From Far Away.....

My friend, Mike, sent me the following Thanksgiving Greeting and asked that I pass along good wishes to everyone in East Point. Rather than just pass on the greetings, I'll share the correspondence with you.

"Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Dear Kitty.

Please pass a Happy Day back there from me please.

Today, I was carving Turkey and working the line feeding folks from
1100 hrs to 1130hrs today wishing a few hundred folks a Happy and Blessed day.
Than I had dinner with 7 Iraqi Engineers from the city of Baghdad staff and
some of my staff. It was fun explaining our traditions of why we celebrate this
day. As we are not drinking wine and beer in Iraq, I did have a bottle of
Welch's sparking white grape juice. What a way to help digest a good meal....
not!! It was very tart and had me and the Iraqis grinning. This was followed
by a bowl of ice cream and a bit of chocolate sauce.

We than walked around the dining facility shouting well wishes and I
had another dessert with a few other folks. And time for photos with many of
the troops and civilians here.

The Command Sergeant Major and I visited combat support hospital (CSH)
to wish the doctors and nurses well. Many were at my carving station so
we talked about my fine culinary skills ... not. But we did laugh.

There were about 4 soldiers who were brought in over the course of the
night from IED attacks and a mortar round. They had all their limbs, that
was good, but many holes in their bodies. They were from New York, Iowa,
Oregon and Texas. There were all awake but in pain and should be sent to the
US soon.

Last night, I had diner with the Secretaries of the Army and Navy,
along with General Casey and the rest of the staff. He has a wonderful cook, best
meal I have had in quite a while - Cornish game hens, with all the trimmings
and some iced tea. The travel by helicopters required a battle vest,
helmet, pistol and ammo, ballistic glasses and earplugs which were all shed
when we arrive at Gen Casey's. I have not been w/o my sidearm since I have
first arrived and felt somewhat awkward without the shoulder holster but I
guest I could trust the Secretary.... What stark difference from night travel
with chinstrap cinched tight to Cornish game hens...


Again Happy Thanksgiving and God bless.

Walsh

"Deliverance""

Thanksgiving...

This year I am thankful that my cadre of friends has shaken out to the ones who are "true blue." These people are made of steel and marshmallow...the best kind of person available on Earth.

They tell me when I'm wrong and I listen. They tell me when I'm right and I smile. We have words, but the worst conversations are understood to be given in a helpful mode, rather than to make me feel small.

They give me a hug when I need a slap. They give me joy.

This is an undeniable gift.

I'm so glad these people have wandered into my life (or I into theirs). There would be a terrible void without them.

As I live far away from my family - these folks are my lifeline to calm my fears, share my success and bemoan my failures.

One should always search out quality, rather than quantity.

Thanks to them on Thanksgiving.

Sometimes Life kicks your butt....

sometimes it gives you a little Kiss.

It's those little kisses that are so sweet.

People have misunderstood my disdain of gift-giving. I have disdain for gifts only when I feel obligated to give someone a gift under duress or when I'm treated like crap by someone 364 days a year; THEN they want to give me a gift to mark a special occasion. My entire life is a special occasion.

A true gift is when someone presents you with something that you're not expecting and there is no occasion attached.

This happened to me last week, I got a from-out-of-nowhere present.

It was perfect: unexpected, interest-specific, low-cost item purchased on the secondary market, and absolutely the cutest.

Although I can't use it for it's intended purpose, I am collecting change in it. It sure looks nicer on my desk than the plastic paint bucket!!!

Thank you, Sweetie!!!!

Living without credit...

is it possible?

Actually, I have better-than-excellent credit. But living without it is my new hobby. I have balances on 4 cards, one of which will be paid off this month. I also have a car note, a mortgage and a $4,000 amount that a kind auntie gave me when I needed a car when I came back from England (nearly 30 years ago). I don't have to repay that $4,000, but since she's now elderly and could use it, I want to pay it back. I'm using the "debt snowball" method to eliminate all this debt. It'll take about 2 years to CLEAR EVERY DEBT I OWE. I'm keeping one credit card, but only use same if I need to rent a car. I can go to the airport and buy tickets with cash.

I can't find anybody in my circle who talks about the concept of living without credit or debt reduction strategies of any kind. Most of my confidants are exactly the opposite -- they use credit cards for EVERYTHING and "pay them off at the end of the month." I don't believe they pay them off at the end of the month, but no one is asking me for a loan or whining about money, so I won't hold their money methods against them. I will be a "lone wolf" in my endeavor, as there is no one to give me advice on how to get it done and, probably, no one who will be a cheerleader as I do it. I have no one to bail me out if I run out of cash.

All the debt-management web sites focus on "repairing your credit"; "raising your credit score" and the like. How to re-establish credit so you can obtain credit cards? How to refinance your home? Why not just "go cash." How long has it been since I saved up for something? Hummmmmmmm.....it's in the mists of time!

I intend to embrace living without credit.

