Tragic Irony

Does karma catch up with a person? Is there irony in life?


"A bareheaded motorcyclist participating in a ride to protest mandatory helmet laws was killed when he was thrown over the handlebars in Onandaga, New York. The rider hit his brakes, began fishtailing and lost control of his 1983 Harley Davidson. He shot over the handlebars, hit his head on the pavement and was taken to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, New York, where he was pronounced dead.
State police say evidence at the scene plus information from the attending medical expert indicated he would have survived had he been wearing a helmet as required by state law." CNN 


This story is tragic... tragic in its irony... tragic in its consequences. A man died. Will his fellow protest riders wear helmets... unlikely according to the article. It is uspeakably sad to read this story and to know that this man's life is extinguished. Can good come of it? Of course... all of us who read the story and weep can learn something...

Petiquette

For those who have everything, including a dog or a cat that is part of the family....

Yep, they sell them... Their description says:

Satisfying a mutual desire for companionship, this high chair permits your dog or cat to accompany you at the dinner table. The high chair clips securely to tables up to 2" thick and its height adjusts without tools to elevate your pet to near eye level. It has a frame of powder-coated 5/8" steel tubing and its arms are rubber-coated so they will not mar table surfaces. By providing an alternative to sitting on your lap, running disruptively underfoot, or outright banishment, the chair assuages a pet (and its owner's) frustration, and promotes more refined behavior. The chair's 600-denier tan/brown nylon fabric cleans easily. Two tethers on the chair protect your dinner guests against any lapses in etiquette. Folds for convenient storage and travel. For pets up to 10 lbs. 10" H x 12" W x 9 1/2" D. (4 lbs.)

Unfortunately, it's not for sale anymore but... there is another supplier...

Would you buy one? Do you know people who would buy one?? Alas, our cats weigh more than 10 lbs so... not an option... 

But for those who are interested... only 4 left in stock on Amazon!!!

Music

Music is one of the joys of life, and we've come a long way in the last 100 years. It used to be our access to music was live, through someone who actually played an instrument. Might be a harmonic or a violin or a piano or a guitar. People would pull out their instrument and play something. My mother talks about how in the 1930s at Christmas, her dad would play the violin or her sister would play the piano.

Then we had records - the old fashioned grammophone. And all of a sudden, we didn't need to have musical ability in the room, we could bring it into the space through the magic of a record, usually playing at 78 rpm. Then we had 33 1/3 rpm and then 45 rpm.

Along the way, magnetic tapes got developed and all of a sudden there were reel-to-reel tapes - which could store a lot more music than one record. And they morphed into 8 track cassette tapes and they morphed into regular cassettes.

Then, we had the cd... and we all went out and replaced our favourite tapes and records with cds. And now what... well, now we have mp3 and iPod and wma and everything is digital. Miniaturization is at work.

A collection of records took up a lot of space, and they were heavy!! Cassettes and cds took up space as well... but now... now, I can have 4000 or more songs in a little thing that is the size of two fingers (more or less)... I have a virtual library of music at my finger tips. I can listen to anything and everything, whenever I want. I can listen through my computer, or through my iPod. Or I could get a little box that wirelessly connects to my computer network and then play the music over the speakers in the living room. Or I could get wireless speakers and listen to my music all over the house. The possibilities are endless...

And no need for boxes and boxes of records or cds or cassettes... I let go of my cassettes a long time ago. Most of the records went a few years ago... and now it's time to let go of the cds... a few at a time... a little bit here and there... so it's not too much of a shock!

15. TV and Phone cables/cords

So, this is another little clutter spot that resides in our laundry room. We have several boxes full of television cable cords, phone cords, and ethernet cords. Sooo... TV cable cords... we have a variety of lengths and styles. Some are the screw-on variety... some are the push on variety. Do we need them all? Nowadays with Telus Optik TV, they pretty much provide all the cables that you need... so... do we need these or not? Probably not... At least not a dozen cords of various lengths. I'm keeping two smaller cables and getting rid of the rest.

