FACES A MOTHER COULD ONLY LOVE

Declutter Your Keychain!

I carry three keys: car, office front door and one for the door to my personal office. I keep a couple of keys that are needed once a year or so in my car, unmarked and kind of hidden.

It would be interesting to find out the national average weight of key rings carried by Americans. I imagine it would end up in the quarter of a pound range. Several times over the years I have had prospects while showing homes, visiting my office or home walk in and set down a quarter pounder key ring. After the showing, they have forgotten their keys on the counter top and we have had to go back to the home to find the ring. Personally, I have no rear pocket bulge created by a quarter pounder ring, but maybe a bulge from too many quarter pounders. If your key ring is so large and heavy they can not be carried comfortably in your rear pant pocket or jacket pocket, get rid of some keys.

Then there are the discount plastic cards with a bar code on key rings. Bent, faded, smeared or stuck together. I never have the cards with me, Mrs. G. is in possession of most, so I have to borrow a card before shopping.

Last night I found CardStar, electronically keeping the cards on my Blackberry and ready for shopping. Scott Levitt gave me all the information I needed.

As of today, I have never heard of someone making it to Heaven because they carried a quarter pound of keys throughout their life on earth. So I am sticking to three.

CHRISTMAS DAY MISSION

Christmas morning, pacing the floors of our home looking for a mission to accomplish, I finally received an assignment. We needed string to tie up the beef tenderloin.

I searched two Duke Stations and one Speedway, no string (the only opened for business). Talked to Sister Robin on the phone and she said my father had string. On my way to pick it up, I thought of a large commercial size spool of string our family had while I was growing up. The spool I picked up was a small, a kite flying size spool.

When Dan (Dad) came to our Christmas dinner event, he walked in with the "spool" a little dusty, but with at least a half mile of string. It has to be slightly over 50 years old. I always thought it came from Richardson Bakery where my grandmother worked. Richardson's was located on South 2nd Street where the parking garage is now in Downtown Newark, Ohio. Dan said he had bought it.

Of all the investments my father has made over the years, I have to think the spool of string has paid off very well and will for for another half mile or so.

CHRISTMAS CARD

The winter scene above was painted by my father and is the front of his 2010 Christmas Card.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & Happy New Year

to all my blog followers, friends and family!

THE BROTHERHOOD

Hanging around the local fire department for a good portion of my life, the brotherhood between the firefighters is enormous. Every day they walk into their station, they have a goal of going home when the shift is over. I have watch them laugh, cry, become parents, attend their children's weddings, loose parents, divorce and marry and I have watched them die. Several years ago an accident between two trucks happened on a Christmas Day, I was there within minutes and spent the rest of my day offering help. That is what the firefighters do when there is a problem, backup each other.

Today the Chicago Fire Department morns the lost of two firefighters from an early morning three alarm fire, the department is in morning. It is hard any time to loose someone, but just days before Christmas is hard. They went to work and planned on going home. Below you will find some interesting information from "The Secret List" concerning the the Chicago Department's Commissioner:

SOME OF THE NEWER MEMBERS OF THE SECRET LIST MAY NOT KNOW THAT when Chicago Fire Commissioner Bob Hoff spoke about the brotherhood of Firefighters today to the media, in his thoughts were also on another winter day when a South Side building collapsed, killing 2 Firefighters in the Line of Duty.

HOWEVER-on that day, Feb. 14, 1962, it was (now) Commissioner Hoff's father, Battalion Chief Thomas Hoff and Chief Robert O'Brien, head of fire safety for the department, who were the ones who gave their lives when they were buried in rubble. That LODD was the general basis for the movie "BACKDRAFT" when the 2 Brothers lost their Dad in the Line of Duty.

Everyone goes home.

THE DENTIST

Most people always say "The Dentist", never giving a name. "I going to the dentist", "I was at the dentist" etc. Last week while sitting in Dr. Jeff Dayhuff's chair, my mind wondered, thinking about my first dental visit in 1959. Originally I went to Jeff's father, Dr. Bill Dayhuff. During this time Jeff's grandfather was practicing also and I thought of him as a very old man. Bill's office was located on North 2nd Street, where the Place Off The Square Hotel is located now. The only part of going to the dentist I liked was seeing a German Shepard dog sitting on the porch roof. The apartment above was occupied by Eric, the display designer for J.J. Carroll's Department Store.

For the first 10 years or so of my life, we lived next door to Bill and Jeff. I hated visiting the dentist and did not like our neighbor because of it. I remember one time after a visit, revenge was needed. As you can see in the photo above, in 1959 I had several dental visits. Between our homes was a line of tulip trees, extremely tall when your ten years old, but in fact were probably four feet or so.

I waited for Dr. Dayhuff to come home from the office, as he walked from his detached garage to the home, I tossed my Louisville Slugger (wooden baseball bat) over the trees. As I watched my target, I heard the bat hit the asphalt, I missed. Now I had a mad dentist, who I would be visiting again with all his non-hydraulic belt driven drills, old magazines, two foot long needles and grumpy dentist's father.

