Dr Copa Scrip for Success

We were invited to join the local Ruritan Club at their annual picnic last weekend, and although it was a Pot Luck picnic we were told to just arrive and not bring any food. I thought that was very nice of them to invite us, and we agreed to go.

The picnic was being held at Turkey Run Park, and even though we had driven past the park a few times we had never actually gone into the park to see what might be there. All we could see from the road was some stationary grills and several groups of Picnic Tables and Park Benches.

When we pulled into the parking lot, we didn’t see anyone from the group, but we saw that the driveway twisted and turned to an area further back that is not as easily seen from the road. We saw a small sign with an arrow on it indicating that the picnic was further back from the road. We drove through a fairly heavily wooded area and finally came across a clearing with some playground equipment and cabins with washroom facilities in there. And that is where we found the picnic!

What can I say, the food was good, the people were friendly, and we now know what a nice park Turkey Run Park is! Nice to know!

For the past couple of years my wife has been going to Wednesday morning business/social networking meetings at a restaurant in town. That restaurant happens to be one of my favorite places – it has a really nice buffet. And every Wednesday morning she invites me to come join her, and I decline. And I give her a little bit of grief about her going as well.

This morning she said she was going into town to run some errands, and I needed to go to the bank, so I said I’d join her. When we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and she said “let’s go in and have breakfast” I didn’t resist. I wasn’t thinking it was Wednesday, and was rather surprised when she led the way to a crowded area of the restaurant and sat down, without waiting for a waitress to seat us.

That’s when I realized that she had tricked me into going to one of her networking meetings. I was quite annoyed at first and declined the opportunity to stand up and introduce myself to the group. So she introduced me and told the group a little bit about me and the meeting went along as if I wasn’t there.

To be honest I found the meeting interesting and enjoyable, and when it was adjourned several people came over to our table and chatted with us. They invited me to come back next week and my wife was quite surprised when I said I’d like to go back next week!

My wife has been complaining that I have not been paying close enough attention to the house manners (or lack thereof) of our dogs.  Ever since we got Riley, Pita has regressed to marking everything in the house, and then Riley marks, and then Pita marks.  My wife has been asking me to confine them to the rooms that aren’t carpeted, and to pay close attention to them, and warning me to not put things on the floor that I didn’t want to get peed on, but I  really didn’t realize it was really that big of a deal and was ignoring my wife’s words of caution until I saw both of them lift their legs on my brand new leather laptop bag that my daughter gave me for Father’s Day!

I was not happy about that at all, I can tell you that!  So after cleaning the bag I put it up on top of my desk and complained to my wife about it she simply smiled at me and said “oh really? you don’t say!”  I hate it when she’s right!  But I don’t want to confine the dogs to the kitchen, either!  Not quite sure what to do with this situation other than to put doggy diapers on them both.

I could not believe my ears when my wife told me that neither her aunt nor her uncle had any kind of pension from their lifelong employers.  Her aunt was a legal secretary for the same lawyer for thirty years, and when she retired her only income was social security.  And her uncle was a book binder for a book printing company for thirty years and all he got was his social security.

I was really surprised to learn that her uncle was a bookbinder because I didn’t realize that there was a book printing company in the area!  I wish I had known him when he was still working there, I would have loved to take a tour of the building! 

But back to the point I was making - I think that it is outrageous that people who are totally dependant on social security are in a really tough position.  Social Security is not able to provide people with a decent living.  And I get really concerned when I hear that people like my wife’s aunt and uncle are struggling this hard might lose some of their benefits.  They need all the help they can get.

My daughter is dating a young man who is taking college courses about how to pursue and maintain a nonprofit career.  I joke that all of my hard work has always been nonprofit jobs, but not on purpose!  I’ve worked really hard all of my life trying to make a profit and now my daughter is dating a guy who wants non profit jobs on purpose!  What is this world coming to?

In all honesty, though, I’ve heard a lot of people tell me that so many charities struggle so hard financially because they over-pay the executives, and that is the biggest reason why these charities struggle with their fund-raising efforts.  There does seem to be a general consensus that the money goes straight into the pockets of the top executives.  Because of that controversy, I wonder exactly how much “good” can one do within these organizations.  I applaud his desire to benefit society, but I am afraid that I have grown jaded with age.