True Heroes. Do you know any?

The other day, I was in a store looking at the somewhat empty shelves when out of the blue, this lady came up to me, swallowing me whole with her arms and said, "You guys saved my live! Thank you!"  I had never seen this lady before and had no clue what she was talking about. Then I realized, I was wearing an old non-uniform fire department T-shirt. After squeezing the dickens out of me, she smiled and excused herself for her imprompt hug as she explained she was rescued by firefighters (in a different city) by firefighters from her burning house in the wee morning hours. I guess I just got the thanks for all firefighters who wear that shirt. As I stood there stunned and as she turned to walk away and waved, I started thinking about all the unsung heroes in our lives.

Our country and world is in pain, but there are MANY people who get us through the days. I this new lunar year and year two of the pandemic, global unrest in different parts of the world, my thoughts go to the nurses and doctors who have never stopped taking care of us during the worst times. The police officers who enter into domestic violence situations not knowing who will pull a gun or knife. To the convenient store employees who work through the dark nights who make sure they have milk and bread for working stiffs who forgot to pick it up during the day. Or the mechanics who keep our country running, along side of transit/bus workers, factory workers, postal workers, care home workers, teachers, waitresses, and so,so many more ... and yes, firefighters like me. Retired too.

We ALL know heroes, the heroes are us. We ALL play a role, in our way, of being a hero to and for someone. We ALL do our part in keeping our country, our world rolling along from day to day. Some of us may do the more risky jobs, still it is an important one. You don't necessarily have to be war hero, or charging into a burning building, or pulling a drowning person from the water, or catching a bad guy. It's the unsung heroes that get little attention I salute. The people that movies are not made about are the heroes too. The average person who is doing their job to the best they possibly can are the heroes. 

I constantly thank the UPS driver, the grocery cashier, the postman, the shoe shine guy, the deli worker, the lady in the window at Starbucks, the construction worker, everyone for doing their part.  I believe we need more 'thank you' than criticisms. We do not know what the criticised person went through in doing their job. I just appreciate them doing it. Like the commercial says, "We are all Caesars", I believe we are ALL HEROES. Just like you. Take care and stay safe.

Thank you Marvel comics for this drawing.

I am a people watcher

 Yesterday, I spent the day doing what I really like ... looking at cars and watching people. I went to the Barrett-Jackson car auction. One of 7 car auctions in the Phoenix area this week. I can't make to all of them but I will manage to get to a couple. Yeah, I know am a 'motorhead'. But the other thing I love to do at car auctions, and actually anytime I am in the midst of a large group of people, I love just watching them. No it's not creepy or weird, it's interesting to see people interact and their reactions to normal daily things.

At a car show or auction, as the case was yesterday, their expressions about a car they would love to own, or the price it is sold for, or the nonchalant gaze they give a car as the slowly walk by. As if they don't want to other people see how much they like it or dream the have it. Then there are the young couples who goggle over their dream car in their future someday. Oh, then there are the rich elderly men with a 'companion' (not necessarily their wife) on their arm who have bought some many cars because they can. Or the motorhead like me that look at  the different styles and inventive ways customizers have reshaped metal changing the body into something unique and very cool.

I see all manners of people coming to events like these with their children, a date, wives, a bunch of guys and just a single person by themself. You really didn't have to be a car enthusiast, you could just be someone who was just looking for something to do. But let me warn you, it got very crowded when thousands of people pour into some overgrown tents, and everyone wants to gather around more than 2,500 cars checking out every angle of the car and they won't move when your carrying a couple overflowing glasses of beer to your buddies. Sometimes, some person gets a touch bit rude. Not me of course.

