GERIATRIC DIRTY DANCING

If you will click the title of this blog you will see what most of us wish we could still do. I used to love country western dancing and the two-step was my favorite. Hell, there was a time when I could even disco with the best of them. OK, maybe not as well as John Travolta, but good none the less.

My, how times have changed. Remember when the dance halls didn’t even start really jumping until after 10 p.m. and to be there any earlier would mean you were drunk before the dancing started or a dork or both, and the dancing didn’t stop until the bouncers kicked everyone out?

I watched the Arizona Diamondbacks beat up on the Florida Marlins last night until after 8 p.m. and this morning I feel like I have a hangover! Wahoo, what a party animal I am now – pathetic, I know, but such is the way of life. God only knows what the young people dance to now-a-days, but I bet they don’t have as much fun as we did when live bands played real dance music and you could even hear the lyrics. I guess I will never know who dances to what; I can’t stay awake late enough to find out. Do people even dance anymore?

Come to think of it, I am a total day creature now. It’s like reverse vampirism; I live in the sunlight only to crawl back to my coffin at night. Crazy, I know, but it suits me and my wife. Let the youngsters have the night, you can’t see anything anyhow.

I’m just saying,

Mittster

Thank You!

As a nation, our thoughts and prayers today and everyday are with our service men and women who are serving the world over to protect our freedoms at home. I want to thank my Navy daughter who served her country with honor and distinction, not only on the high seas, but also in Iraq. Her mother and I are some of the lucky ones whose sons and daughters came home to a hero’s welcome.

As parents, our hearts go out to the families who were not so fortunate. Their children gave the ultimate sacrifice for the concept of freedom for all. It has been this way down through the ages because the fight for human dignity and freedom remains the goal of every peace loving country.

I, for one, wish peace could prevail around the globe, but there are others who try and dominate the world through fear, torture and death. As long as these tyrants exist, we, as a freedom loving people, must stand and be counted among the nations that will resist until the tyranny is vanquished.

Today, as we honor our fallen soldiers, let us pray also for our wounded ones as well. These young combatants are dealing with all manner of terrible injuries. Sometimes the scars are not visible, but they are there just the same. There are horrible psychological wounds that disable just as surely as bullets or shrapnel. The road to recovery is a long and painful journey and we need to support each and every one toward a full recovery.

For those still fighting the good fight, I pray you all return home safe and sound. America can never repay the services our fighting men and women have performed throughout our history to make the world a safer place to live. We can only thank them from the bottom of our hearts….

Write on,

Mittster

The Road Less Traveled

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. – Jim Rohn.

Right and I am a self-made millionaire – wrong! I like the sound of Mr. Rohn’s statement though because it gives validity to me wasting my high school years on party, pleasure and hot rods instead of buckling down and learning something of value. I am sure there are some self-made gazillionaires out there who don’t even have a high school education, but they are far and few between like lottery winners. As my mother-in-law says about me playing the lotto, “How’s that working out for you?” Sometimes she really pisses me off! Unfortunately, she is right as rain and it isn’t working out worth a poop.

When my mother reached thirty she said the hell with working as a construction secretary for our stepfather for the rest of her life. At the time she didn’t even have a high school education, but that was about to change. She went on after getting her GED to receive a Bachelor of Science degree and then a Master’s in music education and ended up teaching in the same junior high school she had graduated from years before.

I was so proud of her, but I was making a ton of money in construction and just knew I would be a successful contractor someday. What I didn’t know was that being successful also meant being responsible for my actions. I worked hard and drank hard. When I wasn’t working I was spending all my money on partying and not worrying about tomorrow, let alone next week. This was not the formula to the success I envisioned.

It wasn’t until I reached forty that I started realizing that had I put the money wasted on booze into an interest bearing account I could have retired to Hawaii. Instead, I just helped make bar owners wealthy and me poor. It was at this time I also said the hell with working my butt off swinging a hammer and started to learn the things that could and would make me a project manager and get me out of the field and into more money using my brain and not my back.

Over twenty years later I have managed some success. I became a project manager, consultant and published author, but not without great effort and many disappointments. One thing stands out more than any other. The whole process would have been so much easier had I learned study habits way back in high school. Our minds are so much more receptive to leaning when the brain cells are young and not permeated with beer and tobacco.

Success is not equated to money only. Success is being able to take responsibility for your own life and look in the mirror when you want to blame others for failure. Success means surrounding yourself with capable men and women who want to be there because of mutual respect and admiration. Success means giving credit to co-workers knowing that the praise will come back full circle. Success also means caring about others, especially your loved ones and family.

No, I’m not a millionaire, but I am rich beyond my wildest dreams. I have the perfect life and life’s partner. I am blessed each and every day with all my needs and desires fulfilled. Would I do it all over again knowing what I know now? No, I probably would just screw up at a different level. What I would do though is get that formal education that is available to every American. Sometimes the road less traveled can be the easiest one.

Write on,

Mittster

Memorial Day 2011

A friend sent me the most amazing patriotic art painted on a car that I have ever seen. I will let the painting talk for me and shut up for once. Have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend!

To Kill an American

Written by an Australian Dentist? Not, but still a fine work! Click on the title of this blog to find out the truth behind this article.

“You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is. So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)

'An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, Arab, Pakistani or Afghan.

An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as Native Americans...

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than inAfghanistan . The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion.. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world..
The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous.. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan ..

The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001, earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world.. But, in doing so, you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.”

God Bless America,

Mittster