Summer 2013 July 16

Between 76 and 79 degrees this morning (depending on your location).  Excellent morning on the patio.

Sometimes I think a book comes up for a reason.  The book "Man's Search for Meaning" has some especially appropriate thoughts right at this time, especially the thought that a person "chooses your response" and doesn't let someone else decide for you what your emotional reaction will be.  That helped me change my initial reaction to anger to a more relaxed reaction.

I am always surprised (although I shoudn't be by now) when a business basically refuses to back up their work.  We had a local landscape company "English Garden" (recommended by the way) do some work, and now we are facing having to spend more money because they won't back up their work.  (Having to look at their mess every morning made me think of that.  I may try one more time to get them back to backup their work before I call someone else to clean up the mess of 3 dead bushes, a dead tree and a bungled french drain. the drain works fine, but the grass i dead on top from inadequate sod.)

Summer 2013 July 14

Sunday morning, someone coolish, a few clouds in the sky.  Nice enough to sit on the patio.

Listening to "Man's Search for Meaning" this morning on my walk, the observation was made that all persons have the choice on how they respond to a situation.  They can respond in a variety of ways.  I am thinking this through and will try to apply it throughout the week, consciously deciding on how I will respond as various situations arise.  I will need to get a printed copy of the book (although I probably have one already someplace in my collection.)

I was just thinking this morning, 40 years ago as I was driving back from Virginia and my 4 years completed with the Air Force, I had a lot of choices and a lot of decisions to make as far as career etc, and must my life overall.  Now, 40 years later, I also have a wide variety of choices, but they are a LOT different.

Yesterday, just by chance, we noticed that oil was leaking out of our car.  Since we had just had it changed, we called the dealer, who immediately advised us to come in, found the problem (a set of washers had gotten stuck together) and fixed it.  This could have caused major problems on our trip to the Reunion, since the oil leak would have gotten worse as the pressure in the engine increased from the long term driving, probably eventually running the engine out of oil.  Sometimes small things can make a big difference.

A local charity is coming by this week that picks up donated items.  I'm going to spend part of today disposing of items I no longer have any use for.  It is liberating, but also provides a sense of loss, perhaps loss with the past.

Another thought in "Man's Search for Meaning" was that belief in a future is essential to human survival