Get Informed

Don't forget that on Tuesday you are not only voting for the President but for many other candidates in many other races.

You should know who they are and what they stand for.

The people you elect for your local and state government have just as much if not more influence over your daily life and you should be electing people you want in office.

Here is a website that will give you some basics on candidates as well as what your ballot will look like.

www.smartvoter.org

Go to the site and look at the information there. And then search the Internet for the candidates home pages and read more about them.

Get informed so that you can make the right choices.

The Sack Lunches

I got this in an email the other morning and thought I would share with everyone:

I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will get a short nap,' I thought.

Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation. 'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me.

Chicago - to Great Lakes Base. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Iraq.

After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached Chicago , and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time.

As I reached for my wallet, I overheard soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to Chicago

I looked ar ound at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.' She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq ; it's almost like you are doing it for him.'

Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, 'Which do you like best - beef or chicken?'

'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. 'This is your thanks.'

After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. A man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars.

Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand, an said, 'I want to shake your hand.'

Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers.

Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.

When we landed in Chicago I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars!

Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.'

Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals.

It seemed so little...



A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life wrote a blank check Made payable to 'The United States of America ' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' That is Honor, and there are way too many people in This country who no longer understand it.




edit: Apparently there may be some confusion as this DID not happen to me and I did NOT do this. It was part of an email that was sent to me and I liked the story. And also I apologize for the font/color issue that made the post unreadable....I think I fixed it now.

A Good Weekend

I haven't done a weekend update post in a while and I don't intend to start doing them again. But for today I will do one.

I was out of town Thursday into Friday and didn't get home until middle of the afternoon on Friday.

I did some minor yard work Friday afternoon before heading to the soccer field for kiddo's makeup game from earlier in the season.


Saturday was supposed to be the last game of the season but the soaking rain that went through PA meant NO soccer.

But it did mean WET PUPPIES! And unfortunately......MUDDY PUPPIES!

They realized that it is easier to dig in mud than it is dry dirt. GREAT!


But then the real meaning to this past Saturday started......


Penn State @ Ohio State!!

If the Lions could win this game than they are on track for their first undefeated season since 1994 and possibly their first National Championship since 1986.

I was PUMPED!

Some friends came by to keep me calm and whatnot which actually did work. I wasn't too hyper and managed to not get too tense during the game.

But it didn't matter at the end!

PSU 13 OSU 6

AWESOME!!


And after that the weekend got busy again.

I woke up Sunday morning to......a mess in the dog crate.....and a mess on the dogs.

One of them had gotten ill in the crate overnight and there was stuff all over the crate and all
over the dogs.


So after all that cleaning and whatnot we went to a hockey game last night in Hershey, PA.

That was a good game to be at (we won 8-3) but the more interesting thing happened around the 2nd intermission.

Wifey and Kiddo went to the bathroom and when they got back there was a story to be told.

A little pre story.....kiddo wanted to bring her Nintendo DS to the game in case she got bored....I said no.

Apparently she didn't like that answer. She had stuffed her DS into her pants before we left the house and managed to sit in the car, walk to the arena, eat her dinner, sit for 2 periods (almost 2 hours), and get to the bathroom without having problems.

And she still didn't have any problems. Apparently the bathroom was so crowded that Wifey went into the stall with her just to get out of everyone's way. And then it was discovered.

I was so impressed that I allowed her to have the DS after the came back.

I would like to think that I would have been smart enough to do the same thing when I was 7!


And now I am here at work to begin yet another week....Yippee!!! (sarcasm intended)

all about ME

A - Age: 27

B - Band listening to right now: Today it was Aerosmith, yesterday Staind, Last week it was Lincoln Park, Breaking Benjamin, and Stage.

C - Career future: Hopefully I will be a Real Estate agent next year.

D - Dad’s name: if you really want to know...email me.

E - Easiest person to talk to: wifey

F - Favorite type of shoe: sandals

G – Grapes or Grapefruit: Grapes

H – Hometown: suburbs of Harrisburg, PA

I – Instrumental talent: I wish. I would love to play the drums or guitar but don't have the patience to learn.

J – Juice of choice: Apple rasberry or orange juice

K – Koala Bear or Panda Bear: HERSHEY BEARS!! ahl hockey team

L - Longest car ride ever: probably South Bend, Indiana. It was like 10-11 hours or something to see my cousins soccer game.

