havstrut.com

I was going through some old paper and found this photo copy that I have been dragging around with me forever simply because every time I read it, it inspires me to try to be a better person. And so I think that I should do something with it. I finally decided to just type it in here, and hopefully somebody else can find it inspiring. Here we go:

Anyway

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful you win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness makes you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have got

Anyway

I hope you find it useful.

Quote of the Day:
To cease smoking is the easiest thing. I ought to know. I’ve done it a thousand times.
–Mark Twain

Yesterday I was driving from Seattle to Gig Harbor. When I got to Tacoma the traffic was murder and police everywhere redirecting people away from SR-16, the freeway I intended on taking for the last few miles. I was swearing under my breath wondering what numbskull could have created such havoc to Saturday traffic.

It turned out to be the Tacoma Foundry that had literarily exploded, with flames rising hundreds of feet into the air and more propane gas ready to blow at any second. All we saw was a limited amount of smoke. And police cars with lights flashing.Scary when you find it out afterwards.

Here is where the foundry is, so you can see why they would like to shut SR-16 off.

This posting is just a long rant, so there.

The other day I was watching TV when the programming was interrupted because a bridge had collapsed in Minneapolis, MN. The pictures were strong and the reports from the scene were surreal. How could something like this happen?

Anyway, this is not what this post is about. What it is about is that four hours later this story was still labeled as “breaking news” on CNN, FAUX Noise and MSNBC. That really gets to me, especially since they were still rehashing the same film clips, interviews and facts. Nothing new had been added in the last few hours. To me that is still important and urgent news, but not breaking news.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel with the victims in the disaster, and all people affected in one way or another, I really do. And I think that we uregently need to get to the bottom of how this could happen in the first place. I don’t want any bridges collapsing unexpectedly, not anywhere.

But I think that the TV stations should have a 10-15 minute limit on the “breaking news” label. And I think they could continue their normal programming and then have short interruptions with regular intervals with a brief summary and any updates. After all, just because one disaster happens doesn’t mean that other things in the world stop happening. And just regurgitating the same story over and over again makes me at least go away. It also makes you numb to the disaster much quicker.

My $.02

Maybe I should call it “saving graces for a clumsy guy” instead. I’ll try to explain.

Today Dee and I went to play tennis. It is something we have started doing recently, and it’s a good and fun way to get a bit of exercise. We don’t live too far from the court, but since it’s taken sometimes we usually drive to make sure that we can go elsewhere should the court be taken. As we were getting ready our dog got extremely excited, since she thought we were taking her for a walk, so we decided to bring her along and walk her after our tennis.

During our little game the dog stayed in the car, and before you start scolding me the car was parked in shadow, all the windows were slightly open and she had water. On top of that we could see and hear her from the tennis court, so we were looking after her in a fashion. After the game we went back to the car, brought the dog out, and I closed all the windows. Dee took some money out so we could go for coffee. Then I locked the door, held in the handle and pushed it shut. And then I put my hand in my pocket and realized that the keys were still in the ignition. I asked Dee if she had hers, and she said “yes, they are in the car.” Curtains.

Fortunately I remembered that I have roadside assistance through American Express, so I called them and did, after lots of talking and describing, get them to send a tow truck to help us open the car. For once a card service that actually benefited me.

Whule we waited for an hour we had a chance to take the dog for a little walk, and get ourselves some coffees and scones at Tully’s. I owe the dog a walk.