MY FAVORITE RIDERS IN JULY

HIS WHOLE LIFE AHEAD OF HIM

I was taking him to work in a retail store where he said, "It's a minimum wage job." With his long hair the college student looked like a musician, but like myself he had no musical talent. What he did have was a terrific personality, a very unique name, and a lot of ambition.  

His name sounded like "A-ton" and it was a Hebrew name.  He explained, "My sisters name means "Princess" and my name means, "Sturdy," I got the short end of the stick."  As a kid, he was teased because of his name and called, "A ton of s _ _ _." When he complained to his dad, his dad thought it was hysterical, because, "Your mom and I spent a lot of time coming up with a special name that you wouldn't be teased about."  He is the only rider that I've had that the GPS spelled his name instead of pronouncing it.  He said, "They used to say the name, but they knew they couldn't get it right, so they gave up."

More than half way through the ride he shocked me when he said, "My mom got into politics after I tried to killed myself when I was a child. She had several bills pass in the state senate to help kids get therapy." He's doing very well now and has many creative ideas to have his own business and capitalize on his unique name.  With a great sense of humor and his many creative ideas, I am confident that he has a very bright future. He made my day and I'm sure I made his too. 

SHE WAS HEROIC

I have had a number of good rides with pilots over the years and this one was one of the best.  She is a private pilot today living in Texas, but her experience as a medevac pilot in Hawaii was the most interesting.  She told me that one small island had a runway that you to time your landing because at the end of the runway there were waves that would come over it.  She never made that landing, but it has happened in the past that a plane hit a wave there and damaged the plane.

During her two years flying in Hawaii at the very beginning of the pandemic, she had a lot of problems with her plane.  It needed to be repaired and despite telling the company repeatedly and writing up many reports, they did nothing.  The company was angry with her about the reports and when she finally left they tried to prevent her from working.  One year later, her plane crashed and several employees died.

I told her that I believe in good karma and she did the right thing.  After I dropped her off I realized I should have said that what she did was heroic and what happened afterwards was tragic, but it doesn't diminish what she did. Her story inspired me and I'm sure I will share her important lesson with riders in the future.

"DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO SAN JOSE?"

In 1968, singer Dionne Warwick, had a very big hit with this song and won her first Grammy Award with it. However, for two long-time friends, getting home to San Jose was a traveling nightmare.  They had been visiting Maine and somehow were in Chicago and Denver and had several flights delayed and canceled.  The night before one of them had bought the last ticket to San Jose, but when she arrived at the gate with a boarding pass, they told her she was not on the flight.

They are best of friends with a lot in common.  Between them they have seven teenagers and one of them is teaching third grade and the other one used to teach third grade. They live only twenty minutes apart and went to middle school together.  When I dropped them off I couldn't resist: I pointed them to the door and said, "That's the way to San Jose." I ended their traveling nightmare on a very positive note.

HE GOT OFF THE TREADMILL

Sometimes people are not fulfilled in the corporate world.  My passenger was about thirty years and felt like he was, "On a never-ending treadmill."  He worked for a number of years in financial services, but didn't look forward to going to work.  Over a year ago, he make a big decision and joined a non-profit boys organization.  He was in Colorado with a group of young men from the South and has found this work to be much more rewarding than his previous job.  In his spare time he teaches guitar and although his job pays less he is in a much better place than he used to be.

THE NEW JERSEY WORLD TRAVELLER

She was my last ride of the day and I enjoyed it very much. She lives in Secaucus, New Jersey and it was fun talking with a fellow New Jerseyan who has traveled the world.  From India originally, she has worked for a biochemistry company and works in management for them.  We talked about a bunch of countries she has visited and worked in and I enjoyed showing her some of the countries that I had represented in my money museum. She has had a very exciting career and also spends some time living in Switzerland. Her outgoing personality I'm sure has helped her with her successful career and she made my day with our conversation and her laughter.

HE'S A FRONT-END GUY

My first ride of the day was a guy in his thirties who is in the cannabis industry.  He had been laid off from one company for more than six months and was happy to be with another company.  He explained that his previous company was, "Run by businessman who didn't really know the industry."  Although he's had a lot of experience dealing with customers and has a very outgoing personality, he hasn't been allowed to work upfront with customers.  He was very knowledgeable and passionate about the industry. 