M – Middle name: it starts with an A....wanna know?....email me

N - Number of jobs you’ve had: 12

O- OCD traits: alphabetized cds and dvds

P - Phobia[s]: snakes, spiders, heights (falling)

Q - Quote:

Scotty
It's very rare that you can jump right into what you are passionate about. More often than not you take steps to get there. Take some steps, just remember that sometimes you have to take a step to the left or right to move in the direction thats right for you.

R - Reason to smile: family, friends, football, hockey, sports in general, movies, music

S - Song you sang last: I sing all the time....I am terrible at it (so they say) but I sing anyway. Probably this morning...Dream On by Aerosmith

T - Time you wake up: M-F ~~~ 6:00 am.....Sat/Sun ~~~ no later than 8:00 am.

U - Unknown fact about me: my favorite color is blue

V - Vegetable you hate: most of em.... I only eat corn, broccoli, and potatoes (questionable veggie)

W - Worst habit: Lazyness and eating late at night. I love to snack and do so at night even though i shouldn't. I am rarely motivated to do work when i am home...or at work for that matter.

X - X-rays you’ve had: foot, ankle, hand, back

Y - Yummiest food my belly likes: pizza

Z - Zodiac sign: taurus

Positive Test

She took the test this morning...

And it was POSITIVE!!

And then she took a 2nd test....

And it was positive too!!


And yes we were trying!!

Company Killer

If you don't like your company and you want it to begin to struggle or worse fail, just get me a job there.

Seriously, any company I work for seems to fall on hard times at some point in the near future.

Let's recap my work history and you will understand why.

First example:

My third job (first two were paper boy and something else small) was at a sporting goods store called Shenk & Tittle. I started in October and everything was fine....except that the mall we were located was damn near useless. The only people that came into the mall were old people so that they could walk around and get their exercise.

By May of the following year that store was closed.

I started and within 7 months the store was empty and I was looking for a new job.
Second example:

The next real full time job I had was at Rite Aid. If you haven't heard of it Rite Aid is a national drug store chain. Before I started the stock had been pretty high, like 50 or something. And while part of that was because of the executives cooking the books they were still getting away with it when I started.

Within a few weeks of starting at my store the companies stock price fell down to like 1 dollar or something like that.

Third example:

Another sporting goods store called Kelly's which specialized in shoes and sports clothing. I worked there from November to February one year. A nice store in a good mall that seemed to be doing okay.

With a couple months of me leaving the store was closed and everyone was out of a job.

Fourth example:

After that I went to work for my fathers construction company. I actually worked there for 4 years and while I technically didn't do any real harm to his company, it isn't around anymore. We were building around 25 houses a year, which is a lot for a small company like his, and everything was good. Except that his partner wanted out.

After 4 years of working there my dad and his partner sold the land they still owned and ended their company.

Fifth example:

After that my dad and I became partners in a new construction company. I thought it was the beginning of my future. I had seen how much money he had made and was fine with doing that for a living. We managed to build a few houses and even got a couple sold. And then.....

The housing market completely fell apart. Within 8 months of us starting the business the market was pretty much dead and didn't seem to be coming back. We managed to sell a couple more houses but I have since left and moved on.

Sixth example:

I am currently at this place of employment so it isn't all bad for them. But it isn't all peaches either. I work for the biggest employer in my local area and they usually hire numerous people each year.

Not anymore. Within 6 months of me starting here......there is a hiring freeze for the foreseeable future.


See what I am saying. That is 6 different occasions of me showing up and the business going downhill.

I guess I better put this on my resume so that future employers know what they are in for!

Lucky Dog

I must say that I am a lucky man.

Why you ask.

I will tell you obviously.

I watch football every weekend. And I don't mean that I only watch my favorite teams and don't really care about anything else.

That is what most people would do.

Or a lot of people watch only college on Saturday OR pro on Sunday.

But that isn't me either.

I watch about 25 hours of football EVERY weekend. Some weeks it is even more than that.

I watch games from Thursday through Monday and will watch games if they are on Tuesday and Wednesday as well.

This past weekend I watched about 24 hours worth of football.

And I LOVE IT!!! I watch every game I can no matter what teams are playing.

