A Silver Lining in Every Cloud

06:30 awoke me to the sound of water gushing out of the overflow spout on the rain barrel outside my bedroom window.   L This is the first day of the New Liskeard Fall fair newliskeardfallfair.ca  Ah the clatter of hooves on the pavement, the bustling school kids sticky with cotton candy and of course the sloshing and slopping sound of wet sneakers trudging through the fair grounds. 

This is what a fall fair is all about.  The smell of farms in town. The bawl of that cow that just really wants to be back in the pasture digesting lunch.  The carnies roaming the street at all hours searching out the elusive Tim Hortons.  And,, of course,, RAIN!!

But the rain never seems to dampen the spirit of a good fall fair.  The show just simply goes on.  This too is how events unfolded for me this week. (and a big shout out of thanks to that inner fall fair spirit in me too).  I had been waiting for some news this week.  News that I’ve been working on for nearly 2 years.  I got the news, but it wasn’t what I wanted. –insert rain cloud here-.  It was a set back for sure, but you know, the silver lining showed through.  Not an hour later a little glimmer of hope.  A ray of sunshine like a pin prick through the darkness.  The goal seeming so lofty that by the time the ray shot through the distant clouds it had cast a much wider glow way down here in my reality. And the show appears to be going on again.  The silver lining in the big dark cloud folding back a little corner of itself to expose the shiny possibilities of what’s to come.

If there is a lesson to be had in any of this for me it has to be about looking for silver linings.  Rain or Shine the fair will happen this weekend.  Kids will still be flush with sugar, teenagers will be gazing into each others eyes as their cheeks dis form with the G forces on the sizzler, prize quilts will be displayed proudly with big shiny ribbons pinned onto them.  It is what it is!  Its Fall Fair Weekend.  The pursuit of personal betterment is what it is too.  A little rain isn’t going to hold me back either.

Over and out.

Harder 4 Carter, BMX and kids helping kids.

Hi gang.  Eeesshhh, I've been a tardy blogger.  Life's kind of gotten in the way lately, but I thought I'd check in and do a little shout out on behalf of the Aviva Community Fund and our supported project, H4C (Harder for Carter)   http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf16058


We are now in the next round of voting for this great idea and I am asking everyone I can to take a 30 second break from their day and log into the link above http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf16058 or here for that matter, and lend your support to this.

Over the weekend I took my son and two of his buddies to Joyride 150 http://www.joyride150.com/  Man that place rocks!!!!   90+thousand square feet of indoor bliss if you own a bike and like to scream around on a perfectly taylor made BMX / Hard tail ,, well,, joyride!!!

What was more amazing though, was watching as kids of all ages rode around, and improved their skills together.  I watched kids wait their turn, offer tips and advice and cheer one another on as they did absolutly amazing feats of skill on their bikes.

This is EXACTLY what our little community needs and with your support you too can help us.  Heck, when we succeed, throw your bike into your wheels and come up and see us!!! We're great hosts.

Offering a venue where kids can interact, socialize, excersise and hone their skills will be a real boon to our community.

Looking for all of your H4C votes.

Thanks and chat soon.
Over and out.

Hey you!!! long time no talk

Howdey gang.  Where have you been?  I hope pennies have been falling from the sky for all of you.  My penny stars have been aligned and I'm still getting to eat a solid diet and not just Kraft Dinner so I suppose all is well.

How do you feel about where your savings are going these days?
Do you feel your money will see growth in the near term, mid term, long term?
What do you want to hear about? ( I know, as a blogger I should be TELLING you what you want to hear about!)
Thars' gold south of the border is all I can say!!  The US looks good to me from a Value stand point.
More to come on that,,

I often find myself scratching my head as I try to take a position on something.  Take airport security for example.  Now I have not had the pleasure of a beautiful security guard palm me in a pat down, (but it might happen one day,, haha) but we have all seen stories on the news about people being compromised on their way to their next flight by means of an X-ray or wandering hand.  Much like the concept of what a market will bear, I think a certain threshold will be found where people will only tolerate so much before they back off on air travel and cash strapped airports and airlines will adjust.

