[Qcwa] Fw: Ham Radio Report From K9NZQ

[N0UF]

Sent: Friday, September 03, 2004 11:11 PM
Subject: Ham Radio Report From K9NZQ


> 
>                A THOUSAND MARBLES
>          
> 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
> whomever 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 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 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 that 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. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ,
> clear and going QRT, good morning!"
> 
> You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this
> fellow signed off.
> 
> As for me...I took my wife out to breakfast.