I asked him if he wanted me to write a letter of recommendation for his bosses and I said I would, but I ran out of time. On my last day of driving this month I picked him up again and it was his birthday. It was 6 am on a Sunday morning and he didn't take off for his birthday.  He said, "I'm happy to be here today and I'm here with a smile."  I wrote the below note for him and he said, "I'm gonna brag about this."

QUESTIONING THE PILOT

I had a very interesting conversation with a pilot of twenty some years. From Australia originally, I asked him if it was difficult flying into Denver airport, which is one of the busiest in the world. He said, "It's not one of my favorites to fly into." The wind gusts can be a big problem coming into the airport, which is one reason there seems to be many delays or cancellations here.  I also asked him about all the bad behavior on airplanes over the last few years.  He told me that, "It's just rude. People think they have rights on a plane, but they don't.  It is not a democracy." He also said there were more problems on cheaper airlines.  

I asked him if he thought there were more problems with men or women and he quickly answered, "Women, they just don't comply.  Most men will apologize and say it won't happen again, but usually not women."  He is in the area training other pilots and I can honestly say that I learned a lot on our ride together and I appreciated his perspective.

The Dryer That Could Not Dry

There is a pretty well known children's book, "The Little Engine That Could." It's a story about this little engine that makes it up a hill tooting, "I think I can, I think I can."  I was reminded of that story this past month with our brand new dryer pictured above.

The story of our special Speed Queen dryer is not a children's story and it is not an inspiring or motivational tale.  This is a top brand and we were told it would be delivered in a week or two and we expected it to be in our house before we were at the end of May.  It took several weeks more and when it was delivered by two younger guys, it did not work.  We weren't sure they knew what they were doing, but they believed the problem was with the outlet in our new house.

Over the next week or two, the project manager in our development visited twice and and then an electrician stopped by. They believed there was something wrong with the machine.  About a week later, a Speed Queen repairman with ten years experience, spent about an hour checking everything he could.  His conclusion was that the breaker had to be replaced and it was not the machine.

Meanwhile, we (my wife), was drying laundry twenty minutes away at our son's house.  It's one thing carrying baskets to and from the bedroom, but putting them in the car trunk, out of the trunk, into a house, down the stairs, up the stairs, out of the house, into the car, into the house and into the bedroom, can be exhausting. (As it was reading that too long sentence)

About a week later an experienced electrician came in and replaced the breaker and checked everything and told us that the problem is the machine, possibly the chord leading to the machine.  The following week, the same Speed Queen repairman came back and replaced the chord and the machine worked, seven weeks after we moved into the house. The delivery men did not put the chord in correctly.

The next time you do laundry keep in mind that it could be a lot more difficult. Below is the first towel load coming in and out of our new dryer and yes, they were dry.

Happy Birthday Amelia Earhart

July was an important month in the life of legendary aviator, Amelia Earhart. She was born on July 24, 1897 and her plane went missing on July 2, 1937.  It was a year and a half later that she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were officially pronounced dead. It was said that their plane had crashed into the ocean, but the plane and their bodies have never been found.

Once again, scientists are exploring new leads and they think they may have found the plane.  The legend of Amelia Earhart has been told for nearly ninety years, but rarely do you hear the story of her small home town in Atchison, Kansas.  She lived there only her first twelve years, but you would never know that with how she is celebrated every day in this town.

This image was created in 1997 and is best seen from the sky.  It is called "living artwork" and is one mile in size. It's a combination of plants, stones and natural things to create a portrait of her in a large field.  The Amelia Earhart museum has the below statue in front of it.

The post office, bridge, airport, and stadium all have her name on them.  The Amelia Earhart Festival is in July each year for thousands of people to see fireworks and aerial stunts. Below is her refurbished home as a child which has been preserved all these years.

One thing that caught my attention about the first woman to fly non-stop and solo across the Atlantic Ocean.  I love quotes and this one is pretty special from Amelia Earhart:

"Never do things others can do and will do, if there are things others cannot do or will not do."

