WD-40

A lady got up very early one morning and went outside to pickup the Sunday paper, she noticed someone had sprayed red paint all around the sides of the neighbors brand new beige truck. She went over and woke him up and gave him the bad news. He was, of course, extremely upset.

And they stood there trying to figure out what could be done about the problem. They decided there wasn't much recourse but to wait until Monday, since nothing was open. Just then another neighbor came out of his house, surveyed the situation and immediately went to get his WD-40 out and cleaned the red paint off with it. Guess What! It cleaned up that paint without harming the original paint on the truck!

Water Displacement #40. The product began from a search for a rust preventative solvent and degreaser to protect Missile parts. WD-40 was created in 1953 by three Technicians at the San Diego Rocket Chemical Company. Its name comes from the project that was to find a 'water displacement' compound. They were successful with the fortieth formulation, thus WD-40. The Convair Company bought it in bulk to protect their Atlas missile parts.

Ken East (one of the original founders) says there is nothing in WD-40 that would hurt you... , "IT IS MADE FROM FISH OIL". It's the first thing that has ever cleaned that spotty shower door. If yours is plastic, it works just as well as glass. It is a miracle! Then try it on your stovetop... It is now shinier than it has ever been before.

It also ...

1) Protects silver from tarnishing.
2) Removes road tar and grime from cars.
3) Cleans and lubricates guitar strings.
4) Gives floors that `just-waxed` sheen without making it slippery.
5) Keeps flies off cows.
6) Restores and cleans chalkboards.
7) Removes lipstick stains.
8) Loosens stubborn zippers.
9) Untangles jewelry chains.
10) Removes stains from stainless steel sinks.
11) Removes dirt and grime from the barbecue grill.
12) Keeps ceramic/terra cotta garden pots from oxidizing.
13) Removes tomato stains from clothing.
14) Keeps glass shower doors free of water spots.
15) Camouflages scratches in ceramic and marble floors.
16) Keeps scissors working smoothly.
17) Lubricates noisy door hinges on vehicles and doors in homes
18) It removes black scuff marks from the kitchen floor! Open some windows if you have a lot of marks.
19) Bug guts will eat away the finish on your car. Removed quickly, with WD-40!
20) Gives children's play gym slide a shine for a super fast slide.
21) Lubricates gear shift on lawn mowers.
22) Rids kids rocking chairs and swings of squeaky noises.
23) Lubricates tracks in sticking home windows and makes them easier to open.
24) Spraying an umbrella stem makes it easier to open and close.
25) Restores and cleans padded leather dashboards in vehicles, as well as vinyl bumpers.
26) Restores and cleans roof racks on vehicles.
27) Lubricates and stops squeaks in electric fans.
28) Lubricates wheel sprockets on tricycles, wagons, and bicycles for easy handling.
29) Lubricates fan belts on washers and dryers and keeps them running smoothly.
30) Keeps rust from forming on saws and saw blades, and other tools.
31) Removes splattered grease on stove.
32) Keeps bathroom mirror from fogging.
33) Lubricates prosthetic limbs.
34) Keeps pigeons off the balcony (they hate the smell).
35) Removes all traces of duct tape.
36) Folks even spray it on their arms, hands, and knees to relieve arthritis pain
37) Florida's favorite use 'Cleans and removes love bugs from grills and bumpers.'
38) Protects the Statue of Liberty from the elements.
39) WD-40 attracts fish. Spray a LITTLE on live bait or lures and you will be catching the big one in no time.
40) Ant bites. It takes the sting away immediately and stops the itch.
41) WD-40 is great for removing crayon from walls. Spray on the mark and wipe with a clean rag.
42) If you've washed and dried a tube of lipstick with a load of laundry, saturate the
lipstick spots with WD-40 and Presto! Lipstick is gone!
43) If you spray WD-40 on the distributor cap, it will displace the moisture and allow
the car to start.


Keep a can of WD-40 in your kitchen cabinet.. It is good for oven burns or any other type of burn. It takes the burned feeling away and heals with NO scarring.

Remember, the basic ingredient is FISH.

