Don’t let the past cloud your present and future

Posted on by Beth V Powell

Whether you follow Facebook, Pinterest or other sources you no doubt have seen a variety of positive sayings to persuade you to let go of past baggage.  I believe in it too though I can tell you from personal experience it’s easier said than done.  We can spend our whole lives trying.  Some never succeed.  That just makes you human not a bad person!

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.

Johnny Cash

For decades I wrote two blogs.  One was on CAD (Computer Aided Drafting).  I blogged almost every day with screen captures of tips and tricks, new pieces, or anything I believed would be helpful to readers.  It was shared among many industry experts.  I changed careers.  I thought it would be on the Internet forever.  I never checked it.  One day a few years later I wanted to share something from it.  Low and behold I found that it was gone!  Where did it go?  As it turned out the site that I used was sold to someone else.  Emails were sent to notify.  I no longer had the email so never knew anything about it.  I was so mad!  I was mad at myself.  I was blaming myself for not checking it regularly.  The anger stuck with  me for far too long.  

The other blog was almost daily posts about my late husband’s Multiple Myeloma.  It was originally started when he was going for a stem cell transplant so I didn’t need to email or call everyone we knew.  They could just check the blog.  Later it became and outlet of sorts and a way to share with other patients.  I have met some other patients since then and while I can share a little in an email, all the info that might give them hope or take their minds off their own cancer from the blog is gone.  

It was only a blog, right?  It wasn’t as if I had a health problem or lost a family member.  It wasn’t serious.  Do you think I’m crazy?  It sounds silly, right?  I still get frustrated if it comes to my mind.  Luckily that’s not often. I think I’m mostly mad at myself.  I have never really committed to another blog the way I did that one because my heart just isn’t in it after that.  

I’m lucky.  I only have a small handful of events that have stuck with me that I can’t get over.  Some folks have much more.  What is it that irritates you years after it happened?  Was it an incident with a family member?  Did a friend do you wrong?  Are you mad at yourself?

 

Some of my Shenanigans

Posted on by Beth V Powell

It’s time to share my stories. There are a bunch!

This photo was taken about 1980 give or take. The green ’60 Studebaker Lark was the nicest one we’d ever owned. We had only ’60 Larks except for two 1962’s. This one we spotted off the turnpike exit. I don’t remember how my dad managed to find the owner, but the owner was a salesman who said the engine blew up. I think he had to rent a car. Yes, he wanted to sell it.

My dad bought the car and since we had a lot of 259 ci V8 engines for Studebakers it was easy enough to swap it out. The building you see in the background was our 40′ x 50′ shop he built before moving our mobile home from a mobile home court to the property. He did the engine swap inside the shop. My mother never went into the shop. I don’t think I realized what his plan was.

This car was super clean, had a wonderful paint job, had fender skirts (that I have today), a hood ornament, padded dash and reclining seats. It was a regal package with most every option. The push button radio worked and it was an automatic. It also had a professional, heavy duty 3 hole punch in the trunk that was just a big find! I have kept that punch with me all my life. I was in high school at the time and now am 62 at this writing so that hole punch has been my pride and joy for over 4 decades. Yes, I am a nerd!!!

My dad polished the car and kept it in the shop. Then he ran a string from it and all through the woods and up and down the creek. It ended at the home attached to a small package about the size of a jewelry box with a note to follow the string. He made it as a gift for my mother as a really nice car to be proud to drive to work.

This photo of the two cars together was one of my shenanigans that I got in trouble for more than once. The convertible was my car that I got for my 16th Christmas gift. That would’ve been 1979. It was white at the time and just like the one my dad got as his high school graduation gift it had the 259 ci V8, 3 speed (on the tree) and overdrive (OD). I had it painted red so it would just like the one my dad had. (Can you tell I’m a Daddy’s girl?)

The green Lark had radial tires which was a new thing for us. My convertible had bias ply tires. I would park them side by side like shown and swap all four. I can tell from this photo that the green Lark had my bias ply tires in the photo because besides the winter treads in the rear, I can clearly see the red rims on the green car. I would get better mileage with the radials. I was obsessed with mileage and tried my best to get 25-30 mpg. I would have to swap back when my dad noticed the red rims on the green car. I did this at least twice.

Indecently, the German Shepherd in both photos was Obi Wan Kenobi. She was a female and I was obsesses with Star Wars when it came out, but only the Jedi. I decided that Obi sounded like a uni-sexual name. That was on her AKC registration. Yep, color me a nerd!