ON MY WALK TO GET SOME LUNCH TODAY...

After issuing a complaint to my father he would always say, "If you had two loaves of bread under each arm, you would still complain!"

His line rang very true today.

I was walking down the street during my lunch break and I heard the loud sounds of a fire truck rounding the corner. It stopped only a few blocks in front of me and as I walked closer I could smell something burning really bad - then I saw a garbage can on fire at the corner of Market and 3rd.

By the time I got up to where all of the action was the firefighters had already put the fire out and were pulling the melted plastic off the sidewalk.

I heard a couple of the store keepers, who obviously knew each other, standing outside of their stores watching this all go down, complaining about the whole messy situation. One wondered how much the taxpayers will have to pay to clean up the mess - pointing out the two fire trucks, an ambulance and eight fire fighters putting out a small fire on the corner of San Francisco's main thoroughfare. The other store keeper said he was sure it wasn't going to cost as much as bailing out the banks on Wall Street.

These ideas really didn't occur to me at all. I was happy the fire didn't spread, it wasn't a bomb and glad no one was hurt. It's one of those times where a negative person offers up the obvious negative opinion - like these storekeepers - who then pass along their negativity to others - like me walking by and over hearing their conversation. It's like the negativity plague - which is easy to catch and even easier to pass along to others.

A positive person would say: I'm glad no one was burnt badly by that large first on the corner of the street or wow those firefighter uniforms are worn a lot tighter than I expected!

I choose not to listen to the store keepers. I need to surround myself with positive type of behavior, because I have taken a few rides on the negativity bus, and they were long-rocky rides. It's often too easy to pick out the bad parts in life's daily occurrences. Looking at the positive angles/sides of situations, even if it is just saying this was a great learning experience, will help in progressing into a person we should all strive to be.

My dad was right, "two loafs of bread under each arm" is a great place to be - no sense in complaining. The negativity plague is easy to catch - but it's much more productive keeping a positive attitude while rolling through life.

And, as a side note, I think wearing a San Francisco firefighter uniform would make a sexy Halloween costume!