Friday , March 2nd, 2012
Hello everyone and welcome to our first issue for March. February has come and gone and it was an interesting month here on Paradise Island and in other parts of the globe also.
A very regal start to this edition of our humble newsletter with this little tidbit of information and picture from Chrissie "Thought I show you a photo of my brother getting his MBE from the queen last week for his services in Helicopter safety maybe you might want to put it in the Express" (Congratulations does not quite seem to be enough to say -- WOW!!!!)As I sit down to start this newsletter, looking outside I see very black clouds and there seems to be a strong wind blowing and it looks very cold. It would not surprise me if we had some snow overnight. This morning however as I was enjoying my first cup of coffee of the day I heard a flock of geese overhead and thought to myself that if they have returned from their winter vacation down south then Spring really can not be that far away. It is a leap year this year .... I would love to hear how you spent your extra day - February 29!
Bicentenary of the creation of the Argentine Flag - The Argentine flag was hoisted for the 1st time on 27th Feb 1812 Today the central act in this city was in the morning, in a circular lookout spot overlooking a golf course and the naval base where there is a flag pole that flies a huge flag that can be seen for miles away out to sea. (Do you remember Sharon?) (yes Daphne I most certainly do remember) We did not go there this morning, but in the evening there was to be a concentration of interested groups to parade a main avenue and get to a replica of a historic building (still under construction, and is little more than a façade - though there are plans to make a large ceremony hall behind it) Anyway, we were at the meeting
place a few minutes before six, it was coming over pretty cloudy so Leo said take the umbrella just in case. A few fat drops fell and he got out of the car to see if anyone else was coming. Only Gustavo of the Saltenian group showed up, so they both waited under the awning of a book shop. The skies opened and the rain seemed to come down in a solid block- not a wall of water, a block.!! After a few minutes, the rain was battering every which way, so they both ran back to their respective cars getting soaked in those couple of meters. Hailstones started falling, so that was it, home we go. The streets were covered in water from curb to curb and went through the rain drains like waterfalls. We were home again by 6.30, it was clearing up again by then but that, my friends, was our participation in the acts for the bicentenary!!Meanwhile in Rosario where the monument of the national flag is ( Sharon has been there too!) (yes I was, and so proud to have been there too - very spiritual).
Global Express.
The 3rd of March is Charito's 49th birthday. Next year her daughter Victoria will be 15 on 23rd Feb - big party for girls that age here, and a few days later Charito will have her milestone 50th.A very Happy Belated Birthday to Victoria and our best wishes to Charito for a fabulous birthday on the 3rd.
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Bea, from the Catskills, New York, reports that they were having a snow blizzard. She says they are supposed to be showing their home this Saturday but that now all depends on the weather.
Susan from Ontario Canada wonders if you know how many dogs it takes to change a light bulb?
Years ago i had sent Pami a picture of us, when Sherley passed , Alan put it on cloth, and Pami made me pillow with our pictures on it. And the back she put music notes because hubby had a band for 50 years and still played at all our get togethers. She mailed me this from New York.Can you imagine my surprise when i opened it. Just wanted the people to see what a kind LADY she was. I have it wrapped in plastic so it does not get dirty: I have had this for over 3 years now, and every time i see it i think of her, and it sits on my end table, so I see it a lot . I loved her, and miss her dearly, and always will. Lena from Ontario who also wanted to share the Circle of Friendship picture that she came across recently on the internet.
Linda from Tallassee, Alabama asks that we take the time to read this as it is well worth the time…
'3900 Saturdays'
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those Lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:
I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous
signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he shouldbe in the broadcasting business. He was telling whom-ever he was talking with something about 'a thousand marbles..' I was intrigued and
stopped to listen to what he had to say....
' Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellowshould have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's 'dance recital' he continued. 'Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.'And that's when he began to explain his theory of a 'thousand marbles.'
'You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years.now, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks liveabout seventy-five years.
'Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came upwith 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.
It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail', he went on, 'and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.' 'I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of themleft to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.'
'Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.
There's nothing like watching your time here on thisearth run out to help get your priorities straight .'
'Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time.. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.'
'It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!'
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.
Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. 'C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast.' 'What brought this on?' she asked with a smile. 'Oh, nothing special, it'sjust been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.
(Interestingly, this is one of the very first things I read on the internet and I always think of this story -- sadly I have to work weekends but I spent as much time with my family as I can during the week and would not want it any other way!)
And so, as one smart bear once said.....
'If you live to be a hundred,
I want to live to be a hundred minus one day,
so I never have to live without you.' - Winnie the Pooh.
Our facebook site of the week is The World Wide Web Circle of Friends -- please be sure to visit once in a while as it can be pretty lonely over there. Be sure to recommend your favourite facebook site for next week!Oh and speaking of facebook, I was the 100th fan of Disney on Ice.
Norma from Alberta Canada would like us to remember to always laugh.
What a lovely time I had putting together this week's newsletter. This newsletter is published by the members of the World Wide Web Circle of Friends for the members of the World Wide Web Circle of Friends about the members of the World Wide Web Circle of Friends. We are everyday people doing extraordinary things on an International Scale on the web! Each of us are unique and there is no one else like us in the entire universe. We have different life experiences, different cultures, different ideas and some of us even speak different languages but "we are family" and we care and love to share! We acknowledge and embrace those special qualities that make each of us the person that we are!
Remember please to email me, Sharon, any time you want to as I love to hear from you but especially please email me with your stories, jokes, pictures, whatever to share in next Friday's issue and it would really mean a lot to me if you left a comment about this week's issue. Thanks! Have a great weekend and a fabulous first week of March.