So yesterday I saw a flurry of postings on Face Book about security settings and how we should all forward back and forth to our network in a dizzying matrix of collective head nodding, our dissatisfaction for Face Book's new ability, effective today, to have more access to our content on our personal profiles.

Here is my question.  (I pose the question because I don't really quite know what to think just yet).  Would you be willing to jump ship and get on board with a new platform of social media if you feel Face Book goes too far?

My guess is the folks at FB have thought this one out pretty well.  Face Book has become an integral part of daily living for many.  Arguably the connected majority.  It's an easy position for them to take.  Access info from half a billion people and use it to make more money.  Simple I suppose.  Now before we all sit up and blurt out whoa whoa whoa!!  Let's think about this for a sec.  Why should we let this bother us?  FB isn't a right.  It's a choice.  We are effectively offering our personal information in exchange for a free service.  If we paid for Face Book, then hey, I'd be the first one first one waiving my finger with my other hand on my hip saying " no you don't Mister!"

I think what it all boils down to, is weighing out the pro's and cons of  connecting with the masses. We will have to collectively decide if we want to continue communicating and staying connected in the way we have become accustomed to in exchange for the release of some personal information.  If we feel we do not want the compromise we will back off as in the analogy of airline travel.  I see this sort of imposition as an opportunity for innovative thinkers to create a new tailor made networking platform.  I guess we'll have to wait and see. 

Tech and my pennies

Well here we go. The first attempt of trying to stay connected and blut my thoughts. Had a fantastic Christmas and hit the office again today. Today was a day when I was reminded that my business is not about selling insurance products. Its about being there for families with money when they need it the most. I really hope u all have a great 2011. Ill keep working at blogging. Keep your comments coming. Happy New Year. I hope u all have a great year

:-( = not good :-) = good!

My day at work started on a grouchy note.  Bit by bit I transformed into someone I am usually not.  I grumped out on some poor fellow on the phone and had some nasty thoughts for a few others.  What a dark cloud!! On my walk home for lunch, I didn't want to feel better.  I wanted to be bitter.  But you know,, I got a big smiley hello from someone that completely changed my tack.  Quick lunch, sunny day and before I knew, my walk back to the office was completely different.  the sun was in my face,  I walked on the sunny side of the street and presto!  Got lots of work done, had pleasant conversations with some folks and all was good.
Bottom line,,, It really is all about what you make it.  So go on,,, if you see a grumpy face while out and about, give it a big smile and you may transform someones day,
Over and out

SUV's, large screen TV's and forced labour 'till age 62!!!!

We are now about 24 months into and on our way out of a pretty horrific period of global financial instability.  The dust has settled, the slow motion replay's have been made over and over and we have a pretty good idea of what not to do next time.  Excess is the word which sums it up.  In many cases the world has fingered the financial industry movers and shakers for taking excessive risk.  In other cases people have fingered consumers for their excessive personal debt. It doesn't matter any more. Buying too many SUV's , large screen TV's and allowing our finance industry to bundle all that consumer debt into personal "equity" loans sold as high valued real estate investments was a bad idea. Important part is we have pretty much learned our lesson. Haven't we???  Well I think here in north America we have.  We know that for many, working well past age 65 will be a reality.  And heck, what's so bad about that?  We are living longer and the reality of out living our retirement savings is something everyone must  be aware of.  So why in the hell don't the Europeans get this???  COME ON!!! this nonsensical behaviour of protesting, striking and more or less causing havoc with global markets because you now have to work until age 62 (I'll type it so we don't forget it) SIXTY TWO!!!  is pure Balderdash!!  Suck it up Europe!! You get like 400 weeks a year of paid vacation, evade income tax like it's and entitlement and have posh government benefits.  Don't look at north America's excess as the only reason you are in tough times.  Your EXCESSIVE leisure has a lot to do with it too! Over and out,,,