There are many beautiful flowers in our neighborhood. Here is a sampling captured during some of my walks recently in different parts of our neighborhood. I am not sure of the names of some of these flowers, so just enjoy their beauty. If you want to leave a comment and identify the names, that would be appreciated.

Notice the rocks around this flower. Keep in mind that Albuquerque is in a desert region and we generally have to water plants if we want them to grow.

Lavender

Grape Myrtle

A lot of people have prickly pears similar to what you see above. They are native to this area. Below we see a closeup of some its flowers and the fruits that develop after the flowers bloom. You can see some of the bigger thorns, but what is much harder to see are the fine hair-like needles that will penetrate your skin if you get too close and brush up against this cactus. While photographing this cactus I got too close and paid the price. Later I had to spend quite a bit of time finding and pulling those fine needles out. I couldn’t see them, so had to feel where they were and then grab them between two fingers, which meant that I  sometimes got them stuck in my fingers.

This magnolia tree is from the back yard of a neighbor’s house several blocks away. I was photographing some flowers in her front yard when she and her helper came over from across the street and we started talking about the beautiful flowers and plants in the neighborhood. She was very mobile  in her moterized wheelchair and wanted to show me this magnolia tree. If you look  closely about a quarter of the way down from the top and just a little to  the right you can see two magnolia flowers.

Here is a closer look at those two flowers. During prime time the magnolia tree has many larger flowers.

This is what forms after the flower is finished.

Recently a friend who grew up in West Virginia and now lives here asked me if I had ever seen Catalpa trees. They were a familiar site where he grew up. Yes, we had some on the dairy farm where I grew up in southern Indiana. And yes, I had seen some in Albuquerque recently. When I go out for a walk I like to take my camera with me and found this Catalpa tree recently in our neighborhood.

Catalpa is a genus of flowering plants in the trumpet vine family native to warm temperate regions of North America, the Caribbean, and east Asia. They are mostly deciduous trees that grow 39 to 59 feet tall and 20 to 39 feet wide. In the autumn their 7.9 to 20 inch long fruits resemble a slender bean pod, containing numerous small flat seeds, each seed having two thin wings to aid wind dispersal. The two North American species have been widely planted outside their natural ranges as ornamental trees for their showy flowers and attractive shape and growing habit. This Catalpa tree was obviously planted here by the home owner.

The Catalpa bean pod dries out in the fall. When I was growing up on the dairy farm, some of us would try to lite the pods and smoke them, but we could never get them to stay lit, nor could we ever puff any smoke. So that experiment never worked.

This classic inspirational book is very relevant in today’s economic climate! Dr. Schwartz gives you useful methods, not empty promises. He presents a carefully designed program for getting the most out of your job, your marriage and family life, and your community. He proves that you don’t need to be an intellectual or have innate talent to attain great success and satisfaction — but you do need to learn and understand the habit of thinking and behaving in ways that will get you there. This book gives you those secrets!

You can purchase this practical book from Amazon by clicking on this link: “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David J. Schwartz.

I have read this book a few times over the years and keep coming back to it for additional inspiration and guidance. It is one  of those books that I wish I had found and paid attention to earlier in my career.

First let me quote from the Preface about a sales person who was making 5 times as much money as the other sales people, as related by a sales vice-president at a sales meeting. “I want you to take a good look at Harry. Look at him! Now what’s Harry got that the rest of you haven’t? Harry earned five times the average but is Harry five times smarter? No, not according to our personnel tests. I checked. They show that he’s  about average in that department. And did Harry work five times harder than you fellows? No — not according to the reports. In fact he  took more time off than most of  you. Did Harry have a better territory? Again I’ve got to  say no.  The accounts averaged about the same. Did Harry have more education? Better health? Again, no. Harry is about as average as an average guy could be except for one thing. The difference between Harry and the  rest of you, the difference is that Harry thought five times bigger.”

Apparently what the Bible relates from the prophet David, “As one thinketh in his heart, so is he”, remains true today in very practical terms.

Wouldn’t you like to know how to do this? Dr. Schwartz uses the following chapters to show each of us what it takes to turn big thinking into practical results. Notice that he doesn’t advocate sitting in our easy chair and only thinking about what we are going to do, but there are very definite steps that must be taken to turn big thinking into reality. Why not achieve big results in your life with the right approach instead of meandering through in a haphazard way without the right playbook?

