WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORKING?

Just about everyone has jokingly been asked the corny old question, “Workin’ hard or haldly workin’?” And, if you’ve lived long enough, the chances are good that you’ve done both. I’m no different. Rarely in one’s life does it seem that you have the perfect balance of just enough work, just the right amount of a social calendar and just the right amount of time for exercise and rest. Like the elusive “Baby Bear’s porage” it’s hard to come by. We must live in a world of “Goldie Locks’ “. I find both situations unpleasant and frustrating. However, I have determined for me that I’d rather be too busy than not busy enough.

SPRING IN CHICAGO

I’ve lived in Chicago all my life. Although I’ve enjoyed many winter days throughout my life, making it through a Chicago winter is somewhat of an endurance test. You deal with roughly 100 days a year filled with a variety of cold to frigid temps, high winds that chill you to your bones, dreary cloudy days, snow, freezing rain, slush, icy sidewalks, slippery roads and also some pleasant sunny brisk days, fresh clean white snow too. But then comes that one day in spring when it seems that all at once the grass is green, the air is fresh, the sun feels warm and the temperature reaches the 60’s. That’s the day you realize that winter is over. That day came a little late this year, but it still came today, April 16th. It’s more than a 65 degree sunny day. It’s a gift, a payment of some kind. We all earned this. People in warm climates can’t get this feeling. They maybe get a similiar feeling when it cools off after a scorching summer. I don’t know, I may know in coming years as Chicago winters are getting old to me now. But one thing that never gets old is that first warm day when you know all the snow is gone, you can open the windows for a few hours, go for a walk and actually work up a sweat and sit out in the yard for awhile and not get cold. You know there are many more days ahead like this. It’s a happy, care-free day.

JACKIE ROBINSON TRIBUTE CONFUSING

I think it’s nice that Major League baseball honors Jackie Robinson every April 15th with Jackie Robinson Day throughout the league. I have no problem that the league retired #42 league wide. But it was over kill that EVERY player on EVERY team in baseball wore #42. I guess you can get away with it in baseball but it was still kind of goofy seeing everybody, including the umpires wearing #42. I only saw parts of two games, but it was harder to recognize alot of the players. I’m a big baseball fan and carry the baseball package every year and think I know alot of players but it surprised me how much I depend on the numbers to identify the players. I’m guessing every team will do a big charity auction for the uniforms, so hopefully some good causes will be helped. I’m not complaining about it, I just found it confusing.

WHITE HOUSE GARDEN THOUGHTS

I got a kick out of the clips I saw recently on the White House garden that First Lady Michelle Obama is spearheading. At first the cynical side of me rolled my eyes and thought this would be $200,000. from taxpayers spent for $2,000. of vegetables in exchange for Michelle’s photo-opportunity with a few 10 year olds with tiny shovels and plastic watering pails. Once the cameras were turned off, the professional gardeners would work it, until the harvest starts with another photo-op. And this my be true. However, I started thinking that this may be a good advertising expense for our country. Perhaps thousands of Americans will decide to plant a garden of some sort. There are all kinds of positives that can come from it. It’s good exercise, healthier eating habits, getting in touch with nature, lowering a families food cost, learning a new skill, the list goes on. It wasn’t long ago that most people, whether by farming or hunting provided their families with some or all of their food. I’m ashamed to say I have never grown one edible fruit or vegetable. This year things will be different. I’m starting out small with some tomatoes & green peppers. I’ve been thinking about trying it for a couple years but always got too busy. The White House garden put me over the top. Thanks Michelle!

BITTER SWEET ANNIVERSARY

I’ve owned & operated a storefront business in a suburb south of Chicago, Illinois  since April 1986. In fact, April 17th will be my 23rd anniversary, and likely, my last. I believe my store is unique. I’ve offered custom silkscreening on clothing, trophies & plaques, and sportscards & supplies. I’ve enjoyed my store and have wonderful memories of customers ranging in age from 3 to 95. Some have become friends outside the store. I’ve enjoyed nice working hours, working close to home in a climate controlled building & play whatever I want on the radio. I’ve also averaged working 6 days a week over the entire 23 year span. It’s not uncommon to work 98 days out of my “100 Days of Hell” period that runs from May 1st thru August 8th annually. It’s a store I’ve felt obligated to be at even on the dead days of January. Sales have slowed in recent years. Ebay has hurt sportscard sales alot, our town has aged alot and the once vibrant downtown area is now riddled with empty stores. The final blow seems to be this recession-depression our country is going through. The hand writing in on the wall. Barring a minor miracle of some sort my plan is to go through one more busy season if I have one this year, then close the storefront and work what accounts I can from my home, work some with the cards at trade shows and see how that works. My business started as a mail order business in 1982. I guess it’s peotic justice to finish up that way. I’m not really sad about it. My body has been breaking down some from the years of putting together trophy after trophy and sheering sheets of brass & aluminum. The store has been a place of safe harbor, my own little non-alcoholic “Cheers” where everybody knows my name. People came to my store because they wanted to. Whether it was a parent ordering a 1st trophy for an exited young child, a softball team ordering jerseys for that exciting softball season or a 10 year old boy buying a couple packs of baseball cards my store was a place people enjoyed visiting. I’m thankful to have lived it and had the health to do it. No regrets. One door closes another door opens.