Some Things You Usually Don't See

I have written several vacation blog posts on unusual things I've seen, but I had a plenty of material for this blog right here at home in Colorado.

1. Congratulations and thank you to Murphy's USA gas station for selling gas at this ridiculously low price of $2.33 cents a gallon for unleaded.  Most gas stations were selling gas at $2.70-$3.00.  Saving $.40 to $.70 per gallon is unbelievable.  In 2017, when we moved to Myrtle Beach, S.C., they were selling gas for $2.17.  The last time I paid so little for gas was during the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 and it was $1.38. (A few days later it went up to $2.97 and the next day it was $2.69 and the next day it was $2.39)

                                                

2. If you live in Colorado or another place that has breathtaking mountains, maybe you see this all of the time.  This does not look real, it looks painted.  I saw this while driving and pulled over for the picture.

3.  I picked up this book while babysitting my eleven month old granddaughter. I'm not going to lie to you, I couldn't follow the pictures and when they mentioned electrons, I was done reading. I think she likes the book.  I did not do well in physics class in high school.

4.  When do you see salt water taffy sold in a pizzeria? The pizza place in Thornton, Colorado has walls painted like the Jersey shore, a small ferris wheel, among other things.  The sign says the taffy is from Seaside Heights and the owners are from New Jersey. 

5. I took this great picture of our granddaughter Riley about thirty seconds after she woke up from a nap.  Who wakes up smiling like this? She does a lot and if you think this is easy, try smiling from ear to ear when you wake up tomorrow morning.  Please send pictures of your big smile.

6. This is a perfect sign for a bathroom and that is where I took the picture.  Someone has a good sense of humor in Colorado.  Why is it only 4 1/2 stars?

7.  Lastly, our granddaughter Riley will have her first birthday and first birthday party on August 3rd. Her parents have jokingly called her rye bread from time to time and this is the actual invitation to her first birthday party.  I know parents go to great lengths to celebrate a child's party, but this is hilarious and something you never get to see.  No, you're not invited just because you are reading this. You have to get a real invitation.

                                                                                                                                                              

          

What does James Bond Have to do with "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?"

The answer is: British writer, Ian Fleming, he created both of them. The name Ian Fleming is famous for writing the James Bond novels. His first one was "Casino Royale," and he wrote it in 1952 when he was 54 years old. He wrote eleven more Bond novels and two collections of stories about him also.  His inspiration for writing it came from some of his experiences in intelligence for The British Navy.

In 1965, Fleming wrote a children's book, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car." The story was about an inventor who upgraded a broken down grand prix car to a flying car. The family went on an adventure to save their grandfather in another land. He used to tell his kids stories about a flying car and he decided to write it after he had a heart attack. Dick Van Dyke starred in the 1968 movie and British comedian, Benny Hill, was in it also.  The songs in the movie were written by the Sherman Brothers who wrote the songs for "Mary Poppins." 

The car in the 1968 movie was bought at one point and refurbished by actor, Chris Evans, who played a super-hero even James Bond would have difficulty beating-Captain America.

There will be a new actor playing the role of James Bond and he hasn't been announced yet. The next movie may come out next year.  And what about "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?" Believe it or not, they have started to work on a new movie with Amazon, but there's no timetable that's been announced. Maybe, they'll come out at the same time?

Covering Up The Murder

We have all seen television shows or movies where someone dies.  Maybe it's murder or accidental death, but someone tries to cover it up.  Have you ever watched closely to see how they get the blood off the floor or the walls?  I wish I had paid more attention to that. No, there was no blood I had to remove and there was no murder, but it was almost as bad.

In the immortal words of fictional detective, Adrian Monk, here's what happened:

My wife was dog sitting in another town and had our dog too.  I had a very quiet and uneventful afternoon.  My wife would not be home until the next afternoon, what could go wrong? I took a short drive to the self car wash and washed the car and drove home.  

Since we're in a construction area I decided to put my washed car in the garage for the first time. And, that's when it happened. I opened the car door and took a couple steps and made some very large footprints in the garage.  When I washed the car at the car wash, the ground was wet, I never saw the mud.

