Wednesday Hodge Podge

How should success be measured? Using that as your standard, who is the most successful person you know? (Or one of the most successful?) 

Success should never be measured by the size of your wallet.  Success should not be measured by the salary you make or the title on your business cards.

Success and true wealth come from whether a person is happy in what they do or not.  

Success is having a happy family.  Success is being able to lay your head down at night and have a peaceful sleep knowing that you did your best at whatever you did that day and you did not intentionally hurt anyone.

Success is a happy marriage.  I am thankful that I have my wonderful child-bride Suzanne and a passel of great kids who are respectful of their elders and give everything they do their best shot.

By those criteria, I am the most successful person I know.

Have you ever been to a hot air balloon launch/fest/party? Ever taken a ride in a hot air balloon? Is that on your bucket list? According to Frommers, the ten best hot air balloon adventures in the world are-

Loire Valley (France), the Serengeti (Tanzania), Napa Valley (California), Lake Champlain (Vermont), Cappadocia (Turkey), Istria (Croatia), Gstaad (Switzerland), Yarra Valley (Australia), Muelle (Costa Rica), and Albuquerque (New Mexico). 

Which one on the list would you most like to experience? 

I have never been up in a hot air balloon, but I think some of my kids have.  It was tethered.   Back when we lived in Starr, South Carolina, our county seat, Anderson, South Carolina, was host to Freedom Weekend Aloft.  They had many great balloons that would show up to put on demonstrations and have a race.  It was great. 

I have been on Lake Champlain on a ferry ride many years ago.  It was fun, but after a while the water looks the same and it is time for the fun to be over.  Maybe something is wrong with me, but I prefer the simple things in life. I am happy to ride a backroad and see nothing.  I am happy to see rows and rows of corn growing when it is having a great year. 

Maybe you should add Lake Hartwell and Freedom Weekend Aloft to the list.  I would love to see it again.  It has been nearly 12 years since we have been back home. 

May 25th is National Brown-Bag It Day. Did you/will you pack a lunch today? When did you last pack a lunch for someone and what are your go-to ingredients for a brown bag lunch?

I used to brown bag it all the time to work.  However, to save on brown bags, we bought a Tupperware lunch box and I took sandwiches to work with a Mason jar of iced tea.

A great brown bag lunch would be cold fried chicken thighs, good potato salad, the kind made with good Duke’s Mayonnaise.  Don’t mess it up by putting mustard or egg in it.  Just potatoes, celery, pimentos, a little onion, and lots of Duke’s Mayonnaise.  

To make the lunch even better, pack some good deviled eggs.  Same thing here; don’t mess them up with mustard or Miracle Whip.  Hardboiled eggs, Duke’s Mayonnaise, a little pickle juice, paprika on top, and you have the perfect deviled egg. Some people decorate the top with a slice of green olive but that is not necessary.

Oh yes, some good iced tea.  American Heritage Iced tea if you can find it.  Otherwise, Luzianne Iced Tea is fine. 

What's one of your favorite dance scenes from a movie or television show?

Michael Jeter played Herman Stiles in the show Evening Shade.   In the only episode I ever saw of this show, Jeter was sort of a nerd and everyone thought he was kookie.  When they played the song Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance),  Jeter cut loose with every type of dance one can imagine and he was very good at it.

A great dance movie is Footloose.  It has a lot of dancing and it came out about the time my wife and I were married.

Probably the best all time dance scene, though, is the last dance of the season from Dirty Dancing.  Patrick Swayze and Baby were awesome. 

John F. Kennedy made famous the line, '...Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." So what can you do for your country?

I can vote and hope we get the right people in office.  It is sad that the right people are not likely to get elected.  If they do, they can’t get anything done because of the good ole boy network. 

But down here in the trenches where the rubber meets the road, we can all change the world around us. We can show a little act of kindness.  We can show up at town meetings.  We can show up at the school board meetings.  We can pick up a little trash when we walk by it. 

Weekends are made for __________________________________.

We are retired and have a semi-empty nest.  Every day is a weekend.  Weekends are made for down time with the family.

  

On this last Wednesday of the month, bid farewell to the month of May in seven words or less. 

I can’t tell you hello in seven words or less but here goes.

Goodbye May. May we meet again. 

Insert your own random thought here.

Last week I told you how I miss Mayberry and the Leave It to Beaver town of Mayfield.  Several commented that they missed the simpler times too.  We seem to have lost a lot of the charm of things.  What happened to making homemade ice cream with good South Carolina peaches?

What happened to fishing with a cane pole and not expecting to catch anything?  We were surprised if we did. 

Years ago, we enjoyed pot luck dinners at the local church.  It was a small church with maybe 70-100 members.  Today we have mega churches that have more than that on their staffs.

Everyone have a great June and we will see you again next time.

Pop over and visit my beautiful child-bride Suzanne at PS Annie.

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