2010: Begin Again: A van-tasy

Dreaming

Are you familiar with the Pepsi ‘Forever Young’ promotion?

I don’t know if this ran in the U.S., but my fellow Canadians will likely recall it. Someone is drinking a Diet Pepsi and the voiceover asks “Is there anything else youthful you'd like to experience?”

Then the person drinking has a flashback to something great from when they were young, sees how it would apply to life today and decides to stick with the Diet Pepsi instead.

The one that gets me is the guy in the minivan who says, “Yeah, I’d like to have my old van back.”

The view cuts to him driving around in this tricked-out Boogie van from the ‘70s with the gaudy mural of the big-breasted warrior woman and her team of saber-toothed cat/bear things. Cue Loverboy’s ‘Working for the Weekend.’ The music pounds, the van rolls and everyone is looking at him. A businessman gives the driver an odd look at a red light. He stops to let the kids out at school and a mother covers her little girl’s eyes as the driver stands leaning up against the van with one hand near one of those massive breasts.

He’s quite embarrassed. He snaps to and says “On second thought, I’ll stick with my Diet Pepsi.”

Wrong answer, dude! See, I had a Boogie van back in the late ‘70s. Yes. Me. And recently I’ve been thinking how great it would be to have one again. That one in the Pepsi ad would be so cool!

There was a very cool van around in 1976 sponsored by Pepsi’s competitor, Coke! Check out the photo I’ve included with this posting. Took me a bit of time to find it. Coke and Levi, the jeans people, teamed up to produce about 25 of these vans, giving them away in contests across North America. I entered a bunch of times, but never did win the van, although someone in Alberta did win one. Very nice custom interior . . . all in Levi denim.

Mine was a Dodge Tradesman B100. It was sort of a copper colour. No exterior mural. Couldn’t afford that. Duel side exhaust. Visor. Flares. No side or rear windows. My friend, Ian, and I worked on the interior. Ian had a Chevy van with a beautiful interior. We had lots of fun doing my van. I’m a klutz with things like that, so Ian was a big help. We built a good bed in back, with a pullout middle section that served as an extra seat and a cooler. Installed wood flooring and ox-blood red faux leather walls. Put in a sunroof.

I loved that van. Every once in a while, deep in a restful sleep, I will dream that I still have it. That it’s been sitting in a garage somewhere all these years and I just have to dust it off, start it up and get back on the road.

It’s a nice reminder that we all have dreams. Often we let the dreams slip away as we ‘mature.’

Life has a way of smacking you upside the head with a two-by-four. Before you know it, you’re working in a career, you’re married, you’ve got kids, the kids grow up and move away (hopefully) and you’re left staring at the fact that so much of what you wanted to do when you were young hasn’t happened.

The goals you had were put on hold, then got lost in the back of that garage in your mind, covered with dust and forgotten about. Part of what 2010: Begin Again means to me is examining those old dreams and seeing about resuscitating them. Can a little mental CPR breath new life into my earlier desires? At least those dreams that still intrigue and interest me.

I like to think it’s never too late to begin again. Take a fresh look at life and see if you’re living the way you really want to, or if you are living the way you have to. There’s a big difference. I’m fortunate to have a job I enjoy working with people I like. Not everyone has that. But there is still more I want to accomplish.

If you’re still in your 20s or 30s, don’t give up on your dreams. Maybe it doesn’t seem like they are possible right now, but if you work a plan to make them happen, you’ve got time. If you’re closer to me in age, I still say don’t surrender to the passage of time. You can still make a plan to achieve, then work your plan.

My plan involves developing second income streams to enhance what I currently earn. This summer I’ve been fortunate to have time to do some research and develop some ideas to achieve that goal.

One of those ideas is to provide others with access to a service that allows people to easily connect, reconnect and stay in touch with friends, family, co-workers clients and just about anyone else through easily customized greeting cards that are printed and mailed for you for less then you could spend on a card purchased in most stores. You can check this out here.

And if you want to see my van, stay tuned. I’m going to try to locate and scan some photos from that era. You’ll get to see me when I was skinny (I was once, you know), had a cheesy moustache and a perm! Hey, it was the ‘70s.

I can skip the cheesy moustache and the perm, but I’d sure like to have the van again!

Cue the music . . .

“Everyone's watching, to see what you will do

Everyone's looking at you, oh

Everyone's wondering, will you come out tonight

Everyone's trying to get it right, get it right

Everybody's working for the weekend

Everybody wants a new romance

Everybody's goin' off the deep end

Everybody needs a second chance, oh”

And fade out . . .

Photo: The machine of a dream. The Coke Denim Machine. I wanted it so badly. To enter the contest you needed to collect bottle cap liners. This was the day of metal bottle caps. I used a magnet on a sting to fish caps out of vending machines. Ya see, in the olden days you'd use the machines built-in bottle opener to pop the metal cap, which would fall into a receptacle below. How primitive!

