Category Archives: Thoughts

Thoughts that pop into my head. Things that I ponder from time to time.

Thoughts

I hated history class!

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As a baby boomer, I often wonder why I’m suddenly interested in history. I hated history class in both high school and college. Now, I can’t wait to go to Colonial Williamsburg, watch the history channel or visit Monticello. Anything nostalgic or retro is in. The 50’s furniture we grew to hate as teenagers is now affectionately called “mid century” style and very popular. Talk to any Baby Boomer guy and they will tell you they love to watch ‘American Pickers’ on the history channel.
The two guys on this show, Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz are the epitome of our generation. They look for anything old and nostalgic. When we watch this show, we see things from our childhood that flood our memories with an easier time, at least in our own mind.  Maybe this is why I enjoy renovating things, be it an old home, car or old piece of machinery. Don’t get me wrong, I also love thinking about the future and all of the inventions that people are coming up with. It’s as if I have one hand in the past and one hand in the future with my body in the present. My two favorite places in Disneyworld are Epcot, where you can learn about nation’s history and Tomorrowland, where a child could dream of going into space and learning about all of the technologies that were emerging.

I’ve often threatened to buy a “mid century” home and totally furnish and decorate it in “mid century” style; I mean down to the old black and white TV’s with reruns of ‘I Love Lucy’ and ‘Leave it to Beaver’. Somehow, even though there were a lot of scary things going on in the 50’s like the cold war, as youngsters, we felt insulated. There weren’t reality TV shows and continuous news networks that bombarded us with more than we could handle. There were only 3 channels and the quality of the video wasn’t that good so that reality and fiction weren’t blurred as they are today.

We were told as kids that we could do anything. We were trying to figure out how to get men to the moon.  Buck Rogers was the precursor to Star Trek. We were thinking of the future.  That future included leaving our past behind. People were moving out of the city into the suburbs. We wanted the new ranch style homes. We didn’t want to live on the farm or in a row house. We wanted a 100 x 100 lot with an attached garage. Most families had only one car, a modest home and making a living wasn’t as hard. We were a more formal nation. We wore a coat and tie to the movies as well as on an “air”plane. I know there was social unrest and the past wasn’t as kind to many, but the present isn’t exactly kind to all of us either.

There is a saying that if we don’t remember our history, we are doomed to repeat it, both good and bad. Many of the books that my teachers tried to get me to read while I was in school, I now actually buy and read in my spare time! Talking to many of my peers, they say the same thing, they became interested in history over the past 10-15 years.  Colonial Williamsburg is having a hard time staying afloat due to their attendance waning. The Rockefellers  felt that our nation’s history was important enough to save, so they funded the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.

I don’t know why I have become so nostalgic about the past. Maybe I see the unrest in our nation and the uncertainty of the present, wishing that I could somehow go back to what seemed like a more calmer period in our history. I know that I’m probably looking back through rose colored glasses, but let me continue to live in my memories, as memories can be changed to fit whatever we want to remember.

I’m interested to know if you find yourself more interested in history as you get older or is it just me and those in my circle.

Thoughts

Does anybody really want to work?

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I haven’t been this frustrated in a long time. I have a small company. We are looking for people to work in our mini warehouse. It’s really a minimum wage job, but we pay$12 per hour plus benefits. We sell small parts for power tools, most of them less than 1/2 lb. The boxes are small, maybe 5″ x 5″. This is really a simple job. When you think of warehouse, you think of forklifts and conveyor belts; that’s not us. We have 20 shelf units that hold our parts. There are only 2 people in our warehouse and we all get along great. We advertise the job telling everyone about the job. We get applicants via email. We email them back a simple questionnaire, asking just a few questions and can you believe that nobody bothered to even reply to the questionnaire? Hey, you emailed me asking for an interview. I reply with 5 easy questions and you don’t even bother to reply. When we do get people to reply and set up interviews, at least 50% of the people never show up for the interview.  We call them and say, “Where were you? You had an interview today at 1PM and it’s now 2.” Their response typically is, “Oh, I didn’t know I had an interview” or “Sorry, I forgot.”

This is so frustrating! Do you or do you not want a job?
I can’t even imagine running a fast food restaurant. The number of people you need for all of the shifts has to be staggering. I have contractors that come into my place of business that feel the same way that I do. They have more work than they have employees to do the work. Many of the employees that they have had simply stopped showing up.

