Some Gentle Thought...

School is starting and another year of educating the minds of American children is upon us. We got a package from my mother today with all kind of school supplies for my grandson. His mother is sewing patches of his school on new shirts. Soon moms will sigh a brief relief that they made it through vacation, summer camp, and swimming lessons.

Alright enough… Why is this motorcycle parked in this handicapped unload zone. HELLO Mister… some wheelchair vans need that area for their ramps to come down and allow their passengers room to get out. I guess it is a new form of education. This poor fellow decided that while he was doing a week of remodeling at his home he would park his car in this spot day and night, night and day. I understand that it may not be known to all people that the stripped areas beside handicapped spots look odd. This individual said, “No one uses this spot so I may as well leave my motorcycle here for a week or so. How nice of this place to provide this spot just for me!”

Okay Jon...Enough of that! Take a deeeeeep breath … inhale... exhale...

Yes, this is the time of year for the trees to start to hear the call of fall (I still can’t figure out why he parked there!) and the evenings too have a touch of chill in the air. (Some people! How am I going to get my morning, or afternoon Starbucks coffee…? Or for that matter my evening decaf coffee?) Friday night football games will begin in a week and band member are practicing their tunes. (Hope he gets a ticket. Maybe it will get towed) I love this time of year.

School is never over in life is it!

Where is Your Million?

After church on Sunday a friend was telling me his idea for a stimulus package that I could buy into in a heartbeat. His idea was to give all 3,000,000 Americans a million dollars. It would be cheaper than the stimulus package the government is using to bail out greed and there would be a lot of purchases made which in hand would stimulate the economy.

However if we all had a million dollars (I love the sound of that) who would work in the stores? Who would make the products I want to buy? Who would work behind the counter of Starbucks? Who would sell me a house in Florida? We would all be off spending our million dollars.

I wonder what impact that would have on the supply and demand of products. What would the cost of bread be? Humm! This is getting interesting? I would want to buy and new wheelchair sports car… I can do that because I have a million dollars, how much would that cost?

I guess I would have to leave the country and spend my million dollars in another country. Oooops? That defeats the US stimulus plan. Now I am spending my money in another country. But isn’t that what our government has been encouraging since NAFTA!

This is getting more difficult. If we all have a million we won’t find anyone to serve us, the cost of simple products will go up? If we spend our money in other country it hurts the restructuring of the American Economy. This is way over my head.

Maybe if we have to spend the billions of dollars we should give the money to Wall Street, and the Banks, and the US Auto Companies. The CEO’s of these companies certainly know how to use money effectively. RIGHT?

Next week after the sermon I should talk to my friend Donald about the message and leave the Stimulus Package to wiser men.

Our Politicians :)

Let Me In!

Starbucks and I have a lot in common. They have mochas and I love to drink Grande Mochas… They have frappuccino and I drink frappuccino. I stop at my neighborhood Starbucks all the time. I have spent hundreds of dollars there this past year. I love the people I meet there and the atmosphere. Over the last year I have sat outside in the warmth of the sun drinking and talking to friends. I have sat inside working on business plans or meeting with contacts or interviewing part time employees. I have drawn up plans for marketing campaigns and laughed with my grandson.

But now while the winds blow and the snow is here I am stopped in my tracks. Not by mother nature, not by inability to get out in 8 degree weather but by the 6 feet of unshoveled snow.

Not until the snow melts can I look forward to sipping the fruit of the bean. No more will the chocolate flavor slip through my lips warming me in the middle of the morning commute. I have been set apart with a symbol that says, “No longer welcome!”

Yes it is the snow pile that covers the ramp onto the sidewalk. Yes, as the snow shovel sits by the door showing how they have shoveled the entry for the walkers but not the wheelers.

Is it intentional? I am sure the answer is no... However, am I inside drinking coffee? Again the answer is no.

So as I sit outside in my wheelchair I long for the spring or a person who will lift a shovel and clear a path to the doorway of paradise or at least to a no whip, extra hot, Grande mocha.

Jon Mullender
President
Summit Fence Supply, LLC
summitfencesupply.com
summitfencesupply.blogspot.com