polar bear

Dot- I don't think there are any secrets. I just put up with the things that I know I can't change. We are both stubborn people and we have come to realize that. Perhaps that helps. We started out as friends and enjoyed the same things like music etc. I think that's important. It was important to me that we both trust in God in our lives. We do pray together for things in life. I think for the most part we built our relationship, in no way did it start off as being great. In fact we went through many hard times. Twi pressures etc. bringing up kids, we almost lost it several times. I think a part of it is we were very fortunate to find each other and to stay together. I know many don't make it and whether or not you do you just have to start over and realize it's never too late. It took many years for us to find what we wanted. Perhaps patience and searching for the one you will really be happy with is the best advice I could ever offer.

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked him how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, “Only a little while.” The American then asked, “Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?” The Mexican said, “With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs.” The American then asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”The Mexican said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife,Maria,stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos; I have a full and busy life.” The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually to New York where you will run your ever-expanding enterprise.” The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?” To which the American replied,”15 to 20 years.” “But what then?” asked the Mexican. The American laughed and said that's the best part. “When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.” “Millions?... Then what?” The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.” Keeping life simple and traveling lite is where it's at, eh!!

THanks exe-that was sweet. Showed it to wifey and she almost died.

Absotultely great. I'm not saying it's "Hollywood" and it's not always perfect. But I am happy and thankful and loved. What more could you want. It's been 24+ years.

Great post Sky-this should be on the new definition of twi. It describes twi to a "T". All I could add is AMEN.

Try this one of him. It's even funnier.

I feel like singin' too- Ring around the "Rosie" Pocket full of posie, We all fall down

Happy Anniversary, glad to hear of folks who have stayed together. PB

Another couple of good guitarists-Chet Atkins playing with Mark Knopfler-

Hammy you gave me an idea, maybe we could read "boobs". LOL You take the left I'll take the right.

Thanks RG. Yep it's turkey time here. It's the warmest thanksgiving we've ever had. Gonna be about 80 degrees here today. I'm thankful for that. Still swimmin' in my polar bear pond. Thanks to all fellow greasespotters for the good times here.

To me the greatest leader is the greatest servant. Der Vay taught it but never lived it.

Yep, der vay tended to spuritulize everything. Why not just say "I'm looking for a new car"?

Don't know about places to live but she better start practizin' her accent for the folks gettin' off the plane- Yall come back now y' hear.

Tonto-You're such a doll.

Scotty Anderson-quite a good guitarist.

Ah a proud MOM. Go girl!

All the men need is a red cape and they could be bullfighters. (Like those ties). Maybe the brown is due to the fact they could use a little grazing. Hey what are they doing, they look half asleep. Could it be- 1-listening to Rosie 2-singing one of those half baked sing along the way songs for the millienth time. 3-listening to some guy read a scripted teaching. 4-thinking about how they'd rather be home watching football. I'll take number 4.

RG-you must have ESP-I've been working on some R Nelson songs lately. You hit it.Here's a new guy, very talented-Raul Midon-

Sudo-Here's the redneck word of the day-Wileurup-(translation)-While your up= get me a beer. Have a beer on me- PB

I spent some time at all of the root locations, there were problems at every one. A couple of examples= One staff member at Gunnison told me there was so much paper work and red tape to go through just to buy one screw it wasn't worth the effort. He got so frustrated he quit very shortly after we had talked. He was a wonderful man with a great heart. Another time while staying at HQ in New Knoxville I was talking to someone about a new patio that was built at the auditorium. It was absolutely beautiful, no one other than this egocentric moron would have thought otherwise. Well this goof ball told me that he wasn't happy with it and was going to have the contractor come and do it all over again. Well I thought to myself, this poor contractor is going to think we are nuts. Later I found out most of the work that was done for the Way by outside contractors was never good enough. Great witness. Oh, I've got many but I'll limit myself to one more. A friend who was living at the dorm at HQs told me that there was a manual you had to read before you were allowed to live in the building. You could only use the soap, detergent, and all others materials that the manual prescribed. There were also hundreds of rules as to when and where you could go at certain times. (No thanks, I'd rather live in a grass hut.) Why it took me so long to wake up, I'll never know. I guess they had a pretty good hold on our minds.

Thanks SKy-great point as always. Yes VPee thought he had started the greastest thing since sliced bread, or that's what he led us to believe. Only the bread turned out to be "stolen from the bakery". We fell for the old "wolf in sheep's clothing trick". Weirwolf that is.

I want my money back-LOL

Dear Lifted Up-In response to your request. I don't want to rehash the gory details because it will bring up garbage that I have since moved on from. However you can find many examples of mistreatment in the "my story" threads. Thanks DWBH-Your insight is always appreciated. Great post-that is worthy of a thread on it's own. We're not worthy.LOL. WW-Thanks for your imput, you have as always a very unbiased and logical viewpoint.

Dear Cowgirl-Hope your day is filled with joy, have lots of cake and avoid those cowpies