Fall 2016 "Good News" Group Challenge

[Carebear]

This is our Thanksgiving weekend in Canada.  Our whole family is gathering here tomorrow for good food and great company.  The little guy is eight months old, the girls are ten years old - the grandchildren, I mean.  Much to be thankful for!

The snow blew in on Friday and may be here for the long haul.  That's good news for the granddaughters, but not so much for their grandma!

[Cricket]

Today I read on Facebook that Ann Hauser Busch is stopping production of beer and bottling water for the hurricane victims, free of charge to them.  Great to know some companies are helping them.

Hope if anyone on here lives in that area they are all okay.  Prayers for hurricane victims!

Great challenge Bucky.

[Bigleyj]

Hi everyone?

My good news for today is that I have finalised organising a pottery workshop for myself and 5 friends.  We are doing it to just have some fun and leave our realities for a few hours.  We are going this coming Saturday and will "do"  lunch afterwards.

I'm hoping to make a fruit bowl in purple and white ... my kitchen colors.  Really looking forward to it 😀

Cheers,
Jo.

[Bucky]

Day #6 "Good News" Challenge

Hi - here it is, another new week - a chance for us to look for good news stories to share, or share our own good news stories.

In years past, I have had several group challenges for our membership each year.  This year, each time I planned to start a group challenge, it didn't seem like the "right" time.  People were dealing with massive wildfires and floods that destroyed neighborhoods, homes, and businesses.  There were extreme weather patterns causing so much destruction worldwide.  Even as I started this current group challenge, Hurricane Matthew wrecked havoc in the Caribbean, Haiti, eastern Cuba, Bahamas, and the southeastern U.S.  Also during the year there were so many shootings, riots, acts of violence, and senseless loss of life.

As I sit here at my computer today, I don't know what to say.  It saddens me with all that is happening in our world.  Today's world is so much different from the world I remember as a child growing up in the late 50's.

With all the above (^) mentioned things happening in our world, it would be so easy to walk around harboring negative feelings about everyone and everything.  However, I won't do that.  It is my choice not to do that.  Yes, unfortunately, bad things happen to good people.  For the most part, I think mankind is good - and that's what I try to focus on.

With that being said, I am thankful for all the people and organizations who step up to offer help and assistance when disasters happen like the one with Hurricane Matthew.  All the first responders and rescue people who without hesitation go into areas hardest hit to help the people.  All of the utility men and women who come from many surrounding areas to offer help to restore power to people.  The meals that are provided.  The money that is raised to help people get back on their feet.

As Cricket mentioned in her post, companies that step up to help like Anheuser-Busch who is sending canned water to help those needing drinking water.  For myself, having Sjogren's, water is important to me - I have to have water daily to be able to eat my meals, to swallow, to talk.

Jo - your pottery workshop sounds like fun!  Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving today to Carebear & Linda and the rest of our Canadian members.     (Carebear - snow??  Yuck - please keep it up there in Canada.) 

I hope you all have a good week - keep looking for the "good news" to share.

Bucky

"Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more."    Tony Robbins

[Linda196]

Today is officially Thanksgiving here, but since my "retired" hubby has taken on a part time job (saving his sanity and my own) and has to work, we had our family gathering yesterday. My Daughter was invited to a harvest gathering, Saturday, and as a result our granddaughters had a sleepover with Nanny and Grampy, and were here all day Sunday to help me decorate and prepare supper, and their Mama arrived mid afternoon rested, and ready for their hugs and games.

The "good news" and that for which I am most Thankful, was a fun filled, busy day, with a delicious Turkey dinner with all the trimmings as a result ( yes, I'm tooting my own horn here LOL). The "best news" and something I'm sure all my sjoggie friends can identify with, was help cleaning up, and an early departure of our guests, resulting on a quiet evening on the couch, and an early bedtime for me!

