My 2015 New Years Resolution

      I don't want to make any wild or extreme promises so this years my resolution is simple.   I resolve to "Try to live everyday a little bit better than the day before".

     This is something we can all do and it has no boundaries so you can make big or small.  This resolution can be customized to your liking and when you have a few failures, you just start over the next day.  It's easy to remember and although it can be different for everyone, it is a positive way to improve your life, at least that's what I believe.

     I believe just having this idea or phase in the forefront of my mind will help me look at situations in a more positive and thoughtful manner.  I hope to be more present or aware of my surroundings and other people.

     My wish for 2015 is that by December 2015, all of us can look back and say, in the year 2015 we have tried to live everyday a little better than the day before.  Who can ask for more?  

A Saga of the "Missing Deep Sea Divers Helmet Ice Bucket"

     Back when my wife (Mimi) were dating (40 yrs ago) Mimi bought me a gift for either a birthday or Christmas, I don't remember any longer.  The gift was a really cool deep sea divers helmet ice bucket, very unique.  At the time I was living at my parents house so I kept it with the bar tools probably in the basement.  As you know life gets hectic especially just prior to a wedding and sometimes things are forgotten.  Well, that's what happened with the ice bucket so it got left at my parents house when I moved out.

     Being a young married couple and starting a family something was always going on in our lives and as you can imagine the deep sea divers ice bucket was long forgotten. Many years later my parents had moved to a small attached home in St Peters, which was close to my sister an I and by then our kids were teenagers so our lives were still very busy.  After Dad passed away Mom lived by herself for awhile then her sister MaryJane and brother-in-law Vic moved in but eventually Mom had to move into retirement/assistant living home.

     We kept her house for a while but eventually sold it and distributed some of her stuff to relatives.  This is where the story comes back to the divers ice bucket.  At some point my niece (Bridget) and nephew (Scott) were over helping clean up at my Mom's house when they noticed the ice bucket both thought this would be a cool memento to keep of Grandpa Sonny & Grandma Sissy.  Since everyone in the family was taking some small item Rose (my sister) said it was fine for them to take it, but they both wanted it, so Bridget grabbed the bucket and Scott quickly grabbed the lid, now the negotiation would start.  Neither Bridget nor Scott was willing to turnover their part of the ice bucket to the other at this early stage of the negotiation.

     Coincidently, while surfing the Internet I stumbled upon a picture of a divers ice bucket and it triggered my memory of my divers ice bucket and wondering what happened to it, so much so that I found a few for sale on eBay but I didn't want to spend $60 to $80 for a used one, so I decided I would just keep an eye open to see if the price would come down.  At some point (possibly a year or so after my Internet discovery) my sister (Rose) was relaying the story about the ongoing but funny dispute between her daughter (Bridget) and son (Scott) over the deep sea divers helmet ice bucket (see photo insert), I laughed while I exclaimed that the ice bucket was mine given to me by Mimi about 40 years ago.  We all broke out in hysterical laughter and Rose said she would get it back it me which she did.  It was just as I remembered it with a small dent on the lid (not sure how it got there) and the lid also had all the ionized color removed because Mom thought it was dirty and the only way to clean metal pots, pans etc. was by using a Brillo pad.  That really explained a lot as I remember later when Teflon pans were introduced as the newest and best material for pans, Moms new Teflon pans were always scratched.

     So 40 years later I had my Deep Sea Divers Helmet Ice Bucket back, plus an interesting story to go with it.  I still do occasionally check the price of the divers helmet ice bucket on eBay not for me, I have mine and it has a great backstory but now I need to buy two, one for Bridget and one for Scott or maybe I'll just buy one and give the lid to Scott and the bucket to Bridget so I can watch the saga continue.  That sounds like it would be fun.

My Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas

All the presents were wrapped

As I sit in silence ready to nap

My mind starts wandering

About things from the past

I suddenly realize that life moves so fast

But all I remember is good times that last

No longer a child, I have snow colored hair

But I smile like a boy that accepts any dare

Christmas Day is finally here

It's not the presents that make me cheer

As much as my Family and Friends that are near

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Laden J. Decker

My First Opportunity to Travel First Class

     I had been working at Boeing for quite a few years when I had the opportunity to take a business trip to England to visit British Aerospace (BAe).  This would be my first unaccompanied international trip, which was a little bothersome to me so I was uncomfortable but also anxious.  It would also be my first time driving on the other side of the road and it was before GPS was available in cars.

     I was told by the specialist (Jack S) in my department that flying first class was permitted on an international flight.  Jack told me all I needed was to get the paperwork signed off by a particular person in our administration department, which I did and it was fairly easy. So now I'm even more excited because I had never flown first class before and thought this might be my only chance.  First class passengers had a lot of perks even better than business class, which was way better than coach.  

     I arrived at the early, which is just my personality; I don't like to be late.  Since I was flying First Class, I was on of the first to board the plane, which happened to be a Boeing 747.  You might be familiar with the plane there is a spiral staircase that goes to the First Class section on the top level in the nose of the aircraft.  I guess they felt the need to separate the elite first class passengers from the coach passengers.  It kinda felt like that Seinfeld episode when Jerry gets bumped to first class and Elaine is stuck in coach, but without the supermodel that appeared on that episode.

     The First Class section seated about 20 passengers but only about half full.  We had our own flight attendant to take care of our needs and with only 10 passengers we got great service.  The seats were spacious and the food was very good (when have you heard someone say that about airline food, no one ever!).  We even had dinner plates (you know the breakable kind) and silverware, not the plastic picnic ware plus real wine glasses. To say the least it was a very pleasant flight, not at all stressful like coach would have been.