I believe that we have made it too easy for people to obtain assistance from our state and federal agencies so working is well, just not necessary.  In Virginia, you can receive unemployment benefits for up to half a year.  I know that unemployment benefits are necessary, but if someone answers an ad for employment  only to satisfy the requirements to receive unemployment, and I seem interested in your resume, at least reply to my questions. Maybe I should say in my help wanted ad. “If you apply to us for employment and we respond positively and you do not reply or show up for the interview, we will forward your name to the unemployment agency so that they can remove you from the roles of the unemployed!”

Many of my friends have decided to become consultants because this allows them to not have to depend on anyone else and avoid employees altogether. It’s pretty sad actually. I’m really concerned about the future of our nation as the work ethic has seemed to fall to an all time low, at least for what I am seeing in my world. Don’t get me wrong. I have a good number of great employees and they are as shocked as I am when people just don’t show up for an interview. It makes their jobs harder when we can’t find people to fill vacancies, because they are carrying a heavier load due to lack of staff.

My latest attempt at finding employees is to advertise through the local community college. Hopefully, if you are attending college, you want to learn more, you want to improve yourself and are more apt to respond to an opportunity to work and earn some money. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Thoughts

Did I think that?

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The unconscious mind never sleeps, it never stops absorbing everything around you. Every sight, smell and sound is indelibly etched into your mind. We don’t realize how many of our decisions are the result of our subconscious spoon feeding our cognitive mind. It is sort of like an iceberg; there is more to it than we realize. Since the subconscious never sleeps, it’s no wonder that the amount of information in it is much larger than our conscious mind.

I have experienced things during the day that were in the back of my mind, thinking that I had forgotten about the incident only to realize that they had birthed attitudes and tension later in the day. I was sort of thinking about it, but not really, at least not consciously as I know it. If I let these subconscious thoughts roam on auto pilot, later I find I pay the price. I end up anxious or ruminating about it while trying to fall asleep. This is why it’s important to bring these thoughts captive, not to let them run like a tape in the background. Phillipians 4:8 says

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Also, we have to be wary of what we allow our subconscious to absorb, what we spend time around. Studies have been done to see how much other people affect our attitudes, even those people that we only interact with via social media. It is said that positive or negative feeds or posts can affect other people 3 layers down. This is astounding. What we feed our minds, both conscious and subconscious really does affect us. We have to really guard our thoughts and what we let into them. As you can’t stay in a smoke filled room without smelling like smoke after you leave, so our minds cannot simply wash out the thoughts that come our way.

Today, why not pay attention to what you are allowing to influence your thoughts. Remember, your subconscious is like a baby, it doesn’t know what is good or bad for you; only you can be the gatekeeper of your subconscious.

Thoughts

On being an introvert

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Being a pianist and enjoying playing in front of people, you would be surprised to find out that I am an introvert. I have been in plays, given speeches and am the president of my own company, yet I hate attending events where I am in a crowd. When I attend a party or other event, I stand on the periphery of the venue, close to an exit. I enjoy one on one conversations with someone at the event, but not if I have to yell over the crowd. I love to learn about what others are doing, if it interests me, but I can’t stand mindless chit-chat. I have no need to impress others or compare my life to your life. I desire a meaningful conversation where I can learn more about you and form a bond based on mutual interests.

I have found that I enjoy observing others when in a crowd, seeing how they interact or simply enjoying watching people. If we are throwing a party, I would rather serve others and make sure everyone is having a good time. I want to stay busy. I’ll be glad to play the piano and provide live music, but don’t force me to mingle. If I want to have a meaningful conversation with someone, I will invite them over for lunch or dinner where I can focus on just them. Trying to do this in a crowd is simply frustrating in my opinion.

Thoughts

Stress and anxiety. Don’t ignore it.

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What can stress and anxiety cause? It can cause much more than you think. Our unconscious never sleeps. It runs tapes in the background when we are not even aware of it. Stress over work, money, family or a relationship can cause all kinds of physical damage to our bodies. I should know, stress over money and work caused muscles in my body to start to twitch. This started happening in the middle of the night after getting up to do what 60 year old men have to do in the middle of the night. After getting back in bed, my calves would start to twitch like crazy keeping me up. This was enough to cause me to visit my doctor who said I needed to see a neurologist to make sure I didn’t have ALS. Wonderful! Now that this sensitive doctor put the disease ALS in my head, I had something new to worry about. I couldn’t get into see a neurologist for 2 months. Now, the twitching started happening all over my body. This turned into insomnia. I was only sleeping 3-4 hours per night.  By the time I was able to visit my neurologist, I was a nervous wreck.  The neurologist did a basic screening and told me, you don’t have ALS, you have Benign Fasciculation Syndrome which means, your muscles twitch for some unknown neurologic reason, most commonly brought on by stress. He said to go see my primary care physician. By the way, I have a new PCP. The old one retired and his bedside manner stunk anyway.

