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Archive for the category “Family”

16 Oct 2011
2 Comments

LEARN TO SMELL THE ROSES

 

For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

One day I had lunch with some friends. Jim, a short, balding golfer type about 80 years old, came along with them—all in all, a pleasant bunch.

When the menus were presented, we ordered salads, sandwiches, and soups, except for Jim who said, “Ice Cream, please. Two scoops, chocolate. I wasn’t sure my ears heard right, and the others were aghast. “Along with heated apple pie,” Jim added, completely unabashed.

We tried to act quite nonchalant, as if people did this all the time… But when our orders were brought out, I didn’t enjoy mine.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Jim as his pie a-la-mode went down. The other guys couldn’t believe it. They ate their lunches silently and grinned.The next time I went out to eat, I called and invited Jim. I lunched on white meat tuna. He ordered a parfait, I smiled. He asked if he amused me and I answered, “Yes, you do, but also you confuse me.

How come you order rich desserts, while I feel I must be sensible? He laughed and said “I taste all that is Possible.

I try to eat the food I need, and do the things I should. But life’s so short, my friend, I hate missing out on something good.

This year I realized how old I was. (He grinned) I haven’t been this old before. “So, before I die, I’ve got to try those things that for years I had ignored.

I haven’t smelled all the flowers yet. There are too many trout streams I haven’t fished. There are more fudge sundaes to wolf down and kites to be flown overhead.

There are too many golf courses I haven’t played. I’ve not laughed at all the jokes. I’ve missed a lot of sporting events and potato chips and cokes.

I want to wade again in water and feel ocean spray on my face. I want to sit in a country church once more and thank God for His grace.

I want peanut butter every day spread on my morning toast. I want un-timed long distance calls to the folks I love the most.

I haven’t cried at all the movies yet, or walked in the morning rain. I need to feel wind on my face. I want to be in love again.

So, if I choose to have dessert, instead of having dinner, then should I die before night fall, I’d say I died a winner, because I missed out on nothing. I filled my heart’s desire. I had that final chocolate mousse before my life expired.”

With that, I called the waitress over. “I’ve changed my mind, “I said.”I want what he is having; only add some more whipped cream!”

SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS including me if I’m lucky enough to be counted among them.

Be mindful that happiness isn’t based on possessions, power, or prestige, but on relationships with people we like and respect. Remember that while money talks, CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM SINGS!

 

ANON

 

My dear friend Vickey sent me this message and it certainly made my day. I know my children, grand children and close friends wonder why I play so much golf, plan to do something every single day and write this blog. Like the man in this story I have never been 81 before and I am not through enjoying what life I have left.

 

I have had a blessed life, seen more of this world and America than most people will ever enjoy. Now when I see something new, learn something new, share my knowledge or make someone else happy every day, I am a richer man.  C Brewer
Posted by cb75948 in Family, misc and tagged , , , , , ,
11 Aug 2011
10 Comments

GOVERNMENT-HERE TO HELP YOU “OUT”

WHY DID WE WORK SO HARD?

Before you read this let me state that I am not looking for any sympathy from anyone. I am just an old man who worked more hours than most to achieve the American Dream. After 17 years of retirement I am convinced that my government is close to destroying my savings for as punishment for being successful. Obama’s obsession to share the wealth is destroying those of us that saved to take care of ourselves

Obama and his progressive army have finished destroying the American Dream of home ownership. Carter started the eventual demise a long time ago. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd protected the scam with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until the bubble burst. Barney still stands before the cameras to defend these government mismanaged organizations today.

Our government could not manage a bankrupt whorehouse in Nevada. How on God’s green earth did anyone with a third grade education, ever expect them to run Amtrak, the Postal Service, TVA, General Motors or Chrysler and break even, much less make a profit? Now the flood of new government regulations is destroying all businesses with idiotic and wasteful constraints.

In the last few days my IRA has suffered a near suicide. Does Obama or Congress care? No, they are on vacation and with their pensions, could care less that they have wiped out the savings of millions of senior citizens. For twenty seven years of service with a large defense contractor, I receive a pension of $221.47 per month. This will not even pay for the Medicare supplement for my wife and me.

