I've been writing to the President since May 5th… almost a letter a day. Since his birthday was August 4th I decided to write about good news for a change. I googled ‘good news' and found your site.

Here's the letter I wrote on Day 77:

Dear Mr. President,

It's been about a week since my last letter… during that interval I've had my granddaughter, Sophia with me for the week, the debt ceiling fiasco is over, you've signed what's necessary to enable the FAA workers to resume work, and you've had your 50th Birthday. It's been quite a week.

In many of the other 76 letters to you I was often critical of one thing or another, so I promised that for the whole month of August I was only going to write ‘positive' comments. You've edured enough bad news and bashing-about by one group or another, and you certainly didn't need additional negativity on your birthday.

I can tell you this much… it's much harder to find good news than it is to find bad news, but I will not be deterred in my search for the ‘Good,' the ‘Positive' and the ‘Beautiful,' as opposed to the good, the bad and the ugly.

The first thing I did was to look in my local paper… uummm, not much good there. Next, searched the web news… uummm, not much good there. Then I decided to Google "Good News" and guess what… there is actually a Good News Network! I have to tell you, I feel better already. WS was founded by Geri Weis-Corbley in 1997 and they currently have 14,501 people that "like" them on Facebook.

A few of the top headlines for WS are:

"American Soldier Just Back from Iraq Wins Million Dollar Lottery."

"Good Karma: Buddhist Liberate 500 Lobsters Destined for Dinner Plates."

"Boston Rolls Out New Bike-Sharing Program."

Each of these stories brought a smile to my old and wrinkled face, but I'm particularly happy for the Air Force Staff Sgt. who won the million dollar lottery, and I'll bet he won't complain about having to pay the taxes on it, because he knows what it's like to be grateful and thankful to just be alive.

I got to thinking about my own ‘Good News'… Here's just a sampling: My husband and I will get our Social Security checks this month, thanks to you. My husband was told by his doctor that he could stop taking some heart meds that were making him dizzy and causing him to cough. Doc said that his heart ‘plumbing' was excellent and not to worry. All the kids and grand kids are healthy and doing reasonably well compared to many others. That's good news too.

More "Good News" to follow in the coming days… Cheers, and Happy August Birthday month Mr. President.

Most Respectfully,

Your Gadfly Granny

Marcia Reimers, www.washboardexpress.com