#Celebratelu: Life
In the waning days of 2017, it is important to celebrate LIFE.
When I say that it’s been a tough year, tears begin. It was an absolutely awful year because we lost so many . . .
suddenly,
and without that last farewell.
Black holes of despair.
My godfather, my godson (nephew) and his wife, my brother, my mother-in-law, and now another cousin’s spouse.
And, YET,
Life continues.
We celebrate our memories, we laugh at the stories, and we remember with our shattered hearts. We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and celebrate every precious moment. We don’t know how long we have, so we celebrate the life we live. The events: concerts, football, basketball, wrestling . . . The food. The locations.
We bring our memories with us. We wallow in out love. We share. We cry. We laugh. We love. We live.
I’m sharing a poem from a memorial service last week.
Easy? Heck, no!
But necessary? Yes!
Choose to celebrate their Love!
Choose to celebrate their Lives!
Choose to celebrate your LIFE!
And anticipate that 2018 will be a year of LIFE like no other! 🙂
#SOL17: Learning Again
“Ma’m, I’m trying to help you.”
Trying. Yah. Right. Do you understand how frustrated I am?
“A service technician is scheduled for Thursday.”
But will he really show up? It’s been 40 days and I have ZERO patience left.
“I’m trying to do the best I can.”
That “trying” word again. When will this be fixed? For real? No more “trying”.
On a GOOD day, this is what my speed test looked like during the month of April.
And GOOD is a relative description, because there were days when I could NOT even connect to run a speed test. The night that I spent more than an hour online with Customer Service because I was sitting at MacDonald’s in order to participate in a Twitter Chat.
Not at home.
21 miles away.
Waiting impatiently.
Because I had 0 connectivity.
No phone, no internet, NOTHING!
I was NOT a happy camper!
The issue: internet connectivity
The problem: too far from the “REAL” connections
My issue: day after day of dealing with customer service folks (after the computer) not linked to the program engineers/planners who schedule service repair calls
What I have learned:
- My modem is a wireless modem.
- The wireless router inside my house was redundant. It cut the speed in half.
- My modem does not have to be in the garage wired to the outside phone box. It does not have to be subject to the extreme temperatures in the winter or summer. The modem now lives in the house where I can watch the flashing lights.
- All devices do not test the same on speed tests. My Samsung phone and iPad mini routinely display faster times than my laptop. However, my chrome book is not faster than my DELL.
- Unplugging my Verizon phone booster increases the speed; however, cell phones then do not work in the house so at best it’s a short term fix.
This morning’s speed test:
It’s not high speed internet service. But it’s more than THREE times the download speed that I had last week. It works best when only one device is running.
Lessons Learned:
Just like with “testing” or daily measurement ~
Growth does matter.
Growth cannot be discounted.
If there had been an arbitrary cut score, I would have given up days ago.
Multiple data points are needed.
“Trying” . . . when I couldn’t SEE any visible progress or effort quickly became a VERY ugly word!
Information is power.
Learning is important!
Result: Back in the groove with a slice completed in 30 minutes from start to finish this morning!
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Lisa, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. 
And ALWAYS remembering . . .
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and
not everything that counts can be counted.” Albert Einstein
Slice of Life 6: Bucket List
(During March, I am blogging daily as a part of the Slice of Life Story Challenge!)
What’s on my bucket list?
Here are some possibilities (no particular order)
- Travel to Europe
- Go on a cruise
- Go to a college football bowl game
- Sleep on a beach
- Watch the sunset with the love of my life
- Write a book
- Be a building principal
- Spend the Christmas holidays on the San Antonio boardwalk
- Have a summer family reunion
- As an adult, vacation/travel with my parents
- Design and build a house
- Go white-water rafting
- Drive in a mud-run
- Own my own motorcycle
- Ride a motorcycle to the top of Pike’s Peak
- Go to a drive-in movie
- Canoe and camp overnight on the river
- Spend 24 hours reading for fun
- Have an article published for $
- Develop a class for teachers about writing
Stop!
Halt the presses!
(Couldn’t resist! – small pun; wordpress blog)
Oh, my goodness, a list of 20 things
That I have already DONE!
What about the list of things YET to be done? Is it really that I have gone so many places and done so many things? Or is it a sign of my wise old age that I have done the things that I wanted throughout the years?
My REAL bucket list:
- Peace on Earth because Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait the day my son was born. The name or the location of bullies may have changed but basic human freedoms are important world-wide.
My DREAM list – I dream of a world where
- Thoughtfulness, kindness and respect for people of all ages, races, color, creed, sexual orientation is not only valued but is the order of the day
- All people would have basic necessities to not only survive but to thrive
- Natural curiosity is encouraged and welcomed
- The physical and emotional well-being of every person was equally important to everyone
- Hatred would be wiped from the face of the Earth
And purely personal wishes:
- Congress members would be required to personally serve in the military (or spouse/children) before he/she could vote to send troops outside the continental USA (or maybe as a prerequisite to running for office). There is a uniquely different perspective when it becomes personal and a part of your waking life.
- Congress members would get 1 / 2 the annual average teacher pay raise when all 5 of these are met :
- paid based on their performance (Pass a budget each year or NO pay)
- must work at least 200 days per year
- no retirement as they cannot serve over 20 years
- no campaigning until 60 days before reelection
- maximum campaign expenditures of $ 100,000 per term served
Just a few of the thoughts roaming inside my head!
Do you have a bucket list? Or a dream list?
The inspiration for this post came from http://lifeunexpected811.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/my-bucket-list/ Go check out the variety in that exhaustive list!
Special thanks to the hosts of the Slice of Life Challenge: Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Beth. More Slice of Life posts can be found at Two Writing Teachers .
Please read the comments below! Readers have added some excellent ideas for Congress!
