and she told me she was not pregnant.
A horrible moment.
 Needless to say, I was not ever asked back to that event again. Guess that is why I can have empathy with Rick Perry and his two out of three memory. Just Say'n

Newton Leroy McPherson

It is always good for a person to be open to the opportunities of life. Newton Leroy McPherson is a man who has led a very opportunistic life. 
We know him as Newt Gingrich, a charismatic politician that is now toying with the front spot in the Republican Presidential candidates. 
I am not a great follower of Newt, but I do admire his ability to weather storms. 
He was the leading proponant of impeaching Clinton for improper relationship with Lewinsky, yet he was having a 6 year affair with Callista Bisek, a congressional aide. He ultimately married Callista and they seem to have a great relationship. I’m happy for both of them.
He is a man who believes in strict conservative ethics for financial matters, yet the house ehtics committee investigated him and sanctioned him $300,000 for improper business activities. He paid the bill.
He positions himself as a simple man of the people, which, given his humble background is true. However this simple man of the people is now worth over $6.7 million. I do wonder how politicians 
become so wealthy, but he is definitely not alone in this.
He resigned his office in congress because of the friction he was 
causing in the Republican party, but now wants to be its leader. That takes guts.


I’ve been around long enough to know that none of us have squeaky clean background, and we all have made some mistakes. Maybe that’s why we have to admire him, he does know how to survive. Perhaps that’s what we need in this country, a strong person who can survive personal scandle and problems then come out smelling like a rose. Then again, maybe we don’t. Just say’n.

The Sky is Falling

So now we are told that our credit rating as a country has once again been downgraded. This is because of the fantastic lack of leadership now taking place in our nations capital. 
Needless to say, the Democrats are blaming the Republicans, the Republicans are blaming the Democrats, the house blames the Senate, the Senate blames the House and all of them eventually blame either Obama or Bush. 
In all honesty, things are so messed up in Europe that they see our economy as better than their economy and are pouring European money into the USA faster than ever before. 
Chicken little was walking down the road and got hit on the head by an acorn. She panicked and believed the sky was falling. Soon she convinced everyone she met that the sky was falling and they all panicked. Evenutally they all marched into the wolfs house, who politely ate them all.
Bottom line, don’t jump to panic. Things may be bad, but they were bad in 1776, 1864, 1929, 1942, 1967, 1997, and 2011. Seems like we got through those times, we will get through these. The sky isn’t falling, we are just going through a change. Change is good. Just Say’n.


Good way to stay calm is to tell a friend on Twitter or Facebook about our blog. See, don’t you feel better already? Just Say'n

Thanksgiving thoughts

Once a year we all focus on doing something that needs to take place every day. We become thankful. 
I know the economy is bad, politics seem really screwy, and I am sure several other things are not going according to expectations, but we are really a very fortunate country. 
I am thankful that I have a fantastic wife, healthy and happy kids, wonderful friends, and a body that is co-operating with my plans to live a long time. 
I have seven words that I repeat as often as possible and they give me a good perspective on life. First three are “WHAT IS, IS.” I don’t want to spend a lot of time trying to change or worry about what is. This is easy because of my second set of words “THIS TOO SHALL PASS.” No matter what is going on in life, tomorrow is another day, and it has a great chance of being a great day. 
Thanks to all our readers, and thanks to all who make our life so wonderful. Just Say’n.

Say it isn’t so!!

The weather yesterday was warm and wonderful. November 20 and it had all the makings of a great boat day. My wife and I decided to get one more day out on the water so we journeyed to the marina filled with joy and anticipation of a day on the boat.
Pulling into the marina, we saw our beloved vessel; not in the water, but up on dry land. 
How sad. Nevertheless, we found a couple of friends and spent some time on their boat, so all was not wasted.
I really can’t complain, it is November and the season is truly over, but I kind of hoped we had snuck one in without winter noticing. Didn’t happen, but had fun anyhow. Just say'n

Bring in the clowns

Ah, Washington at its best. The Super Committee can’t figure out how to agree on economic stratagey. 
Here are 12 highly educated (several from Ivy League schools), successful (7 are millionaires), politically astute leaders of our nation who have one task to do: cut $1.2 trillion out of the budget. Seems like a reasonable request, given the fact that our economy is in the trash and we need some effective leadership to guide us through this storm.
 Nevertheless, all these wonderful people can not accomplish this one task and will now start a round of shame and blame for their lack of leadership ability.


