MY FAVORITE RIDERS IN FEBRUARY 2026

THERE IS A FREE LUNCH!

I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "There's no free lunch," but I am writing this to let you know that it is not true.  Not only is there a free lunch, but it can change your life which is exactly what happened to my passenger.  I've asked many people who served in the military how they decided to sign up to serve our country, but this is the second best reason I've ever heard.

He was a junior in college and he was running late through the student center when he saw this sign, "Free lunch if you take our test." He didn't think twice and got the lunch and took the test.  The Air Force said they would be able to get him wings to fly.  He started R.O.T.C. and served in the Air Force for thirty years.  He traveled the world and told me, "I would do it all over again." He is a great reminder to all of us how fortunate we are to have people like him serving our country.

THE UNIVERSE LOOKS OUT FOR YOU

I had a very serious and inspiring conversation with a young woman who is going to be finishing grad school this year. She's working with young autistic children and her plan is to help develop programs or systems to make their life easier.  Since she needed a lot of help when she was younger, she considers her choice of a career, "Paying forward."  

She is half blind and half deaf since birth and her disability has not stopped her. A few years back she decided to change her environment so she moved from Colorado to Alaska for three years.  When I asked her how she has been able to overcome her challenges and to move so far away, she told me this: "My mom taught me that the universe looks out for you." 

I loved having her in my car and it's great to know that there will be a lot of young, autistic children who will have her along with the universe looking out for them in the future.

TALENTED AND MOVING FORWARD

I had the pleasure of driving a young guy who has been drug free the past couple years after ten difficult years on drugs.  He's a talented musician who plays many instruments since his grandmother taught him piano when he was four or five and then he started learning the violin.  He told me he learned this from someone else who said, "Talent is a quality that you have to practice or you lose it."  I asked him what made him give up drugs and change his life and he said, "I got tired of doing something that was getting me nowhere."  I can tell he has a bright future ahead of him and he was kind enough to share some of his struggles and new life with me and I'm rooting for him.

MOVING TO BEVERLY HILLS?

Growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he knew that when he had a chance he would have to move out.  He told me that some people there are, "Proud of their gang mentality." He moved his wife and three kids to Colorado and said after arriving, "It was like moving to Beverly Hills."  He wanted better opportunities for his kids, especially his young daughter who is autistic.  He told me that Colorado offers her so many things and she's doing very well here.  I enjoyed driving him and I congratulated him on making the big move so his family can have a better life.

HER HEART WAS FLUTTERING

Riders react to my car in many different ways, but the young woman this month made me laugh when she said, "I'm enthused, my heart is fluttering, it's like a kid in a candy store." She really enjoyed the car and probably enjoyed me laughing too.  Just before dropping her off I told her about the woman recently who told me how she was paralyzed at age 19.  She surprised me by saying, "The same thing happened to me.  I was 19 and I was hit by an ambulance and I was in a coma for a month and a half." There was no time to get the whole story from her, but she's fully recovered, except for her heart that kept fluttering in my car.  Maybe the age of 19 is a dangerous age for women?

I Weigh 198 Pounds?

You're lucky that I cut out my feet from the picture, but this is really the scale in my bathroom as of the morning, February 12, 2026.  I weighed 182 when I graduated college in 1982 and a year later when I got married I weighed 182 pounds according to the best estimates of my wife.

There have been a couple times in my life I have weighed in the 240's.  My goal in 2024 was to get down to 220, but I didn't make it and I was somewhere between 225-230.  Is 198 pounds a real number? I'm not sure but I have been under 220 for awhile after moving to Colorado last May. I'll be checking it out regularly but I am feeling fine.

Here are some explanations for my weight loss:

1. I'm on the Soda/ice cream diet.  If you haven't heard about this one it's not very well known since I made it up.  I decided at the end of last year to go 100 days without either one of them. Today is day number 43.  I had gotten in a habit of getting a soda while out driving on the weekend and I started drinking soda too often.  I never thought I'd have a drinking problem.  This probably has resulted in me losing some pounds in 2026.

2. I've been taking Metformin for my soda/ice cream problem and being borderline diabetic.  I did cross over that border and now I'm taking a new medication called Jardiance.  Both medications are not weight loss drugs but can show some weight loss results of five pounds or so.  I just started Jardiance so it's impact on my weight is probably nothing.

