Who Is Talking in Your Kitchen?

It's a pretty easy question, right? I mean you always know who is in your kitchen, or do you? The other  morning just after 6 am, I honestly did not know.  When something unusual happens I always like to look at the possibilities and figure out what was the most likely answer and maybe you can help me get the right answer.

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED: I woke up in my office where I usually get my last few hours of sleep.  I had a good night's sleep and walked into the bathroom outside my office. Coming out of the bathroom, I walked towards the kitchen to get my water bottle and that is when I heard voices. (The voice did not say I should build a baseball field as in the movie, "Field of Dreams")

There were two voices, one male and one female and they were LOUD. I am always quiet in the morning because my wife and dog are sleeping. They were not speaking English.  I thought it was Manderin. (My wife said I have to put Manderin, but I've never thought or said the word in my life. It sounded Japanese or Asian?) 

The voices lasted a second or two and as I walked into the kitchen it was quiet. I stood there looking around very puzzled.  We have no TV and there's no radio, so I ruled that out immediately.  My wife's phone was in the bedroom on the other side of the kitchen. The door was closed and it sounded like it came from the kitchen. I did not hear the same sound the rest of the day.  

When my wife woke up two hours later, I told her the story and she laughed.  Here are the possibilities:

A. My wife was charging two different phones, one of them had the volume off and no sim card.

B. The second phone had the volume on and no sim card.

C. Her laptop was off and on the counter.

D. Her phone was next to her bed and she did not hear any loud noises and the sound I heard was not behind a closed door.

E. My phone was in my pocket and the sound was off and it was not coming from me.

F. I checked the pantry in the kitchen and there was no one there.

G. The windows and porch door were closed, it did not come from outside and I don't believe our neighbors speak another language. Their three dogs bark, but do not speak another language other than "Dog."

The only logic explanation is B. If there is no sim card, can something suddenly come on the phone for a second or two?

I have no idea, but unless you come up with some other explanation, that's what I'm going with. Waking up early while everyone's sleeping is really going to be fun now.

A Belated Father's Day Story

It's never too late for a good story so here it is:

In San Antonio, Texas there is one of the world's greatest places, but don't take my word for it.  In 2018, this place was given that recognition by Time Magazine.  The place is called, Morgan's Wonderland, and it's one of the most unique amusement parks in the world.  It is for children and adults with disabilities, who get in for free. Since it opened in 2010, they have had over one million visitors from all over the world.

How does something like this happen? Where does a great idea come from? Gordon Hartman, was a philanthropist and a former home builder. In 2005, he started the Gordon Hartman Foundation to benefit kids and adults with special needs. His daughter, Morgan, was born with a rare disease that left her with cognitive and physical ailments. In 2006, he watched his daughter try to play with some kids at a hotel pool, but they walked away.  From the pain of watching that, he built an amusement park in her name.

It took him four years and 35 million dollars to build the park. Former basketball great, David Robinson, and actress, Eva Longoria, helped open the park and Toyota became a sponsor in 2012.  There are wheel chair accessible fields of all kinds, waterproof wheelchairs in the splash park, and many other accessible features designed for kids and adults with disabilities, such as a day camp and a medical facility to provide medical assistance of all kinds.

Many, many years ago, a man took his two small children to the park.  He used to sit and watch his kids play and think, why can't there be a place that kids and adults can both have fun? That man was Walt Disney and that's where Disneyland and Disney World came from. Gordon Hartman's daughter, Morgan, is thirty years old now. Because of her dad she will have friends to play with the rest of her life and a lot of other people will have a whole lot of fun.

I'm Positive This Will Help You

                                                                                               

Over the years I have read many books and articles that discussed the value of thinking positive instead of negative.  There have been a lot of times in my life that I have focused on the positive that comes out of a situation instead of the negative and I have found it has helped me a lot.