Maybe we could start to trim the budget by just firing them all. Hmmmm, I think that is called voting. Just Say’n.

Over the edge

We visited this beautiful waterfall the other day. It plummeted over 125 feet from the river above to the lake below. It was inspiring and beautiful to watch, but it did get me thinking.

In life there are beautiful moments when you seem to just be flowing along with everything going well. It is a time of peace, contentment and genuine appreciation for the good things in life.

Then, like the river in the mountain, you suddenly find yourself out of control, plunging toward a destination you didn’t plan on seeking, aware that no matter what you do, you will never be in the same place again. Then somehow, things mellow out, life goes on and we slowly drift away from the frightening change in direction we just encountered.

I guess the secret to surviving those moments is to remember it will pass, and when it happens, there is probably some aspect of beauty in our pain.

Nevertheless, that fall is often scary as hell. Just Say’n

Garage sale

We decided to get rid of things we haven’t used over the last 600 years, so we had a garage sale. For those who have never experienced this joy, a garage sale is when you take all the junk you probably bought at another garage sale and put it on your lawn. For a day, your house looks like you are being evicted, which is not a comforting thing to go through, even if it isn’t true.
Then come the people who really love to go to garage sales. They will take an item that probably sold for $50, which we are asking $3, and they will offer $1. If we say $2 they will say no.
After a while my way of selling is to ask them what they want to pay and then saying ok. My wife found out what I was doing and informed me to go back inside and find something else to do. 
See, my plan worked perfectly. Just say'n

Fear?

I try to stay in shape so I will live a lot longer. It seems harder to accomplish that task as my body is caught up in an aging process that my mind doesn't agree with at all.
 Part of my not taking care of my self is my love of being outside in the sun, exposing my flesh to harmful rays. The result, I now have a battle with skin cancer. 
Today I had surgery to remove some of the damage done to my skin, and fortunately all went well. 
Nevertheless, since diagnosis, my mind has constantly wandered into some very dark places leaving me in a state of unrest. I try to stay positive and not worry about things, but somehow the word cancer just brings on a whole new set of negative concerns.
I think it was Churchill who said we have nothing to fear but fear itself. The bible tells me perfect love cast out fear. I think I have come to the conclusion, unless I really know what will happen in the future (which I will never be able to do) I will just enjoy today and not worry about tomorrow. 
Seems to make life a lot easier that way. Just Say'n

72 days

I’m not a follower of the Kardashian family, but the recent marriage and subsequent divorce of Kim caught my attention. Apparently she had a wedding that was second only to the Brittish Royal Wedding, and probably cost even more. Then she and her husband stayed together for 72 days and called it quits.


I dont know what probelms they ran into, but it seems they might have run into them sometime prior to the day they got married.
 I’ve spent a lot of my carrier as a marriage counselor and I tell young couples that it takes four seasons (one full year) before you really know if you want to marry a person. 
We are different people in the summer than in the winter, and that is important knowledge for a long term relationship. Obvioulsy, just dateing a year is no guarantee, but it does lay a foundation that has a chance of lasting.


I dont know what Kim and her husband (don’t even know his name) were working on when they got married, but what ever it was, don’t buy any. Just Say’n.

Sagging -

 The ability for young men to wear one’s pants well below the waist line and not have them fall off is called Sagging. Apparently it started in prisons where inmates are not allowed to wear belts. It is now part of the youth culture. 
In 2008 President Obama said "laws banning the practice of wearing low-slung pants that expose one's underwear were "a waste of time". However, he did follow that up with the statement: "Having said that, brothers should pull up their pants. You are walking by your mother, your grandmother, your underwear is showing. What's wrong with that? Come on. Some people might not want to see your underwear. I’m one of them.”
The desire to show one’s underwear is something that I truly don’t understand, but this type of thing does make me reflect on the fad dressing I participated in during the years. In high school we had to wear tight white jeans (yes the boy’s wore them) and black pointed shoes. Talk about dumb looks, but we thought it was fantastic.
Then college - it was bell bottoms and tie-die shirts.
Later on I remember thin ties, wide wide lapels, and knotted ties that looked like a horse collar. 
Today, I see a lot of my generation simply wearing sweatsuits. By the look of a lot of them, it is not that they work out in the gym.
So I guess, other than the fact that wearing your pants so low does look uncomfortabel, it is no different than a lot of things I’ve done in my life. Think it’s a good idea to look back on what we did before we judge what others are doing. Just Sayen