All of this now turned into anxiety and panic attacks of which I have never had. My old doctor prescribed Ativan to help me sleep and for the panic attacks during the day, but being on this is not a long term solution, believe me. My new doctor has me on Cymbalta, a SNRI.  It takes about 6 weeks for this medicine to kick in, but it is finally working, allowing me to feel like a normal person. No, the twitching has not stopped, it has slowed down though. I’m hoping that it all goes away eventually as it is really annoying and causes my muscles to cramp after exercising.

This is what can happen with stress. Some people get high blood pressure, heart issues or headaches. If we ignore stress, we may think that it’s no big deal, but those tapes in the background keep playing and these tapes cause synapses in our brain to change. Those changes can cause all kinds of physical issues. Don’t ignore or try to push the stress under the rug. You have to find a way to remove the cause of the stress in your life or find some way to deal with it in a healthy manner.

 

Thoughts

When is what you see less real than what you do not?

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We are spiritual beings, not just clumps of carbon. We are eternal beings, this being said, what you cannot see, the spirit, is more real than anything made of carbon. Have you ever stared at someone that had their back turned to you, only to find that they turn around to look at you because something in them told them that you were staring at them? I have had this happen countless times. Somehow the spirit of that person knew that someone was looking at them. I’m not saying that what we make and do on earth doesn’t matter, it does. I’m just saying that there is a spiritual side to us that we should not ignore, that we should spend more time spending time in meditation, prayer and letting our spirits be refreshed.

Thoughts

A message from Fred

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It’s easy to get in the shopping and preparation rush for Christmas. I know, I am guilty of this. This year, I am going to be mindful to celebrate the true meaning of the season. Work can wait, my home to do list can wait. These words penned below sum it up pretty much.

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,’ returned the nephew. ‘Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”
― Scrooge’s nephew Fred, from A Christmas Carol

Thoughts

The revival of the artisan career

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I don’t know about you, but I am seeing a surge of what is now called artisan businesses. There is a surge of people in their late 20’s and 30’s taking a stab at what were at one time,  businesses found in every town.  Bakers, butchers, jewelers, carpenters, brewers, hands on business, literally “hands on.” The definition of an artisan is: a person or company that makes a high-quality or distinctive product in small quantities, usually by hand or using traditional methods: our favorite local food artisans. 3. pertaining to an artisan or the product of an artisan; artisanal: artisan beer.

Artisancarpenter

With everything seeming to go digital, there is a resurgence of people wanting to put their hands to something other than a keyboard. They want to see the actual results of something that they made with their own two hands. It’s a sense of satisfaction that one gets from making something, be it an awesome wooden bowl or a perfectly pulled shot of espresso.  Spending time with others who also share these interests creates community and the ability to collaborate as well.

Many of the skilled trades are suffering from a lack of people entering them. With the baby boomers hitting retirement age, there just aren’t enough people entering the trades to replace them.  This will drive up prices for those that stay in their business, but it also opens up opportunities for the younger generation to enter the field and earn a very nice living.

I see this also affecting brick and mortar stores in the not too distant future. With many analysts predicting the death of the brick and mortar store, I see it as only temporary. When you purchase something online, it’s only for convenience. If you can’t find it locally and the buying decision is relatively easy, I can see people opting for an on-line purchase, but for other things like clothing, furniture, cars and local produce, why would you want to buy that on-line? I don’t know about you, but I want to feel the fabric, sit on the couch, test drive the car and see the produce that I am about to eat that evening. I also want the salesperson to tell me about what I am thinking about buying. Ideally, I want to form a relationship with that business owner so that when I need more clothing or food, I can talk to that person to help me in my buying decision. Sitting behind a computer can be very isolating and a chat box that pops up does not suffice as someone coming up to me in a store asking if they can truly help me. The difference I see in the brick and mortar store is a move away from the big corporate giants to more independent, local shops, where you know that your business is putting groceries on the table of someone that you have come to know; hence the relationship.

Many times, we get the feeling that a trend will continue and last forever, yet history shows us that there is a cycle to trends; they never last forever. I’m not saying that on-line purchasing and digital jobs will end. They are here to stay. I’m simply saying that people have experienced the isolation that these jobs can cause and desire meaningful relationships and seeing something at the end of the day that their own two hands made  for others. There is room for both. We need both.