My former money beliefs reflected society's measure of my worth. Those beliefs also ran the engine of my spending habits, with credit serving as the fuel. I have been exploring, and will continue to examine these beliefs, and eradicate the ones that don't serve me.

It is my intention to remain credit card (use) free, and to eliminate the mortgage as soon as possible. The next goal will be to prepay by one month the monthly household accounts in order to have all services paid in full at all times.

Why am I doing this? I want to be freeeeeeeeeee! I want no financial obligations to hold me to one choice. I want to know that I could disappear in the jungle for a month and come out to phone messages only from people who love me.

When you ponder the idea of leaving your job and changing your location/lifestyle/ line of work, is your first response, "How will I pay my bills?" Are you effectively enslaved to your employer? That is what credit debt does: enslaves you. You sell your future.

I'm glad I took the time to reevaluate my thoughts on credit and the real meaning it had in my life.

I'll be posting on the subject occasionally.

The Day After...

No, I didn't have a heart attack. No, I don't feel impending doom. No, I don't feel that my life will be different come somewhere around January 6, 2007.

I'm talking about yesterday's election.

Historically, the chambers switch around every 12-14 years, and this mid-term has held true in that regard.

The next census will show that the Northeast and other portions of the northern part of our country are now overrepresented and the number of elected representatives will be adjusted accordingly. Nearly 500 American citizens move to Atlanta each day. This is happening all over the South. This leaves a disproportionate population of liberals up North, as evidenced by yet another re-election of doddering Ted Kennedy.

I think it's perfectly fine for you left-of-center folks to enjoy your victory. I'm counting on our new representatives to do their best for all of us.

We Sit at the Cusp of the Holidays....

Gluttony starts this day for me...our annual Thanksgiving dinner at work.

How Much Pleasure Is Enough...and points to ponder.


"Put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. " - Proverbs 23:2


The chief error about Gluttony is to think it pertains only to food. Some people can't have enough toys, television, entertainment, sex, or company. It is about an excess of anything.

There are at least three forms of Gluttony:
1) Wanting more pleasure from something than it was made for.
2) Wanting it exactly our way (delicacy).
3) Demanding too much from people (excessive desire for other peoples' time or presence).

More Pleasure Than It Was Made For...

The world is full of good things, from the beauty of the stars to the ever-changing and never-changing oceans to the pleasure of human company. We are free to enjoy these things without becoming focused on any one of them to the exclusion of all else. It is possible to become so caught up in a pleasure, whether food or fun, that we can no longer enjoy other things, and would be willing to sacrifice other pleasures for the one.

We enter into Gluttony when we demand more pleasure from something than it was made for. Normally, we can only eat so much food, but some people in Ancient Rome wanted more pleasure, so they threw up after the meal and then ate more. This allowed them to enjoy eating more at the cost of health (and dignity).

Delicacy

In "The Screwtape Letters," C.S. Lewis describes delicacy as a desire to have things exactly our way. He gives the example of food having to be prepared just right, or in just the right amount, but it isn't limited to food. We might complain about unimportant defects in a product, the temperature in the room, or the color of a table cloth. There is a certain amount of discomfort to be expected in life, but the Glutton will have none of it. Instead of becoming strong by suffering the minor inconveniences of life, the Glutton insists on being pampered. No one dares to point out how petty or foolish they are. In fact, some celebrities are praised for their excessive perfectionism, as though it were a virtue.

Demanding Too Much From People

There can be a healthy and natural enjoyment of time spent with friends and acquaintances, but some people just can't get enough. They make demands until the other person moves away or explodes in anger. The Glutton is wounded that someone would take offense at their "love" for them. At least some people can get away. Far worse is when a parent demands too much from a child, requiring too much time or too many accomplishments from someone too small to grant so many pleasures. Even pets get excessive attention at times, but they don't seem to mind as much.

In some dating relationships, one person desires the other's company constantly, to the point that the other can barely hold down a job or continue in school. Whatever the reasons, the object of affection is expected to provide the pleasure of their company (at least) more of the time than is reasonable. Even in marriage, it is possible for a couple to be so "romantic" that the children are neglected. One legitimate pleasure (sex) can become obsessive to the point that another pleasure (the company of one's children) is lost.

The Good News

Because Gluttony is generally a sin of the flesh, the flesh limits it. If we consume too much food or drink, our body (usually) lets us know, either by gaining weight or illness. If we are too fussy about things (delicacy), people will tell us to do it ourselves. And if we demand too much from people, they will fly from us and we will be alone more often. So, we usually get a view of the problem, and a chance to change.

It is said that St. Thomas More was an exceptionally fun person to be around, so much so that King Henry VIII of England kept calling for him, preventing Thomas from going home to his family. Thomas eventually began to curtail his merrymaking so that he was more dull company. This strategy worked, and he was able to live at home more often.

The cure for Gluttony lies in deliberately reducing our use of pleasurable things, not in eliminating them. When eating, quit before feeling stuffed. When snacking, don't just keep stuffing, but quit after a while. With people, allow some quiet time together, and also get some time alone. Of course, if time alone is very pleasurable, get out more often. And if the toast is a bit too brown, eat it anyway.