I spent the last eleven years of my work life with one tall hill to climb. I knew before I started my first business what my pension would be. As I have a Masters in Business it was obvious that my future retirement would require personal savings to insure that we would survive old age.

In those eleven years I average 225 nights a year in hotels in over 27 countries and 49 states. I missed birthdays, anniversaries, my children’s school events and death in my family. Several of these trips exceeded 5 weeks and I amassed over 2 million miles on airplanes. Obviously my family also suffered.

Finally at age 64 I had saved enough to retire and with my savings in my IRA I felt secure. I had no fear that my children would not be burdened with caring for us when the time arose. I was blessed with a mind, driven to succeed and actually achieved every goal I had made for myself. Few honest people ever reach this pinnacle of success.

We are constantly asked if we are better off now than in the past by the self-ordained blood sucking saviors in Washington. Until Bush Two and Obama came along I could honestly say I have had a better life than most. I was better off each year as compound interest and long term investments were successful in maintaining my savings.

If Obama’s changes continue to improve as he keeps preaching, my savings will completely disappear before he completes his first term. If he wins another 4 years my children will not only have to take care of us, my grand children will never have a chance to even retire.

My question, especially to senior citizens, is your life these past four years better or worse than you expected?

I expect some feedback that I should have buried my savings in a fruit jar and it would all still be there. Well my 1994 dollars would be worth about $.38 cents today. If Washington keeps helping us with spending more than we have, will it be worth anything next year?

One more question. How many people, who are not working for the government, on welfare or drawing unemployment, feel they will be better off next year? I will be happy to share your names with everyone I can and I will try to sell you my “Golden Goose”. I got my goose from Washington with a promise that our government is always there to help me “out”. They just never explained what “out” was. “Out” seems to really be, “out” of luck, “out” of money, “out” of hope, hurry up and croak and get “out” of the way.

Clyde Brewer

Posted by cb75948 in Family and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
25 Jul 2011
1 Comment

BEAVER BELIEVERS

Our extended family’s last night at the 13th Brewer gathering at Surfside Beach Texas on July 15, 2011

Posted by cb75948 in Family
07 Mar 2011

EDUCATION OR “SOCIAL JUSTICE”?

 

 

Over the past few weeks I have spent many hours reading about the education situation in America. Over the past few days, I have posted several interesting articles regarding abuses and failures of our current educational systems. One thing is certain to me, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has done more in recent years to destroy the education system than improve it. What they have accomplished is “Social Justice” that President promised he would expand. He may not get credit for starting this “change”, but he deserves 90% of the credit for putting it in overdrive with twin afterburners wide open.

Billions of our tax dollars, in reality, have been used to make sure minorities and illegal aliens are provided a superior quality education opportunity than the remaining children. Money has been lavishly provided without equality in the staffing and equipping of what are called “Title One schools”. They have the finest and most expensive modern equipment available. They also have what are called “Re-starts” that are not provided to other schools equally. “Re-Starts” are specialists in subjects like reading, science, math etc., that the teacher has available to help with a single student if they have a problem in a particular subject. The costs for these programs are provided by the “DOE” and several other federal agencies with your money. If you doubt my facts I challenge you to go visit a “Title One” school in your district and ask questions and observe. Next go visit what is supposed to be an equal opportunity school, without this special designation. Review the 92 page DOE budget breakdown like I did and previously reported on. This is blatant discrimination specifically designed to share the wealth of others and deny equal opportunity for every child to have equal rights. 

If you doubt my facts then go prove me wrong. I actually observed this in a large Texas school district a couple of years ago. The teachers in the regular school had to spend many after hour’s time in preparing and copying study and work plans as they had to use critically limited equipment. There were no “Re-Starts” available to help with children who needed special attention. In the Title One school each teacher had the necessary equipment in their classroom. They could work on future study and work plans while the students were at work, at lunch and on the playgrounds. In addition the teachers and the principal in the Title One school were paid extra for having to teach mostly minority or illegal students. Even though the work environments were drastically different and the pay was uneven, I did not observe any difference in a teacher’s professionalism at either school.

