July 21, 2024

            Good morning, please take the time to read this entire article, it was written by me August 17, 2015, that is 9 years ago. 

 

48  what?      08.17.15

            I know, it seems like a dumb title for an article that is written by me, the master of the word.  

I see that there is one person that has already jumped to the conclusion that my, “meaningful” yet challenging title, is referencing the number of States prior to the addition of Alaska and Hawaii.

It is true that when I was a children (yes I know I did not say child, when you have had as many personalities as I have, one should refer to me in the plural, children) there were only 48 states and they were contiguous, meaning they were connected. 

But my title does not have to do with the number of states during my childhood.

I am of course, referring to the number of days without rain here at, “The Hewitt Triangle”, aka Central Texas.

Does it seem odd to you, that we had a month of rain (the month of June it rained every day, I thought I was back in the state of Washington) and now we have gone 48 days (assuming we make it through today without rain) without rain?

Believing we will have gone 48 days counting today, we will have broken the old record set back around 1918, for the longest period of consecutive days without rain.

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Different subject; I have replaced the non-working security camera yesterday afternoon. It works and I got a thumbs up from my first spouse, noting that it had a good picture.

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Different subject:

If you do not read this part of the article,

you may never understand why it happened to you. 

Yesterday, I used the power of positive thinking to disrupt, irritate, and aggravate myself. I have many thoughts about positive thinking, positive attitudes, believing in something and it can also be considered as faith.

Let us not consider this as a sermon, although it is, let’s just consider my remarks as an opportunity to learn. 

It is amazing to me, that I had not considered this subject, in this orientation, prior to yesterday.

My spouse of 46 years and I had ventured out for brunch, and on our return trip home we stopped at the, “local tea house”, Bushes Chicken for a couple teas. These are large 32-ounce drinks in a Styrofoam container that we procured at the drive through. Arriving home, my first wife entered the house ahead of me, I followed with several items in my hands, one of which was the ice tea. As I approached the door, hands full, I decided to balance the tea on top of another item I was caring. This balancing act allowed me to open the door.

In my mind I thought, “I will probably drop this tea”. I skillfully open the door and stepped inside, still thinking, “I will probably drop this tea”!  I dropped the tea.

Later in the day, when I was calm and no longer using words that were totally appropriate for the moment, but not for continued use, I decided to install the new security camera.

One of my first positive thoughts was, “I will probably have trouble running this wire”! I gathered the needed tools and step stool and began the work, about one third of the way through the process, I needed to walk back into the garage where I noticed that I had not directed the wire properly!  My positive thoughts were working, I had to remove the wire, pulling it all back to the beginning, and then start again.

I recognized that my positive thoughts, believing that I would do something wrong, were coming true. Starting from the beginning again, I ran the wire in the proper places. I was thinking about the day and I thought, “I will probably drop a tool or a screw into the flowers below. I did, again my positive thoughts were working, not for me but against me.

I marked the three locations for the holes needed for the anchors use to hold the camera in place. I decided to double check the locations before drilling the holes. The marks were correct, I thought, something will probably go wrong with this too.

I drilled the holes, inserted the anchors and began to insert the screws through the camera base into each anchor. Yep, you got it right, the last anchor was off center.

All I needed to do now was to get some wire ties and secure the wire to other wires and call it quits. I walked into the garage and reached for an open package of black 11-inch wire ties. The entire contents of the package spilled on the floor and in between some items making it difficult to get to all the wire ties.

It was at this point that I just began to laugh. I was no longer upset, I was now thinking that I had cause all these mishaps, with my positive thoughts.

The moral to this story is:

Use positive thoughts to believe you can’t, and you won’t!

Use positive thoughts to believe you can, and you will!

Consider your thoughts, they will have an effect! 

Don Ford        (The above was from 08/17/2015)

 

Positive can be negative!

Senior ole retired person who tries to be positive, positive, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!