Losers and Winners

The Yankees have lost the World Series...they weren't quite good enough when it counted..."That's how the cookie crumbles." My mother used to say. No 'sore losers' here. No lawsuits, no whining, no threats of violence. Baseball is a civilized game with well over a hundred years of following the rules and accepting the results of these yearly campaigns. The judges deciding between right and wrong are called umpires. Get 'huffy' with an umpire and you are expelled from the contest. Baseball players know better than to get 'huffy' with an umpire. Managers are a little more likely to kick dirt on an umpires shoes. They are also immediately expelled from the contest. Sore losers never come out on top. Donald Trump is preparing his sore loser campaign in these weeks before the contest results are tabulated. He has an ugly history of being a sore loser. He insists he never loses, his cult of followers are prepared to kick dirt on the shoes of Uncle Sam one more time.

My First And Last Rotary Club Meeting

The Chester Lake Almanor Rotary Club caught wind of my intention to enter the small business realm back in 1993. They invited me to their November meeting, "See if you belong in this club." offered a business consultant, who I counted as a friend. Lots of friendly handshakes as I walked in the front door of The Golden Bear in West Chester. The meeting came to order and right away they asked me to speak of my intentions. "I have a ton of passion for cycling and outfitting cyclists", I began. The chairman interrupted, "Now, I think that's worth a $10 fine. One, we don't have those people in Chester more than one day a year." The Mile High Hundred was a twelve year old event that started and finished in Chester every August. I was a little shocked, a $10 fine? What was that all about? A man walked over to me with an empty coffee can and asked for $10. The local grocer put a $10 in there for me. Ok, this is strange...The butcher, a guy named Norm said, "If I may speak...we don't have any of those granola-eating bicycle people in Chester. I don't think this is a good idea." I picked up my sweater and said, I'm done. My bicycle business has thrived for thirty-one years. Nearly all of those Rotarians have left town, died or retired.

Wake Me, When It's Over

We are three weeks out from the weirdest Election Day Circus ever concocted or imagined, in this country. A person of good character...a tough experienced prosecutor, senator and current vice president, who happens to be a multi-racial woman, is pitted againest an old white Joker-faced wanna-be entertainer who represents the worst behaviors... (a daily embarrassment to any of us who have ever tried to present to children what a good human being should stand for and act like to our fellow human beings). The most despicable behaviors that prove that this man has zero scruples, no hint of descency and an incredible disregard for how his actions affect the people around him. His bad behaviors are frequent and he wears them on his sleeves...in our faces. His lies are so frequent and repeated so many times that he puts his audiences in a trance...those watching him don't know up from down, he spins them and then suggests that they drink the Kool-Aid.

Freaky Times

The news always goes sideways a couple of weeks before a national election. The question is, who presents and stands behind truthful statements and who continues to lie and exaggerate. Well, it can go both ways because this is a competition here and absolute fact goes right out the window. Don't hold your breath until after the election...keep breathing and try to keep a clear head. There'll be sour grapes and cries of foul play and there will be joy and celebrations. Thanksgiving neatly follows the election (victories and disappointments) three weeks after, giving us an opportunity to forgive, forget and accept that the next four years will not really be that different than the previous four years...even though the wheel-wobble seems a little more severe in recent times. Generally, we all need to find common ground between us and act in a civilized manner, lowering the stress levels we experience for the remainder of our days.

9/11 Gives Me Reason To Pause and Pray

We were on a City bus, in Paris. An American lady with two children in tow, grabs my arm, "Have you heard? New york City and The White House and The Pentagon have been attacked by terrorists." I pulled my arm away. This lady was obviously disturbed. The kids looked healthy, well fed and obediant. We departed at the Eiffel Tower...and stood in line for the tour...people were buzzing, "Bush...Pentagon." I started to wonder. I said to our son Colby, "let's go over here and sit in this little park." He threw a small tantrum..."No, I've always wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower!". "Ok, our turn is up, let's get on." We rose up to the observation deck. "I want to go higher." The man in the uniform said, "No, we are not going all the way to the top today." We returned to the concrete plaza at ground level and another man said, in English, "We need to clear the plaza here, we are closing for the day." It was getting to be late afternoon so I said, "Let's go get something to eat." We walked down the Left Bank to the bridge over to Notre Dame Cathedral. Lisa said, "Let's go look inside." A pastor met us at the door asking if we were there to pray. Non. "No tours today." Obviously many had showed up to pray, the church was busy with true believers. We strolled back to the train/subway platform and rode a crowded car back to the airport where we had rented a room. A crowd had gathered in the lobby and were intently staring at the huge wall-sized TV monitor. It appeared that a disaster movie was playing...a jet plane crashed into a large sktscraper in New York City.

Nearly 50 Years ...A Symbiotic Relationship.

My best times almost always include my amazing wife Lisa Jo. We are in our 49th year of play and companionship. She always looks out for my best interests and I for hers. We are a team, we have created so much together...a story, a home, a child, a business, dreams and follow-thru. Our travels include spectacular settings and cicumstances, and quite a bit of skinny-dipping. We look for outstanding natural settings and we revel in the breezes and the birdsongs. Not always on the exact same wave-length, we listen to each other and find the common ground. We work at understanding our differences. Best Times happen in our local National Park, in France or in Italy or in Utah or just when were riding our bicycles in the neighborhood. We have developed parallel interests.We are not museum gawkers, we don't trust restaurants, we don't choose locations where we are required to wait in lines. We love the 'outback', the wide open spaces. We are so fortunate to have each other and an almost perfect symbiosis. The realization that we have had a great run and that it cannot go on forever has hit us hard here in the 2020's. Cancer diagnosis' and surgeries for each of us in the last four years have reminded us that this life is finite. We seem to be losing friends every month now to unexpected tragedies and surprising health complications...reminding us once again that Each Day is a Gift...a precious Gift.