Well, that was rather anti climatic if I do say so myself!

I some how wonder just what that was all about, the star business, I mean.  But I sure found out who my supporters are!  To refresh here, I needed only a few feedbacks to reach my thousand feedbacks and my star would change colors.  Several of you emailed me that you would leave me feedback on eBay if you could, but they do have thier rules.  First you have to buy something from me and then you can leave feedback.  And you can only leave one feedback a week.  So I lingered at the 998, then along came Cindy Darrow, my niece,  to the rescue.  She left lots of feedbacks for things she had bought previously.  That put me up to 999.  She then began buying Lip Bong and leaving feedback.  But they still did not count!  Only one per week counts. ;(
Then some time in the night pheadwood left feedback for an Avon necklace and my purple star quietly turned red.  That was it!  No glowing letter from eBay extolling my virtues as a seller.  No fan fare.  No nothing.  But I do have to tell you about this niece of mine.  She is the daughter of my late oldest sister.  She lives in Oklahoma, so I do not see much of her, but I may make the effort to remedy that this summer when I head south to see my son in Dallas.
I am not sure just what the girl does down there, but I do know she sent me 250 of the big Crown Royal Bags.  She also sends me lots of electronics that actually work along with new stuff that comes from Lord only knows where.  I think she may have connections and may be one of  "Lou's Little Angels" who are people who work quietly behind the scenes for my little causes. 
Some of this is routed through her brother, my nephew.  And why does she do this?  These things are earmarked for the AIDS clients that I work with here in Pueblo.  If we want money for something like candle wax to make candles for the homeless, the office in the Springs does not fund that!  If we want to have an outing away from the office and just let out hair down, like at the bowling alley, the office in the Springs does not fund that.  A long walk on the Nature Center trail followed by a hamburger some where; the office in the Springs does not fund that.  While I do my own funding for most of the social events as far as the food aspect goes, there are a lot of little things this money furnishes.  I call this the "Lou fundraiser". 
Of course this is not tax deductible for you or me either.  If I were walking the streets asking for money it would probably be illegal.  What I have done is just let it be known to  a few of my friends that here in the Pueblo office we like to do special things for our clients to kind of raise their spirits and make them feel a little more human.  This money goes through no channels except me.  My first donation came from my friends Kay and Frank.  Then Cindy took up the banner and ran with it.  Last week I put almost $300 in the "Lou Fundraiser"  and I have more stuff on eBay now, along with a box right over there that needs to be photographed and listed.  More then one way to skin a cat in this old world.
As long as I have friends like Cindy and Kay and Frank, I will do just fine operating on the skirt of  the organization.  And as for my feedback number and the sad little red star, life goes on.  I am now setting at 1002 and I do not know when the next change will be, but I do know that I have friends out there rooting me on and that is all that really matters! 
And do you know what sponsored links are?  Those are places that pay me money when you go there and buy stuff.  And where do you suppose that money goes?

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Didjaeverthink?

I have secrets that I will take to the grave.  We all do, I know.  May not be earth shattering to anyone if they knew them, but to me they are sacred.  Well there is only one, really.  No, there are two of them.  One is something that was never a real secret, but I knew.  Wait, make that three.  There was that first one, and then that second one.  At the time people knew, but they forgot.  Those two were never real secrets, but that third one is so secret that only me and God knows it, because the other person who knew has been dead a while and I think that person forgot even before they died. 

Oh, boy did I ever have one of those didjaeverthink days today!  I had what I thought was a friend and I came that close to telling my secrets.  Imagine how I would feel now, knowing just how close we actually weren't, had I told my secrets.  A very wise man once told me, "You know of people.  You do not know a person. Only that person can know himself."  He was right.  I have a face I present to people when I first meet them, but I am not good at keeping that face on and next thing you know, I have a new best friend and I will tell that best friend only the truth about myself.  Well, needless to say, not everyone is honest nor do they want honesty.  So, poof, there went my new best friend.

Needless to say I have a bit of a problem trusting people, so when I do put my trust in one of the friends I make, and they disappoint me, I am crushed.  I am learning lots of little lessons here on this big world of the Internet.  I am learning that as well meaning as people are, and as sincere as they appear to be, it is not the same as setting down at Starbucks and having a conversation face to face.  Eye contact means a lot to me.  I have made friends (?) with several people on the Internet and had gut wrenching conversations with at least one of them, laughed hysterically with another, been advised in business by one, know an other's grand kids by name and thought about a quasi affair with another.  So, why am I sad when one of these faceless figures disappears on me?  Hell, I don't know!

