A Day Late but Thankful Nonetheless

Ok...so I didn't get to my annual Thanksgiving post. I ate too much and we ended up at a friends house and it got late. Lame excuse if you ask me.

But these are some of the things I am thankful for:

I am thankful for:

My family - top of the list. I love my kids more than can be measured. Unconditional as it comes...my sibs...again unconditional but more difficult at times...my nieces and nephews are awesome. My step kids are amazing too...well, maybe not Jen.

My partner, wife, business partner, best friend - thank you, thank you, thank you. All wrapped up in one...amazing

My sister Suze gets special mention for all she does for our mother. Thanks Sue, I can only handle so much of Rosie...it's how I cope. Without you, she'd be a lot less fortunate.

Music - Tonic, poetry, soul soothing

Health - It's all ya got. Mine is not perfect but it will do and I appreciate that I am a lot more fortunate than many.

My financial success - There is a lot of truth in the verse that "the more you give, the more you receive". I am living proof. Financial success is not something that defines me and that's why it found me. I got to do it my way and on my terms and I am comfortable that I didn't have to sell my soul to the devil to get where I am. I sleep great.

My sense of humor -I love making people laugh and sometimes I actually do it!

For the time I have had and I am hopeful for a lot more

For the dedicated employees that help us make our company the success it became

Selling my company - I'll be retired soon and I am looking forward to this new adventure. I only hope I can help make our retirement interesting and worthwhile.

All my parents "tried" to do for me. They were kids when they loaded themselves down with 5 banshees. They did the best they could. One can't ask for more.

Computers - I don't know where I would be without all the assistance that this singular tool provided for me. Business, pleasure, convenience, knowledge...what a cool tool.

America elected Barack Obama - what a moment for the world! I hope that he fulfills the promise. I think its cool that he's the first half white man ever elected. Made me proud of my country again...I have a feeling he may be able to evoke that emotion a few more times before he's through.

Two members of my family that decided driving drunk was a good idea and survived to regret the decision. You know who you are...don't do that again or I will kill you. Too many people love you for you to risk your lives and the lives of others. To any of my loved ones, if you ever need a ride, call me or pay for one. I promise I will pick you up or pay the tab. I'm selfish. I want you around.

The Beatles - you planted the seed in me and fostered what has become a great love of mine

Forgiveness - without it there is no relationship with my parents and just about every other human in the world. We all make mistakes and we all deserve forgiveness...it's a big part of loving and being loved.

I'm not thankful

This is my third annual Anti Thanksgiving post. Some of these will be repeats because we still haven't gotten things right...

I am not thankful for:

greed - bailouts, robber baron executives, money schemes...it's ugly

Dick Cheney - War criminal, greedy bastard, wrong Dick...way wrong.

terrorism - uncivilized behavior; wild animals behave better

racism - see "terrorism" above. I witnessed a lot of "closet" racism in the presidential election. I'm grateful that thinking people out voted ignorance. That might be 1 in row!

hungry children - feed the world dammit

my digestive system - it makes the list again because the discomfort it causes me a good 20% of the time is debilitating. I will fight it but man do I hate feeling lousy. I am tired of it.

the guy who thought of cigarettes - I hate you but unfortunately I seem to love your work

stupid drug laws - Tommy Chong put in jail for selling bongs! Boy, I feel a lot safer now. C'mon spend our money getting vicious criminals...like Dick Cheney. Marijuana is not more dangerous than alcohol. This is a free country right?

drug commercials - so, I can get a drug that can stop me from frequent urination but one of the side effects can be fatal. First off, I'm glad I don't have that problem at this point but if I did I'd rather pee my pants thank you.

my "lost" family - a family feud took place years ago and I have been estranged from two aunts and two uncles and countless cousins. I regret the time lost and have yet to do anything about fixing the problem. I guess I'll just wait until we are all dead...seems reasonable. OK maybe not.

my lost friend the doc - look up miserable in the dictionary and you will find his picture there. Wallows in misery and won't do anything about it. I can't help him and he needs help. His wife can't help him. Very intelligent guy but he's no very smart. He's missing any joy that can be squeezed out of this tragedy called life...his life is a tragedy. Sad.

that I can't make everyone I love have all that it is they want.

that I don't have a "happy" switch for those who need it but can't seem to find it when they need it. Other switches that would be good: peace, kindness, companionship, loneliness be gone...

Tomorrow I go positive and give thanks for all that I am so blessed to have

I need rubber walls....stat!

After being in business for over 21 years, my wife and I, after much consternation decided to sell our business. The sale closed in early September. Every business counselor we presented the terms to told us we'd be fools not to take the deal. It did provide us with a continuation plan for our employees. It also provided a way for us to get the value of the business out of the business for our retirement and for our family. Win Win. Not so fast...