CIA Training film

Yea! It's Friday!

todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful

that I recognize the undeniable fact that I'm different, have always wanted to be different, and enjoy being different. There. I said it.

that I don't need to rule the world any more; the burden just became too great.

that my first 49 years prepared me well for a life of recovery

for my own ways of carrying the message and hopefully, not the mess

for breakfast with my sponsor this morning


The beaten path is the safest, but the traffic's terrible.
- Jeff Taylor

NO Reason(s)

When you purchase a bike, make sure the color of the seat is taken into consideration.



todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful

that I have NO reason(s) to drink or use mind-altering drugs

that I have NO reason(s) NOT to attend my regular recovery meetings

that I have NO reason(s) NOT to spend time with 2 sponsees this evening (as per our regular schedule)

that I have NO reason(s) NOT to be happy, joyous and free

today is Scott's (sobernuggets) 14th AA birthday. Drop by and eat his cake.

If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden; If you want to be happy for life, plant a tree.
- English Proverb

just thinkin' ...

todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful

that I had a rather normal childhood (whatever normal is)

that the worst abuse I've ever suffered came at my own hands

for some newcomers at Lambda who seem to be doing their best -- what more can one ask for?

that my constant, never-ending tendency to exaggerate has completely abated since I got sober. The thousands of people in my support group can't say the same thing.


People who matter are most aware that everyone else does, too.
- Malcolm Forbes

more of the good part of the journey

todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful

for all the examples you guys wrote about yesterday

that I don't allow myself to get all worked up over things I have no control over
ie: politics, hate/no hate campaigns, religion etc...

that this whole awareness theme that I'm on seems to be working

that my brain cell continues to operate, albeit at a reduced level

for those who are willing to include me in their lives


Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
- M. Kathleen Casey

Examples

Captain Sullenberger's view of the ditching in the Hudson ...






todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful


for all of the examples put before me;

... those who are honest with not only me, but themselves too
... those who are loving and tolerant
... those who lead by example
... those who are forgiving
... those who play by the rules
... those with a constant smile on their face
... those who make it back after a relapse
... those who are judgemental and intolerant
... those who think of only themselves
... those who put things off until the last minute

I'm sure you can think of another example. Leave it in the comment section, if you have a chance.

If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.
- Catherine Aird

Clunker math

Think of it this way:

A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year. A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year. So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

They claim 700,000 vehicles were purchased through the program so that's 224 million gallons saved per year. That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.

Five million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.

So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars (through Cash for Clunkers) to save $350 million.

We spent $8.57 for every dollar saved.

I'm pretty sure that the government will do a great job with health care though.

Snowboard for Sale

Happy Friday the 22nd

Bill (Life on Planet Bill) sent me this. Some guys had WAAAAY too much time on their hands.

Click here




todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful

for all of the step work I've done this week -- more than enough to keep me sober today; but I still have my 3 AA meetings to attend today

for the satisfaction that I feel when I do the next right/loving thing

that compassion plays a large role in my thinking

that Hayden made it safely to California, where he will be for the next 2 weeks


Be curious always! For knowledge will not acquire you: you must acquire it.
- Sudie Back

more awareness

something I learned about making amends ...

When I first tackled Step 9, one of my amends was to my (at that time) ex-partner. He lived out of the country, so I wrote an email explaining what I was doing. Mmy sponsor read the amends and approved it before I sent it. It wasn't until 2 years later that we saw each other again and I mentioned to my sponsor that now I would be able to go more into detail with the ex regarding my amends. He said, "NO! David, you've already made your amends. You should never have to do it twice with him."

I was reminded of this last week when I read on someone's blog that they were in the same situation. I wanted to comment then, but didn't want to be seen as telling them what to do. Hopefully, by writing this now, someone may benefit from my experience.



todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful

that my sobriety does not depend on my serenity

that my serenity does not depend on my happiness

that I seem to be getting farther away from my need to control the world

that a high school friend found me on Facebook; we last contacted each other in 1999 and had lost contact since. He now lives in California. We had a long phone conversation and he was intrigued by the new (recovery) life I lead. He asked for information on Al Anon, which I emailed to him. He has 2 sons that are drug addicts, aged 15 and 30.



Imagination was given to us to compensate for what we are not; a sense of humor was given to us to console us for what we are.
- Mark McGinnis

You deserve a break today (but you won't get it here)

A small, all-aluminum boat on display at the 2010 Houston International Boat Show last weekend.




todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful

that I know I have a part in everything that happens in my life. If I think I don't, then my part is in denying my part. Comprehend?

that with a belief in some sort of a God, and attending AA meetings, I found a higher power of my own understanding

that a sober acquaintenance felt comfortable enough to confide in me

for the stories in the second half of the Big Book

To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.
- Confucius

so this is what I have typed so far ...

