Fine China

“Nothing is more important than reconnecting with your bliss. Nothing is as rich. Nothing is more real.”

~ Deepak Chopra

So now that the contractors have departed, the furniture has been put back in place and life is starting to become a bit more normalized, it's time to find places for items that were displaced during the remodel.

There are approximately 20 boxes of these artifacts tucked away in 3 areas of the house where they are out of the way for the time being.

I am confident that slowly but surely, we will make our way through these treasure chests of family artifacts and find places for everything.

There are of course a few boxes,2 or 3, that are filled with the fine china that used to be housed in a piece of furniture that now resides in a landfill somewhere here in North Jersey.

My quandary is why do we even have fine china?

Truth be told, I believe in the almost 4 decades that Susan and I have been together, we haven't used these dishes a half dozen times.

More importantly, I can't imagine anytime in the immediate,never mind extended future, when we might have the occasion to use them again.

So why are we hanging on to them?

I posed this question to some friends and co-workers and the best response anyone had was "can't you display them?".

Seriously,service for 12 for display purposes?

Sounds preposterous considering the limited space one has in a home built on a slab.

I'm sure that over the next few weeks, I will find a storage space that will accommodate these family heirlooms.

That doesn't mean that once I do that I will have a better understanding as to why we even have fine china.

Some questions, like stones, are better left unturned.

Better late than never!

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

~ C. S. Lewis

Okay, so did you really think that I had a prayer of a chance to write 2 days in a row?

You would think that by having both Friday and Saturday off that should have been doable.

I can't even begin to share with you how busy one can be on a day off.

After what seems like an eternity,I had the opportunity to return our house into something that resembles a place where humans actually live.

Friday was take back day.

With no contractors here,I set about creating space to put things back in place.

I converted our old coat closet into a pantry that now holds all of our pots and pans,crock pots,large bowls and assorted other kitchen crap.

Our old pantry cabinet was in need of repair so that got taken care of.

A dozen blinds went up in the big room.

They make a big difference.

And the freshly painted kitchen cabinets all now have knobs and pulls attached.

By 3:30 it was time to put furniture back where it belonged .

After a quick run to the market, I started preparing the first comfortable Shabbat dinner we have been able to have in months.

Before long we were lighting candles,saying brachot (prayers) and once again enjoying a beautiful, peaceful Shabbat.

Saturday greeted me with the challenge of recapturing the storage area we had been using during the remodel..our bedroom!

The task of putting things away literally took me from 8 am until 10 pm.

While we are not at 100% , (I'm not sure we are ever t 100%), most everything is put away for now and we can once again walk without side stepping, stepping over or maneuvering around boxes and piles of assorted stuff.

Today it's back to work for me along with cleaning and some grocery shopping, enough at least to prepare dinner for tonight.

However, getting back to my desk to write to you was the number 1 item on today's to-do list.

Mission accomplished! .

(By the way....the room looks great if I do say so myself).

Hold Everything................

“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.”

~ Napoleon Hill

The last time you heard from me I made the bold statement that there seemed to be some light at the of the tunnel.

While in that moment that was not only true but the news of the day, that light I saw was still pretty far off and there would be some detours and challenges enroute.

At the time the painters were painting (that's what painters do!).

They had been here for 2 or 3 days at that point.

It has now been almost a week and they just informed me that today would be their last day here.

This was starting to feel like a scene from the Tom Hanks movie The Money Pit.

2 days ago, I was finally able to access my desk and position it in a place where I can work and it will be untouched until we start recapturing the rest of our new great room.

This morning,after some final maneuverings of equipment,rerouting and untangling wires and a significant amount of dusting, I was finally ready to start dealing with things such as the pile of mail on my desk and a number of correspondences that needed to be followed up on.

That's when I decided to hold everything and take a minute to write to you.

2019 has been a year of starting and stopping so far.

It is amazing how many long stretches of days have gone by without writing, probably the most enjoyable activity I have on a daily basis.

That is why before opening a single envelope,before answering any emails, before grabbing a clean sheet of paper to jot down my to do , must do and should do lists,

I chose to write.

Nw comes the tricky part............

Let's see if I can do it again tomorrow!

Take Your Pick

 “We must become in our lives the things that we choose to experience as our world.”

