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On the Fly - Promo

 "Each of us is, at this moment, is standing in the middle of his or her Acres of Diamonds."

Welcome to On the Fly, a weekly podcast about whatever comes to mind. I'm your host Patrick Ball.

People ask me all the time, "So, what's your podcast about?" My response, A smidgen of history, a dash of culture - a minute dedicated to making you smile. "It's whatever comes to mind - really!"

But it's much more than that. You see, most people undervalue the power of goals and building a life one success at a time. Each episode is an informative five to seven-minute story that enlightens your day.

You see, when you're learning, you're growing. However, learning is wasted until you put that learning into action. And the best way to do that is to share your newly found discoveries with others.

When you do - you'll soon realize that you're digging in the richest diamond mine in the world; your creative imagination.

We're on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to subscribe.

Or - ask your smart device, "Play On the Fly Podcast by Patrick Ball."

On the Fly is entirely free of advertising. Such heartfelt positive encouragement when you buy me a coffee, knowing my listeners appreciate our weekly visits. Thank you!

I'm Patrick Ball; thanks for listening; I'll see you in the next episode.

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The Gopher Problem and the High Powered Solution

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On Becoming Real

Some things get better with wear: old shoes, old friendships, and old books. Especially old books. A new volume arrives with crisp corners and a spine that hasn’t yet learned to bend. An old one has been somewhere. It has traveled through time in the hands of people who may no longer be around to tell us what they found inside. The copy of The Velveteen Rabbit (first published in 1922) on my desk is one of those books. My friend Don Hanley gave it to me. This late-1950s Doubleday edition features William Nicholson’s original illustrations and cream paper boards softened by age. Worn corners, a split spine, and colored tabs mark passages worth revisiting. Don didn’t hand me a keepsake. He gave me homework. When we talked about the book recently, he pointed me straight to the nursery conversation between a young rabbit and an old Skin Horse. The rabbit had noticed the mechanical toys around him—the ones with internal gears, bright paint, and stick-out handles that seem terribly impressiv...

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Stamps and Snow

In this episode, Stamps and Snow . . .   You don’t usually walk into the local Post Office expecting a time warp . . . but here we are. All we wanted were stamps for this year's Christmas cards— yes, the old-fashioned paper ones that require licking, sticking, and hoping the Postal Service is feeling ambitious this week. But holiday errands have a talent for slowing you down, almost like the universe whispering, “Relax. You’re not getting out of this line any faster anyway.” So we waited. And while we waited, we talked (Are you surprised?). Because the Post Office is one of the few places where people still look up from their phones long enough to talk . . . Maybe it's because they're holding packages. It’s the modern town square: part civic duty, part free entertainment, part sociology experiment. The discussion began with holiday specials streaming on Netflix, Paramount+, and other services during this time of year. One gentleman who has lived in Vista since 1958 told us,...