It does not matter if your skin color is white, black, brown, yellow, red or something in between. Car shows and auction are always a hit. And to see all these different cultures coming together in a one common event they all like is heartwarming to me. That, to me, a world that has differences, but can group together without getting dismissed by others different from you. It's the same at sporting events, concerts, amusement parks etc. I partly grew up in the 'Jim Crow' era in the deep South where whites ONLY associated with whites and blacks were not allowed in town at night, and stuck within their part of town. As a child that hurt me, and I could not understand why. When an elderly black man, I was about to pass, stepped off the sidewalk, into traffic because I was white and I deserved the entire sidewalk? To this day, that still hurts. We are ALL the same race ... the human race. And under that one layer of skin, we are ALL the same. We just have to put our biases aside and join hands to make the world a better place FOR ALL.

Yes I enjoyed my day at Barrett-Jackson. I didn't buy anything, but I was one of those who drooled over a couple cars. But I wiped it off as I looked around. 😃 Take care and stay safe.

"Harrold, I am ready to buy a new car"

 If you know Nancy and I, you know Nancy is NOT a car person, and I am. So when Nancy said that to me I asked, "What brand of car do you want?" "I want a fully electric car." "Ok, what brand?" I don't know. Do some reach." And we were on our way. 

Of course Google is the only way you look up answers, so that was where I started. "Hey Google. What is the best electric car available?" Google came back with many options, so I had to sort through all the ads and extremely expensive ones, and see which ones suited her taste. She told me she want one that I would drive too. Now, you must know I am a motorhead that likes the rumble of an internal combustion engine with the smell of exhaust in my garage. A whining of an electric  motor was just not my thing. But after I drove my daughter's Tesla, I was sold. The acceleration is AMAZING!

I laid out a plan to visit three dealerships with different brands and let her see which one she liked. I would be the consulate and ask the hard questions to the salesperson. But Nancy asked some great questions too. 

First was a KIA dealership, not impressive. They only had a 2020 model, and did not expect any more in until we ordered one, and that took up to 6 months to get. WHAT? Then we went to a Hyundai dealership, and they had none, and the story was the same. None to drive or to even look at. They were getting 4 in, of which 3 were sold and the only available one was black ... bad idea in Arizona with our heat. Next stop was a Volkswagen dealership, hopefully to see their newly released model the ID.Q4. Guess what? None to drive, BUT, they did have three we could look at and seat in. The three were ordered and waiting to be pickup by the new owners. The salesperson explained why the long wait to get the EV s. Basically the same we all get when you order something, COVID, ships stuck in ports waiting to be uploaded, computer chip shortages, and so on, and so on. And of course Nancy liked the VW, and guess where it is built? IN GERMANY! A lot of their models are built in Tennessee, but not the ID.Q4.

By this time, my stomach was rumbling and lunch was in order. We discussed the day so far and from what the situation presented to us was we were forced to order a car online and put a deposit down before we could drive it or do the old fashion negotiation shuffle that I so loved. Dickering over the bottom line, standing up and acting to walk away as they drop the price ever more. I love it! But, no. The price was set in concrete and there was no dickering or negotiating at all. I have never bought a car or truck like this. Fold up my cards and go home? NO! Nancy wanted an electric car and we were going to get one. Yep, you got it, we ordered on online with a deposit. I was broken. All those years of 'wheeling and dealing' was shot down.

But the bottomline is, Nancy will get her new fully electric car, that I may drive occasionally, no more oil changes for me, less gas we have to buy, AND we can drive in the HOV lane anytime we want. Plus the acceleration is AMAZING! And the price is one we both were satisfied with. Except a 4 month wait is a pain in the a**.

Look at how far we have come

Nancy often comments when I point out something, "You notice weird stuff." Well, maybe I do. I know, I do notice things (I guess) most people take as commonplace, normal or no big deal. I believe little things eventually DO make other things change and change the future. Just think about the stuff around us that we did not have when we were kids, that today are so 'commonplace'. 

Of course, societies do advance over the years. Each generation becomes better than the previous one ... as least that is the way it is supposed to work. I hear some mature friends and relatives say, "Oh for the good old days when life was so much simpler." I don't know if it was simpler or we were to young and naive to notice what our parents were going through from day to day. As kids, we drank out of garden hoses, jumped out of trees or off a bank into a pool or lake, rode our bikes all over town in and out of traffic. And all we had to worry about was to be home by dinner time and get our homework in on time. To our parents, there was more. Making mortgage payments on time, sticking it out in a job you had been in for 30 years, having enough money to replace the old refrigerator, and generally making ends meet so you could take the family on a descent vacation. Does this sound familiar?