I finally got around to going fishing this morning but after a while I ran out of worms.

Then I saw a cottonmouth with a frog in his mouth, and frogs are good bass bait.

Knowing the snake couldn't bite me with the frog in his mouth, I grabbed him right behind the head, took the frog and put it in my bait bucket.

Now the dilemma was how to release the snake without getting bit.

I grabbed my bottle of Jack Daniels and poured a little whiskey in its mouth.

His eyes rolled back, he went limp, I released him into the lake without incident, And carried on my fishing with the frog.

A little later I felt a nudge on my foot.

There was that same snake with two frogs in his mouth.


todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful

that my sobriety has passed all the tests put before it -- so far

that my HP seems to know what I can handle much better than I know

for trying new behavior in unfamiliar territory

that I'm helping again this year with Lambda Center fundraising. We're non-profit and self-supporting. Raising money every month is crucial to paying the bills, which can run up to about $9000.

Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out.
- James Bryant Conant

a very nice weekend

Yesterday, I went to The 2010 Houston International Boat, Sport & Travel Show. It's the largest boat show on the Gulf Coast with more than 1,000 powerboats, luxury yachts, sailboats, and personal watercraft, plus over 300 exhibits. They had a few "antique" boats and this 1946 Chris Craft was my favorite. It reminds me of the boat used in the movie, On Golden Pond.

todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful

for the insight, wisdom and perseverance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a man who made this world a much better place to live

for a meeting where we discussed the 8th Promise -- Self-Seeking will slip away -- it reminds me to always be aware of my motives

that my friend Gary is blogging these days. If you haven't discovered him, find him at GARYTUDE.

for some really good workouts at the gym lately

that yesterday was a really lovely day to run in (I didn't) or watch (I did) the Chevron Houston Marathon. The winning time was 2 hours, 7 minutes and 37 seconds.

Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children?
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

in the news

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The old lady crawls in the dirt, wailing for her pills. The elderly man lies motionless as rats pick at his overflowing diaper.

There is no food, water or medicine for the 84 surviving residents of the Port-au-Prince Municipal Nursing Home, barely a mile (1 1/2 kilometers) from the airport where a massive international aid effort is taking shape.

"Help us, help us," 69-year-old Mari-Ange Levee begged Sunday, lying on the ground with a broken leg and ribs. A cluster of flies swarmed the open fracture in her skull.

One man had already died, and administrator Jean Emmanuel said more would follow soon unless water and food arrive immediately.

"I appeal to anybody to bring us anything, or others won't live until tonight," he said in the morningmotioning toward five men and women who were having trouble breathing, a sign that the end was near. Hours later, an elderly woman succumbed.

The dead man was Joseph Julien, a 70-year-old diabetic who was pulled from the partially collapsed building and passed away Thursday for lack of food.

His rotting body lies on a mattress, nearly indistinguishable from the living around him, so skinny and tired they seemed to be simply waiting for death.

With six residents killed in the quake, the institution now has 25 men and 60 women camped outside their former home. Some have a mattress in the dirt to lie on. Others don't.

Madeleine Dautriche, 75, said some of the residents had pooled their money to buy three packets of pasta, which the dozens of pensioners shared on Thursday, their last meal. Since there was no drinking water, some didn't touch the noodles because they were cooked in gutter water.

Dautriche noted that many residents wore diapers that hadn't been changed since the quake.

"The problem is, rats are coming to it," she said.

Though very little food aid had reached Haitians anywhere by Sunday, Emmanuel said the problem was made worse at the nursing home because it is located near Place de la Paix, an impoverished downtown neighborhood.

The hospice, known as "Hospice Municipal," is in the Delmas-2 neighborhood, near a rundown soccer stadium, stuck between the port and Bel-Air, traditionally one of Haiti's most violent and dangerous slums.

Thousands of homeless slum dwellers have pitched their makeshift tents on the nursing home's ground, in effect shielding the elderly patients from the outside world with a tense maze of angry people, themselves hungry and thirsty.

"I'm pleading for everyone to understand that there's a truce right now, the streets are free, so you can come through to help us," said Emmanuel, 27, one of the rare officials not to have fled the squalor and mayhem. He insisted that foreign aid workers wouldn't be in danger if they tried to cross through the crowd to reach the elderly group.

Violent scuffles erupted Saturday in the adjacent soccer stadium when U.S. helicopters dropped boxes of military rations and Gatorade. But none of this trickle of help had reached the nursing home residents, who said some refugees have robbed them of what little they had.