But in my favor, I must say, I still have my secrets.  The key to whether I trust you will be whether I share my secrets.  So far there is no temptation any where.  Like I said I almost told that one guy, but lips are sealed and it turned out well that I kept mum.  I set down to write this blog and things come out of me that amaze me.  You people probably know me better then the people I deal with on a regular basis!  You are my Internet friends.  Some of you are actually family and friends that I know.  Some of you are faraway friends that I have met.  Some of you I will meet at a later date, but the one thing you all have in common is you see the honest, forthright side of Lou.  When I meet a stranger the first thing they say is "I feel I have known you all my life."  I, myself, have never met a stranger! 

The people I meet on the Internet are faceless friends.  Sometimes I have a picture I can put with a face, but there you go.  Is that face the face that actually goes with that name?  One of my friends is apparently a bull dog!  One will not tell if they are male or female.  I have a closeup of Amy's mouth.  I met Jacci in Blackwell, Oklahoma and Ely at the bottom of Missouri.  My son has raised his voice at me more than once over what he refers to as my insane behaviour, but he does not understand.  I do not just run around and meet people wily nily.  I first have a connection with them.  Then I feel their vibes.  And I always say my prayers.

OK, I am willing to bet I have strayed from the topic again.  I know one thing, I am getting hungry so it must be supper time.  I am going to run my spell check (I love that feature),  read this over and see if it makes any sense at all, and if it does I will hit the publish button!

Hey, I understand this and that is scary in and of itself!! 

Laughter is the best medicine!

Oh, it is now official!  I always thought that laughing was good for you.  At least unless you laughed at the wrong time or place, but now I know for sure.  My copy of http://www.realage.com/ came over the Internet today with tips to keep me younger than I think I am.  Had something to say about how good Butternut Squash was for me, but I promptly blew that one away and glombed on to the one about laughter.

It is a fact that laughter will lower your blood pressure 10 points in 20 minutes.  I have perfect blood pressure and take nada for anything.  Oh, one little thyroid pill which without, I am very tired.  That is to be expected at my age.  Lord, I have kids that are on all kinds of stuff for all kinds of things.  I have friends who look like a walking pharmacy.  But here I am, the happiest little thing you will ever come across and now I find it is good for me.  I know if I do not interact and laugh with my friends I just get a little blah.

Life in my little corner of the world is usually rather pleasant.  I keep the bills paid and the wolf away from the door so it is mostly a day to day thing, but if I keep an open mind and do not dwell on the mundane I can get a chuckle out of about anything.  Icarus the cat jumped on Elvira the dog and got a free ride one morning.  Goose tripped over a duck and landed in the pond.  Bret seen a spider in his room.  Now granted, I probably have a sick sense of humor, but it is humor none the less.

I think I am getting ready to make a point here.  Life is short.  Life is simple if you let it be.  When it gets complicated, you loose control.  So there is much to be learned from the KISS theory, which you all know means Keep It Simple, Stupid!  My biggest problem is trying to think for someone else.  I basically want to please every body, but it does not work like that.  I learned in seventh grade that "You can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can not please all of the people all of the time."

I also learned that you never really know anybody, you only know OF them.  I can not be inside their brain so I can not know what they think.  Know what I do sometimes?  I should not tell you this, but I will.  Pretty sure I will live to regret it, but I am banking that most people who read my writing, chuckle and forget what I say.  Sometimes if I am listening intently to something you are saying that is boring me to tears, I have a little smile on my face and nod and interject my one word comments.  My mind is a million miles away at that point.  Know how to tell if I am really with you?  If I laugh.

If I laugh, I am listening, because sooner or later everyone I know will say something that my twisted mind can get a laugh from.  If I laugh a gut wrenching belly laugh, you truly have my attention.  If I touch you, you are home free.  I rarely meet anyone I can not laugh with, and if I do, I only see them once cause next time I will make an effort to get out of their way.

So your assignment for today is to lighten up!  Shake loose and get down!  Life is short!  Life is wonderful!  What does not kill you will make you strong!  So get out there and carpe diem!  And whatever you do, find the humor in the situation!