What is your number?

I always wondered what my number would be.  Well, now I know.  Six it is.  Six years is the number I have been curious about for a long time, and now I know. 

What was I curious about?  Actually, afraid would be a better description than curious.  Well, it’s like this, I have always wondered how long it would be before either my wife or I would forget about our anniversary, and in what state our marriage would be when that happened.  It happened.

Our anniversary was on Sunday, May 31.  I thought about the occasion on Thursday, then promptly forgot about it since we were busy getting ready to visit family for the weekend.  The next time I thought about it was on Sunday, THE DAY.  I was in the middle of cooking lunch when a thought entered my mind about June being just around the corner.  Then it hit me.  Today was our anniversary.  I came up behind her and said, “Hey, guess what!”  I wrapped her in my arms, gave her a kiss, and whispered, “Happy Anniversary!”  “Oh,”  she said surprised, “I forgot.” 

So I was off the hook.  I always thought that I would be the one to forget, but no.  Lucky me.  Lucky me for marrying such a wonderful woman.  Lucky me for having a great marriage, even if we almost forgot our anniversary.  Lucky me for being able to celebrate our anniversary with a weekend getaway several weeks from now.

My fears about the state of our marriage, should one of us forget our anniversary, proved to be unfounded.  I can safely say that it is better than ever.  Different, but better.  Lucky me!

Lazy Man's Garden

Being lazy has its advantages.  Although it is a delicate balance.  If you work too hard at being lazy, the purpose is defeated-you are not being lazy.

It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention.  The need for being lazy requires one to squeeze all the creative juices available to create convenience.

This was the basis for sowing grass seed in our former garden area.  This was the basis for finding old plastic containers.  This was the basis for turning those containers into little gardens.

I have always enjoyed gardening.  At least the planting and harvesting stages of gardening.  The in-between part is the least enjoyable.  The weeding, hoeing, maintaining stage.  I do not own a power tiller, and weeding by hand, and hoeing is not fun, especially if half the garden is empty.  So generally, by July, my garden would be a solid mass of green, and I was the only one that could differentiate between the vegetables and the weeds.  At this point, the rows would be mowed with the lawn mower, or I would borrow a power tiller, and spend a whole precious evening tilling between the rows.  This would usually result in the fatality of about half of all the plants, vegetables and weeds.  Then, I would need to wait for the freshly tilled earth to dry out so I could weed the rows without me becoming a muddy mess.  By the time I was ready (motivated) to weed the rows, the mower/tiller was needed again.  Thus, the rows never got weeded.  This made for some interesting guessing as to where the vegetables were hiding.  It wasn’t too hard to understand why our harvests was small and pathetic.

Thus, I tilled the garden for the final time, and planted it again.  This time, the crop of choice was grass.  This is how I entered the brave new world of container gardening.  Last year was my first attempt, and I must say, it produced the desired result.  Low maintenance gardening.  Fill the container with rocks and dirt.  Top it off with potting soil.  Plant desired crop.  Wait.  Water.  Fertilize.  Pull the few weeds that pop up.  Water. Fertilize. Harvest.

Last year I only planted two tomato plants and three pepper plants.  I have become quite ambitious this year in spite of my laziness.  I have planted four tomato plants, four pepper plants, ten pole bean seeds, lettuce, spinach, onions, and carrots.  We shall see if my luck continues.  I do enjoy watering and fertilizing much better than weeding.  My biggest problem this year has been the neighbor’s cat using the carrot container as a litter box.  Maybe I will till up some of the yard and plant a traditional garden.

Of Cars & Colors

Have you ever wondered why auto manufacturers seem to have a flagship color for each model?  It seems you see for instance,  more of the tan/gray 1999-2003 Chevy Silverado trucks than any other color of that particular model.  They must have clearance sales on certain colors in the Detroit area Sherwin Williams stores.

One that I especially notice is the gold color that Chrysler used in the late 1990’s.  Many of the Chrysler Concordes were this (ugly) gold color.  In a Google Image search for a 1998 Chysler Concorde, the first four images are the gold color.  They must have thought this color would make the car look luxurious.  Um... it is an ugly color (on a not so pretty car).  One of my co-workers owns a car of this vintage and color.  He kindly refers to it as the “golden egg.”

