Some people's lack of communication is driving me MAD! People don't have the guts to tell bad news or to admit to anything, so they blow sunshine around and then slip in the bad news a little bit later. of course, bad stuff almost always comes via text message or e-mail. Doesn't anyone have the guts to say things to peoples' faces anymore? We spend waaaay more time communicating with a flat screen than we do with live humans. It's a strange, strange world we live in now.

Bye bye Ralph the purple truck once again! 4 weeks...4 repairs: New ball joints, stabilizer bars, and tie rods; new motor, new oxygen sensor, and now a new starter. My truck's surgery bills are starting to rival Taylor's from her OSU Vet Hospital visit in 2009. Hopefully this one has a better outcome...:-[ I wish I knew more about all this mechanical stuff. I am such an idiot. Mechanics can tell me anything, and I have to believe it. What power they have! In this case, knowledge is power, and I am weaker than a noodle. In my next life, I will attend vet school, become a dentist, and go to the vocational school for auto mechanics. Only in that way would I have control over most of the uncontrollable parts of my life!

Making plans and setting goals is a good way to shake up your life. I am convinced of this, because every time I get this surge of motivation and start setting goals and making plans, disaster strikes. It never fails! I am thinking the secret to life is to never make ANY plans or set goals, just flit along and float wherever life takes you, and the ride will be smooth. Sound plausible? I think so! Or maybe I should set some fake goals, like set a goal to become bankrupt in a year....and then the opposite will happen. Now there's an idea!

"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials."

Hmmm, there's a thought...elimination of non-essentials. This past weekend really woke me up to my own lack of drive and motivation. It seems I let 'real life' get in the way of my own goals and dreams. Yes, reality sucks. Bills, bills, more bills, working to pay the man, working some more, more bills. I envy my former self - the one that set massive goals in 2007 and achieved them, achieved high enough to end up 4th in the nation in my division of my sport. Then reality set in, the world conspired against me and I let the world win. How the heck did I lose myself in all of that? I let the world and the people around me beat me down and give up my dreams. I have no one to blame but myself, and it's time I turned things around and started going for the big goals again. In the end, no one on the outside is usually happy with what I am doing regardless of what I do, so maybe my first priority is to go for what is important to ME. In the end, aren't we all responsible for our own happiness? Happiness is derived from a feeling of self-worth and pride in ourselves. That's what has been lacking, and it's time to get back to it. Watch out....!

I wish they made muscle relaxers for peoples' personalities. There are a few who desperately NEED it! Just sayin'.....

Happy Easter...happy spring....happy April!

Meet my new son, named "Pretzel"! OK, so I don't exactly know which one he is, but he is one of these adorable and gorgeous Weimaraner puppies, and he gets to come home with me forever at the end of May :-]

I hope it was worth it. I wonder sometimes. Was losing your temper really worth it? What did it accomplish? Did it make things better? In the long run, was it worth it? Some things to ponder...

I never understand the people that spend their entire life working to squash others. It really makes no sense, because I just can't see how making someone else feel low can make another person feel high. Or am I just backwards in that I can't take any real joy or satisfaction in dragging another person down? The older I get, the more I want to remove the totally negative people from my life. They serve no purpose other than to hurt me and quite honestly I am getting to old for this.

On that note, I will smile tonight. I will be happy inside my head, because in the end no one can take away your inner strength and inner joy. It's all under your control. I will enjoy my sunshine of the mind.

He's back! Actually I don't think he ever left, it's just that I've had to leave earlier for work this year. However, on the mornings I am running a tad late, I see the Road Rage Man. He drives a 1996 Lincoln Continental with a custom license plate. He drives erratically, cutting off people right and left, causing near-misses and almost-accidents. When he cut me off last year and I blew my horn at him, he came unglued and almost came out of his window at me. I watched him today cut off someone in the left lane and made them almost rear-end him. He gets coffee every morning at McDonald's on Elida Road around 7:10am. I hope someone decides enough is enough and takes this dude OUT. He is rude, arrogant, and a menace. I am already grumpy in the morning (I know, you just can't imagine that!) and seeing him makes me see red.

Is that a safe enough complaint? Since there are rules and perimeters on complaining nowadays, I want to make sure I stay within my boundaries. Yes, I am trying to stay taupe. Huh? Well, it make sense to me!

In a true partnership, both people try to give as much or even a little more than they get. "Deserves" is not the point. And "owes" is certainly not the point. The point is to make the other person as happy as we can, because their happiness adds to ours. The point is -- in the right hands, everything that you give, you get.

Why do some people wish others to be unhappy? Why do some people hate the happiness they see in others? I don't understand it. Is it a form of jealousy? Why wouldn't someone want the people closest to them to be happy? Why would someone else's happiness cause a burning desire to squelch that happiness? It's a petty, small person that can't be happy for someone else's happiness, especially someone they care about. That's not caring!

OK, so it is 3 days into 2012. I made some personal resolutions about things that I would change in order to make life better, I did them, and life got worse! Go figure! So I hereby resolve to make no more resolutions, no more promises, no more life-changing decisions to alter my attitude or behavior. I is what I is, take me or leave me! I try to improve, I succeed and I fail. I keep reverting back to the default me. Oh, no boubt the default me is different than the default me was back 20 or even 10 years ago. I suppose I am still evolving and growing, right? You can't rush it...can't take a cake out of the oven when it is half-baked. Be patient, accept me for who I am. Accept my plusses and accept my faults and accept the fact that although I am trying daily to change and improve, I am what I am!