Greg's General Store

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, being happy is a choice. You can go through life looking at everything with a negative attitude or you can be positive about things. It is sort of like the glass is half empty or half full. It is the same glass with the same amount of liquid in it, but different people look at it from different angles. And what about a glass that is one quarter full? You can say you only have a quarter cup of water or you can be happy that you have something. It’s not always easy in every situation but I do try to see the bright side. But here are a few things about people that tend to get me down. First off I don’t like liars. When someone can look you in the eyes and tell you a lie that says something about their total character. I recently caught someone telling me a lie. What really hurts is that I liked this person and trusted them. I thought they were straight with me and that they respected me. Obviously I was wrong about them. I found out about ...

I often ask myself that question in reference to this blog. Well to tell the truth I have written. I have started writing posts almost daily. Sometimes it is a rant, other times it is a heartfelt story and yet other times I just write to be writing. But the truth is I seldom finish what I started. Either what I was thinking just doesn’t look good in print or I run out of time and just go on to another subject. This year I had two things on my bucket list. I wanted to get my CWP and I wanted to take an art class. Well I am happy to say that it is only February and I have already taken an art class and the CWP class. CWP stands for concealed weapons permit. Now all I have to do is wait on the paperwork and I will have my license. So now what do I do for the rest of the year? Tonight I am taking another art class. I actually bought two classes with a groupon but even if I hadn’t, I enjoyed the first class so much that I would have signed up for a second one. And me liking it has not...

Several years ago I posted about the classic Hee-Haw skit; “Hey grandpa what’s for supper?” I got to thinking how ironic that statement is for me because I only remember one of my grandpa's and that memory isn’t a very good one. Truth is he never made dinner for us. Truth is he didn’t cook, he only drank. And that is the only memory that I have of him. I can barely even remember when he died. The funny thing is that the original post is one of the biggest feeds into my blog. It is amazing how many people search for that phrase and one of the links takes them here. My grandmother’s did cook though and they were both great cooks. My grandmother Lottie not only cooked for her family, she also used to be a cook for Ormond Elementary School. It was Corbin Avenue Elementary at the time. She also drove the bus for the school. She would get up, fix breakfast for her children and get them ready for school, then drive the school bus, fix lunch for the school children, drive the kids back...

On the last day of 2012, I took a Yoga class. I knew it would be a great way to end the year and it was. During the class just like in most classes the leader suggested that we set an intention. For those that don’t take yoga, what this means is that you pick an object or thought to focus on during the class. It can be an object like a flower or a bird or something less concrete like love or peace. In this class we were told to try and think of an intention to set our focus for 2013. Try as I may, I just couldn’t come up with just one thing. All kinds of ideas were popping into my head for what I want to accomplish in 2013 but there was no common theme to focus on. As in the past, I do want to lose weight this year. I want to get in shape. I want to become healthier by eating better, drinking less, exercising more and minimizing the stress in my life. I would like to do more volunteer work, help others more, and reach out to those in need. I would like to make some new friends and ...

There are so many things in this world that are fake these days. Someone said that you can't put anything on the internet if it isn't true. That in itself is so untrue. I think that 90% of the information on line is fake and the rest is blown out of proportion by the media. I never thought that a day would that you couldn't believe what you read in a news paper but that day has arrived and it came with a bang. So I don't believe anything I read in the paper, on line or anything I see on TV. Especially those "reality" shows. If you didn't already know it, those shows are fake. Yes the people are real and the shows somewhat revolve around their normal lives but they are scripted and those people are doing crazy things just to boost ratings. I also don't believe in UFO's, free things, that Honey Boo Boo will ever amount to anything normal, and I don't believe that the path to Heaven goes through the front door of a church. It can but that come...

They are both emotional releases and sometimes I have trouble deciding which one to do. Yesterday at work, I got into a heated discussion with one of our electricians. Let me give you the background first. There is this pump/motor combination that isn't working and needs to be removed so that I can send it in for repairs. Picture a pool pump that is bolted to a frame with 4 tiny bolts. It really is as simple as that. So the question is who should remove it? An electrician because they do have to remove the wires and they have the technology to remove the tiny bolts and hoses. Or have a mechanic do it but they wouldn't be able to remove the wires legally so they would have to call that electrician to the scene anyway. Case one would take two electricians, one to do the work and the other one to complain about having to work. Case two would take one mechanic to do the work and two electricians to watch the mechanic and then one of them would have to remove the wires. Pretty s...

I am saddened by the recent events in Connecticut. The fact that a man could kill another person let alone a child just baffles me. And now it seems that everyone is looking for answers. Why would a man do this? We may never know the answer to that question but the alarming fact is that these kinds of things are becoming more and more common. They used to happen about once every 10 years, then about once a year and now it seems like about once a week. Is this really the end? Is it going to turn into a big free for all gun battle in our streets? I surely hope not. In the wake of this disaster, many people are calling for gun control. There may be a little truth to that reasoning in that if you were able to take away every gun from every American, there would be no more gun killings. However there would still be sick people and I am sure they would use other forms of weapons. We could take away every knife too and stop knife killings. Of course we would have to take away all forms of e...