I removed my sneakers which looked like I had trekked through a muddy swamp. 

How do I get all the mud off the garage floor? Paper towels were not working well.  Under our kitchen sink there were many cleaners and bleach and I tried several of them.  I started to make some progress, but now the garage smelled like bleach.  I wish I had a picture of the original stain, but this is after several cleanings.

I kept the garage door open and sprayed Febreze. What is stronger, bleach or Febreze? The smell was almost gone and then I looked at those sneakers.  They were on the way out and I thought I would be able to shake the mud out, but it was imbedded in the sneakers. I threw them in the garbage in the garage. I then realized that garbage needed to be emptied-no reason to leave evidence of the crime.

This is how the new design in the garage looked with light shining in from outside.  It might be just enough for my wife not to notice it.

When I washed my hands in the kitchen sink the kitchen now smelled like bleach.  I had a small fan I brought out and let it run for a half hour in the kitchen and the smell was gone.  But, what about my hands? How long would the bleach smell last? How many times do I have to wash my hands?

After committing this crime I suddenly realized that I had become Lady Macbeth.  In my favorite Shakespeare play, Macbetth, Lady Macbeth is constantly washing her hands.  She was trying to get the blood off her hands after her and her husband conspired to kill the King.  Below is her picture and the words she said now haunt me, "What's done cannot be undone."

While looking for a picture of Lady Macbeth washing her hands, I found a perfect gift for anyone who is suspected of a crime. This box of Lady Macbeth guest soap is only $4.95! Don't miss what it says on the bottom of the box.  Will it work on bleach?

THE END: My wife came home and parked over some of the mud stain and did not say anything...yet. My hands finally just smelled like normal dirty hands instead of bleached hands.  I was going to wait a year to post this, but when she reads it she'll probably say, "I saw it right away, I just didn't say anything." 

Can You Eat a Half Gallon of Ice Cream in One Sitting?

WARNING: This is NOT a healthy blog post, but this is an entertaining one. July is National Ice Cream Month and it has been since 1984 when it was declared so by President Ronald Reagan.  National Ice Cream Day is Sunday, July 20th.  Rumor has it that George Washington was the President of the United States who loved ice cream the most and his favorite flavor was vanilla.

The Appalachian Trail is 2,190 miles and it usually takes about six months of walking to complete it, going from Georgia to Maine.  Only about 25% of  the 3,000 hikers who start the walk complete the trip which takes them through thirteen different states.  The good news is that the average weight loss is around 25 pounds, but what about the ice cream?

Half way through the journey of five million steps is the small town of Gardners, Pennsylvania.  At the Pine Grove Furnace General Store, they have had a contest that has been going on for around four decades.  They call it, "The Half Gallon Challenge." You don't just eat the 2,500 calories, but the real challenge is eating it quickly.

One dairy farmer who managed to accomplish this feat, said, "I don't think anybody should be doing this, it's not healthy." He said the experience was, "Pure misery." The record at this store for eating a half gallon of ice cream is-less than FOUR MINUTES!  I would have liked to see that.  About fifty people have finished the ice cream this year and they get a wooden spoon and their picture goes on a store bulletin board.

The next time you open a half gallon of ice cream, ask yourself, could I eat this whole thing in one sitting? 

Training Odin in his New Backyard

 

I know, it's a terrible picture, but it is reality.  Would I want someone taking a picture of me doing this? Let me think about answering that question. Training our dog Odin in a new backyard was not the easiest thing to do. He loved our backyard in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Below is a picture of the pond and the fountain in Myrtle Beach which he loved.  Each morning Odin would walk outside just to see if the fountain was still there.  He would sit on the porch and watch the water or lay in the grass in the sunshine. The second picture here is Odin thinking about whether he should come inside, which he usually did.

Our new house in Colorado had a backyard just like our neighbor behind us.  The dirt, weeds, and no fence prevented Odin from going out there for a couple weeks.  I didn't want to go out there either.  He would sit inside and look out the window, probably looking for the fountain and the water.

