West Virginia International Auto Show

Yesterday I went to the West Virginia International Auto Show in Charleston. For me, this was a relaxing time looking at all the cars and trucks. I have been a fan of new cars and trucks since I was about 6 or 7 years old. I can recall most car models from the late 1970s on. It is sort of an obsession since I have car magazines and car brochures at my house dating back from the 1980s. Of course they are all organized into a computer database. However, I don't look at them very often. Sometimes I think I would be able to sell them, but not now.
I got into some of the cars. Some were easy to get in and out of, but others such as sport cars were easy to get into, but very hard to get out. It's a result of the extra girth around my waist.
Right now I plan to go to the Pittsburgh Auto Show in February. I liked going to Charleston since the ceiling were more intimate (lower ceilings) and separate rooms. The Pittsburgh Convention Center is more open and more crowded.

The Inauguration of President Obama

Today was a day of fanfare and optimism as President Obama takes the oath of office on a cold wintry day in Washington, D.C. The oath was fumbled by both the Chief Justice and the President. It was amusing to see a such an eloquent speaker such as the President being tongue twisted by the Chief Justice.
I didn't get to see much of the days events except for watching the oath of office during my lunch period. But I tried to catch bits and pieces throughout the day such as the parade and the balls. And check out "The Beast" aka the Presidential Limousine.
So tomorrow is going to be a different story. I want to see change in the air in Washington, D.C. to shift to our cities and towns. I want change for the better. I want to see jobs to stay and multiply. I want to see new energy resources open to the populace. I want to see children stay in school and educated. I want our country to have a sense of optimism. Most importantly, I want everyone to make the right decisions for themselves, our nation, and our world. Don't just rely on our lawmakers to make decisions for us, but make decisions for yourself and to help others.
President Obama wanted the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday to be a day of service. I just don't want one day to be devoted to a day of service. I want lifestyle devoted to service. I want families to be role models and spend time and money for those who are less fortunate and be an example how lives can change. That is change we can believe in!
God Bless America!

Brrr...A Cold Day Out!

This morning I got the dogs out at 7:30 in the morning and the temperature was -6 degrees. I got up early to go to the RV Show in Pittsburgh. This is the third consecutive year I have gone to the Pittsburgh RV Show. I has shrunk every year to contract with the economy. A slowdown in RV's and travel are one of the first signs that an economic slowdown in coming. This year it was very evident. There were many less vendors at the show and the show was normally on two different floors, but this year it was on one floor. I spent a couple of hours there talking to some of the vendors about their feelings this year and they have seen an extreme downturn in their sales. I wished them the best. There usually are a good mix of motor homes to trailers. There were many trailers and very few motor homes. The most expensive motor home this year was $260,000 when in the past I have seen half-million dollar motor coaches. The dealers were heavily discounting their vehicles, many by as much a 1/3. One new vendor I saw there was Trailer City from Fairmont. Usually all the vendors are from Pennsylvania and I told Trailer City that I thanked them for coming to the RV show this week.
Later I went to Wheeling to Cabela's. That place seems to be bustling even with the economy. There is still some growth in the area with new retail and new restaurants. Across the interstate from Cabela's was a new dealership built for Bob Robinson Chevrolet-Pontiac-GMC-Buick that had relocated from downtown Wheeling. They are continuing to build more showrooms adjacent to the facility that they have open now. I just hope after all the financial investment they put into the new showrooms, General Motors doesn't go out of business.
Then I went to Washington Crown Center outside of Washington, Pennsylvania. All of its anchor stores are still open, but many stores have closed such as AT&T, Old Navy, and The Gap. KB Toys are in the process of being liquidated at this time. It's sad to see the demise of that mall since a year or two ago it was still bustling.
After going to Washington Crown Center, I went to Washington Mall. I first went to the JCPenney that had moved back to that mall after the new store subsided last summer. They had the glass doors to the mall closed and painted over. I wanted to go into the mall and see whats left. I exited JCPenney and went to the mall doors on the outside. The first set of doors I went to were locked, then the second, and a man exited the third set and went through those doors. I walked in and on the left there was a Coldwell Banker agency and on the right there was a photography studio. They were both closed, I presume for the day. I noticed the entire mall was cold, maybe 50 degrees. I kept walking through the hall, turned left, and show no stores or signs until I saw the JoAnn Frabric store at the end. I circle around and walked to the other end thinking about all of the stores that were once in the mall and all of the people who have once worked there. I remember the pastry shop and the Baskin-Robbins, as well as the Langs and the Christian bookstore that was once there. The ceilings in the mall were leaking through. I had a camera in my car and I had the notion to go get it, but it was just too cold to go back in the mall to take picture.
Let's just say it was a day to reflect on where we are now at in America! God Bless America in our next four years!