But why am I lucky?

Because my beautiful wife tolerates it and me all weekend.

She doesn't HATE football but she doesn't enjoy watching it much.

And by the end of the second weekend of the season she is tired of it and doesn't care if another football game comes on the tv ever.

But she doesn't complain or bitch or holler at me for watching it.

She doesn't give me a list of stuff to do each weekend so that I can't watch what I want.

She doesn't take over the tv or bitch until I change the channel.

And I appreciate it greatly.

I don't golf, I don't hunt, I don't fish, I don't go to bars and get drunk with friends. I watch sports.....mainly football.

And she handles it wonderfully.

Not only that but she is beautiful and tolerates all of my other short comings (and believe me I have many).

She is pretty much perfect in my eyes.

Thank you honey,

I love you

Tired

Is anyone else tired of the election crap?

I love the topic and think that it is very important but come on.

I watched part of the debate last night and I didn't hear anything new.

And that is the problem.

The candidates are saying the same thing in each debate. Or they are just repeating things that they say in tv commercials. Obama started a comment yesterday about McCain's insurance plan the EXACT same way as the commercial does. WORD FOR WORD!

What's the point?

I am all for debates on the topic and would love to debate just about anyone on the topic but these candidates have pretty much said what they intend to say.

They aren't coming up with anything new and probably won't before the election.


I also watched CNNs recap of the debate.

And they pretty much feel that if the election were tomorrow Obama would destroy McCain.

And there isn't much in this world that makes me happier than that.

I really am afraid of what this country will become under McCain/Palin.

Am I 100% confident with Obama/Biden?

No but why would I be. There are surely things about their policies and opinions that I don't like.

But I definitely like them better than the McCain camp.

Looking for Perfection

4 years ago the only thing I ever heard leading up to the election was that they didn't like either candidate so they were going to vote for Bush since he was safer than Kerry.

Basically people were choosing the lesser of two evils they said.

I hate that!

And now I am hearing it again this year.

Why?

Are people really expecting to find a candidate that has the same opinions and stances as them?

Because that person isn't out there!

Everyone lives their life the way they want to. Which means that everyone has different life experiences that shape who they are.

So unless you were attached to someone your views are probably going to be different than then person next to you right now.

I personally like BOTH of these candidates more than the Bush/Kerry election from 4 years ago.

Do McCain or Obama agree with everything I think?

Hell No!

Does that mean I can't like one of them to be in office?

I don't think so.

I understand if you would rather of seen a different candidate in the running. I wanted to see Mike Huckabee. I think he would have been perfect for the position would be great for the country but unfortunately he didn't have enough money.

So my #1 choice isn't involved. Big Deal!

So I look at the 2 that are left and I listen to them talk and I research them both and I find one that I can and will support.

What is so hard about that?

Why do people have to continuously say things like I don't like either candidate so I will take him because he is safer. Or I will take the lesser of two evils.

What? Why?

Vote for the candidate that YOU feel will be the BEST President of this great country!

This Bugged Me

Let's talk about something other than politics on here for a minute or two.

Last week I witnessed an act on my bus that I find to be ignorant and unacceptable.

On my bus just about everyday there is a young man who is more challenged than the rest of us.

He rides the bus just about every morning and everyone knows who he is.

And he sits in the SAME seat everyday.

The seat he sits in and the one across from him have signs above them that say they are reserved for older people or people with handicaps if they are requested.

Well he was waiting with other regular bus riders at the stop in the afternoon one day last week.

And he was in the back of line.

But all the people that were getting on KNEW exactly who he is and where he usually sits.

Now if it was me I would NOT have taken his seat because I know he likes to sit there and seems much more comfortable there....in fact when I get on in the morning and he isn't in that seat he moves to it AS SOON AS THE PERSON MOVES!

So I know he is comfortable there and likes to sit there.

But did this other idiot think about that when he got on the bus?

Nope!

A daily rider of that bus sat down in that seat before he got on. And the other seat reserved was taken by someone not disabled and not old.

Did they get up and move?

Nope!

Now I understand that the seats are only reserved if they are requested by the riders....

BUT

if you know that HE is going to sit THERE....

DON'T SIT THERE!

Sorry....but I find that to be common courtesy.

Something that is sadly disappearing in this country!