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!

No Gold in my sights

It didn't take me long to scratch Gold's Gym from my list of fitness centres worth considering.

Last week I was discussing personal goals with a life coach who is helping me sort some things out. One goal is that always popular "shed a few pounds."

Sidebar: Please note the language here. I'm not out to lose weight, but to shed pounds. The difference? It's mental. Think about it. If you lose something what does your subconscious start to do? It starts thinking about ways to find what you've lost. So, do you want to lose weight, or shed pounds?

I'm working at creating a vision board to help develop my focus on the future. That's when the gym issue came in. One of my activities this week is to locate a gym I can join to work on the physical aspect of my self-improvement project. So, on Saturday I popped into Gold's Gym in Lethbridge.

I'd been here a couple of times before and I don't really know why I want again. Don't get me wrong. I hadn't been here to work out. Once I had to pick someone up and once I had to drop something off. This time I wanted a closer look at things. So I walked in through the front doors.

It's a bit of walk from the entrance to the front desk. I went about 15-20 paces in, stopped, turned around and said to Lynda; "Forget it. This isn't the place for me." And we left. I didn't event make it to the front desk. Why not? That's easy.

Blaring music pounding into my head. Music that would have me hitting the 'seek' button on the car radio if it ever showed up on a station I listen to. Perhaps I should qualify this by saying I'm 51. I have no interest in rap (not really music, anyway) or hip-hop. Especially at volumes that could puncture the inner ear if exposure times lasted the duration of a workout. Even with my iPod playing, it wouldn't drown out this racket.

So it was out the door, back to the car and scratch Gold's Gym from my list.

Honestly, where do baby boomers go for fitness? I don't think Gold's Gym is alone in this approach. I have a feeling I'll find similar environments in more fitness centres in town. I sure wish someone would create a small facility catering to those 40+ only. Ideally, something like a circuit training similar to Curves . . . only something that allowed men.

Hey, here's a radical thought . . . maybe something that was for men only. It almost seems like there is a gym for women only on every other block in town. I can respect that. Women don't necessarily want to be somewhere that can have guys checking them out. Guess what, though? There are likely more than a few guys who would prefer not to have to show off the old pot belly in front of a bunch of women.

So the search goes on. I'll likely check out the YMCA. I hear it's fun to stay there and that you can hang out with all of the boys.

Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again

The title certainly seems appropriate right now. Here in Lethbridge, Alberta, the rain is pounding down right now. There's a little bit of thunder and lightning, too, but not enough to make it interesting. Let's face it, if you're going to have a storm, you might as well have a good one. Not damaging, but with some noise and light.

Here I am, a baby boomer at 50, and I still love a good thunder storm. I don't know why, but if I go to bed to the sound of rain and thunder, I'm out in a flash and sleeping a deep and restful sleep. Perhaps a psychiatrist would say Mom's tummy must have rumbled a lot when I was in the womb. I don't know about that but it sure is relaxing.

I'm waiting for a web conference to start so I thought I'd take a moment to write a quick post. I'm likely writing for myself as I suspect there aren't very many people reading the blog just now. But that's OK. Readership will grow.

Not many people in southern Alberta share my appreciation for the rain. Oh, the farmers will be happy for awhile . . . unless we get too much. But that's not the kind of appreciation I'm thinking about. Most people here love the sunshine and Lethbridge does get a lot of it. I like the sun, too, but there's something about an overcast or even rainy day that is special. Maybe that's one reason I'm attracted to the West (Wet) Coast in Canada. I do have a friend at work who seems to share my appreciation. Others just think we're weird.

Like rain, there are so many things we must face in life that people do not appreciate. Thinking about the people I know, this can include certain forms of animal life, everything from spiders to birds. It can focus on weather, work, the past, present and future. So many things that can bother us. One of the biggies is other people. I know because I speak from experience. Following my stress leave and what I like to call my spiritual reawakening, I have come to believe that I need to appreciate things more.

My spiritual beliefs are centred on the teachings of Unity Church. If you want to know more about that side of my life, please check out some earlier posts. But my understanding and acceptance of God is very much in line with Unity and some other New Thought teachings. Boiled down to its essence, I guess you could say I do not believe God is separate from us. God is not an individual spiritual being who lives in the clouds and waits for the End of Days to judge us and determine our eternal fate.

God is one with the universe and we are one with God. The spark of divine is found within every person and the earth itself. I find wonder in this belief. And through that wonder, a growing appreciation of all things. Oh, I'm not a saint. Hardly. I get frustrated by people. Let a mosquito land on me and it's dead. Lots of things still vex my spirit.

But I'm growing.

Appreciation for all things continues to blossom within. A deep, cleansing breath and silent meditation goes a long way to strengthening that appreciation. But please don't think less of me if I allow myself to get angry or upset. I am a spiritual being experiencing a physical life. It takes some getting used to.

So do overcast skies and rainy days. But they're worth it.

The Long Way Home

Six months.

It's been six months since I wrote for this blog. That's awful. But that's also life.

Those of you who are close friends know that half of that time was spent away from work. Yes, I took a three-month stress leave. I never thought I'd be someone who would need to do that, but when extremely negative thoughts about self start to become the order of the day and a counsellor and doctor both tell you your health is at risk if you don't take a break . . . you take a break!

So there were three months when I was essentially incommunicado. I saw my doctor. I saw my counsellor. Occasionally I met with friends for coffee or lunch. Thank to those individuals. You'll never know how much you helped by keeping me grounded and challenging me to think about life. During this time I also met someone who has had a great impact on my life. Pat Varley is a retired nurse, spiritual director and wonderful human being. Her role in helping me get back on my feet cannot be understated.

During the past six months, I've gone through some lows and some highs. Right now, I'm feeling more positive about life than I have for a long time. I've started feeding my spirit again, finding a home in Unity. There isn't a Unity fellowship in Lethbridge . . . yet. But I've made vital contacts online and in Calgary.

I have also examined what I'd really like to accomplish in life. My passion is really to help others see the potential life can hold for them. I guess having gone through some mental stuff myself, I want to follow a path that will allow me to step into the life journey of others and share some ideas and concepts that can help make a difference to them. Watch for that tendency to start showing up in this blog.

Oh, I haven't forgotten the intent to share the ups and downs of life. Heck, I just shared about a three-month stress leave. Mentally, I'm feeling great. Physically, I need to work at some things. I have shed a couple of pounds, but there are a lot more to go. I've purchased some great shoes for walking and a pedometer to provide some record of achievement . . . if I can figure out how to make it work!

But it's all good.