Dautriche, who was sitting on the ground because of her broken back, held out an empty blue plastic basin. "My underwear and my money were in there," she said, sobbing. "Children stole it right in front of me and I couldn't move."

The area was an eery corner of silence within the clamor of crying babies and toddlers running naked in the mud. Guarding the little space was Phileas Julien, 78, a blind man in a wheelchair who shouted at anybody approaching to turn back.

During moments of lucidity, Julien said he was better off than other pensioners because the medicine he was taking provided sustenance. A moment later, he threw his arms out to hug a passer-by he mistook for his grandson.

Also trying to guard the center was Jacqueline Thermiti, 71, who couldn't stand because of pain but who brandished her walking stick when children approached.

"Of all the wars and revolutions and hurricanes, this quake is the worst thing God has ever sent us," Thermiti said.

Initially, Thermiti and others believed their relatives would come to feed them, because many live in the slums nearby. "But I don't even know if my children are alive," she said.

Thermiti was surprisingly feisty for someone who hadn't eaten since Tuesday. She attributed that to experience with hunger during earlier hardships.

"But I was younger, and now there's no water either," she said.

She predicted that unlike other pensioners, she could still hold out for at least another day.

"Then if the foreigners don't come (with aid)," she said, "it will be up to baby Jesus."

One of the struggling residents had died by nightfall Sunday, when Associated Press journalists returned to the nursing home. Tsida-Edith Andre, about 90, had been too old and too weak to hold out through the afternoon heat, said Nixon Plantain, a hospice cleaner who was planning to spent the night there.

Next to him, Michele Lina, 22, was spoon-feeding boiled rice to her paralyzed grandfather in a wheelchair. Plantain said she was the first relative to have come with food. He helped Lina give out tiny mouthfuls to others.

That food, along with a carton of water bottles brought by an AP reporter, was the only aid the residents received Sunday, Plantain said.

The cleaner-turned-caretaker tried to pour a trickle of water into the mouth of Mesalia Joseph, one of a small group he said probably wouldn't make it through the night.

"Don't give me any," Joseph mumbled, saying she was too hungry to drink.

Curled in a fetal position, she seemed to have already given up.

Bob Howard - the hero

The biggest train set

This is the world's biggest train set which covers 1,150 square meters
(12,380 square feet), features almost six miles of track and is still not complete.



Twin brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun, 41, began work on the 'Miniatur Wunderland' in 2000.


The set covers six regions including America, Switzerland, Scandinavia,
Germany and the Austrian Alps. The American section features giant models of the Rocky Mountains, Everglades, Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore.





The Scandinavian part has a 4ft long passenger ship floating in a 'fjord'.




It is expected to be finished in 2014, when the train set will cover more than
1,800 square meters (19, 376 sq ft) and feature almost 13 miles of track, by
which time detailed models of parts of France, Italy and the UK will have been added. It comprises 700 trains with more than 10,000 carriages and wagons.



The scenery includes 900 signals, 2,800 buildings, 4,000 cars, many with illuminated headlights. There are 160,000 individually designed figures.
The 250,000 lights are rigged up to a system which mimics night and day by automatically turning them on and off.



The whole system is controlled from a massive high-tech nerve centre.
In total, the set has taken 500,000 hours and more than 8 million dollars to
put together, the vast majority of which has come from ticket sales.

Luck abounds

todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful

that I got to chair a Tradition 11 meeting yesterday. I always talk about my boundaries regarding this blog when discussing this tradition.

that if I'm lucky, I'll get to attend 3 AA meetings today

that I was lucky enough not to be born in Haiti

tonight's a full moon!

Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to burn brighter.
- Bono

tolerance, et al

todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful

for the absolute miracles that I see every day

that I didn't get up and walk out of a meeting where the chairperson read from a religous manual; trust me, I wanted to leave

that I got to see, talk to and have lunch with Joe from San Diego. He was the final speaker at our local roundup last November.

that the feelings I have right now will pass. I feel very subdued. Don't know why.


Each day we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.
- Charles Swindoll

Listen to this...

todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful


that I stay in the center of the herd

that even though I've had very little to share in meetings lately, I've been more than willing to listen (Hey! That's how I got sober!)

that I get to know me a bit more most days; this is imperative to my recovery

Hearing is one of the body's five senses. But listening is an art.
- Frank Tyger