Any “normal” American, by now, should agree that discrimination is wrong. Everyone should agree that discrimination in the past was terribly wrong. Regardless of anyones belief, penalizing any childs chance to get an equal education opportunity using “Social Justice” as a reason, is wrong. Our government for the past several years decided that revenge for what happened in 1700’s, 1800’s and early 19oo’s will be paid back in the 2000’s. We have been in a second civil war in America for the last 50 years. Sad but true, instead of the north against the south we have the government against the people and the people against each other. Thank God we are using words and printing money as ammunition instead of bullets. It is time to stop this self-destruction and we need a leader instead of a community organizer. Has anyone seen a leader emerge, I have not so far.

The primary reasons we have a decline in education in America has never been admitted or addressed by the DOE. Later I will share with you what are the prime reasons we have let educating our children erode and offer some specific recommendations.

C Brewer

Posted by cb75948 in Family, misc and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
18 Dec 2010
3 Comments

A CHRISTMAS BLESSING

Norma and I made the choice years ago to let our four children share Christmas day with their spouses family. We were happy to have them on Christmas eve when we lived close by. On Christmas day in 1991 we moved away from all of the children to the peaceful area of deep East Texas. Believe me, Norma came kicking and crying even though two of our four were no longer close by and our youngest, Leah, had just moved to St. Louis.

Since then we have hosted them all the weekend before Christmas and often actually spend Christmas in one of their homes but not interfere with their visit to the spouses family. Our daughter, Lisa, lost her husband to cancer nearly five years ago shortly after Christmas. Since then we have had every Christmas day with Lisa and Emma, our nearing nine-year old grand-daughter in Humble or here in Hemphill.

Today they will all arrive for Christmas here and we will have Lisa, Emma and a daughter, Laurie, here past Christmas day. Our son, David, and his wife, Karina, children Blake, Megan and McKensie will only be here one night. Leah, her husband Tony, children Alyssa and Nick will get to stay until Monday. Laurie’s son, Landon and his wife, Aerin will only get to stay one night.

We have been cooking all week and are blessed with a wonderful family. I hope anyone who reads this will have the happiest Christmas holidays of their life.

C Brewer     

Posted by cb75948 in Family
14 Nov 2010
2 Comments

A STORY TO MAKE YOUR DAY

 
When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.
  
On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don’t remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite!
  
When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I’ll never forget what he said: “Honey, I love burned biscuits.”
  
Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, “Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she’s real tired. And besides – a little burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!”
  
Life is full of imperfect things…..and imperfect people. I’m not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I’ve learned over the years is that learning to accept each other’s faults – and choosing to celebrate each other’s differences – is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.
  
And that’s my prayer for you today. That you will learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of God. Because in the end, He’s the only One who will be able to give you a relationship where a burnt biscuit isn’t a deal-breaker!
  
We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship! “Don’t put the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket – keep it in your own.”
 
 
Author unknown
  
God Bless You….. Now, and Always….!
 
So Please pass me a biscuit, and yes, the burnt one will do just fine.!.!.!.!  And PLEASE pass this along to someone who has enriched your life… I just did
Posted by cb75948 in Family, misc and tagged ,
15 Oct 2010
1 Comment

Dinner in Houston

This picture was taken October 9, 2010 where I attended and spoke to meeting of Auditors and staff of Quality Systems Registrars (QSR).

QSR was the first American owned company accredited to register organizations to meet ISO Quality Systems requirements in 1991. I was one of the founders and first President of QSR over 20 years ago. Currently Norma serves on the Board of Directors and we are major shareholders. One of the functions in Houston was to produce introductions of  each Auditor, some specialized technical interviews and one that I made to explain how we differentiate ourselves from others. A new and exciting website will feature state-of-the-art innovations with some advanced media enhancements. This will provide our customers or potential customers an in-depth and user-friendly way to explore all aspects of our services. Even at 80 I still get excited about advanced technology and ways to ensure that we provide our customers with full “satisfaction” rather than servicing their concerns. We live by “Doing the Right Thing, Right, the First Time”. During my active career it was easy to find people doing things right the first time. Unfortunately they were not doing the “Right Thing”. By the way they were not all US government operations, who invented doing things over and over and over.The government record for every business venture they try to perform, is disaster.

Posted by cb75948 in Family and tagged

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