The above picture shows part of the patio we put in and the turf which makes me feel like I should get my golf club, if I had one.  We started taking Odin outside on a leash since there was no fence on two sides and one of them had a big hole with water in it.  He would have liked the water.

One day my wife wasn't home and I took him outside and he laid in the grass.  I figured I'd take the leash off and sit there and watch him.  He was fine for five minutes or so until it was time to go in.  He started running everywhere, the neighbor's yard, the house next door that wasn't built, and he was moving faster than I was.  I finally coaxed him inside and decided I would never do that again.  My wife will read about this, because I didn't want to tell her after it happened.  There is no video of me chasing him as far as I know.

The backyard is getting there.  We have to try to keep Odin out of the dirt, since we don't have rocks and flowers or plants yet. We have a fence put in, we have a couple chairs ordered, we just got a table, and we're working on getting something to cover the patio to save us from the sun.  Oh, and let's not forget a doggie door that we will have to train Odin to go in and out of again.

Below are the pictures and this is what Odin sees each morning.  We may even get a little water fountain, but it will be much smaller than the one in Myrtle Beach.

America's Greatest Gift?

 

It is Independence Day, July 4, 2025 and we are celebrating the 249th birthday of The United States of America.  When you think of things that represent our country, one of them has to be The Statue of Liberty, which was a gift from the people of France.  

The story of The Statue of Liberty is one of inspiration, determination, and of course liberty and freedom.  Below are some things you may not know about Lady Liberty and it's twenty year journey to New York:

1. The original inspiration was from a French legal scholar, Edourard-Rene Lefebvre.  He was came up with the idea after the American Civil War ended and slavery was defeated.  He wanted to give a gift to The United States to celebrate the concept of liberty.

2. Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was the 31-year-old sculptor that was asked to visit The United States to get support for the project.  As he entered New York Harbor, he was inspired to immediately draw a picture of a robed woman raising a torch and he wrote, "Liberty Enlightening The World."

3. Bartholdi modeled Lady Liberty after his mom, Charlotte.

4. Many years of waiting took place before it was agreed that France would fund the statue and the pedestal would be funded by America.

5. One of the sculptors who worked with Bartholdi was Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who built the Eiffel Tower.

6. Financial problems in financing Lady Liberty was so significant that France had a lottery that raised the remaining $400,000 and the statue was presented in Paris on July 4, 1884, 161 years ago.

7. In America, $100,000 was raised by New York World publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, who put pictures of people who donated in his newspaper.

8. The statue was taken apart and put into 214 boxes and sent across the ocean and then reassembled over fifteen months in New York.

9. President Grover Cleveland dedicated The Statue of Liberty on October 28, 1886 in front of hundreds of millions of people in New York Harbor.  His remarks ended with, "A stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and oppression, until liberty enlightens the world."

A few more random and interesting statistics: When it was built, The Statue of Liberty was the tallest structure ever built and it weighed 450,000 pounds.  Lady Liberty wears an 879 shoe and it is struck by lightening an average of 600 times a year. I'm pretty certain you did not know that.

MY MOST MEMORABLE RIDER COMMENTS IN JUNE

When she lived in Zimbabwe,  Africa she had a bill that was worth a trillion dollars, "When I was eleven years old, I was a trillionaire and I bought a candy bar with it." (It still has little value)

He: "Even the geese are nicer in Colorado than Indiana.  I had several in Indiana attack me-they are crazy and angry."

The future nurse said, "If you're not helping people, you're not living."

She: "I have one more Super Bowl ring than Jerry Jones. (Owner of the Dallas Cowboys) I inherited two of them from my mom and aunt who worked in scouting with Gil Brandt." (Legendary Cowboy scouting director)

He: "My family was renting a really nice house here for $5,500 a month.  You could fit thirty cars in the driveway." (I saw the picture, it was a compound, not a house)

Getting into my car he didn't say anything for a minute and then said something no one has ever said, "Sorry, my mouth was full of cupcake."

She: "Here's the best quote-Jerry Jones is an asshole." (He's not well-liked)

Couple: "We live on Kodiak Island on the south coast of Alaska and our retirement home is in Hawaii."

