Focused at Fifty

(Pic courtesy of Pexels.com) I want to comment on something that I see happen fairly often. I was riding as a passenger in my buddy's car this past weekend when he was inching out to zoom across a busy intersection where there is no stop light. Friends from Schuylkill County will know this intersection. It's the one with Ken's Tires and Hoss's Restaurant on the corners at the Cressona Mall. You have to pretend you are in the 80s video game "Frogger" and zoom across the busy road to the mall area. I HATE this intersection. It's rather nerve-racking on an average day. You look right and left and repeat several times to avoid traffic driving through as well as traffic from ALL directions turning in and out of the shopping complexes on both sides of the roadway! If you get a time where there is no traffic coming from anywhere, consider yourself lucky because that is a rarity. He had inched out, looking to make his move. Someone was driving up to m...

If you are going through Hell, keep going. Sir Winston Churchill

Alice laughed:  "There's no use trying," she said; "One can't believe impossible things." "I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

1988 Porsche 911  1988 Porsche 924 GT 1988 Mazda Miata  When I was younger, I used to dream of driving a Porsche 911 or a Porsche 924 GT. I ended up with a Nissan Sentra and went happily on my way. In college, I loved and wanted a Mazda Miata. I test drove one in 1989 with my fraternity brother Steve. It was like driving a bucket of bolts, felt every bump! But it was really fun to ride. I went home from college and still drove that Nissa Sentra. BUT I had those posters of the Porsches on my walls throughout college! 1987 Nissan Sentra  Mom always LOVED the Honda's. She had an Accord for years and then when that died, got herself a brand new Civic. When she passed, she left the Civic to my sister Sheryl. Love that. 💖 1987 Honda Accord  I moved into Philly and didn't have a need for a car so I didn't get one until my late 20s. I've since owned mostly economical vehicles for work: a Ford Escort, a Saturn station wagon, a small Toyota ...

Just this past week, a young friend on Facebook was contemplating taking his own life. I had seen the post 2 hours after all of it started to go down. He had posted a "good-bye" message which had understandably freaked out and scared many people. His close friends began immediately reaching out to him. Luckily, and happily, his friends got in touch with his family and talked him out of it. It was shocking and saddening but became heartwarming to see all of these people (most that I don't know) come together and work together to try and save this man and get him some emotional help. It worked, they contacted his family, and he is here today. Hopefully he is getting the emotional support he needs and deserves. Today, he started his day off with a message on Facebook:  "Good Morning." I liked it and thought to myself, Yes it is, because you are still with us today my friend! Most people have difficult weeks here and there but no whe...

( LINK Suncoast Pic ) My second shortest job lasted just shy of one week. It was at that extinct dinosaur of a video store, Suncoast Video at the old Echelon Mall in Voorhees, NJ. http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/echelon_mall.html The year was 1990, I was 20, and the Star Wars Trilogy 3 VHS tape collection was just released. I was and still AM a total Star Wars fan! I was in a word, ecstatic! Being a poor college student, I could only wander between Sam Goody and Suncoast video and dream of what movies I wanted to buy! The Star Wars Trilogy was at the top of the list. But how to get it? I had finished my sophomore year at Rutgers with just barely enough gas money to get me from New Brunswick, NJ back to my hometown of Wenonah, NJ. Back from college for the summer, I immediately plotted on how I would be able to purchase the Trilogy. Dad asked me if I was going to get a summer job and I was said, maybe, I'm not sure, perhaps, something easy with lots of money. It was...

"Benetton ad from the  80's UGH" Those who are adults have each had them. I'm talking about those JOBS where we have lasted a week or less! Maybe it was planned, maybe not. We look back and laugh at those times as adults. Maybe we were assholes and deserved to get fired. Or maybe it just wasn't the right fit of a job for us. That being said, I wasn't fired. That actually happened once at a telemarketing agency. Another blog, another time. LOL Leaving the job at Benetton was MY decision! :) The second time at Sun Coast Video was actually a calculated event which I writing about in the next blog! I took the job at Benetton while I was at Rutgers University during my freshman year at college. It was 1988 and I went to work for them at their New Brunswick NJ location right next to the official Rutgers Bookstore. I had no retail experience whatsoever and told them that upon my hiring. They said no problem, we'll train you. My first day I was put...