Happy Birthday U-S-and-A

Hope you had a fun fourth of July.
It was really nice for me & the family. We ended up going to Lincoln to see fireworks and - despite the rain - they were great. Initially we were going to meet up with my friend Pete who lives in Lincoln, but when the rain started, Pete and family bagged out. After some phone calls, we figured out that the fireworks were still going to go on, and we decided to brave the rain and head out anyway. Glad we did. It was really cool. Nice job, Lincoln!

They were amazing. We got there just as the fireworks were starting, and it was clear that they were pretty loud, so Margaret stayed in the car with the baby, and the older two boys and I got out and walked a ways to see the fireworks better. They loved it. At one point, during a period of relative quiet between explosions, Andy yelled out in his cute, enthusiastic three year old's voice "I really like these fireworks", which drew some laughs from the people standing near us.

Things to work on in life:
Not letting stress creep in where it's not warranted. Life will give me enough to stress about. Why add to it?

What made me think about this is that when we were leaving the school in Lincoln where the fireworks were, I was in the left of two lanes exiting and realized I wanted to be in the right. I put on my blinker, and probably could have pulled a power move and zipped in to the right, but I decided to lay back a bit to give those in the right lane enough time to see what I wanted to do. As I'm doing that, an Audi pulls up and fills the space I was going to move into. I was pissed. Now, I believe I'm a fairly level headed guy who would much rather go through life getting along with others, but it can raise my blood pressure pretty quickly of I feel my niceness is being taken advantage of, or if I sense someone is being a weenie. And that's what happened. So for a couple of minutes, I'm driving along being pissed at the driver of this Audi, fantasizing about how much of a bitch I could make payback be.

But then I start to realize that is not the right approach. Why? Because it's a waste of energy.
The truth is, maybe the driver of the Audi didn't know what I was trying to do. That's happened to me before, when I've unintentionally shut someone out of a lane change and felt bad about it.
The other possibility is that the driver was perfectly aware what I was trying to do, and wouldn't let me into the lane because they are... a jerk! And at the end of the day they will still be a jerk, and that's the way it is. I choose to do nice things for people - like letting them merge into my lane - because it's what I like to do. Viva la difference.

I'm a ways off from being truly stress free, but every little bit helps.
I feel better now.

By the way - thanks to New England Cable News (and Karen Swensen who I chatted with) for once again letting me come on during their Good Morning Live show and talk music on TV. I hang out with them on the first and third Thursday mornings of the month, right around 8:45. You can see today's segment by going to http://www.necn.com, clicking on NECN Shows, then Good Morning Live.

-George