Our employees are bouncing off the walls. The change has jarred them. We fully recognize that change is unsettling. I can tell you that we believe that we sold our company to an organization that comes close to providing the kind of culture that we successfully created for our employees. We did the best we could. By all measures, the transition is going as well as can be expected. The new company has bent over backwards to accommodate our staff. They still have great jobs and have not lost any benefits of note. They are still bouncing off walls.

There is pressure on us as well which I really underestimated. We have signed up for "change" as well. We have two year employment agreements and after that retirement. In other words, the unknown! We are both cool with the idea but combined with the angst our employees are exhibiting, it definitely has been working on us. So, now we are all bouncing off walls.

We'll get through this but I never expected the anxiety levels to reach these levels. I needed to write this just to relieve some pressure. We humans surely know how to amp up the drama level of anything.

In a crazy sort of way, I think being in the middle of this process will make the whole retirement thing very attractive. You wanna bounce off walls, go ahead bounce away. I'll be pleasure traveling or reading for pleasure or playing my guitar or making gourment food for us to eat while we still have teeth, or golfing or laying by the pool or watching a movie or sipping on some wine or golfing or golfing or golfing. Did I mention golfing?

Repairing the damage

The following is a comment I copied from this site. The photos on the site are great. "Fred" gets it. This historic election has helped this country in so many ways already. I hope that we build on this momentum and lead our great country and the world back from the quagmire our current "unleadership" left us stewing in.

The sentiment here from those of us outside of the USA appears to follow a common theme.

Our disdain and distrust of the US has changed to optimism for the future.
It has been a painful 8 years watching a respected nation wallow in borderline fascist self destruction. I actually decided that if I had the opportunity to visit every country in the world, I would have avoided the US.

Now that has changed.

Thank you to those that made this happen. If the future is even half as bright as what we all hope, it will be a finer future for all.

This is an amazing time.

Hope doesn't come from calculating whether the good news is winning out over the bad. It's simply a choice to take action. - Anna Lappe

We did it!

I wish I could forecast football games as well...

My wife summed it up for us tonight. She said "I've never cared so much." Bingo. This is the emotion Barack Obama can elicit. This country will be better for it. We needed an attitude adjustment and I think we just hired the adjuster in chief.

I have never been more proud of my country. This truly is the greatest country in the world.

Now the hard work begins...I'm ready.

My Election Prediction - VOTE!

History will be made today. The Obama / Biden ticket will score a decisive victory today.

Get out and vote. That is the key to making this prediction a reality. However, I would like to excuse some folks from the "burden" of having to vote today.

Anybody voting against Obama because he's a Muslim, please stay home today.

Anybody voting against Obama because he has some black heritage, please stay home today. By the way, Barack Obama is has as much white heritage and why the hell does this matter to anyone anyway?

Anybody voting against Obama because he's a socialist, please stay home today.

Anybody voting against Obama because he's dangerous, please stay home today.

Anybody voting against Obama because he's going to federalize health care, please stay home today.

Anybody that votes against Obama because of something Joe the Plumber said, stay home today.

Anybody voting against Obama because he's going to take "all your money and give it to people that don't work", please stay home today.

Anybody that votes against Obama because he is the anti-Christ, please stay home today.

Why? My mother lives in a retirement community. I was talking to her the other day and she started going on about Obama. I mean, she gets it. Then, and this will come as no surprise to anyone that knows my mom, she tells me " One of my girlfriends told me she was going to vote for McCain. So I told her you are too stupid to vote."

I don't agree with her very often but she may have hit the nail on the head this time.

Nice idea; bad execution

I really intended to participate in NoBloPoMo again this year; posting every day for a month. I missed it! I absolutely forgot about it until yesterday. Great start. Well, I have a lot of travel scheduled this month so it would have been nuts anyway. I like the idea of the challenge of having to write regularly. I'm just not good on the follow through.

I guess my limited readership discourages me a little and the fact that only one loyal cyber friend regularly leaves comments (thanks Barb). Maybe I should just send her emails and have my conversations that way. I know there are more of you out there. Your silence is deafening.

History will be made tomorrow. I have to travel tomorrow afternoon so I am missing my daughters election night party which bums me out. I think it would be fun to share this moment in history with them. I will be communicating with them throughout the night as we watch the election from our hotel room in San Francisco.

Free association....

racism = ignorance

war = barbarianism

partisan politics for the sake of partisan politics should go the way of the Flowbee

hoping for better is never wrong

I'm addicted to this election and I think it has a lot to do with the sense that I have that this country desperately needs a course correction.

M & I regular park ourselves in front of the TV and watch the talking heads on CNN. See, addicted...

If we, as Americans, do what I think we are going to do tomorrow, it will make me as proud of being an American as I have been in a long time.

Vote you monkeys!

Go Barack!