3. The week we left Myrtle Beach and I drove five days to Colorado over six days, was not the healthiest for me.  The the all-you-can-eat buffet at Paula Deans with my friends in between my road trips was very good, but not for my weight.

4. I have been pretty active in Colorado and running after and carrying my eighteen month old granddaughter and my thirty-five pound plus dog, and that has probably resulted in losing a few pounds.

5. I've been to the local gym here only a few times, but I can go and since it's the thought that counts maybe it's accounted for a pound?

6. I have have watching what I'm eating and I've been cutting back on a few things also.

It is now February 20th and as you can see from my scale this morning, I really do weigh under 200! My real weight is around 197/198 which is pretty good.

The Milkman Returns

At the house in Edison, New Jersey where I grew up there used to be a small milk box at the side door which led to the garage.  I don't remember what was in it, but I don't recall it ever had milk in it.  I'm pretty sure that it had pictures of milk and a company name, but maybe the milkman came when I was very, very young?

The first milk deliveries began in 1785 in Vermont.  It used to be delivered in barrels until the late 1800's when milk was delivered in glass bottles. Refrigeration and supermarkets appeared in the 1920's and 1930's reducing the need for home delivery.  In the 1960's 30% of houses were getting milk delivered to them, but by 1975 only 7% of houses received delivery.  In the 1990's less than 1% of houses had milk delivered although when the pandemic hit more people started using direct delivery from a farm.

Now in 2026, we are getting milk and iced coffee delivered by a local farm.  It's a couple less things to buy and carry from the supermarket and it's reasonably priced and arrives every Friday morning.  They put it in this container which looks a little nicer than the old metal can and they put some ice in it to keep everything cold.

This is a pretty nice brochure that you get when your service begins explaining the whole process of their operation.  You can order different things online of course and payment is taken care of that way too.  It's a lot different than the 1800's and we've been happy with the service.

What Can We Learn From a Roman Emperor?

Marcus Aurelius was a Roman Emperor 2,000 years ago in the years 161-180 CE.  He was also a philosopher and I recently read an interesting article on some of his most famous quotes.  Here they are with my comments about them:

"THE THINGS YOU THINK ABOUT DETERMINE THE QUALITY OF YOUR MIND. YOUR SOUL TAKES ON THE COLOR OF YOUR THOUGHTS."

Another way of saying, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."  Another great quote I've read before is, "You are what you think about."

"WHEN YOU ARISE IN THE MORNING THINK ABOUT WHAT A PRIVILEGE IT IS TO BE ALIVE, TO THINK, TO ENJOY, TO LOVE."

My first thought is, "What time is it?" Since I awake a few times a night, it could be many times.  It's hard to imagine you could come up with a more positive way to wake up than his advice.

"YOU HAVE POWER OVER YOUR MIND, NOT OUTSIDE EVENTS. REALIZE THIS AND YOU WILL FIND STRENGTH."

Definitely, we do have control over out thoughts and our actions and it does give you power and confidence.

"WASTE NO MORE TIME ARGUING ON WHAT A GOOD MAN SHOULD BE, BE ONE."

Discussion is good as look as two people are willing to discuss without anger.  Being the best one can be, should always be a top priority.  However, I'm open to discussion on it.

"IF YOU CAN, SHOW THEM THE BETTER WAY. IF NOT THIS IS WHY YOU HAVE THE GIFT OF KINDNESS."

I think I can understand why this guy ruled for so many years.

"WHENEVER YOU ARE ABOUT TO FIND FAULT WITH SOMEONE, ASK YOURSELF THE FOLLOWING QUESION: WHAT FAULT OF MINE MOST NEARLY RESEMBLES THE ONE I AM AOBUT TO CRITICIZE?"

It would be fascinating to sit down and have a conversation with this guy.  I wonder what influenced him?

"THE BEST REVENGE IS TO BE UNLIKE HIM WHO PERFORMED THE INJURY." 

A pretty cool way of getting back at someone.  I look at it as someone showing you how not to be.  He said it a lot better.

"IT CAN RUIN YOUR LIFE ONLY IF IT RUINS YOUR CHARACTER. OTHERWISE IT CANNOT HARM YOU-INSIDE OR OUT.

