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-----Original Message-----
Subject: Let's enjoy those Saturdays

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps
it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise,
or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work.
Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most
enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement ham radio
shack with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning
paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning,
turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you
from time to time. Let me tell you about it.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my
ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net.
Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a
tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he
sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was
telling whoever he was talking with something about "a thousand
marbles". I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had
to say.

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm
sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from
home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow
should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends
meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital." He
continued, "let me tell you something Tom, something that has
helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities."

And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand
marbles." "You see, I sat down one day and did a little
arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years.
I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks
live about seventy-five years." "Now then, I multiplied 75
times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number of
Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.
Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part." "It
took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this
in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived
through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking
that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand
of them left to enjoy."

"So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they
had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up
1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large,
clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.
Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and
thrown it away." "I found that by watching the marbles diminish,
I focused more on the really important things in life. There is
nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to
help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you
and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took
the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make
it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra
time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with
your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. 73
Old Man, this is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!".

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow
signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had
planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was
going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club
newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a
kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."
"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing
special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday
together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while
we're out? I need to buy some marbles."

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND MAY ALL SATURDAYS BE SPECIAL!

---

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