My theme this Thanksgiving is "Just one day on the Calendar, but daily in our lives" and I'd like to make the pursuit of good news the same thing, just looking for good news lifts the spirits as we anticipate what we can find. Bucky mentioned the various natural disasters our old world has faced recently, and I thought of a beautiful video I watched, produced by the people of Wood Buffalo/Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada for Thanksgiving. The communities could have been totally destroyed last May, when wild fires raced through forcing evacuation of more than 80,00 people who had no idea if they could ever go back, or what they would go back to if they did. They posted a Thanksgiving video on their Facebook page, thanking everyone for the support and help offered quickly and without thought of personal risk or gain, and highlights the good that can rise from bad.

[SjoDry]

Had a really nice thing happen to start my Monday. Like many of you, I wear a FitBit. I do find it interesting to see how far I walk each day or when I hit 10,000 steps..and get that surge from my
Fitbit that feels like neuropathy. But what I love about it most is that I use it for a flashlight at night for my many restroom trips. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the rubber is pulling away from the plastic area.

When I called this a.m. to see about the warranty, I was told that the warranty just expired in August. :-(   The young man was so nice...perhaps it had something to do with him asking me if I had been rough on it with an intense activity like kick-boxing...and I burst out laughing. In any event, he told me he would check with his supervisor to see if they could do anything. He came back on & told me that they would send me a replacement..but that my model is not made anymore..so they would have to upgrade me to the newest model with a variety of colored changeable bands...was I okay with that? Wow...yes! I asked where to send the old one to..and he said just keep it or utilized Best Buy's recyclable program.

He was so nice and just friendly. He didn't have to make the extra effort to help.

Makes me smile!
SjoDry

[Dawnmist]

My bit of good news actually happened the end of last week, but I hadn't noticed this challenge until today.

My husband and I have 2 miniature poodles that are about 19 months old (brothers). When I get up for work, I let them out into the back yard, and open the dog door so that they can come back in when they're ready. They usually come back in within a few minutes.

As I finished getting ready for work, I realised that I had not seen them return yet...they had been outside for almost an hour. I tried calling them, and got no response. It was raining out, and I need crutches to walk any distance which makes holding an umbrella a challenge. I couldn't see them anywhere in the yard from the porch. So I grabbed a single crutch and an umbrella to look.

What I found was that they had pulled the end of a puppy fence away from our back fence. The back yard behind ours is lower than ours, and between all the rain we've had this year making the soil a muddy soup and the ground falling away along the fence line, they had managed to dig a hole into the yard behind ours.

The houses in this area were built in the 60s, and a lot of the fencing doesn't appear to have been replaced since then. So there were several missing boards in the fence between the house behind ours, and the house next door to ours.

I called for them again, and the larger of the two dogs came running back across our next door neighbour's yard, hopped through the gap in the fence to the yard behind ours, then tried to come back through the hole they had dug. But instead of just being able to slide down like he had to get out, he had to arch down to get under the fence and then arch up to get up the hole - and he kept panicking part way and backing back out. It took a lot of encouragement, and a half a dozen tries before he managed to pull himself back through. I took him inside.

Throughout all this, the smaller of the pair hadn't responded at all. He loves to squeeze into tight spaces like under the couch, so my fear was that he had managed to get out a hole in the neighbour's fence that the larger dog couldn't fit through. Having retrieved one dog and made him safe, I walked through the house intending to hunt outside for the other one.

We live on a fairly busy road, and it was getting to the beginning of peak hour morning traffic, so I was terrified of what I may find. But as I got to the front door, I heard him yapping nearby. I was so relieved to open the front door to find him standing at the door yapping to get our attention to let him in!

So my good news was firstly - they did this when we were still home rather than a couple of hours later when we would have been at work. And secondly, that neither of them got hurt in their escapade (other than eating something that they shouldn't that made both of them throw up later). There were so many possibilities for things to have gone badly wrong, but they were lucky.

There are a couple of bricks filling that hole now, and the puppy fence that was being used to try to keep them away from the bottom of the real fence has been extended and braced so that they don't repeat the exercise.

