Last Commented Lifestyle Blogs (2,467)

Syrian miracle
The funny, my friends, is the crying
It's not about complaining or asking for help.
But to feel blessed, happy and appreciated..
Without comparing with others, let's start with some real stats!
The monthly salary of an employee in Syria is about ten dollars..and the daily working hours are 8 hours..and the price of a kilo of lamb is only $10..??
Transportation is as if you were crammed into a bus, which can accommodate forty people, but carries 100 people inside.. Long live Corona

The electricity is cut off most of the day.. every six hours, the electricity comes on for half an hour ??

The cars here are used, less than a 2010 model car, for $10,000..??

The monthly rent for the house is 50 dollars. ?? the cheaper one.. .to go to a restaurant..100 dollars..but your salary does not exceed 10 dollars..
..how can you live..this is it
Syrian miracle

The word inspiration comes up frequently in my business, usually mentioned by clients and their designers. They email or text to me photos of kitchen or furniture ideas they have seen online.

If you didn't know, I design and sell custom cabinetry.

Today, I received a photo of a long TV wall unit with floating shelves and a fake fireplace in the middle. The customer gave a description of what they liked about the photo and what they want different. Got it. My meeting with the client is tomorrow. I'll be ready.

Yesterday was a similar scenario. I received a few photos on Monday, we met in the showroom on Wednesday. The woman was very impressed with my presentation and the products we manufacture. When asked how long I've been doing designs, I said "I had brown hair when I started in this business!" We laughed, she liked the joke and felt comfortable with my ability to design a great kitchen for her and her husband.

I was at a previous job for 8 years and it's a good feeling being in the groove again.

A little personal life reveal here.
I thought at my age, I would semi-retire, pick a few projects and have more than 50% free time. That hasn't happened. The company I'm working for got stronger after COVID. We opened a showroom last year and the owner wants greater sales this year.
While we were allowed to use the showroom during construction, we couldn't make any financial transactions until the city signed off on the building permit. I had a client meeting the morning the building inspector gave us the 'go-ahead' and I made the first sale in the new building. Milestone.

That means, new logo, shirts, business cards. I'm enjoying the new look!

This week was hectic with lots of appointments and a few new projects to price.
I'm feeling some pressure to have all my commitments on time. If there is a time constraint, I still make my meetings and gather more information for the next meeting. This is okay as every project has multiple sets of revisions. So if my drawings aren't 100% complete for the meeting, my presentation is good knowing client revisions are normal.

I reached out to some older contacts and they have started bring me new business. Passing by a jobsite with a new house going up, I connected with the general contractor and will have the opportunity to bid that project and get added to bid any future projects they have. Win-win.

I think the new car purchase this year is also a boost of positive energy. Nothing wrong with the previous car, as it was only 3 years old. I do a fair amount of highway driving and the new car rides nicer, more comfortable with less interior road noise.

Things are good. Real good. My mood is up, I decided to use a designer who had some free time to help me with drawings. I'm using her as a tool to allow me to be more productive and not use my additional free time for play and not work.

That brings me to a few things. Hopefully we all know the distance of Internet (not seeing, hearing people as in real life) often reflect a view that is different to what the person is like in real life. Because of this, some people could be perceived as arrogant, moody, aggressive, mean spirited or bitter when they are actually not. Like a mirror, I've returned less-than pleasing comments with less-than pleasing comments. That doesn't show me in the light I would like to be seen. Someone said 'don't argue with a fool, they will bring you down to their level' I must remember that.

Member gonelikethewimd who is like her name, comes in only to comment and quickly disappears. She commented on another blog that I appear to be taking all the news surrounding ex-president Trump personally. Could it be? I respect her opinion, but every news channel, Yahoo page, YouTube video is 95% about him. In truth, there is nothing I could that could add or subtract to what is going on with the lying and legal mess he created. We can only wait and see the outcome.

My inspiration blog...

A fictive story, I am calling the man Jack. I must say, this could be in any other household a millions of times over:

Jack adored her, from the day he brought her into his home. She could do no wrong and if Jack was not pleased with something she did, she would give him such a sad face, without a word, Jack knew she was sorry, very sorry, so sorry. He had to love her.

Jack never expected her to do anything in the house, she never needed to clean, not even when she made a mess. She would not be expected to do the washing up or any other kind of household work. Jack would make sure she had good food, only the best for her, sometimes being cooked separately. Jack didn’t mind the extra work, she was worth it.

They would have intimate times together, like when he sat on the couch watching TV, she was quite large and took up most of the couch but she would put her head on his lap and he would offer her some nice snacks which she always appreciated.

At night she would warm his cold feet, during the daytime they would go for nice long walks, he usually suggested the way, but sometimes she wanted to go somewhere else, he would always give in to her suggestion, they never argued about anything, a perfect couple.

Many years later, she became ill and was suffering. Of course Jack brought her to see a doctor but it became obvious she would not recover.
And one day, Jack had to say a final good bye to his beloved.

Today, Jack sits on the sofa next to his wife, who was banned from sitting next to her husband for so long, as Jack darling would not let her get anywhere near them. His wife was the one that keeps the house clean, cooks, does the washing and speaks her mind which does not always please Jack, but then, he did marry her.

I joined Connecting Singles in July of 2018. While some people have complained that I write 3 to 4 blogs a day. I'm currently on 1,639 and lost a few when the moderators cleaned their system.

Doing some simple math of 5 years at 360 days per year or 1,800 days not counting one or two leap years total in that time period. That's less than a blog a day and not 3 to 4 as others have claimed. Amazing.

