Good Food and Lemonade

Sorry, there were technical difficulties with Blogspot yesterday, and I was unable to post anything. What I have here is something I wrote yesterday and saved in a document while I was waiting for the site to come back online fully. I may have a little something to throw in later as well...

So... a serious message to start off with today...

Tomorrow is  Saturday, May 14^th, 2011, is the National Association of Letter Carriers' “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive. I know the economy is terrible right now. I am aware that everyone is paying big money for their rent, or mortgages. I am keenly aware that gasoline in my part of the country is about $4.00 a gallon. For the cheap stuff. However, this also makes me aware that my car is used as a vehicle rather than a place to sleep, keep out of the rain, or store everything in the world that I own.

No matter how poorly you think things are going for you, no matter how bad you felt when you got up this morning, there is someone out there who wants, who wishes, who aspires, to be like you.

Think about that.

Please, tomorrow, you can help. Bag or box any non-perishable food items that you have around, and leave them out by your mailbox. You don't have to take them anywhere, we'll do the work for you, picking up your donations and bringing them to local food banks.

This Saturday, please, fill a bag. Feed families.

Okay... now that the PSA is out of the way... it's lemonade stand season again.

My son has had a drinks stand out by the street twice so far this year. I say “drinks” stand because he's not gonna mix lemonade or anything when he can just grab all the Propel (a flavored water drink) in the house and throw them in a cooler. See that? He's working smart, not hard. Good thinking, my boy.

That's not even my favorite part of his thought process. Grabbing all the Propel came later. My favorite part of his drinks stand building process was what he chose to do first. The very first thing he did.

Did he put the table out by the street?

No.

Did he make a sign, proclaiming his business to the world?

No.

Did he get the drinks all set in a cooler, ready to hand out to thirsty passers-by?

As I said above, no.

I'll tell you what he did, before doing all that other stuff.

He found himself a nice-sized, multi-colored flower pot, and a note card. He taped the card to the pot, got a black magic marker and wrote one word on it, large and legible.

“TIPS”

That's my boy.