High School Graduation

Onward thru the Fog….

You have come to a very significant time in your life.  Graduation from High School or College is a very “Real World” experience. What I mean by that is, now the path you decide to take in life is totally up to you.  Others can suggest, recommend, or give you their best wishes. But now, the path you choose is your own.

There is an old “Country” saying. “Sometimes you need to go find a quiet hillside, sit down and have a long talk with yourself.”  That, I have done many times and I feel is the best piece of advice that I can pass on to you.   There will be moments when you will look ahead and the uncertainty of the future will seem so scary that you will hesitate and there’s nothing wrong with that. Stopping briefly to “think things through” is a very redeeming trait.  The main thing is that you continue along your path and not falter. 

 Don’t let uncertainty stop you from attaining your goals in life, whatever they are.   Allow yourself to enjoy life and what is ahead of you with the confidence and understanding that even thought the path ahead will not always be clear, you have within you what it takes to continue forward.   

Onward thru the fog.

Pause...

Back to Balance Therapy (BT), but for now, I will have to wait until our insurance company comes clean with paying the existing bill. It seems they gave a verbal approval but now have not paid for any of the BT so far so. What does that mean to me, that I don’t get the treatment I am suppose to get.  Isn’t it funny how with insurance it’s a game of  “Tag”? They are more than happy to be a part of their game, they seek you out to become a member and expect you to be a member “in good standings” meaning God forbid your late with a payment. But when there is an actual need for them to step up and pay for something it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. 

So, here we go, let’s call them and find out what’s going on. Ready?

 1 ringy dingy, 2  ringy  dingys,  3 ringy dingys. Connect and the phone is answered by a automated answering machine in which you have to spend the next 6 minutes  punching numbers to get to the right person..  Then there is dead silence making you wonder if you have been disconnect and just as you finish a few choice words , you hear “Please standby to speak  the next Customer Service Representative, you are number “pause” 34” which means anywhere from  10 minutes  to 20 minutes of listening to Barry and  Celine sing to you.

After what turned into 30 minutes they finally answer , they put you on hold while they look up your record. Then they want to review all the information  you gave them during the 6 minutes of key punching you had spent  at the start of the process.  Finally, 9 times out of 10 you are told that their records show that they are not you primary insurance so they are not responsible for paying the bill.   Then they tell you that you need to contact your other insurance company and hang up.

I have decided that this is how I am going to answer the phone when I see that it’s them calling wanting to know why my payment is one day  late.  It will go something like this.

Hello.

Pause….. This is the Glass Residence.

Pause….. to speak to….. John…. Dial 1,

Pause….. to speak to…. Sylvia….  Dial 2,

Pause.... .to speak to….. Samantha…..Dial 3.

Pause…..to find out if we are even home….. dial  4.

Pause…...Sorry, it seems we are not at home at     

                 this  time,  but  to speak to one of our Bill

                 Paying Representatives  ….Dial  5 .  

Pause ……. We’re sorry, no one is available at this   

                   time that wants to talk to you,  but

                   you can leave a number and we will get

                    back to you as soon as possible or,  

Pause…….. You can also reach us on line by going to our website 

Pause……… www. gotohell@kissmy.com  

Pause……… Or.

Pause……… You can just wait patiently, watching your mailbox for the payment on the
                     date we have told a member or you company the last 2 times you have called 
                     regarding when we will pay this bill. Or….

Pause…….    You can look out your window and see if you see any

                      PIGS FLYING…….

Pause…….    Thanks for your time and have a great day.

Pause……..    Goodbye Idiot.

Laughing to keep from crying….

Onward Thru The Fog……….

Raised Country, Raised Right...: A Country Christmas Eve.....

Raised Country, Raised Right...: A Country Christmas Eve.....: " &n..."

Is That All There Is?

We took a ride out to see and take our first trip across the new Nevada/Arizona Border Bridge.  We sat in a line of cars that must have been 4 miles long for about an hour waiting our turn.  Once we got there, the actual trip across the bridge took about 15 seconds and you couldn’t see a damn/Dam Thing.  Nothing but a concrete wall on each side which was so high that all you saw was sky. Once you cross that bridge so quickly, without any hoopla or dramatic fanfare it can very easily bring one obvious  thought or mindset,  “Is that all there is?”

 If you didn’t know it, you would have thought it was just another gully jumper bridge, not a bridge that took four years to build and millions to make.  There was no way to tell that you were on the tallest man made bridge ever made that stands 900 feet off the surface of the Colorado River below.  

In this case, you don’t get the full impact of the magnificence of the bridge unless you step back and look at it from a different perspective.  Its then, when you look at the new bridge from another viewpoint that you say “Oh my God, look at that, that’s amazing!

Then, I got to thinking about how we perceive other things in our lives.  One of them  being our freedoms that we have living in our country.  I listen to the news each evening where they talk about what is happening “over there”. How the people of some countries are being treated, by their own governments or leaders. There are still places on this earth where your lifestyle or way of living is already set in stone from the moment your draw your first breathe.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Perception,

Think about it, how fortunate we are to live in a country where we have so many choices.  A country where we are able to pick how, when and where we are going to live and are given the opportunity to attain what it is we want out of life. The fact that we have these choices were not easily attained.  They were fought for and died for by men and woman who felt that having these choices were worth their sacrafices. 

 Unfortunatley, some people feel that our politicians have the ability to control what it is we can or cannot achieve in life. They feel that the policies and guidelines that our fore fathers put in place are being abused to the point that we no longer have control of our own decisions. To me, these perceptions are only a way for those in  finding ways of trying to  apply  their own expectations of what a government should be.                   

Yes, we do have the freedom of speech but that does not mean that we need trying to force our perceptions on our neigbors, trying to change their perception of our country just to attain ones own wants and expectations. In trying to make our politicians the source for all of our problems we are only making excuses since we are the voters who placed each and everyone of them there. Then of course to you who immediatly cry "I didn't vote for him".  Well, the majority did, if your canidate had been put in their place I can almost guarantee that then, the problems causes would be shifted to another source.

Perception is only a word for how one looks at something. It can be used either in a positive or negative way.  It can also be used to set one’s goals in life. A person will only rise or fall to the level of expectations that they set for themselves.  

How and what you choose for yourself to do with your life and what you want to attain in life should depend on you and only you.  Yes, good advice is priceless, but the final decision needs to be yours.

 Every once in while we each need to take a step back and look at your life and where your heading.  My father use to say a person needs to find a tall hillside every once in a while, sit down and have a good talking with yourself. If one continues down life's path without checking their direction occasionally, you can easily become lost.

The old saying ‘To Thine Own Self Be True’ is still one of the most important rules that can help you make it through life.   If you do that, then there should never be a time or place when you find yourself saying “Is that all there is?”