Lessons in life

My father watched them all - almost as much as The Godfather trilogy. We, in turn, watched along side him. Practically raised on Corleone's and Balboa's I can quote all of them pretty easily. But it was as an adult, renting Rocky 6, that a scene in the movie struck me as a great motivator. It's always been part of my own belief system but hearing it aloud - and today gen could certainly use some motivation - I thought I'd post it:

"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that..."

That says everything you need to know. If that isn't motivation then go home, get under the covers, and swallow that bottle of pills you clutch onto crying every night - there's really not much else to say. You keep moving forward - or as we say lately at home (quoting Dory from Finding Nemo) "Just keep swimming; just keep swimming."

Apples to Oranges

Everyone wants to scream that BP's spill is Obama's Katrina...really? Are hundreds of people evacuating, left stranded on rooftops, dying or being put to death in hospitals? No. Is there a tragic event taking place - yes. Let's not let the media run away with the drama to make something more than it is - because in reality, it's big enough all by itself.

However, an interesting article by David Gergen is here for your reading pleasure. He makes a good point - Obama should be and have been FAR more involved than he is/was. He reacted immediately, learning that key "immediate response" mishap from previous Bush. However, where is the action?!

We are spilling oil for over a month into the ocean and they still can't get it right. Did no one plan ahead and have a failsafe in case something of this nature ever occurred? Apparently not, at least not tested. Yea, let's off-shore some-more...guess we don't have to worry about that controversy any longer, whew!

Most importantly, why isn't Obama stepping up? Why does he believe it is solely the responsibility of BP and leaving them to figure it out? This is not the time to teach someone a lesson. Let's work collectively to fix the issue and THEN deal with consequences to the company at fault.

This is getting tired and ridiculous and his inability to react beyond his initial appearance is very Bush-like...hm, maybe that's where the Katrina resemblence comes in?

As Gergen pointed out - gather the minds and military, get them delegated to specific courses of action so you have people at all four corners working at their own angles to solve the matter - once the damage is under control youcan hand out the spankings.

Geez!

Next step...

Here we have the wall and pavers added. Next is getting the rock, planting the ruelia, lantana, and rosemary and we are done!

Tired isn't the word...

Boot camp all week and yard work all afternoon...to do this! I planted a couple more trees Thursday after BC and finished the sprinklers.
Prepped the ground Friday for sod to arrive for Sat. morning. Found this great stone on CL only a mile from home - three truckloads (1 1/2 pallets) later we still have 2 1/2 pallets left to pick up!

Sod arrived and we got to work - ALL DAY SATURDAY. I hurt everywhere...EVERYWHERE. We did a little here...

and a little more over here....and with 17 rolls left over we filled in the kids play area - Jojo's idea - what a great big brother. He swore he's water it by hand every day after school as one of his chores. I'll be trenching again this coming week to put in the sprinkler but thought he was so cute about it. He did the brick edging to make it look good and is so excited to have the kids play on it in a couple weeks.

We have guys coming to do pavers to edge the lawns and then we'll be done with this project! I think...I hope?! Very busy and ACTIVE week. I'm ready to come back to work and relax! HAHA!