[Bigleyj]

Hi,

I have great news. Brigette (my sons gf) has been offered her first nursing job today. She completes her degree in November and will start her job in January 2017. She is soooo excited and I'm so proud of her. 

What are your poodles names Dawnmist?  I have a 13 year old Maltese x called Zoe.  SjoDry thanks for restoring my faith in good customer service.

Jo 😀

[Dawnmist]

What are your poodles names Dawnmist?  I have a 13 year old Maltese x called Zoe.  SjoDry thanks for restoring my faith in good customer service.

Fred and George, after the twins Fred & George Weasley from Harry Potter. When they were very young, we joked that they should be called Fred and George Weesalot.

George is the larger of the two, and was born missing the end of his tail (a natural bobtail). They're both silvers, which means that they are born black and fade out to pale grey ("silver") by the time they are about two years old. At the moment they're very pale on legs and belly, with darker grey on the ears and a dark grey stripe down the middle ridge of their back - their feral stripe *grins*. Kind of like a natural mohawk.

[Bucky]

Day #7 - "Good News" Challenge

Mmmm, do any of our Canadian members have any yummy Thanksgiving leftovers to share?  The other day my husband was saying that our holidays need to be spread out more - they are too close together (Thanksgivings / Christmas).

Today, I will be sharing some good news as I am shipping off a surprise box to our son and his roommate that are away at college in another state.  Nothing real special in the box - two coffee mugs, some hot chocolate mix, two egg rings (so they can make their own Egg McMuffins at home and save money), some Halloween decorations for their apartment, Halloween cards, a jar of peanut butter, some goodies and two gift cards . . . and sealed with a momma's love!   

It's always nice to get something unexpected in the mail (as long as it isn't a bill!!    )

My other good news is today my hubby and I are driving an hour away from where we live to meet up with a potential buyer of our car we have for sale.  We're really hoping to sell it ASAP, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Linda - it sounds like you had a lovely Thanksgiving with family.  I'll have to check out the video by the people of Wood Buffalo / Fort McMurray.

SjoDry - lucky you, you get a new FitBit! 

Dawnmist - I'm glad you had a happy ending to your dogs little adventure around the neighborhood.  It is s good thing you found them before they had been missing all day.

Jo - congrats to Brigette on a new job offer.

I hope everyone has a good Tuesday and finds good news along the way.

Bucky

"People don't always need advice.  Sometimes all they need is a hand to hold, ear to listen, and a heart to understand."    Searchquotes.com

[Bigleyj]

I like to give my son little surprise gifts too Bucky.

Awww Dawnmist your poodles sound lovely.  I have to admit that I have never watched a whole Harry Potter movie.  Just 10 minutes here and there.

My good news for today is that I am getting new glasses. Had my eye check today and only slightly worse than 3 years ago so that's quite good.  When I got new glasses 3 years ago I used the frames that I got 20 years prior so I'm treating myself to new frames.

Cheers,
Jo 😀

[Bucky]

Day #8 "Good News" Challenge

Hello - happy Wednesday to everyone!

Yesterday, my husband and I met with a potential buyer for our car that we have for sale.  The people liked it, test drove it, but didn't buy it.     Are we disappointed?  Sure, we were hoping that they would buy it.  Oh well . . . back to the drawing board.

We didn't sell our car, however, on the return trip from showing the car (we drove an hour to meet them)- we got to enjoy seeing the farmers out in the fields harvesting the corn and soybeans with their big combines and farm equipment, saw herds of cows grazing in the lush green fields, saw lots of wind turbines with their blades rotating in the wind, we saw people out taking walks on a beautiful fall afternoon, saw several roadside stands selling pumpkins, and we stopped to eat dinner out (yay, no cooking on my part and no cleaning up afterwards).  So, all in all, it was a good day.

By the time we got home, it was already dark outside and as we pulled into our driveway we see a big truck and the combine out in our field harvesting the soybeans.  They weren't there when I left the house at 2:00 p.m.  I think the farmers were really working hard to harvest the fields as we are expecting rain today.

