Life Is Good: Celebrate Life! And A Big Thank You To Springfield Public Works Department

Back in the late 1960's, my Dad had a bunch of flower stickers printed with the slogan "Celebrate Life" on them. I think it was the theme of the DDF --the Diocesan Development Fund. Anyhow, those stickers ended up in a whole bunch of places, not just on the back of automobiles.

A friend had a 1964 VW Convertible and we put stickers all over that bug. She sold the convertible to another friend who cut it up for a dune buggy. What was he thinking? Another sticker ended up the rear window of a red Ford Galaxie convertible that was owned by the old lady who ran the Brown Derby at Cherokee and Glenstone. Remember that store, it was a small store and was also the closest liquor store to our house on National and Sunshine.

When I first got the bus Plunge in 1992 or 1993 (I will blog soon on the origins of Plunge), we started putting bumper stickers from places the bus had been on the inside roof of the bus. It is pretty well full now. My Dad gave me the "last Celebrate Life sticker" to put inside the bus. He brought it over to the bus and we selected a spot on the ceiling for it, where it remains to this day. The photo above is of that sticker.

When I sold the bus to Lowell Davis (what was I thinking?) and he subsequently sold it to Sam of Precious Moments, neither of them did anything to the interior. One of those two did paint the outside and put a new gas tank on that makes it hard to put gas into it, but I am working on that. I bought the bus back in December, 2003 for what I sold it for and I will never sell it again.

"Celebrate Life". Grandson Austin wore a shirt today that had "Life Is Good" on it. Celebrate life, life is good. Be happy with what you got. The boys were skateboarding in the backyard last night as neighbor Jack and I visited with Mr. Cook and Mr. Miller.

We got to talking about the movie, "The Princess Bride" and memorable quotes from that show. (My favorite: "Never get in a land war in Southeast Asia.) Austin tells us his two favorite quotes, except they weren't from the movie.

Austin's favorite quotes:

"You will never win an argument with your wife or mother so don't even try."

"Everything tastes better in a styrofoam cup, except orange juice."

Last week we buried our Mother with our Father. John and I both took a lot of pictures. John's account, Mom's Last Bus Ride (Mom loved to ride the bus with the kids), is here. My account is here.

I haven't felt too much like blogging lately, although there is a plethora of subjects out there upon which we have an opinion: the square, county officeholders, R-12 school, "The City".

But I do need to make this comment: Public Works put up new speed limit signs on the three streets in our neighborhood. In the past I have blogged about sidewalks, public works and neighborhood meetings. (It is my experience that Public Works is a city department that works to accommodate the citizens of this city) The new speed limit sign was positioned close enough to the fence that I could not get my lawn mower between the fence and the sign post without removing the grass catcher. I called Public Works, got a hold of Dan Jesson, and he explained the reasoning for the sign placement (Public Works tries to put signs between property lines, as this one is). When I told him I couldn't mow between the sign and the fence, he said how about if the sign is moved 10' north of the fence. He must have been looking at an aerial photo of the property because I would mention a tree or a fence post and he knew exactly where it was and what I was talking about. So thanks to Springfield Public Works for listening to our neighborhood and working to accommodate us and for not once referring to "Vision 20/20" or "Long Range Plans".

I sorta like those speed limit signs that say "Kid Friendly" on them.