What Makes You Smile? - # 2.

This is an effort to concentrate on the positives in my life - while continuing to sneak in my - "I can't believe this" in further blogs.

Here's more of what makes me smile.

1. The look on a child's face when someone pulls their number out of a hat or Becky's paper bag and they find out they won. When they run up to the front of the room to secure their prize you could turn off the lights. Their smile would light up the room.

2. Any Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on line video that contains sportwriter Gene Collier's dry wit.

3. The picture of 6' 4" son Bruce lying on our lanaii with our 2.4 lb Chihuahua, Bella sitting on his chest.

4 The sight of an elderly man with a cane increasing his "stroll speed" step- by- step after getting out of a car so he can reach the Gecko's restaurant entrance before his wife - and hold the door for her.

5. My wife Phyl's excitement when she discovers a new recipe and immediately does a mental count as to which ingredients she needs to buy to make it happen in our home, NOW.

6. Looking at pictures of the earliest snowfall at Penn State since 1901.

7. A simple joke like the one in this most recent Reader's Digest. A Junior High student complains to his teacher that another student has called him that "e-word". The teacher has never heard of the E-word and seeks clarification. Under his breath the student replies, "idiot".

8. Receiving a newsletter from former hometown legislator Ron Marsico back in P.A., relating how Pennsylvania politico's finally balanced the budget - after a period of over 100 days. It's true that "sometimes the more things change - the more they remain the same". But, we're here - they're not; and folks, "that's a smiley face!"

9. Exchanging Facebook Observations with Grandaughter Cassie, our new "Farm Owner".

10.Phyl, Bella, and me, riding in a golf cart we just purchased that once was owned and "ridden hard" by a recently deceased friend "Hank". That's a look up in the sky and "Thank You God" moment.