He obviously was a very strong and independent person of good character.  You can't help but being impressed with his words, which is probably the reason he is still written about.

How Much is a Penny Worth?

You have probably heard that the last pennies have been made.  They cost too much to make and have become pretty much irrelevant. But the last pennies made? They made their mark because they sold for close to $1.7 million.

There were two final sets made at the mints in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in Denver, Colorado. In Philadelphia they created a 24-karat gold penny and the two last sets included the three dies used to make the last pennies.(Penny pictured below)

Pennies have been produced for 232 years and the first one was produced in Philadelphia also.  The last coin to be eliminated was the half-cent in 1857 and we all remember how that went.  It is expected that the cancellation will save the government around $56 million a year.

But you haven't see the last of the penny.  They can still be found in parking lots and gas stations all over the country.  It is estimated that people have hoarded 300 billion pennies and sooner or later we'll probably see those come out.

How much is a penny worth today? Not much, but it's always been worth that much. In the future if someone says to you, "A penny for your thoughts?" You may want to take the penny, because I'm thinking we're not going to be getting many of them in the future.

The Robot in the House

I remember watching "The Jetsons" television show a long, long time ago. The show first ran in 1962 and 1963.  It ran against "Dennis The Menace" and "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" and as you can imagine it did not do well. Reruns ran the next two years and new episodes were out in the 80's including a movie in 1990.

The Jetsons family lived in the future in the space age and had a robot named Rosie who did all the cleaning. That is where my story begins, I am living as George and Judy Jetson did on their show.

A month or so ago our youngest daughter and son-in-law bought us a robot to sweep up, clean our floors, and wash them.  We call him/her, "May's helper." My wife's nickname is May, so she is her helper.  Here it is pictured below.

It's plugged in right into a wall in the kitchen and our seventeen month old granddaughter pressed a button and got it started.  I had no clue what to do other than unplug it.  My wife seems happy with it, but it does take hours to clean the house.(I could do it much faster, but I'm not challenging it.)

How advanced is this invention? My wife says that it can be programmed to find our dog in the house, take a picture, and then send it to her phone.  I can barely do that, but this thing? I think she made it up. The machine backs up, spins around, and the light flashes on.  I haven't heard any voices yet, but you never know.  

"The Jetsons" television show was a ratings flop, but pretty successful as a re-run.  I have a feeling that "May's helper" is going to do a lot better in our house, although our dog is not a big fan of it

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The Luckiest Man to Have Ever Lived?

There are people who believe they have the worst luck. However, they have never heard of Frank Selak.  His story is one of the most amazing stories you'll ever hear about.  He was born in Yugoslavia in 1929 and he spent most of his adult life as a music teacher.  He passed away in Croatia in 2016 at the age of 87.  But during his life, here's what happened.

As a child he was born two months premature and he was born on a fishing boat. At eleven months old he had life-threatening intestinal problems and when he was eleven years old he almost lost his eye sight.  

In 1957 he was riding in a bus after dropping off all the students on a field trip and the bus veered off into a river when the steering wheel snapped off.  He and the bus driver were okay, but this was the first of seven times he cheated death.  Yes, seven times he cheated death as an adult.

Five years later he was on a train on a rainy evening when a mudslide took out a bridge and the train went into the water.  He broke his arm and had hypothermia and 17 passengers died in the accident.

In 1963 he took his only plane flight and was blown out of the plane and fell 800 meters, lost consciousness, and landed in a haystack.  He was in a coma for four days.

Three years later he was on another bus that skidded into a river and four passengers died.

In the 1970's he escaped two different car fires/explosions in his own car.

In 1995 he was struck by a bus and had only minor injuries.

One year later he avoided a collision on a mountain by driving into the guardrail, which gave way.  He was not wearing a seatbelt and he was ejected from the car and rescued holding onto a tree branch while his car fell 300 feet.

On June 5, 2002, he won the lottery, buying a ticket at the same store he had played the lottery for forty years.  He bought a bunch of things, got married for the 6th time and built a chapel.

By 2010 he had given most of his remaining money away to friends and relatives.

In 2014, he had a heart attack while taking a walk and spent 18 days recovering in a hospital.  Two years later he was gone.

Many of his stories have not been verified or have some details mixed up, but I only have one real question:  how did this guy not write a book about his life?