Generally, all my holiday festivities revolve around food and the consumption thereof. My mind will warn me first; then my innards will rebel; and, then, I'll have to ask who has the keys to the Vomitorium.

The High Museum of Art....

is going to be my home away from home. Went last Thursday evening to get another gander at the Louvre exhibit and to attend the Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) lecture. I had dinner at the (burp!!!) Varsity and continued enjoying the chili dogs throughout the evening. Nothing like the Varsity for the meal that keeps on giving.

I did see some people I knew, but no amount of arm-waiving caught their attention...must be bind as well as deaf.

The lecture on "St. Matthew and the Angel" (1661) was presented by Dorothy Fletcher,
Senior Lecturer, Director of Undergraduate Studies at Emory University. This lady is no slouch. Her expertise is in 15th/16th century Northern European art, and German Expressionist art of the early 20th century. I learned a lot. Just enough to make me a "pseudo-expert" on Rembrandt and his contemporaries. Look out!!! More fodder for me to bore you all to death. LOL

Unfortunately, it looks as though I'm never going to be able to upload a photo to accompany my blogs. This is a disappointment, as a picture is worth a thousand words.

Memorable quotes...

BRAIN CRAMPS


On September 17, 1994, Alabama's Heather Whitestone was selected as Miss America 1995.

Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?

Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not
Live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever,"
--Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest.

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"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff."
--Mariah Carey

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"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very
Important part of your life,"
--Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.

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"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body,"
--Winston Bennett,
University of Kentucky basketball forward.

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"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the
Lowest crime rates in the country,"
--Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC.

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"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death
By a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it,"
--A congressional candidate in Texas.

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"Half this game is ninety percent mental."
--Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark

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"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
--Al Gore, former Vice President

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"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."
--Dan Quayle

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"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?"
--Lee Iacocca


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"The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." --Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.

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"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude
Certain types of people."
--Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instrutor.

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"Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas."
--Keppel Enderbery

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"Your food stamps will be stopped effective
March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances."
--Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina

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"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack
In at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their
Heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when
They wake up dead, there'll be a record."
--Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman
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Feeling smarter yet?

Retirement looms....

or does it???????? Will I be a tottering 70 year old working to pay for my orthopaedic sandals?

The Baby Boom Pig moves on. A fairly recent story in the Christian Science Monitor (Admakers turn to Europe's Rising Gray Set - March 16, 2005) describes the gradual turning of European marketers towards capturing boomer consumer euros.

Yet another confirmation that marketing departments in the developed world, at least, are realizing that their campaigns need to change from the perennial focus on youth hype to the more "mature" market. OK, you'd have to be pretty dumb NOT to go after us as a hungry, if not desperate, market on the verge of making a ton of new purchases.

In England, the creative director of one marketing consultancy called Millennium Direct, says " It's sheer numbers. In the 60s, 70s, and 80s it made all the sense in the world to focus on youth, because that's where the bumps were as the baby boom pig moved through the demographic python. Now these people are all over 45. And people between 45 and 59 have the most disposable income of any age group in the population". Speak for yourself and the cold statistics, says I.

In Britain over the next 20 years, the population of people over 75 will leap by 45%. And in Europe as a whole, the proportion of people over 65 will increase from 12% today to 28.5%.

Yet, far from feeling addressed and coddled by the marketers, a recent market survey conducted by Millennium reported that 86% of surveyed seniors feel ignored and 70% felt patronized. One woman who runs a French modeling agency complains, "For advertisers, either you are young and beautiful and you consume, or you are old and you buy nothing but recliners. They see nobody in between, but that doesn't match reality". Hey, don't forget all the drugs and adult diapers they're throwing in our faces on TV and in the mags.

Well some companies are beginning to wake up and smell the Viagra. One German marketing firm has created "Age Explorer" suits so that marketing people can dress up and feel like older people - that is, they wear goggles that dim their eyesight, wear suits that prohibit easy movement of their joints, and lug around 13 pounds of extra weight. One marketing person realized, after her try at wearing the suit, that she didn't' want to have consumer items up on such high shelves where older people couldn't see or reach as easily. Now you're getting it! Are we the first Americans to grow old?

McDonald's in Italy is running ads where grandparents and grandchildren have their feet up on tables in their restaurants happily munching on burgers together. (I can just see this becoming a trend.) One of Alfa Romeo's new tag lines is "the car for all ages". Harley Davidson has already realized that the average age of their consumers has risen from 38 to 46 in the last ten years! And one bottled water company, Danon, recently launched a product aimed at 60-year-olds, i.e. the water had lots of added magnesium and calcium and the bottles were easy to hold and had enlarged caps that were easy to remove.

And just to keep us in character, there's this: Marketers report that the perception of their ages by older people differs from their actual ages by about 15 years. So to attract 65 year olds, they need to feature models that look about 50 years old in their ads. (I'm doing the math...so for me to consider buying something, the spokesperson has to look about 45? What does 45 look like these days???) I dunno.