2009 MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PREDICTIONS

OK. How about a little mindless fun after some serious subjects. Here’s my predictions for Major League baseball this year. Here’s how I see the multi-millionaire men in short pants faring this year. National League – West Champ – Arizona East Champ – NY Mets Central – St. Louis Wild Card – Chicago Cubs NL Champ – St. Louis American League – West Champ – LA/Anaheim/California/Orange County Angels East Champ – Boston – Central – Cleveland – Wild Card – NY Yankees AL Champ – Cleveland – WORLD SERIES CHAMPION for 2009 – ST. LOUIS CARDINALS… Go ahead Laugh. I’m a Cardinals fan!

TIME FOR TERM LIMITS

With all the corruption in politics, maybe it’s time to set strict term limits on all offices. Something hit me the wrong way when John McCain was interviewed after his defeat to Barack Obama in last November’s presidential election. He was asked what he planned to do after the loss. He said he would continue to “serve” the people of Arizona as he’s always done. Now I know McCain was a war hero and deserving of our respect & admiration for that, but his entire family has been made rich and famous for nearlt 100 years by “Serving the People”. Not to mention the Kennedy’s, Bush’s, etc. Heck, in Chicago the Daley’s father & son act has owned Chicago for 50 years. I think a better system would be one with far less government and term limits that paid poorly, and a microscope was on elected officails to cut down on corruption. It’s so rampant now we all expect it and our numb to it. Meanwhile, taxes continue to skyrocket & more and more people are becoming poor. All, in my opinion courtesy of those wonderful elected officials that fight for the right to “SERVE US”.

ECONOMY MIRRORS GAME OF MONOPOLY

It seems everyone has an opinion of the United States economy these days so for what it worth I’ll give you mine. I grew up in the 1960’s. Although alot has changed over the past 40 years due to advances in technology, many jobs from the 1960’s are very similiar to those of today. What has changed drastically in my opinion is the pay scale of many jobs. Let’s compare familiar jobs from the 1960’s and today with the approximate pay from then and now. In both eras I would break down jobs in 4 different ways. 1) SUPERSTAR JOBS – This category includes pro athletes, actors, music superstars, media superstars, political superstars & top business people. 2) HIGHLY SKILLED-HIGHLY EDUCATED – This group includes top doctors, engineers, lawyers, dentists & second tier near-superstar media & political superstars. 3) SKILLED & EDUCATED LABOR – Trades people, education professionals, poilce, fire & mid-level business people in all areas.4) NON-SKILLED & LOWER EDUCATION LABOR – These include most people that do jobs of all kinds that can be learned by a high percentage of people. What I find interesting about this group is that depending on what the job is, factors like chance, choice, who you know, where you live and just plain fate, you can have two similiar people with similiar abilities and desire and one can have a steady secure job earning between $50,000. & $100,000. where the other can struggle to even have a job that pays $20,000. Back in the 1960’s and even the 1970’s through the 1990’s I don’t remember it being this way. I think this is because it wasn’t this way. My simple answer to what has evolved in our country’s economy from the 1960’s to now is the same basic progression as you’d see in a simple game of monopoly. You basically have 4 sides to the game board, each side features 2 sets of property. If you gain a monopoly you can build houses and then a hotel on the property to gain more rent money from people that land on it. Now go back to my example of the 4 groups of income people and go around the monopoly board granting monopolies to the various classes of our society. The lowest wage earners are at Baltic & Mediterranean with the richest superstars residing at Boardwalk & Park Place. The faces have changed through the years but there are always people to fill up the board. In the 1960’s Mickey Mantle was the face of professional sports and earned a $100,000. salary. Other superstars in movies, music & TV earned in the same range. Most average workers at the time earned between $6,000. to $15,000. Workers with more skill earned slightly more while the highly skilled category earned roughly in the $30,000. to $60,000. range. It is clear to see that a monopoly game would last longer if the board had no houses or hotels on them. We all remember that it was just a matter of time before the person with hotels on Boardwalk & Park Place had all the money and the game was over. The game we’re in keeps going and the standard of living is going down rapidly for more and more people. Currently, the richest 1% own 55% of the wealth in our country. I think it’s insane that athletes make between $5 & $100 million a year with endorsements, that Oprah makes $350 million for her Tv & radio shows, that Rush Limbaugh makes $40 million for his radio show, and the examples go on and on. I also believe these salaries are the impetus for over taxation in the nation that leads to greedy politicians voting raise after raise for themselves and public workers earning more than the tax payers and afford and should have to pay for them. for example, I had a customer who told me she started out teaching in 1977 making $9,000. per year and worked the same teaching job 30 years and retired at age 53 m,aking more that $100,000. and retired with a $75,000. pension. I’m all for teachers or anyone earning a good living but this can’t work. I believe everyone is important and can make a contribution to society. Maybe I’m crazy but it’s more important to me to see my garbage picked up then to see Alex Rodriguez pick up a ground ball, it’s more important to me what my handyman says than what Oprah says. I’m more impressed with a good electrician than all the politicians combined. I’d rather be friends with an honest plumber than a movie star. I sense the walls are closing in on our country in many areas. Financially, morally, we’re in trouble. I pray for a turn around. I feel sorry for young people entering the work force. Simple math tells me we can’t keep this up. States are going broke depending on stimulous from the government, banks need stimlulus from the government. We need stimulous from the government so we can pay taxes to the government so they can pay stimulous to everyone. OK. Problem solved.

