SUMMER OFFICIALLY BEGINS HODGEPODGE!

1. Under what circumstances do you do your best thinking?
     In the quiet of my office with music playing in the background and late afternoon or early evening. I can be creative when under pressure but I prefer the quiet office scenario.

2. Are you a risk taker? What's one big risk you've taken?
     No, I am not. One big risk I've taken is I married my High School sweetheart. So far the risk has been worth it.

3. Some of the most common phobias according to the National Institute for Mental Health are-fear of spiders (arachnophobia), snakes (ophidiophobia), heights (acrophobia), fear of spaces from which escape is difficult (agoraphobia), fear of thunder and lightening (astrophobia), fear of dogs (cynophobia), injections (trypanophobia), social situations, flying (pteromerhanophobia) and fear of germs and dirt (mysophobia). True phobias affect only about 10% of adults, but of those listed which would you rate as your greatest fear?
     I am not phobic per se, but I do not like heights. I'd never make it as an iron worker or a roofer.

4. Are you settled or do you feel the need to move somewhere new?
     I am pretty well settled. However, with each passing winter more temperate climates become more inviting.

5. What is something you find annoying when dining in a restaurant?
     There are a couple of things. One is the waitstaff gathering around the table of a birthday boy or girl and clapping, singing and generally being loud and annoying. The other is when your server makes too frequent visits to your table to ask if every thing's alright. I prefer my server stop by once or twice after the entree has been served, keep the water/beverage glasses filled, and leave us the heck alone so that my dining companion and I can engage in an uninterrupted conversation while enjoying our meal.
  
6. Daffodil yellow, sunset orange, spring green, or sky blue...your favorite color this time of year?
     Sunset orange! I love a colorful sunset.

7. If you were going to take a holiday all by yourself, where would you go?
     A house on the ocean or a cabin in the mountains by a clear lake.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.
    Today, the State of New Hampshire pays it respects as it lays another public servant to rest. Officer Steve Arkell was killed in the line of duty a week ago. Fortunately, this type of thing doesn't happen often. However when it does happen, it really impacts the entire state.  
     I have been retired from law enforcement for almost three years and whenever I read of an officer being killed in the line of duty anywhere in the country, I mourn for my fallen brother or sister, their family and their co-workers. When it happens in the state of New Hampshire that sense of mourning is much more profound.
     Officer Arkell leaves a wife and two teen aged daughters. He was a pillar of the community where he lived and worked and by all accounts was very well liked and respected. May he rest in peace!