The only results of the murder attempt was for the first time in my life I heard fowl language, words I did not even know. I also learned from this experience, that tall men can jump a four foot hedge in one leap.

Last week's appointment brought a comment I have heard often by Dr. Jeff Dayhuff: "You still have fillings from the mid 1960s that are in good shape, my father was really good". Jeff still uses the hand written card that his father began in 1959, but charges more for his services.

It has been a very good relationship.

FORD EXPLORER

"It's impossible to avoid the freighted nature of the Ford Explorer, so I won't try. This nameplate has been glued to six million SUVs since 1990 and it is the ur-text, the stem cell from which suburban America's love affair with the sport-utility vehicle grew. Or is that metastasized?"

On my third explorer in ten years.

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal article.

Thank you to Sister Robin for passing this along.

SEVEN REASONS TO SET GOALS

Seven Reasons To Set Goals
1. Having a goal does not guarantee success. But it ups your chances considerably. Try doing archery with no bullseye.

2. We try harder with a goal.

3. With a goal we have measurable feedback.

4. With goal we commit more fully.

5. Setting a goal moves us from implicit ('I want to be wealthy') to explicit ('I want to have assets of ...by...')

6. It's a notable characteristic of those who get the lIfe they seek.

7. Setting a goal seriously clarifies whether you really want it or just think you want it.

Thank you to Nicholas Bate for sharing this information.

CHAIR BUILDING

Sedia 1 - How to assemble your chair from Ville Tanttu on Vimeo.

Thank you A TIME TO GET, you must check out this blog!

HOME MADE CHRISTMAS GIFTS

Book safes are an age old way to stash one’s treasures–the key to a safe, a private document, a flask, a gun. And you can use them while traveling to hide your ipod, back up cash, or other valuables from would-be thieves. And of course if you end up wrongfully imprisoned, they work as an excellent place to stash a rock hammer for tunneling to freedom.

Click here to obtain the instructions from The Art of Manliness

Also check out two great blogger's posts with excellent music videos: Sean Carpenter and Kurt Harden

AS SEEN ON TV HAS GONE TOO FAR

The best isle to hit when in CVS or Walgreens is the shelves of As Seen on TV

products to look over the inventions that have made it to the open market.

Some of them I am not too sure of and I am not sure if this new Chia Pet is appropriate

or not. I have several As Seen on TV products and will skip this one.

Click here to watch the television commercial. It is for real!

John Lennon's Death

It is not often, but there are times when someone passes away and it effects everyone and in a different way. Sometimes you don't recognize it for years to come. I have been with The Beatles since watching them on the very first Ed Sullivan show and have appreciated what they did to the music industry.

Last night late, there was a short story on the news of how ABC decided to announce his death on the air during a football game, Howard Cosell did the duty.

Click here to listen to Howard's announcement

Click below and listen to other comments:

Paul McCartney

Ronald Reagan

BBC

Walter Cronkite

Listen to John Lennon "So This Is Christmas"

Newark City Schools & Uniforms

Uniforms for the Newark City Schools: listened to many parents talk about it prior to the November 29th start date, but not too many since the program started for students in the middle schools & high school.

Quote from today's Newark Advocate: "I think it should just be started (early)," said Prior, the mother of a high school senior, a fifth-grader and twin fourth-graders. "I think it will be easier when they get to sixth grade."

Click here to read the entire article Parents weigh school uniforms for Newark elementary students

The world is in someways starting to make sense to me.

Christmas Truce of 1914

Five months into the first World War, troops along the Western front took a Christmas Eve break from fighting to sing carols to one another across the battlefield. The following morning, German soldiers emerged from the trenches and began to approach Allied troops while calling out "Merry Christmas" in English. Luckily, it wasn't a trick; dozens of British fighters came out to greet them and shake hands, some even exchanging cigarettes as gifts. Later dubbed the Christmas Truce of 1914.

Click here for TIME Magazine's Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Christmas

Manage Your Online Reputation

Are you a Sketchy Sam or a Likeable Laura? When it comes down to doing business with someone, there’s no doubt that reputation is a major factor in making a decision.

5 Ways to Effectively Manage Your Online Reputation!

Click here for the complete post by David Garland.

THIS WEEKEND'S TIME IN THE BATHROOM

I was not sick in any way shape or form, but decided a good way to spend my evenings was to remove two layers of vinyl and install a ceramic tile floor. Found myself into a little larger project than I expected. Our bathroom floor will be a 6'x8' opening for a laundry chute by the week's end.
This is how bad Mrs. G. wants a new bathroom floor, she let me bring the wheelbarrow in the house to handle the demolition of the sub floor.

Just like with any other project, you measure twice and cut once (notice drawn cut lines). For some reason it did not work and now I have to patch a slice in the furnace's duct work.

SELLING REAL ESTATE

HAPPINESS

What if you had to describe what happiness means to you?

No clinical definition, just a sentence or word story?

What would you say?

What makes you smile just thinking about how you would describe happiness to someone?

Stolen from Sean Carpenter.