2010: Begin Again - Friends and a Misty Update

Time Keeps on Slipping into the Future

How much time do you spend thinking about the future? Now that I have less time ahead of me than what lies in my past, I think my perspective on the future is evolving. When younger, say in my 20s or 30s, even 40s, it seemed there was all the time in the world. That belief is now pretty much part of the past in which it was formed.

At the risk of sounding like someone’s old grandfather, don’t take what you’ve currently got for granted and it’s never too early to plan for your future. In this case, do as I say and not as I do. I haven’t done a lot of planning for my future . . . and I realized yesterday that technically I’ve only got 12 years to go until retirement! Scary!

As 2010 rolls along and I focus on the idea of ‘begin again,’ much of my reflection has been on a deep, personal level. Last week I shared about realizing I’ve let the riches of friendship slip through my fingers. That’s something I’m working at correcting.

I’ve begun to put together a list of people who have touched my life in some way over the years. Not an easy task, but a real eye-opener! Looking at an address book we use, I was shocked to see so many names that I can’t even recall. I can’t picture faces. I don’t remember the connection. And that’s sad. I suspect many were affiliated with a couple of churches we used to attend. It seems you leave a church and often you leave behind acquaintances.

Those I can’t recall I shall consider lost treasures. They came into my life, enriched a moment and were gone. But there are others whose names stir fond memories. Gems that still shine brightly in my recollections. To these jewels, I have started reaching out. Through social networking I am reconnecting with some wonderful people. And I’m not going to stop there.

Is there such a thing as Providence? Divine Intervention? Law of Attraction? Or is it all coincidence? Whatever you believe, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Remember Desiderata? It certainly unfolded right for me. Just as I’m experiencing the desire to foster stronger friendships, along comes a means that will let me do that in a wonderfully personal and creative way.

I reconnected with a friend I’d been thinking about – Jackie Ulmer. Jackie and I re-established contact after being out of touch for a couple of years. She introduced me to a method she’s been using to strengthen friendships by using a service provided through a company called Send Out Cards. When I found out how easy it was to generate and send personal greetings to others, I felt my wishes crossing paths with a means in either a great coincidence or a benevolent intervention!

Whatever the case, it means I’m going to start going beyond the Internet and back to the personal touch to express how deeply my friends have touched me. For this blessing in my life, I have to thank Jackie.

So, keep an eye on your mailbox. If I’ve got your address, you could be receiving a card from me sometime soon. And if I don’t have your address, well, I might just try to track it down! Yes, you do mean that much to me!

Updates
Spirituality: I’m getting excited about speaking to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship here in Lethbridge on Sunday, Sept. 12. It’s the first celebration together after taking the summer off. The theme is ‘Gathering of the Waters.’ My talk will fall in line with that theme and with the song ‘Imagine,’ being sung by Sarah Russell – my pick!

This is not your traditional church! In fact, I wouldn’t even call our group a church. It’s more a celebration of life with a group that includes people of a wide range of beliefs, but a common interest in improving the here-and-now and not worrying so much about what comes after! If you are interested, we meet at 1904 - 13 Avenue North in Lethbridge. That’s the Nord-Bridge Community Hall. Enter from the south side of the building at the door with the wheelchair ramp. If you want to learn more about the UUF in Lethbridge, let me know and I’ll share what I can.

Health: It may not sound like much, but I’m walking more often. That was easier when I only had Max to deal with. He can set a could pace and is well trained on the leash or off. But now I’ve got Misty, too, for a short while. She’s hardly spent any time outdoors and never on a leash. We’re working on it! But you can see she’s not too keen on walking on grass!

Finances: Being laid off for the summer has been interesting. Fortunately, it’s considered a seasonal layoff and I qualify for EI! Hey, I’ve paid into it for a lot of years; I might as well get something back. Of course, it’s not equal to my salary from the college, but I go back to work on Aug. 30. And there’s a bonus waiting for me on the first pay cheque (that’s ‘check’ for all my friends who speak American). No, it’s not for anything I did. Due to the economy, there are not raises this year, but the Board of Governors has approved a $1,000 bonus to help compensate.

Misty: It was a shivering little frightened dog that came into our home last Wednesday. She was even afraid of little Maya. The tiny kitten puffed herself up, hissed and Misty cowered behind my legs. Now poor Maya may regret that bluff. Misty has settled in and routinely pounces on Maya in an effort to get her to play. She’s twice the size of the kitten and I have to call her off so poor Maya can have some peace. My son’s cat, Freckles, is fine with the big lumbering Max and Maya, but is paranoid about Misty. She stays hidden most of the time. And Max would love to play with Misty, but she’s too nervous around Max. She goes out of her way to avoid him. Some day she’ll learn he’s as big a pussycat as Maya . . . only, well, bigger!

Until next time – live, love and laugh!

Photos: Misty sitting with me at the Nicholas Sheran spray park in Lethbridge. It was her second excursion on a leash. Maya crams her head into my grandson's glass looking to lap up some milk. Sunday was a good day!

Derek (GIC – Guy In Charge)