Thoughts

Digital vs Analog

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You have heard the statement, “Everything is going digital.” I beg to differ. A few things that you can’t do digitally:

  • Build a house
  • Gardening
  • Repair your faucet
  • Skiing, football, tennis and all other sports (playing a video game does not count)
  • Paint a picture
  • Play a musical instrument (playing digital music doesn’t count)

Why would you want to remove yourself from many of the manual tasks that we perform today? How can you derive pleasure from having a digital program do things everything for you? For one, it’s just plain lazy. Obesity is already at a record level with all of the time we sit behind this keyboard.

I think that one day, there is going to be a sort of revolt against digital products, along with this website and many others. We are becoming socially insulated from each other because we can live and hide behind a keyboard. We will slowly become socially crippled. Have you noticed how brave and stupid people become online? There is no filter anymore. This digital part of our world has stolen courtesy and kindness.

I did some work in my basement this weekend. I ran a new circuit and installed 4 new outlets for my power tools. It was very fulfilling to get this accomplished. This is something that I can actually use. It does not require an app. It doesn’t need to be updated or be connected to the internet. It just works.

I challenge you today to go out and do something Analog, something that normally you would use a phone, laptop or other device to do. Go old school for a moment. Hopefully you will gain something more than just a reply in your inbox or a “like”.

Thoughts

Rent a Tesla

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tesla plugged

Yesterday, I bought a few domain names that maybe I will use someday.

  • dailyteslarentals.com
  • rentanelectric.com
  • rentanelectricauto.com
  • rentateslafirst.com
  • teslaautorentals.com

If I can spare the time and borrow enough cash, I would start a small electric auto rental company. The slogan would be ‘Try one before you buy one!’  
I have never owned a 100% electric car. How do I know that I would like it? If I had the opportunity, I would rent one and try it out for a week, just long enough for the battery to die leaving me stranded. Ok, maybe not let the battery die all the way, but how much of a pain is it to realize you can’t just put a couple of gallons in the tank and drive another 50 miles? Will an electric car lesser than the Tesla’s Ludicrous Mode be zippy enough for me? Since an electric car is new for most of us, do I really want to be stuck owning a car that I might hate? Taking the car out for a spin while that dealer’s salesman is sitting shotgun is enough of a pain when you buy a gas powered vehicle, but there is just no way that a 20 minute drive is going to let you know if owning an electric car is right for you!
dealership-test-driveYou need to take it out on the open road, in the city, bumper to bumper traffic and let’s not forget recharging. How much will it cost to get a charging outlet installed at your home? How much will it add to the purchase price of the car? When it comes to owning an electric car on a day to day basis, you can try and find a friend that has an electric car and ask them, but everyone is different. Just like everyone needs a different kind of vehicle to suit their needs, will an electric vehicle suit your needs?

As the years pass, I’m sure there will be electric powered pickup trucks, vans, SUVs, motorcycles and minivans, but right now, your choices are rather limited. This makes renting an electric vehicle for a week almost required, sort of like pet adoption. As every pet has it’s own personality, so do cars. Why do we have so many different makes and models? It’s because we are so unique when it comes to buying a vehicle. It’s an extension of our personality, almost like the clothes you wear.

If I bought a used Tesla, would you rent it from me for a week or a few days? I’m talking the

Tesla Model S
tesla s

This is the expensive one. I can’t afford a new one, but a used one would work to rent to people for $150/day. I know that is a lot of money per day, but this car is the ultimate electric vehicle. Your friends could drool for the day as well. I promise to leave the ‘RentAnElectric’ license plate frame off of it.
Now that the Tesla Model 3 has arrived, and yes mine arrived last week, you could rent the Model 3 for say $100/day. This is affordable and a great driving experience! It has all of the great features of the Tesla line at an affordable price. This would give you a chance to test out the acceleration, charging requirements, the quiet instead of a motor and transmission whining in your ear.
Model 3 tesla
Many people say that they have a hard time getting used to the quiet. Do you need engine noise or will you love the quiet of nothing but the road noise? How do you know unless you try it?

When I brought home my new Model 3 Tesla, my neighbor who is a pure engine guy, was not impressed until he rode in my Model 3. When I floored it, his eyes got big and he said, “Wow, I never realized these things had so much torque!” Then he got intrigued with the center screen and all of the options that were available. So much for only wanting to drive a gas powered car!

Either way, I think it’s a good alternative to Hertz, Alamo or a host of other auto rental companies where an electric car is not normally an option and surely not guarantee even if they do have one.  Who is in this with me? I take Visa, MC, Discover and American Express!