Recently, I read an interesting article that talked about a study that shows that an optimistic outlook on aging can help with memory loss. The study was from the Yale school of public health.  The author, Mathew Wilson said, "Positive thinking may be more powerful than you think."  The study took place over 12 years and with 1,700 people over 65 and it showed that, "People with positive thoughts about aging had 30% better results than people with negative thoughts on aging.

The article listed these five things everyone can do:

1. Memorize positive words to change your mindset.  One example I can give is, when something happens, do you react to it or respond to it? Responding is positive, reacting is not.

2. Write down the positive things in your life. It's easy to go over what we did wrong or bad things that happen to us, but I have found that focusing on accomplishments and things that are good, is far healthier.  

3. Set attainable goals and chart your progress. Working towards reachable goals and keeping track of them is always helpful and it is good for you.

4. If you're feeling sad, try smiling more.  The article said, "Research has shown that smiling more reduces your heart rate and blood pressure in stressful situations." Don't try to smile more, just do it. The sign in my car which many people have commented on and some have taken pictures of is this, "If you can't find the sunshine, be the sunshine." Smiling is a form of sunshine that we can give more of.

5. Imagine positive outcomes. People worry way too much of what the worst thing that could happen, focus on more positive results-it's good for your health.

Recently, I copied down a bunch of quotes I liked on all different topics.  I didn't realize I would be using them so quickly.  I hope you enjoy these and I believe you will:

"Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day."

Alice Morse Earle

"Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you."

Mary Lou Retton

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope."

Helen Keller

"Enjoy life. Accentuate the positive, not the negative. It sounds so trite, but a lot of people will pick out something to complain about rather than say, 'Hey, that was great!' It's not hard to find great stuff if you look."'

Betty White

   

The Doggy Door Saga

We have had our dog Odin for well over two years, however, this year has been the year of the doggy door. It all began early this year maybe January or February.  My wife said, "We should get a doggy door so Odin can go in and out of the screened porch and we won't have to open the door for him all the time." I said okay and several weeks or a month later, we rehearsed our lines again and nothing changed.  I believe it was three times that we did this and finally one day I came home, the doggy door was sitting there in a box.

If you don't know, I am not the one who puts things together, I only help out. My wife is great doing this, so the door was going in when she was ready to do it.  Several weeks went by and my wife asked if I wanted to help her with the door.  Finally, the door went in and that was the easy part.

In case you're wondering, the pet door was invented by Sir Isaac Newton, well maybe.  He is given credit for having a hole in the wall for his cats in the late 1800's, but legend has it that the invention goes way back to the 14th century in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." (A servant looked through it) The oldest known cat door is in Exeter Cathedral in the UK around 1305 AD.

Back to 2023: We would stand at the door encouraging Odin to go through and bending down to open the flap so he would go in.  This was more difficult than when we were holding the screen door open.  Cheering him on to go through the door morning to night made me wonder how Isaac Newton got his cats to go through it.

Below is how he looked during this learning time, just staring at the door on both sides.

It took a couple months and now some of the time Odin goes through all by himself.  Pictured below is the action shot of him doing it and after he went through it. His head is through the door.

Odin doesn't go through all the time, but it may be half the time. One day, we'll be able to enjoy this old invention just like Newton did. We're hoping that time comes in 2023.

Amazon Prunes

It was a little bit over a year ago that something amazing happened in my life-I had my first cup of coffee. We were on vacation in Orlando and I had been constipated for two days and I knew I had to do something drastic before traveling home. I ordered my first cup of coffee from the bathroom and before I could say, "I like coffee ice cream a lot better," the magic of coffee worked almost immediately.

I really thought it would be the last time I would have coffee, but desperate times calls for desperate measures. Last week, I had the same problem and I knew I had to do something about it. I didn't have any prunes, so my wife made me a cup of coffee..... and nothing happened. 

