One thing Labor Day used to be about was a parade. This digitized picture was taken in 1990 somewhere in the northwestern U.S.  I never recorded, nor remember, the exact location….. Continue reading Labor Day Parade…

Here it is Labor Day. I have always wondered just what Labor day is really about and why it is at the end of summer. Here is what I found out about it from my old friend Wikipedia: The first big Labor Day in the United States was observed on September 5, 1882, by the Central Labor Union of New York.  It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland reconciled with the labor movement. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed … Continue reading Labor Day Thoughts….

I am a spiritual person. I believe our spirit is what sets us apart from everything else on the earth. It is what makes us human. So to make this blog a true reflection of my life’s experiences it is necessary to add this category. I do this with some hesitancy.  I am inspired by many people and things that cross my life’s path. I will use this category to relay some of those stories  and thoughts to you in as positive a manner as I can. Let me start out by saying what this new category is NOT: I … Continue reading Things Spiritual…

Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today. — Will Rogers This is one of the quotes from Will that gets me thinking rather deeply. Besides loving the song Yesterday by the Beatles I don’t really believe in fixating on yesterday. Too many of us seniors just spend too much time there. We look back on our life instead of looking forward to tomorrow. Yes most of it is now behind us but there is still much more to experience in life if we just face it head on.  Our eyes should be looking forward at least most of the … Continue reading Yesterday….

I know one of the top shows currently on TV is Dancing with the Stars and there are a couple of others like it which I don’t know the names. I have only watched the aforementioned one for a couple of minutes but it seems pretty silly. You want to know the reason why?  Try putting the mute on during the program and you will see what I mean.  Without music dancing just seems like someone got into the Jack Daniels a little too much. I have mentioned before that I am deaf and after almost 25 years my brain … Continue reading Dancing Seems Pretty Silly To Me……

It seems that stock market trading is quite different from when I was dabbling in it in the past. In those days I studied several different parameter including the P/E ratios and such before deciding which company to invest in. And when I did buy a stock I held it for at least a couple of years. Now days trading in the stock market seems more like gambling at the roulette table than anything else. The only way you seem to be able to make any money is to try to time when you sell back your stock. Now a long-term hold … Continue reading Gambling or Not??

Continue reading Reflections — Ottawa Canada July 2011

Source: Column: Washington leadership’s grade is a solid F – USATODAY.com. Cal: McConnell and Boehner, challenge the wealthy. The “rich” should be the model for reaching out and helping people so that we can have less government and lower taxes. Churches should be called upon, too. Those megachurches with ornate architecture and huge budgets? How about living up to your commission to help the poor? Bob: You’re right. Boehner and McConnell, when it comes to taxes, you are tone-deaf and cowering before the Tea Party and the bombastic my-way-or-the-highway Grover Norquist. You both know that the tax code needs to be changed to eliminate … Continue reading Give them an "F"

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. Henry David Thoreau These are words written by Thoreau in his famous book Walden Pond.  Anybody who has read any of Thoreau knows that he was a guy who marched to his own drummer. That alone makes him one of my heroes. Although he died at the age of forty-four he left us with many things to think about. All of us seniors need to quietly contemplate this most famous quote. Will you go to your grave with the song still in … Continue reading A Song Still In Us??….

A Quaker friend recently introduced me to the concept of attentive idling. The concept is so thought provoking I want to pass it on to all you seniors out there.  The idea behind these words is that all of us need to occasionally shut down our iPods, smart phones, PDA, and the like and just listen and observe things around us.  The last ten years or so has given us devices that make it possible to go through an entire day constantly being bombarded by artificial stimulus. When that happens it drowns out the things of nature and of God. … Continue reading Be An Attentive Idler…..

  As promised here is another mural found on the side of a building during our recent visit to  Old Town Quebec. Continue reading In The Slow Lane – Another Quebec Mural

Source:  Golden decade is ending for defense industry, and stocks – USATODAY.com. The article above is about how our defense budgets and prosperity of the our military contractors might be taking a hit in the coming years of apparent austerity (that is except for the richest of us). It mentions that military budgets might be trimmed as much as 10% in the coming years, especially if the super committee in congress can’t re-direct the cuts to other areas. Here is a quote from the article; just click on the link above to see the whole article: The U.S. spent $1.3 … Continue reading All I Know – Where Did Our Debt Come From??