So, all that being said…Chrysler is in deep financial trouble, and is on the brink of bankruptcy.  And if they do go under…will they have killed the goose that laid the golden egg?

How Bad Is It?

How bad is the current state of economic affairs?  The news media tells me it is very, very bad.  People are losing jobs, and companies are declaring bankruptcy.  Consumers have stopped spending money, and employers have cut wages.  Homeowners are facing foreclosures in record numbers and housing prices have dropped.  It seems bad, but how bad is it really.

Many comparisons have been made to the time of the Great Depression.  I do see some key differences between now and the Great Depression.

We have significantly increased our standard of living since the 1930’s.  Necessities today include basic cable, a cell phone, a car, internet access, and all our convenient appliances.  In the 1930’s many of these items were not available or were very expensive luxury items.  Today, we take them for granted as must-have items.

 

We have much faster access to news and information.  We don’t need to wait to hear the latest round of bad news.  I also believe the negative information gets more coverage because it gets people’s attention.

We have more economic indicators.  It seems that several times a week, more numbers get released indicating the current state of things.  It seems when things are good, all the indicators confirm it; however, if things are bad, it feels like a continuing avalanche of negativity.

This recession has been one of the worst in our history, however I believe it has not yet reached the levels of the Great Depression.  It is very hard to compare due to the above-mentioned differences. 

Here is my measuring stick:  We will have reached the levels of the Great Depression when more than 50% of 2008 cell phone subscribers have canceled their plans.  That will be tough times.

Technology and the Future

How has technology changed in the past 10 years?  I bought my first mobile phone in 1998.  It was a cutting edge Nokia with text messaging, games, all the bells and whistles.  Today, I use my phone as an mp3 player, camera, internet, and sometimes to make phone calls.  In 1998, I didn’t even know what an mp3 was.

Thinking over how technology has changed in my generation, has caused me to think about how it will further change in my lifetime.  As with mp3s taking the place of CDs, I am expecting some sort of replacement for DVDs.  I would guess that by 2020, we will be carrying devices with technology we don’t even know about today.  I would guess that we will have a digital video format that will make DVDs obsolete.

It is hard for me to remember how things were when we weren’t so connected.  When traveling from one location to another, no one could contact me until I reached my destination.  Today, instead of “call home when you get there”, it is “text me while you travel.”  Today, we feel lost when we forget our phone when running an errand.

In my opinion, the convenience outweighs the negatives.  We are after all, still able to turn the phone off.

The Inauguration of Barack Obama and Historic Events

Why was the historic inauguration of Barack Obama such a big deal? Can't we see an inauguration every 4 years?

I believe the excitement for this inauguration had everything to do with its historic nature. How many times in your lifetime do you experience historic events? I would classify historic events as things like the terrorist attacks of 2001, Hurricane Katrina, landing on the moon, and such events. You may experience a historic event every year of you lifetime. The difference between the inauguration and most historic events is that you could plan to be part of the event. Most historic events happen without much warning...you couldn't really plan to be part of Sept. 11, 2001, unless you were involved with a terrorist organization. You could plan to be at the World Series and hope the Chicago Cubs would win for the first time in 100 years, but they may (probably would) lose. It is unusual to have an event of this proportion with 2 months to plan for.

Does History Repeat Itself?

Does history repeat itself? I believe it does to a certain extent. It seems that we tend to ignore history and the lessons it provides. Experience really is the best teacher. If we can let another’s experience be our teacher, we can avoid many headaches.

In my lifetime, I don’t expect that there will be another mortgage crisis. Why? I believe the banks and other lenders will not be handing out subprime or other risky loans. That lesson is fresh with us, and those who go back to those practices will be thought of as stupid or naïve. The lessons of the Great Depression were very vivid to those who lived it. The interesting thing is that the Great Depression generation is mostly gone. Those who lived through the Great Depression had very sound financial values. The following generations slowly lost that as time went on. Today’s generation will not soon forget the lessons from today’s economy, however, the following generations will, most likely, at some point get themselves into a similar situation.

I have heard it said that the definition of stupidity is keep doing the same things and expecting different results.