I ordered a second cup of coffee..... and nothing happened.  I ran out to the supermarket and I found where the prunes were.  There were a couple different ones, but Amazon Prunes were the cheapest and I figured, it's Amazon, it's got to be good.

A few minutes later I entered the bathroom and waited a minute. Years ago I walked into the bathroom with prunes and it worked before I opened the bag. So, I waited a minute..... and nothing happened. When I went to open the bag of Amazon Prunes, this is what I saw:

They were Amaz!ing Prunes! In the corner of the bag it said, "It feels good to feel good."  After eating half the bag of prunes, I waited....and nothing happened.  I ate some dinner and had my third cup of coffee with dinner.

Finally, I went into the bathroom....and something happened.  Over the next ten hours,enough happened that it really did feel good to feel good again. I can't believe I've had four cups of coffee in my life.  I hope I don't have to drink that again.

The Lay-Z-Boy That Isn't

 Recently I had a funny conversation with a regular rider of mine about some things that my wife and I don't have: a TV and a barbecue grill, were the two big ones.  I'm not really into talking about what we don't have, but more focused on what we do have.  Later on, I realized that we don't have a recliner either, but we do have one now.

I decided it was time to get one for my office so I can sleep a couple hours when I wake up in the middle of the night and also it would be a good reading chair.  However, the chair was part of a big plan.  First sell the couch in the living room, which we did.  Move the couch in my office into the living room, which we did to make room for the chair.  There are a few other pieces to this plan, but we're still working on them. 

Back to my story of the Lay-Z-Boy that isn't.  The company was originally called the Floral City Furniture company in 1927 and in 1929 they created the Lay-Z-Boy recliner which the company is known as today. The company started and still is in Monroe, Michigan and the company does around $2.4 Billion in sales. It has grown 100% in the last ten years. A recliner should last at least 7-10 years and possibly up to 20 years just in case you're wondering.

My wife and I went to a Lay-Z-Boy store, but we didn't stay long.  I wanted a smaller chair for my office and the prices were in the $1,500-$2,000 range in some cases.  We bought the above chair online and it's on the smaller side and it looks pretty good and it's comfortable.  I could have bought many chairs for the price of a Lay-Z-Boy, but we'll see how many years my chair lasts.

So, we've added a recliner, but when we're all done we may no longer have a couch in the house! And a TV? It's possible, maybe this is the year! Or, maybe by election night in 2024?

Four Last Minutes With Mrs. Maisel

If you have been watching the extraordinary series on Amazon, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel", and you haven't watched the final episode, I won't ruin anything for you. However, you do need to sit down and watch the last show, "Four Minutes," because it was outstanding.  This show has received awards and applause for six years and unfortunately the show has come to an end.

The show starts out in the 1950's when Mrs. Maisel's husband leaves her with two kids in a very nice Upper West Side apartment in New York. The show is about her journey as a single mom as she goes into the world of stand-up comedy and how she triumphs overcoming all obstacles.  If you have not watched this show, there are six seasons to enjoy and you will laugh out loud. It has a terrific cast, including Tony Shalhoub, who starred in the television series, "Monk," and plays Mrs. Maisel's dad.

The final show was simply great.  All too often shows fall short in their last show and fans are disappointed.  You will not be disappointed with this final show.  When you do watch, "Four Minutes," in the final 15 minutes you should make sure that you watch how the camera films these minutes.  You should listen closely to the words that are said and how powerful they are for anyone and everyone.

There's an old saying that there are three kinds of people in the world, people who wait for things to happen, people who make things happen and people who don't know what happened.  "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" is about a woman who made things happen. One sentence in this last show is her saying, "Open the door and go get it."

You don't have to go out and do stand-up in front of a crowd.  You don't have to run for President of the United States when you're 80 years old.  You don't have to become a millionaire. Each of us has unlimited potential and you do need to figure out what it is that you want to do and then you have to, "Open the door and go get it."

If you haven't watched this show, YOU HAVE TO-you will enjoy it.