     The flight back home was just as enjoyable but when I got back to the office my boss (Bill H) ask why I thought it was OK to fly first class to England.  I told him it was a company policy and I had no problem getting the paperwork signed off.  Bill told me it might be company policy but (Larry D) the department manager said it’s not department policy.  Hum, why would we need a department policy different from company policy.  I wonder if Larry flies coach class to England?

     Apparently the cost for the round trip flight was well over $4000, which was considered unreasonable by department standards.  So I apologized and went about my business.  As it turns out I had a few more trips to England that year but they were all booked as coach fare.  Now here’s the best part of the story, when I flew over the 1^st time the airline had a promotion going at the time which gave triple air miles to international travelers. Cool but what does that get you well it got me a white card, which bumped me to business class on my 2^nd flight, which also had the triple air miles promotion.  After that trip I received a gold card which bumped me up the First Class on my 3^rd trip, Woo Hoo!, take that Larry.

Debating Hot Topics

     There are many hot topics in today's world and there are many people with a passionate voice on various sides of these topics.  The topics hotly debated may include gun control, immigration, health care, police profiling, political scandals plus many more.  I've noticed that many people get loud and boisterous as if the louder you shout your position the more value it holds.  In reality the volume with which you argue does not always equate to the value of your argument, sometimes it distracts from your intended message.

     This frequently happens with crowds when one person tries to drowned out the other preventing them from speaking.  Differing opinions are good but each side needs to have an opportunity to state their position.  When I see people shouting at the top of their voice with veins popping in their neck to give an opinion all I see is anger and hatefulness.  It makes them appear uneducated and irrational. My mind will ignore their message because of the aggressive tactic used to convey their position.  Sometimes you will see people on opposite sides of a hot topic yelling their comments at each other, that only makes both look like fools.

     So if you want to represent your position on a subject in a valued way, do so by representing yourself in the best light.  By that I mean state your position based on facts in an intelligent manner.  Loud and obnoxious does not make you sound right or smart.  "Just Saying..."

My Christmas Wish

     The Christmas season is a time when many become mindful of others, but why does it only happen during the holiday season.  You hear many stories this time a year about strangers helping strangers, paying it forward in some way, some are small gestures and others are big but it's not the size of the gesture it's the fact that people make the effort.

     My wish for this Christmas is that we make the effort to carry over this Christmas spirit to the rest of the year.  Being a rational person I know that we cannot expect people to be in the Christmas spirit 12 months a year but maybe we can start small by changing a few things we do.

I have just three things in mind:

First, try looking at life through the eyes of a 4 or 5 year olds when their minds are open to the world.  They are curious, questioning everything but they don't rush to judgment of others.  Everything seems to be a new exciting experience to be enjoyed.

Second, think before you act.  It seems like many times people just meander through life without much thought given to the impact of their actions on others.  What a different world it would be if we took a little extra time to consider others before we made a thoughtless decision.

Third, promote understanding without ignoring justice.  This is probably the hardest to do.  The news is filled with stories about people and their problems and it always seems as if it is slanted one direction or the other which makes it hard to be understanding of some situations.  It can be hard to separate your personal beliefs from influencing your opinion about a hot news topic but it's worth the effort.  In any case justice cannot be ignored even though it may be opposite to your opinion.

     We could do these things all year around, at least make an effort.  You may want to pick your own ways to bring Christmas spirit to the rest of the year, that’s great.  All we really want to do is “Strive to make everyday a little better than the day before”. 

     Hey, we're not shooting for perfection here just some improvement, which I think we all can agree is needed.

Have a wonderful Holiday and a successful year!

Women have Shopping Legs

     Over the years I have always been physically active and therefore felt in reasonably good shape.  I still cycle frequently, play tennis weekly and work out semi regularly. I'm not saying this to brag just to state the fact that I make an effort to stay in good shape and this makes me feel good about myself.

     The thing is no matter how good I feel physically going shopping wears me out quickly.  I can play tennis for 2 hours and I'm tired afterward but it doesn't compare to the fatigue I feel after 20 minutes of shopping.  After about 10 minutes I start looking for a place to sit down as my legs start screaming relentlessly, it's not walking around the mall that's tiring but it's the roaming around the clothes racks while my wife tries on clothes.

     I notice other husbands standing or roaming around the clothes racks and they look as tired and listless as me but my wife and their wives look as if they just received a shot of adrenaline.  It almost seems like the women have become energized by the shopping experience.  We all know that men and women have physical differences but one not spoken about is the fact that women have what I choose to call "shopping legs".  Men's legs may look more muscular but they do not have stamina to compete with women's legs when trekking through the mall.  Maybe it's carrying your wife's purse and coat that throws off your balance and causes more leg fatigue, No, it's got to be something else.

     After much thought, I believe it is what I described above, women have "shopping legs" possibly an extra tendon that relieves shopping fatigue, it's possible.  I know women don't understand why men can play or 18 holes of golf or a round of tennis yet become exhausted after 20 minutes of shopping.  Women need to understand that men have a genetic deficiency, we are missing that extra tendon which gives women "shopping legs" or maybe it's a mental deficiency, I'm sure we could get a few women to agree with that.  Oh! Beer has always been a part of sports activity for men, try serving beer to men that are shopping, that might work.  "Just Saying...."