HAS THE TIME COME TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA?

This is a debate about as intense as abortion. There are good arguments on both sides, and it’s very hard to change someones mind. I’m not trying to do that here, I’m just going to give my opinion from information I’ve gathered and to what at this point makes sense to me. I must first start out by saying that I have never smoked marijuana in my life and have no interest in doing so whether it’s legal or not. However, like it or not marijuana is popular and attempts to stop its use are futile and will continue to be. Drug cartels are getting as powerful as small countries. They are making billions of dollars on the sale of illegal drugs. Our country found out during the prohibition years what happens when you try to make illegal something that good or bad a high percentage of the population wants to consume. What that did was create the Al Capone’s of the world to quickly swoop in and bootleg alcohol not to mention many individuals making their own bathtub brew at home. I do believe our country should legalize marijuana for the following reasons. 1) I think it would severely hurt the drug cartels 2) It would create a thriving new business in our country with a proven track record for big sales and raise much needed tax revenue that is currently going to drug dealers, the Al Capone’s of today. 3) I don’t really see the difference between smoking a few joints or having alcohol. In moderation I don’t think it would do much harm. Of course you’d have the same strict laws about operating a vehicle while under the influence as we have with drunk driving. I also believe that marijuana should be the only legalized recreational drug and that like regular cigarettes they should be banned from indoor or stadium use but I think a large percentage of people that are interested in recreational drugs would settle for marijuana and not use illegal drugs such as cocaine if marijuana were legalized. I know many people would disagree with that. You can’t prove it either way until you legalize it. But like it or not I believe marijuana will be legalized within the next 10 years.

24 HOUR FLU A GOOD REMINDER

As Saturday afternoon came I started feeling flu-like symptoms. I had plans to visit my cousin and his wife who I don’t get to see that much so I didn’t want to cancel. We had a nice visit although I was a little weakened. The drive home seemed long as I was becoming very chilled and couldn’t wait to take a hot shower and lay down in bed on a heat pad. After a terrible nights sleep I got up Sunday morning with zero energy. I could barely sit in a chair. I have been working to remodel most of my house for going on a year now and I have been feeling some warning signs to slow down. When I didn’t pay attention my body slammed on the brakes. I was frustrated that I couldn’t use my one day off during the week to take another chunk out of the remodeling, but as I laid on the couch all day it gave me time to think. When we’re healthy life is hard enough. Work schedules, shopping, home maintenance, kids, pets, etc. can really fill your days and tire you out. But when you’re healthy and feel good it’s an honor, a pleasure to accomplish things that are important to you. Things you are able to do. It reminds me of a verse in my favorite Bible book, Ecclesiastes “It is good for a man to accept his lot in life, to work hard and to enjoy the fruits of his labor.” Some men and women have better lots than others, but each of us must play our individual hand that is dealt to us. We have no choice. What a sick day reminds me of is all the poor people who spend weeks, months or even years in a sick bed, people who have serious operations, people who are doomed to die sick. They have no choice. Most of us go through life with decent health if we take decent care of ourselves with proper diet, rest and excercise and ordinary jobs that hopefully we can get some fulfillment from and cover our financial needs. But in this unfair world you can’t help but notice the small percentage of people on both ends of the totem pole. You have the rich, talented beautiful people such as movie stars, sports stars, etc. that people worship like gods. On the other end are people who are born with deformities, develop a terminal illness as an infant, and never truly get a chance to live healthy. While I believe God will someday right all the world’s wrongs for eternity, when you’re sick, being healthy can seem like an eternity away. A day stuck home sick on the couch can make you think of things your normal busy schedule won’t allow for. A day on the couch can make you pray for people you don’t even know. A day on the couch is humbling. A day on the couch can be good for the sole!