Telephone cords - well, they are always useful. You never know when you might need a huge long extension on the telephone, right? Well... nowadays with cordless phones, that's becoming less of an issue. And some people don't even have landlines and don't use telephone cables! There are also various little doo-dads in there - those internet filters, various connectors to double up phone cords, etc. Those are useful. So maybe it's to reduce the number of phone cables - keep a couple, along with the doo-dads and let the rest go.

And then the ethernet cables. Some are quite long, and quite expensive... Some are shorter, and would be useful for business trips, where you can plug into an ethernet connection in a hotel room. But nowadays, with wirless internet connections, do we need all these cables? Well, yes and no... it depends. Wireless is good, but a wired connection is faster and more stable. So... I think I'll keep these 4 ethernet cables for now... You never know when a need will show up and they represent a significant amount of $ whereas phone and TV cables are pretty cheap.

So, another little area decluttered... and done!

14. Light Bulbs

Light bulbs... these are a tricky thing nowadays. What with LEDs coming in and CFLs being big (that's compact fluorescent lights not canadian football league!), the question is what to do with the old incandescent light bulbs.... We have lots of them because when we moved in, we replaced them all with CFLs... Which leaves me wondering... Pretty soon, you won't be able to buy the regular light bulbs anymore, so should we hang onto these ones? Or should we let them go? They are perfectly good light bulbs, but we have no use for them, other than maybe for the light fixture outside in the back. Hmmm...

Then we have some globe light bulbs, like they usedto have on bathroom vanity light fixtures. Big huge dust catchers is what they are. Now, we don't have any of those light fixtures, so why they are in the house, I have no idea... So, they could probably go to Value Village... maybe...

We also have some chandelier light bulbs, those little ones... and we do have a fixture that uses them, so I think we can keep those ones....

Back to the incandescent light bulbs.. Maybe it's time to reduce the number a little bit?? Keep a few and get rid of the rest? Sounds like a plan!

13. Laundry Room Supplies

Well, this was a fairly easy one, as there isn't a lot of stuff that can accumulate in our laundry room, other than dryer lint! Mind you, I did review all of the laundry soap and bottles that we have. Yep, they are all OK. There is also an old bookshelf in there that stores baskets of rags and bottles of extra cleaning supplies. Those are all OK too.

So, sometimes decluttering a space doesn't take very long at all! Mind you, I did divide the laundry room into a variety of zones because we store other things in there other than laundry supplies. My way of trying to get up to "Declutter 100 Things"!

So, we also have light bulbs in there, along with boxes of phone and cable and ethernet cords... coming up next!

Happiness

Today is Canada Day and a suitable day to reflect on happiness, given we live in the best country in the world.

I've been reading a book by Robert Houlden (of The Happiness Project) called Success Intelligence. Essentially the question is, does success bring about happiness? Does going faster, quicker, harder, more... make us successful and/or happy? The answer... not really.

There are essentially three levels of happiness:
1. Happiness comes from out there - in this case happiness depends on something outside of us - on our spouse, our house, our car, our job, our career, our iPhone... whatever it is - our happiness is intrinsically tied up with what we have. If we have a great job, or lots of money, then we think we'll be happy.

2. Happiness is something we create - so through our thinking, our attitude, our compassion, our forgiveness, we can create happiness in our lives.

3. Happiness is something we are - that essentially, at the core of our being, we are beings of joy. If we get under all the neuroses, all of the ego stuff... we are creatures of pure joy. This happiness can't be taken away, can't be altered. No matter what is going on in our lives, this joy is always there.

So the question is... does success create happiness... or does happiness create success. Yep, the second one... The author suggests that we follow our joy, which probably isn't going to be the 80 hour job that takes you away from your family, your home, your life. What is it that you are most joyful doing and being? What is your passion? What is your joy?