~ Gregg Braden

The work on the house continues...........SLOWLY!
Access to my desk is limited at best.
Today I came home to no workers here.
Good news/Bad News.
The bad news is nothing is getting done.
The good news is I was able to squeeze around the mass of furniture, tools , scaffolding and ladders ,pull up the drop cloths that are covering everything including my desk, and grab this opportunity to write to you.
"And this too shall pass!"
As I was getting dressed today I found myself thinking about the 2 things in my life that I would say I am always concerned about and never at ease over, my weight and my finances.
I asked myself this question:
If I could eliminate either one of these areas of concern, which one would be more valuable to me.
My initial thoughts were my weight.
This has been an "all my life" battle.
Up,then down, then up again, and up some more.
If you haven't experienced it,I can't even begin to impart the toll it has taken on me,physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Besides, if I wasn't stressing my weight, I could direct my resources of time and energy towards my finances.
Yes, definitely my weight!
Okay.......who am I kidding!
The real problem is that I am never satisfied with my weight or self image.
Looking back to when I was at my lowest weight (November of 2014), I still hated the way I looked.
6' tall and 182 pounds and I was unhappy with the way I looked.'
Seriously,what an a$$.
I believe that the same would be true if all of a sudden I hit the lottery for a couple of million.
Would I be be content?
Probably!
Actually,that would be an understatement.
I believe that I would be energized.
It has been said of me that I am a much different  (read happier) person when I have money in my pocket.
While I am never a fan of the "If Only" view of life, I found myself daydreaming a bit of what that might look like.
And then I climbed into my bus and back to reality!

July Word of the Month

“The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one's appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.”

Amelia Earhart

July Word of the Month

DISRESPECTFUL

adjective

showing a lack of respect or courtesy; impolite.

I am pretty sure that if I were to look back at the archives , I would find that at some point I had chosen the word RESPECT as my word Word of the Month.

While these 2 words, RESPECT and DISRESPECTFUL are from the same root, the impact and influence that they have are completely different.

As I drove my bus today, I once again found myself getting agitated.

There are many ingredients contributing to my discomfort.

Physically I'm not feeling all that great.

This getting older stuff stinks!

I am feeling the effects of having lost a significant part of my income earlier this year.

Not insurmountable, just stressful.

I am also still fairly annoyed at my encounter at AT&T last night.

So I have to ask myself why?

Is it really about some a$$#ole at the cellular store or is it something bigger than that?

It's about July's Word of the Month...DISRESPECTFUL.

I am tired of being treated in a DISRESPECTFUL manner.

I know I grew up in a different time , with a different set of norms,values behaviors and lifestyles.

These things that are a part of who I am may not play well with certain parts of today's cultural and social scene.

It may not be the vast majority who I differ with, however, they are vocal and unaccepting of who I am,what I believe and how choose to live my life. That is their prerogative.

I may not agree with ,understand or believe in the choices that make.

The difference is that I was always taught to be accepting.

"To each his own."

"Live and let live".

In today's world, that no longer seems to apply.

Unless I succumb to, accept and participate in life as others do, I am chastised,bullied, isolated and silenced.

It is DISRESPECTFUL.

And I don't appreciate being treated this way.

Graciousness and courtesy have completely gone away.

The sad part is, I believe the new normal which I am being forced to not just accept but stand up for and support is probably being forced upon me, and others by a fringe group, not the largest part of society.

I am fairly certain that more people than not, just want to be allowed to lead their lives with some modicum of dignity, respect, thoughtfulness and decency.

Sadly, unless I turn my back on who I am and what I believe and live my life embracing values that just don't resonate with me, I am treated as some sort of pariah.

It's sad.

It's hurtful.

And most of all, it's DISRESPECTFUL.

I blew my cool...

“That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation.”

Talmud

I did something today that I am a bit ashamed of and is certainly out of character for me.

I blew my cool,and I mean in a huge way.

I erupted in the local AT&T store.

I was not nice. My language was foul, even abusive.

I had had enough and I was just not going to take anymore abuse.

I wasn't pretty.

Oddly, I don't feel as if I owe anyone an apology or an explanation.

No one deserves to be the target of the type of language that spewed from my mouth.

Still no one will get an apology from me either.

Sometimes, enough is enough. I have been banned from the store.

That is a temporary situation. I am confident that after my follow up call to corporate that situation will be remedied.

Not that I have any plans or need to go back there. My family all have their phones with AT&T.

I am strictly a Verizon guy.

They have also banned anyone associated with my account from that particular store.

This I will not tolerate.

My family has been with AT&T for over 2 decades.

I am more than confident that we will be with them a lot longer than the crop of employees that I ran into tonight.