BBBrrrr!

We are now in our second consecutive snow day and the third so far this school year. I a concerned that students are missing instruction. I know as a teacher I am working about three hours a days finding new material and arranging ideas for school. In my humble opinion, I believe students should be working on content during snow days. Teachers used to be urged to make snow day packets for students to work on during snow days, but I haven't heard of anything like that for several years.
Many schools have Ed Line now and my school does too. I like adding material to Ed Line for resources and I encourage students and parents to utilize it besides checking for grades. But I don't get much feedback on it. I would like to see students use Ed Line on snow days to put in at least 15 minutes of time into an online quiz or activity to keep up their skills. Another idea I have would be to use a conferencing tool such as Skype that allow teachers and students to interact with one another during an assigned time.
These are just a couple of ideas I have for using snow days instead of letting it go to waste. For this work, we need families to have computers in their homes with Internet connection. We know this isn't going to happen anytime soon, but I want students to know that I am making education available to them right now even if it isn't a requirement!

I stepped into the Labyrinth!

Today I stepped into the labyrinth. This is my second day on retreat and Sister Mary set up a labyrinth in the basement of the Pastoral Center. When I usually think of a Labyrinth I think of a movie or a book in which a character is lost being chased by dragons and such. But this labyrinth is a path that looks like amaze, but you won’t get lost in it like a maze. While walking on the labyrinth, it is an opportunity to pray and reflect. We started on the edge of the labyrinth and followed the path that started as short chutes and turns. The further we got along the chutes became longer. As we were about three-quarters of the way through the paths were very long without a turn. So my reflection on the labyrinth was that I said prayers for my family and those I know. Then looking out of the window of the building, I reflected on our society and nature. I looked at the hills and wondered how it has been created over the period of thousands and millions of years. I looked at the stream below and wondered how it became essential to the lives of most living objects. I saw a trash can and thought about what humans are doing to this earth. Also, looking at the path and the others in the group taking part in this activity I saw it as the path of life. It started out as short path. We were close together where we could support one another like a parent could support a child. As we moved further in the path, I saw it as a person being an adult and able to function on his or her own. Towards the end of the path, the short turns returned and I viewed it as a point when life is nearing the end and who have to move slowly because we know what is coming. Finally the end is here at the middle and I think that I went through all these feeling and emotions I felt relieved. Then I back tracked the labyrinth and I was moving much faster than on the way in. I used this as a reflection of what I was thinking about at various points. I stopped at a point where I knew I thought of something important. Just like life, I was reflecting on the important memorable parts of life, but I don’t remember everything that I had done. I think going through the labyrinth is a metaphor for life and if done carefully, it is an opportunity to reflect on the things you have enjoyed in life and something to think about when you go through it.

Light and Joy

This weekend I am attending a retreat at the Bishop Hodges Pastoral Center in Huttonsville, West Virginia. The theme of this retreat is “Light and Joy in the Season of Epiphany.” The leader of this retreat is Sister Mary Clark from the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. The topic of this retreat is very interesting to me and something I think about quite often.

Sister Mary introduced the retreat as a way that a simple life from a candle can represent us as a body to guide us where we want to go. We start out as this dim light, but as we gain stre3ngth and confidence, our light becomes much brighter and reveals our potential to ourselves and to others.

I also see light from the sky. At night we see pitch black if we don’t have any lights around, but we see the faintest of lights to guide us. Then if we look up on a clear night we can see the entire universe. We can see stars, artificial and natural satellites, and o9ther celestial properties. But in my mind I see those who have passed before me like famous people and family members. I see these people in my mind who have done things to aspire me and others. It has been about ten years since my father has died and I look up into the heavens and think what it’s like in that place after death. I hope it’s a place where he is not judging me and others in my family, but offering support and praise. As a child, I often thought that looking up to the sky and clouds were the people who have gone to heaven and that weather formations were ways of sending us messages. For example, if it’s sunny, one must go outside and enjoy it while on the other hand if there is a fierce snowstorm – it is then time to spend time indoors. If you are in Minnesota and there are fierce snowstorms all winter long, it’s time to move to Florida!