The main blog page states:
"A Blog is a journal you may enter about your life, thoughts, interesting experiences, or lessons you've learned. Post an opinion, impart words of wisdom, or talk about something interesting in your day. Update your blog on a regular basis, or just whenever you have something to say. Creating a blog is a good way to share something of yourself with others..."


Limits aren't mentioned and I'm okay with that... you should be too.

Just bought an adaptor cable to plug a USB device such as a external harddrive or USB stick into my Samsung phone for 11 cents US$ with free international shipping from China.

How is this even possible?

If I buy and get something shipped in NZ the minimum postal cost is $9

WTF

And its delivered by the exact same person

(Had to share this, such a wonderful way to see stress)

my brain and
heart divorced

a decade ago

over who was
to blame about
how big of a mess
I have become

eventually,
they couldn't be
in the same room
with each other

now my head and heart
share custody of me

I stay with my brain
during the week

and my heart
gets me on weekends

they never speak to one another

- instead, they give me
the same note to pass
to each other every week

and their notes they
send to one another always
says the same thing:

"This is all your fault"

on Sundays
my heart complains
about how my
head has let me down
in the past

and on Wednesday
my head lists all
of the times my
heart has screwed
things up for me
in the future

they blame each
other for the
state of my life

there's been a lot
of yelling - and crying

so,

lately, I've been
spending a lot of
time with my gut

who serves as my
unofficial therapist

most nights, I sneak out of the
window in my ribcage

and slide down my spine
and collapse on my
gut's plush leather chair
that's always open for me

~ and I just sit sit sit sit
until the sun comes up

last evening,
my gut asked me
if I was having a hard
time being caught
between my heart
and my head

I nodded

I said I didn't know
if I could live with
either of them anymore

"my heart is always sad about
something that happened yesterday
while my head is always worried
about something that may happen tomorrow,"
I lamented

my gut squeezed my hand

"I just can't live with
my mistakes of the past
or my anxiety about the future,"
I sighed

my gut smiled and said:

"in that case,
you should
go stay with your
lungs for a while,"

I was confused
- the look on my face gave it away

"if you are exhausted about
your heart's obsession with
the fixed past and your mind's focus
on the uncertain future

your lungs are the perfect place for you

there is no yesterday in your lungs
there is no tomorrow there either

there is only now
there is only inhale
there is only exhale
there is only this moment

there is only breath

and in that breath
you can rest while your
heart and head work
their relationship out."

this morning,
while my brain
was busy reading
tea leaves

and while my
heart was staring
at old photographs

I packed a little
bag and walked
to the door of
my lungs

before I could even knock
she opened the door
with a smile and as
a gust of air embraced me
she said

"what took you so long?"

~ John Roedel.(love his word's )

Living in a 55 and older community only has some benefits and a longer list of 'not so good' things. Last week, the paramedics were in front of one of the units around the corner from me. This morning while doing my walk, I see a pile of things next to the dumpster. Crutches, a few different walkers, a shower bench to name a few. My guess is the person from last week didn't make it and the apartment is being cleared and prepared for sale.

Sadly, this happens often in retirement communities. A friend once said "There's only one way out!"

One thing that caught my attention in the pile of junk... a vertical flat screen TV with a floor base. My guess is it was used in retail advertisement. Very cool and I was hesitant to run back, get my car and bring it to my condo. Groan... not one more thing. So, I passed it by.

Actually, if there's something I'd like to get my hands on is a reel-to-reel tape recorder. I've got lots of rock band rehearsal and concert tapes I'd like to transfer to a digital format.
There are places that do it for a fee... thanks I'll keep looking.

One man's junk is another man's treasure.

There is so much sh*t in this world and if you look hard you will always find it.

Have had my far share in life but you know what I have seen too much pain, suffering and hurt to sweat the small stuff, as a nurse you see past the rubbish a lot of people talk and past the nastyness and you think shame I wonder who or what Hurt them so much that they can't see past it.

Life is a treasure and privilege, you get to breath without having an oxygen tank around you all the time, you get to walk around on both legs and feel the dirt under your feet,
You get to have a child just come up and hug you for being Mom, Dad, Granny or Grandpa,
Some people can't be those things, or have lost them.

Count ever blessing, look around you and marvel at this gift of life we mostly take for granted.

If you want you can find so much to love

I have seen some impressive ?skills? Of members on CS. Be it the various educational degrees, different languages spoken, personal wealth accumulated etc. etc.
I guess my favorite special skill would be dismantling a Ak47 or a G3, FN or R1 then assembling them again in record time. Blindfolded by the way.

Problem I have with my 'special' skill is that I doubt that I will impress many people with it these days

People in general seem more impressed by someone writing graffiti on a wall promoting some or other happy go lucky guy also known as a gay, fighting for mens rights to wear high heels and panties, even if he was born with a tool.
This world has me confused, does that put me into a certain category?
Are there any other MEN that feel confused or is it just me?

Child-proof caps, that adults cannot open! I used to joke about senior citizens who have to get their grand-kids to open the child-proof caps that they cannot open.
Two weeks ago, my cardiologist wanted me to change the medicine I'm using for hypertension. She gave me a sample bottle and the office gave me a coupon for the first month free.
It's a recent product and no generic is available. The pharmacy said it's $840 a month without insurance and $45 with. Ouch... as the one I was previously using was covered by insurance with a 'zero' co-payment.

Most of my medicines require a dosage of 1 time per day, this one is twice a day, but starting off, it regulates my pressure to normal with only one a day and that's a plus!

The sample has a childproof cap that requires pressing and squeezing but, the 'sawtooth' cap clicks and doesn't open without some great amount of force to open.
Enough of that... I'm putting them in a different bottle.