Things really have not changed, but the way we live has. Starting in the kitchen, cooking has gotten much easier with modern appliances. Microwaves (which use to be called 'radar ovens'). Refrigerators that are much bigger, and you can see through the door or watch TV on the door. Not to mention you don't have to cook at all, just order it and it will be delivered to your door hot and ready to eat. And when you order your ready to eat meal, you called the place on a cell phone that does not hang on the wall or have cords, or you don't have to make sure there is no one else on the line so you can make your call. For the younger readers, that is called a 'party line'.

Then there are the automobiles we drive. The ones you don't even need a key to start it, you tell it an address and it will map out a route and speak the directions while you talk to your friends, on your foldable cell phone, about getting together over the delivered dinner at you energy efficient home. Entertaining your friends that evening as you all sit around on the patio watching the big football game on a TV that is one inch thick and is as big as the sliding patio doors, IN COLOR WITH SURROUND SOUND!

Reminiscing about my younger days makes me feel like my parents and old. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as you remember appreciate the nice things you have because of the hard work and encouragement the past generations instilled in you. Of course there will be time when you feel your world you love feels like it is fractured and falling apart, just remember those 'good old days' and take a look around at what you have now. Then you can say, "We've done pretty good."

As the late president Ronald Reagan said," We see daily things as ordinary, when people in other times would consider  extraordinary."

Take care and stay safe.

Where is your TRUE home?

 First of all ... HAPPY NEW YEAR! May your new year be a healthy and prosperous 2022. 

The other day, I heard a longtime favorite artist singing on the radio, the late folk singer, John Denver. The song was "Country Roads", which is one of my favorites. As I was driving, I concentrated on the words about going home. I started to thinking about all the places I have lived in my life, and what do I call my real home. OK, from the beginning, I was born in Alabama, but never really lived there for a long period of time. Visits mostly, to my mother's family while I was very young. I have fond memories of that time, but I don't call it my real home. Then we moved to Cincinnati, and for about 18 years, I lived there. Again, good memories, but not my true home. While in the Air Force in the 60s and 70s, I lived in the Netherlands (Holland) and really enjoyed those years, and at one point considered living there, but finally ... no. Came back to Cincy for a few years and then moved to Arizona after traveling through, and thinking about several other states. That was in 1976, and we have not moved since. Maybe from one house to another, but always stayed in Arizona. Why? It's home. 

Home is defined in the dictionary as," A place where one lives in residence." I have had a lot of residences, but until I settled in Arizona, I really did not feel like it was MY HOME. We have traveled around the world to every continent (except Australia), and never found a place I loved more than Arizona. Everytime we get home from a trip, whether overseas or stateside, I ask Nancy, "Would want to live there?", and her answer is always the same,  "No, it did not feel like home."   We are always glad to get back to the desert. Yeah, it gets really hot here in the summer, and we don't have huge trees, or a lot of water, or a lot of grass, but we have adapted to the hazardness of the desert and made a good life here. It's hot in the summer, but the rest of the year makes up for that. If we want snow, we drive 2 hours north to the mountains. If we want ocean, we drive 5 hours west to the Pacific. And Mexico is only 3 hours to the south.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not inviting you to move here, and it's not for everyone. We do have things that bite, sting, stick you, but so does any place you go. But a visit would be good. 

I think everyplace has its good points and downfalls.  Cost of living, politics, housing, job opportunities, etc. But if you feel comfortable and surrounded by family and good friends, love your house ... then you are home. I'll admit, where else can you wear T-shirts and shorts all year long? Maybe Florida, but they don't have dirt, just sand. I guess the bottom line is wherever you lay your head, is home. I hope you have found yours. Let me know where your 'home' is. Please comment.

Take care, stay safe and Good bless you all.