Steve Wariner had a song several years ago “Holes in the Floor of Heaven” and it reminds me of tragedies and shortcomings in the past are overcome by the things we look forward to in the future. This is what I see when I just see a little bit of light – JOY!

Whoa! Oh Dear!

Finally, the holidays are over and I am now seeing the effects from the recession in North Centreal West Virginia. I heard on the news this morning that Goody's Clothing Stores are closing all of their stores. Goody's has a store in the center of NewPointe Shopping Center in Clarksburg. I went their this evening and saw a hand full of people shopping there.
I was also at Meadowbrook Mall this evening. I walked the mall. Steve & Barry's closed several months ago and I foresaw its closing due to the fact that I felt they were expanding too much and moving away from its core market which was affordable clothing like T-shirts. They had signed athletes and actors to promote the company.
I walked further down the hall at the mall and saw Coach House Gifts had closed and moved into the Hallmark Store across from its location. Next to Coach House's former location, B. Moss Clothing had closed prior to the Christmas holiday. There are also some seasonal stores like the calendar store and craft type of stores that are winding down after the holidays.
I also got to thinking about the auto industry in the our area. The local Honda dealership has a lot full of cars. I don't know if they are really selling anything, I know I got a vehicle there in November. I went to a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealership last weekend and its lot was packed as well. I just shudder at the thought of what would happen if one an entire auto company would just vanish! Chrysler has suspended production for the month of Janaury with no guarantee that it will resume in February even with a government bailout.
We'll just have to see what happens and pray for individuals and their families on the safety of keeping their jobs.

New Year - New You

New Year, New You! How many times have you heard this statement this year! Well, I am one of these people who made a New Year's Resolution. What were my resolutions? One, is to lose a little bit of weight and the other is to save a little bit of money.
I just want to discuss losing weight. Several years ago I lost about 40 pounds and I kept off most of the weight. However, my weight has been creeping up over the past two or three years. I would like to lose about twenty to thirty pounds in the next six months. So far six days into the new year, my weight has been steady. I am going on the scale each time I go into the bathroom. I have made sure i am not nibbling on little things or adding extra things when I eat.
The problem I have right now is that I don't have much energy to exercise. I belong to a gym and I find it had to stay on. I don't have enough energy. I come home from work really tired. I try to walk on most days for about an hour. This walking does me good as I gives me things to think about and relax.
On the sixth day of the new year, I went to the gym, it was just packed. I thought to myself the other day, I wonder how of these people will stick around. I have seen people that I haven't seen there for a while and I have seen people i have never seen there before. Right now, it's just too crowded for my tastes.
I am also worried about people in my family. I try to keep active. My mother lives a sedentary life and just sits in a chair watching television most of the day. She doesn't get out much and has relegated herself into getting a roll-a-tor (rolling walker) because she gets short of breath after a short distance. I get very frustrated with her because I feel she has given up.
I am also worried about my sister. She is only a year older than I am, but she is also stumped with a weight issue. I just worry about my family members and their weight because it translates into weight issues.
I am currently watching "The Biggest Loser" and I wish these people the best and hope to use them to encourage me to take the initiative to work harder.
Well, here I go trying not to nibble on anything and I wish you the best in fulfilling your new year's resolution!

My First Post

Wow! This is my first post! I had a co-worker say to my students today that everyone should blog everyday. So this is what I am doing. So I'll try to add every few days and I may even have a couple of readers.
By the way, the name of the blog "Journey Into Imagination" is rooted in the title of a ninth-grade English poetry project that completed. That was about 20 years ago. Where did I get the name to that title? Actually it was a title of a Pavillion at EPCOT in Walt Disney World when it opened. I remember reading about EPCOT before it opened in 1983. My family lived in Florida and we got pre-opening literature with postcards and photos. I had visited the Magic Kingdom prior to the opening of EPCOT. I was just fascinated with the concept of EPCOT. I did not visit EPCOT until 2005.
So this is just the beginning I hope! Let me know what you think!