Talking about eating some of the wedding cake from our family wedding, he said, "I ate the cake with chopsticks, you can eat a lot of things with chopsticks."

She: "Growing up my family always called me Barbara Walters because I asked so many questions."

She: "I just came back from Las Vegas and saw three concerts, because I love music. I saw Janet Jackson, Donny Osmond, and Coldplay."

He: "Embrace the good-you can change the outcome."

He: "When I got out of the military and we were going to get married I only had one shirt and one pair of pants." She: "That's why you kept asking me to go shopping."

She: "I learned how to drive when I was eight or nine years old driving a tractor over 80 acres."

He: "When they approved pot here, (Colorado), rents went up over 100%. They put the money into real estate."

He: "I'm doing some private security for Deion Sanders which is pretty cool."

He: "I was in advertising for a Dutch computer firm and they asked me if I would sell computers for them.  I half jokingly said I would if they doubled my salary. They did and I sold computers for ten years."

He: "I proposed to my wife on stage during a Widespread Panic concert at Red Rocks." (In Colorado)

Only in this country a few years, the man from Vietnam said, "I love everything about America."

MORE RIDER COMMENTS

The 25 year-old guy who served a couple years in the military, said, "I feel like I've lived a whole life."

She: "The benefits of having a dog far outweigh the inconveniences."

He: "When I was in my twenties I washed windows in skyscrapers for ten years.  I wasn't scared to do it, but I would be now." (In his fifties)

She: "My dog's name is Wazee."

He works for Meow Wolf which is an immersive art museum.  He said, "The owner picked those two names out of a hat and that's how he got the name."

Leaving Colorado after three years to go back to New Mexico where she has a number of nieces and nephews, the young woman said, "I'm ready to be that Auntie."

"I think the mountains here help connect people and it decompresses you."

Having moved to Brighton, CO six months ago, she said, "It's small, but it has everything you need.'

She: "Some of the casinos in Colorado have hot tubs on the rooftops."

He: "We're here from Canada for the 'Street Fighting' video tournament."

From Colorado: "I went to Oregon recently and the air was cooler than here, it was great."

From Texas: "It's like a breath of fresh air here in Colorado."

NEWEST BILL

Special thanks to the young man from the United Kingdom who gave me the below bill from Indonesia.  It is my 66th country to be represented in my car and my first bill from Colorado.  The bill is worth only twelve cents here, really.

AND FROM FRANCE

The two Frenchmen were vacationing through the western states and wanted a picture with me.  They sent it to me and said, "Thanks for the sunny side. Best regards." I replied, "Merci beaucoup." I sent them the picture hanging in my car and said, "You're the only Frenchmen who can say they were in an Uber in the USA and you're still there."

"WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT LIVING IN COLORADO?"

"I'm much more active here-it's been a great blessing."

"I like the nature and secondly the people."

"The mountains in Colorado are mesmerizing."

"It rains more here than it used to."

UNIQUE OCCUPATIONS

Safety Manager for Coca-Cola

Geologist from South Africa

Formerly in the film industry, Vancouver, British Columbia Canada

Manager of a mushroom grove

Former high-rise window washer for 10 years in Denver

Physical Therapist in France

Sports Videographer from the UK who travels the world

Retired Special Forces twenty years for the Army

Private security man for Deion Sanders

COMMENTS ABOUT ME AND MY CAR

Just before getting out of my car, she said, "I'm almost about to cry."

"It was great to be in the coolest Uber in the country."

The young woman was at a loss for words about my car, "It's like...wow!

"This is gorgeous."

"You are a beautiful person."

"This is the best Uber ride ever."

She: "I decided to take this flight back home to Arizona because I had a bad night last, thank you so much for this ride."

"This is like traveling the globe."

"You are an incredible person."

"This is amazing."

First Uber ride: "This was very enjoyable."

The woman from South Africa said, "This was a brilliant journey."

"I've never seen anything like this.'

"Would you ever sell all of this money?"

"I enjoyed the ride."

"You are very kind."

"I love this."

 "I really enjoyed talking with you."

"You are great, it is so amazing."

"I like what you've done with this."

"Thanks for the great Canadian story."

"Your next book should be about retirement."