Trust me.

As a sales manager, I know better than the misnomer the the customer is always right.

They are not.

I also know that the way I was treated is no way to treat anyone.

Not me,certainly not my family and for that matter not anyone.

I will not allow myself to be mistreated.

That kind of stinks..............

  “It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.”

Whitney Young Jr.

This 4th of July holiday has not been the break in the action for me that others may have enjoyed on this extended holiday weekend.

As a matter of fact, it has been a little bit of a bummer.

It started on Wednesday, the day before the holiday .

I had received a summons to report for jury duty on July 3rd.

Well in advance of this I made arrangements for a substitute driver for the day.

As luck would have it, the night before I was supposed to report, I was notified that I would not be needed to show up.

Great,I just lost a days pay for nothing!

I still went to work that morning, and assisted the alternate driver (my nephew) as he had never done my route before.

I also had to pick him up at days end since he had no car of his own.

Pretty much a lost day.

Being hourly, not salaried, I lost Thursday, the 4th, as well.

That's 2 days pay gone!

Friday is normally my day off.

However, I had swapped days with the other driver which gave him an extended weekend, and allowed me to take next Sunday off for my fraternity's yearly Summer BBQ.

As I was about to pull out of the parking lot Friday morning, the director of the Senior program flagged me down.

It seems that we had no power....a blown transformer.

The county bus was already enroute,so we made the decision to make our bus run as well. The seniors who normally come by car were all contacted and told that we would be cancelling the program for the day.

After picking up my passengers, we sat around,playing bingo until the lunch for the day was delivered.

We packed a box lunch up for each of the seniors, loaded them back on the bus and sent them home at 11:30.

Because of the early dismissal, the county bus could not make it back for the return run.

Instead we loaded everyone onto my bus, 18 passengers plus a wheelchair, and off we went.

My last drop off was 2 hours after we took off, way too long for seniors to be rolling around Bergen County.

(not to mention that this early dismissal shortened my day by a few hours as well).

Susan had decided that since she had to visit her parents,today would be a good choice.

I was driving,so I would only be around from 12-3,so we wouldn't be spending the day together any way.

Plus,if she left by 10, Dolly would only be left alone until noon.

Dolly has a tendency to get inquisitive (read destructive) when left alone for too long.

When I leave at 3, Dolly would then only be home alone for another hour or so before Susan got back.

Sounds like a plan to me.

As I was starting up my bus to begin my morning route, I received a phone call.

No A/C in the building.

Program cancelled.

And another day's pay out the window.

Susan had already made plans to meet her sister for lunch.

Dolly still needed supervision,so here I am with basically another wasted day.

Did I mention that the A/C repairman will not get there until sometime tomorrow morning so there is the very real possibility that work will be cancelled as well?

So basically in the last 5 days I may lose 4 1/2 days pay and really have not been able to take advantage of the free time.

Sometimes free can be very expensive!

That kind of stinks...........

Shavua Tov!

Happy Halfway New Year!

"I have found that if you love life, life will love you back."

Arthur Rubinstein

Today is the halfway point of the year. (Actually sometime around noon tomorrow).

Looking back, I find that I am less than impressed with my performance so far in 2019

I often hear people say things last year wasn't a good year for me.

I have a problem with that view point. The "year" is a period of time on the calendar. Time can not be good or bad.

How I use that time, what I do with that time and how I show up during that time is on me.

Looking back at the first half of this year, I would have to say I am certainly less than satisfied with what I have accomplished.

To be fair, I have to take into account that I have a tendency to be a little hard on myself (Just a tad!).

Still, it's my life and my expectations are real to me.

At best, I have been doing an okay job of treading water.

The problem is as you tread water, eventually you tire.

As you tire, you get closer and closer to going under.

Eventually you succumb, give up and drown.

I had a brief conversation with my daughter Becca about this yesterday.

In that conversation, I realized that with a little bit of effort and some well directed focus, I can change direction and get to moving forward fairly easily.

I'm not talking about sweeping changes in strategy.

More like developing a forward plan that is achievable and instituting that plan.

And then of course adding to and building upon that plan.

It all starts with a single step.

(Gee....where have I heard that before?)

Let's see :

A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.

You can't get to the top of the staircase without taking the first step.

You can't score a run without getting to first base.

(I'm sure there are many more but you get the picture!)

Recognizing where I am is step 1.

Evaluating where I am is step 2.

Now all I need to do is start formulating a forward plan.

One step at a time!