This morning my alarm didn't go off - yikes!  I just happened to wake up two hours after it was suppose to go off!  Thankfully, I had some "extra" time padded into my time by having my alarm set early.  I'm fortunate that I have flexible hours at work and I only live 10 minutes from work.  I still got dressed, fed the cats, stopped at McDonald's and made it to work within an hour.  Whew . . . what a way to start the day . . . but, all is good!   

Jo - enjoy your new glasses with new frames . . . I think you deserved new ones!   

I hope each of you has some good news in your lives.

Have a good day!

Bucky

"I am thankful for this beautiful day and the infinite possibilities it holds.  I know something good is going to happen!"      John Assaraf

[Dawnmist]

My good news for the day is that we found a replacement car on the weekend, and my husband picked it up this morning. I've been having a lot of trouble due to SFN, and had reached the point where I could no longer manage the clutch on my manual car.

We've spoken to our normal mechanic about the prospect of selling my old manual car - and he thinks he may actually already have a buyer. Another of his customers is looking for a cheap car to drive while his car is being repaired (expected to take a month or two to get all the parts in) instead of having to hire one.

So the new car is an auto, has a few nice features like heated seats, dual zone climate control, etc. My manual car wasn't used all that often - my husband likes driving, so his car was our primary car. The new one will now be our primary - I get to keep a nice automatic stationwagon for driving to doctors appointments during the week instead of the old manual hatchback, and together we get to drive in a Volvo XC90 with plenty of space in the back and a lot more airbags and safety features.

[Bucky]

Day #9 "Good News" Challenge

Wow - it's Thursday already - the days sure go by quickly!

What kind of good news have you seen in your local newspapers or communities, or something happening with yourself?

As a parent - you always hope that the years and years of trying to guide your children sinks in.  The countless opportunities of talking with our kids about different situations and how they could handle them.  Last night as we were talking to our son on the phone (he lives in an apartment building and he usually goes out on his balcony when he calls home), he mentions that he sees this girl walking down the street and this car following her.  She yells to the person in the car to quit following her and to leave her alone and she turns the opposite direction.  (This is the part I'm not sure on, as our son was talking fast.)  I'm not sure if the person in the car stopped the car and got out and followed her on foot, or if he turned around and followed her in his car.  Anyhow, our son tells us he'll call us back that he's going to call 911.

He calls 911 and reports what he is seeing and hearing.  Our son calls us back and as we are talking with him he sees the police drive by and then put on their lights.  It was a little ways down the road, but he could see the police car with lights on, but he wasn't sure if the people were there or not.

I guess we'll never know what really happened, but we're proud of our son for stepping up and notifying help for this girl.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have decided that we'll continue this "Good News" Challenge through this coming Sunday, Oct. 16th.  So if you are reading this and you haven't joined in yet, it's not too late to join in and share any "good news".

Dawnmist - congrats on the new car - enjoy!  That would be great if you are able to sell your old car too - good luck!

Have a good day!   

Bucky

"There are some things that money can't buy . . . like manners, morals and integrity."      inspiremotivatequotes

[warmwaters]

Well, I dropped the ball for a few days, but let's try to pick it up again.

Earlier this week, my partner had his birthday.  It was just 3 of us to celebrate, but we had a very nice time. All of his gifts "hit the spot", and he's feeling very pampered. Yay!

I mentioned I'm mentoring a college student. He and I have been exchanging emails this week about his summer job search - yes, you have to look for a job for the summer in October!  He's a nice guy, I hope he'll find something interesting.

Just ordered up a bunch of books from the library.  This is an ongoing pleasure for me. I live in a fairly big community with lots of libraries.  I can go online to library's site, find books I want, and then ask that they be sent to the library nearest me.  It's like Christmas every time I do it. And it saves me energy to be able to go to the nearby library with good parking, rather than the huge downtown library with little parking.