Only two words

This post started in grade 12. I went to Burnaby North High School.  Sitting around talking with my closest friends; we challenged each other to find only two words to describe each other.

In this “game” the objective was to summarize how you saw that person.  We took our time and I remember I thought the words insightful, and I think the others did. It was quite a challenge but as you search for just the right words, you realize you have to boil down your word pictures to how you see that person’s strongest characteristic in your friendship with them.

What two words would you like to summarize you?  Are you thinking perhaps “loyal”, “considerate”,  “supportive”, “generous”.  What if acquaintances described you as “selfish”, “aloof” or “predictable”, or possibly “stingy”?

Of course, we cannot help all the impressions we create for ourselves, especially when they are brief, or while we are in our work “persona”.  But if your friends gathered together tomorrow to share two words to remember your life what words would you want to hear? (assuming you like Tom Sawyer could lurk at that event overhearing the comments)

“In golf as in life it is the follow through that makes the difference.”

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Not Kokomo but still sunshine and sand.

Growing up I used to borrow my Dad’s record of Homer & Jethro at the Country Club. This song was one that I always enjoyed.

Homer & Jethro were humorous and I am sure they were especially so in a live setting, and I love their version of 16 tons. You may want to investigate that on your own.

But I digress.  So many songs from this era ~ Beach Boys! Did they do any songs that weren’t fabulous?

This was the age of Walter Kronkite on the CBS news, and you have to wonder if this song was written and sung for all the girls who had boyfriends in Vietnam.

When you watch the video, you look at the clothes and the styles. It was a neat time, and life seemed simpler in those years, more free, more optimistic, and much cheaper gas prices!

The Monkees, the Beach Boys, the surfing songs, I was growing up and I remember those years with rose tinted glasses.

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Is it July already? We had better Zip!

300° panaroma near Penticton, Okanagan Valley,...

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I rub my eyes, and wonder where did June go? It has been a cooler, wetter spring than usual in the Okanagan and the daylight hours are now reducing. I try not to focus on what that means, and of course there is lots of good weather still ahead. 🙂

Campers, tourists, friends and family spill into the valley up and down to enjoy the lakes, the beaches, and to have a get-away from their normal urban daily lives.

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Festivals abound, so get your watermelon, your sunscreen, your frisbee, your floatie,  and get out and enjoy July as it will be as fleeting as June.

But if it is night, I invite you to take five minutes to look through the archive of posts, and invite someone else to do the same!  Have a great day!

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24 Years is a long, long time.

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TODAY I was happy to celebrate my 24th birthday; okay you caught me. My birthday is in October, this was really an anniversary.

It is the anniversary of my kidney transplant back in 1987.  I had a transplant in 1986 that failed after a very eventful, but horrible five months. That April was during the expo and I had a pass to go to it but I was limited to the hallways of Vancouver General. I nearly never left those.

In 1987 I had a second chance at a transplant and was off hemodialysis again. How fortunate to have a second chance so quickly. I was mentally traumatized from 1986 and facing the hospital again I both wanted and didn’t want to be there again.

After about 12 days after my surgery in July 1987 the doctors came to my bed and said, if it doesn’t start by tomorrow ~ we’ll have to do something and that may include removing the transplant.  Miracle! It started that night. Finally my road back to full recovery began, I will spare you details.

Now in 2011 I count my blessings almost every day. Those days of being on a machine are faded memories. I am blessed with more than a transplant; I am blessed also with an awareness of the gift of good health.

I am also aware of what friendship means, and love. I was blessed by friends who visited regularly even when I couldn’t barely lift my head to say hello. My supportive, beautiful, young wife who sat by my side even when I didn’t know she was there. She held my hands, prayed for me and waited for me to know when she was there. She was wondering I am sure, whether she would be a wife or widow after those long hours, days, weeks and months in my room, at my bedside while Mandy was only three years old. Sue came  to the hospital when she could, and she was there when I needed her the most.

Yes 24 years of good health, and a successful transplant is worthy of a little celebrating. I celebrate the health, I thank the doctors who operated (Jamie Wright) and my family and friends who gave me strength and hope when mine was depleted.

24 years is a long, long time. Those memories are old now, and I bring them out and dust them off only when I need to be reminded how blessed I am.

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Sunshine and Cherries

It’s July in the Okanagan and  you and the weather is hot and dry. Of course, this is what we look forward to during those dreary days in December when the sun sets at 4:30.

Lost and in the past are the days of my youth when I played “kick the can” in the front yard. One summer I bought bags of peas and a long straw for pea fights with my neighbour Gary. Great fun until peas started sprouting everywhere in our yards.

The ice cream truck would trundle by in the evening and we often got a fudgesickle, and those days the ice cream was affordable.

I still like to run through the sprinkler and my wonderful son jumped around with me in the back yard just last weekend; cold, fun and refreshing, and free!

Summer camp was also a big part of my summers then. My kids both went to camp but I not only went to the camps as a camper I also went back as a counselor for part of one summer. That was so cool, adored by jillion (conservatively speaking) young girl campers, that was the best for my 17 year old ego. Ha!

Running in the sun, swimming in the lake, canoeing, crafts, planning activities, teaching archery ~ all that plus a $1 per day. Best job I’ve ever had, and a wonderful memory.

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Just like Cheers, but no Norm :)

Remember the show called Cheers? The show took place in Boston in a pub. Norm was the funny guy always at the end of the bar. The theme song said you were welcome and you felt at home.

I have visited all four Toastmasters Clubs in the south Okanagan, no bar, no beer, and no Norm but after I leave every Club visit I have a natural  smile on my face. Sometimes I may feel a little tired before the meeting but by the time the meeting is over; I am refreshed, and renewed.

All the Clubs in the South Okanagan have differences and  they all are innovative. All of the follow the Toastmasters Organisation format  and are attended by people with different backgrounds, and lives to share; to learn from. I really appreciate hearing those stories, and hearing toastmasters rock, saying how Toastmasters is fun, they’ve learned and benefited so much.

Doors open, and opportunities sprout from Toastmasters.

Toastmasters is Worldwide, the world’s biggest educational and fun club. Members stay decades or stay for a few years, but everyone who joins will learn and benefit providing they invest their time, and open mind.

It amazes me when I tell someone about Toastmasters and they have never heard of it; but I was uninformed myself a few years ago so I need to rethink my amazement.

My recommendation to anyone I chat with about Toastmasters is the same. Check it out! Be a guest, be confident no one will make you speak if you don’t want to; no arm twisting, but take my word when you will leave the meeting every time, 🙂 feeling better than when you arrived.

that’s my experience and the experience of the many many toastmasters I have had the pleasure of chatting to.

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