We meet some interesting people here at DOC Auto!

One of the fun things about working at DOC Auto is the opportunity we have to meet interesting people and talk about the cool things they’re doing. 

Alia and Travis Reese are long-time DOC Auto customers.  Travis is a Marine whose job frequently sends him on overseas deployments.  Alia began using scrapbooks with photos of Travis to keep him involved in the day-to-day conversations of their two young children.  She realized that other Marine families could benefit from her idea, so she’s written and published two books, American Hero Books: My Daddy is a Marine and American Hero Books: My Mommy is a Marine, with places to insert photos of Daddy or Mommy.  She’ll be coming out with American Hero Books for the other branches soon.  Check them out at americanherobooks.com.  You can look at and fondle the books in person here at the shop.  Great idea, Alia!

    

I hit the lottery!!

Yep, I hit the lottery!  And so did you!  What I mean is that we live in the greatest country in the world, in the greatest civilization the planet has ever seen.

I'm certainly no sophisticated world traveler, having lived in or visited only about fifteen or so countries.  But I've seen enough to feel confident in my assessment of our good fortune.  Let me share my reasoning with you.

These days, we hear so much about how China is rapidly overtaking the good ol' US of A - we're losing ground to that industrious people.  Well, how 'bout some statistics to get a handle on the real picture.  Even if you just look at GDP, we outproduce not just China, whose population is over four times ours, but China, Japan, and Germany (producers #2 through #4) put together.  Let's take a look at per capita GDP - ours is $46,000; China's is $3,920.  Are we sure they're more industrious than we are?

What about standard of living?  How many of us would prefer to live as the average Chinese citizen lives, versus how we live?  As recently as 1985, only ten percent of urban households had refrigerators (curiously, over 18 percent had color television sets at the time), and the figure was much lower in rural areas.  Of course, if you're "fortunate" enough to live in an urban area, your brand new apartment building might just topple over without warning.  Hey, but at least you have a fridge!  The Economist Intelligence Unit's Quality of Life Index ranks the US thirteenth in the world, China sixtieth.  The Chinese economy is growing rapidly, but the way they're achieving that growth is creating some serious problems, especially within the communist framework.

I'm not saying we don't have our share of problems - of course we do.  If you're alive, you're gonna have problems; it comes with the territory.  Let's just keep some perspective.  Then, let's get to tackling our problems with a spirit of gratitude!

Dave

Great news! We've managed to make more people cry!

Our 2011 toy drive was a huge success, thanks to all of our generous clients!  We didn't get photos of the entire collection; the pix above are just a sampling.  This year's donations included seven bicycles; in all the previous years we've collected toys we've had a grand total of one bicycle donated.

The first time we gave toys to the Culpeper Community Development Corporation (check them out at culpepershelter.com), we brought tears of joy to the staff, who had many more needy kids than they had presents for.  We managed to make more people cry this year.  

Cheryl Carter, who runs the Culpeper Community Development Corporation (the organization that distributes the toys) called to share just one story, involving a single mother of three teenage daughters and an eight year old son.  A few weeks before Christmas, the boy approached his mother and said "Mommy, do you think I could have a bike for Christmas?"  Of course, Mom had to let the little feller know that a bike would not be possible.  Well guess what - this child ended up with one of the donated bicycles.  The mom was in tears when they came to pick up the bike - and for this particular young 'un, Santa's the real deal.

Every one of the toys has a similar story.  This was the first time I've had to make two trips to drop toys off - thanks again to all of our amazing clients for making it possible.

Hope all of you had a Merry Christmas, and here's to a great 2012.

Dave