1. Believe You Can Succeed and You Will
2. Cure Yourself of Excusitis, The Failure Disease
3. Build Confidence and Destroy Fear
4. How to Think Big
5. How to Think and Dream Creatively
6. You Are What You Think You Are
7. Manage Your Environment: Go First Class
8. Make Your Attitudes Your Allies
9. Think Right Toward People
10. Get the Action Habit
11. How to Turn Defeat Into Victory
12. Use Goals to Help You Grow
13. How to Think Like A Leader

In the first chapter, Dr. Schwartz drives home the necessity of believing in yourself no matter where you are starting from today. By truly believing in yourself and taking action you will find that other people will notice and have confidence in you. Think success. Good things start happening. In this chapter and throughout the book he provides practical methods on how to turn these concepts into reality for anyone. Since big ideas and plans are often no more difficult to achieve than smaller ones, why not reach higher?

Making excuses for all the things that have happened to us and feeling sorry for ourselves will certainly sabotage our progress. This seems to be a favorite pastime for many, especially in the areas of health, intelligence, age, & luck. Not only does he point out how important it is to stop making excuses, but he shows how to turn the tables. He relates a story of a golfer friend who had one arm amputated, yet had near-perfect style with just one arm. His friend said, “Well, it’s my experience that the right attitude and one arm will beat the wrong attitude and two arms every time.” Many people will think they are too young and don’t have enough experience, while others will think they are too old, yet both attitudes result in lost opportunities. He provides many steps and examples of how to overcome the common excuses relating to health, intelligence, age, & luck.

We all must take action in the right direction to achieve our life potential and enjoy the fruits thereof. Why not join Dr. Schwartz and learn how a succession of right thinking and right actions can greatly improve your situation? Throughout this book he presents many stories of how ordinary people have achieved superior results by thinking and acting with big ideas, even in the face of big challenges. You can too!

Get started today. You can purchase this book from Amazon by clicking on the following link: “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David J. Schwartz. To your success in life.

Driving back from the 2-day Butterfly Marketing Workshop in Las Vegas, Nevada, in early June, I took the less traveled route through Bullhead City via route 68 to Kingman, Arizona. As you can readily see, the  views of the Black Mountains along route 68 are spectacular. I drove slowly and stopped often to take in the beauty. At Kingman I continued my leisurely journey on  route 66 to Seligman where I then continued on I40 to home in Albuquerque.

Sunset on route 164 before arriving at Searchlight, Nevada, for the night.

Heading into Black Mountains from Bullhead City on route 68 towards Kingman.

Late lunch here in Peach Springs, Arizona, on route 66. Good food & service.

In March I  noticed that I  had a big nail in the right rear tire on my Isuzu Trooper since that tire was slowly loosing air pressure. I drove to our local Costco dealer where I had purchased 4 new tires back in June, 2007, for $516.56 to get that tire repaired. In addition to the big nail, they also found a big screw in the inside sidewall which meant that they couldn’t repair the tire. No problem. They would replace it. But now they found that Michelin no longer made this Michelin LTX M/S (item# 846315) tire. The newer version was Michelin LTX M/S XL (item# 847226) and looked identical as far as my  eyes were concerned. But apparently Michelin & Costco had a rule that if they couldn’t replace the tire with the identical version they would have to  replace all 4 tires. Ok by me as long as I didn’t have to pay for the extra 3 tires. Even though I already had 11,262 miles on those tires, the supervisor couldn’t detect any wear! This meant that I only had to pay for the  difference in price for the one damaged tire and the new replacement tire, which came to only  $8.54. Since the Trooper already had 174,838 miles and I normally would get about 100K miles on these tires, it  looks like these tires will most likely outlast the Trooper by a long shot. These new tires are more valuable than the current resale value of this entire 1991 Isuzu Trooper!

This experience brings up several interesting observations. Over many decades I  have tried different tire brands and have always come back to Michelin. Even though Michelin tires are usually more expensive, they tend to wear better than any other top brand tire that I have tried. Also, as you can see by  this  experience, the service has usually been better with Michelin. Since we have lived in Albuquerque I have purchased replacement tires from Costco and take advantage of their free rotate &  balance service every 6-10K miles to prolong the life of the  tires. I really appreciated the service I got from Costco & Michelin.