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Do You Use Credit/Debit Cards?

Read this note very carefully. I did not know about the Clear button, but I will be pushing the Clear button before I swipe my gas or debit card. And after just to be safe.

People are getting really desperate due to the constantly rising gas prices.

A friend just told me about something that happened to one of his coworkers. She used her credit/debit card to purchase gas at the pump (like most of us do). She received her receipt like
normal. However, when she checked her statement, there were two $50 charges added in addition to her purchase. Upon investigation, She found out that because she did not press the ‘Clear’ button on the pump, the employee inside the store was able to use her card to purchase His/her own gas!.

To keep this from happening, after you get your receipt, you must press the ‘CLEAR’ button or your information will be stored until the next customer inserts their card.. Be sure to tell all
your friends/family so that this doesn’t happen to them!

I had never noticed the clear button but I got gas the other day and sure enough it is there.

I will be using it from now on.

The answers for what you need lie within and are free.  You have to do the work and take the work.  You have to keep going forward.  Just because you lose your job, shouldn’t mean that you lose your identity.  You did not lose your skills, your talent or your expertise.  What you’ve got to do now is create opportunities where the skills, talent and experience can be transferable.  You have to create your own opportunities.  The good old days ain’t coming back.  Ain’t nothing back there.  After you accept this, make a personal balance sheet where you look at what you’re good at.  Too many times a lot of us let our self-worth and our net worth get confused.  Focus on your self-worth.  Net worth is going to fluctuate.   Self-worth should not.

Stay focused, tough times don’t always last.  We’re going to get through this thing.  When the economy turns, and it will, who will you be?  Will you be the same person with the same values?  Or will you take this time to grow and live a balanced life?

ABOVE IS AN EXCERPT FROM CHRISTOPHER GARDNER’S BOOK START WHERE YOU ARE: LIFE LESSONS IN THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS.

Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision.  We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent.  We are traveling by train.  Out of the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination.  On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into the station.  Bands will be playing and flags waving.  Once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle.  How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering — waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.

“When we reach the station, that will be it!” We cry!

“When I’m 18.”

“When I buy a new 450 SL Merccedes Benz!”

“When I put the last kid through college.”

“When I have paid off the mortgage.”

“When I get a promotion.”

“When I reach the age of retirement, I shall live happily ever after!”

Sooner or later we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all.  The true joy of life is the trip.  The station is only a dream.  It constantly outdistances us.  It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad.  It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow.  Regret and fear are twin thieves that rob us of today.

So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles.  Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more, cry less.  Life must be lived as we go along. 

The station will come soon enough!

How good it is that God above has never gone on strike. 

Because he was not treated fair in things he didn’t like.

If only once, he’d given up and said, “That’s it, I’m through!

I’ve had enough of those on earth, so this is what I’ll do.

I’ll give my orders to the sun – cut off the heat supply!

And to the moon – give no more light, and run the oceans dry.

Then just to make things really tough and put the pressure on.

Turn off the vital oxygen till every breath is gone!

You know he would be justified, if fairness was the game.

For no one has been more abused, or met with more disdain.

Than God, and yet he carries on, supplying you and me with all the favors of his grace and everything for free.  Men say they want a better deal, and so on strike they go.  But what a deal we’ve given God to whom all things we owe.  We don’t care whom we hurt to gain the things we like.  But what a mess we’d all be in if God should go on strike.

If you want to get a favor done, by some obliging friend,

And want a promise, safe and sure, On which you can depend,

Don’t go to him who always has, much leisure time to plan,

but if you want your favor done, just ask a busy man.

The man with leisure never has a moment he can spare

He’s always putting off until his friends are in despair.

But he whose every waking hour is crowded full of work

Forgets the art of wasting time, he cannot stop to shirk

So when you want a favor done, and want it right away,

Go to the man who constantly works many hours every day.

He’ll find a moment sure somewhere, that has no other use,

And help you while the idle man is framing an excuse.

May I always remember to:

Encourage youth.

Find the time.

Keep a promise.

Forego a grudge.

Forgive an enemy.

Listen.

Think first of someone else.

Laugh a little.

Gladden the heart of a child.

Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth.

Speak your love.  Speak it once again.

Sometime when you’re feeling important, sometime when your ego’s in bloom;

Sometime when you take it for granted, you’re the best qualified in the room;

Sometime when you feel that your going would leave an unfillable hole

Just follow these simple instructions and see how they humble your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water, put your hand in up to the wrist;

Pull it out, and the hole that’s remaining is a measure of how you’ll be missed.

You can splash all you want when you enter, you may stir up water galore;

But stop, and you find that in no time, it looks quite the same as before;

The moral in this quaint example, is to do just the best that you can;

Be proud of yourself, but remember, there’s no indispensable man!