Category: counting blessings

I received this picture yesterday from one of my oldest and dearest friends…

I recognized the time and place immediately: 8th grade graduation night, Roger’s Middle School, June 1982.

On the left is Joel “Magic” Johnson, who in this pic was already a world renowned RC car racer (in 8th grade FFS!!), and would become a legend in the field.

On the right is Patrick, AKA Pablo, AKA Apple Pie Boy or APB for short. In summation, the most self-determined and authentic person I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. And on top of that, he’s just great at everything, whether it’s surfing or playing music, academic stuff…the guy just excels at life.

In the middle is yours truly, a 40 year younger Boring Old Man.

The three of us were inseparable back then. We didn’t have EVERYTHING in common, but there was so much overlap between the three of us, the few minor differences didn’t matter at all.

We came up together and went through a lot of “firsts” together, learning to drive, talking to girls, learning to be men… Joel’s parents had the very first VCR I ever saw in real life. Patrick’s father had the first PC I ever saw, back when you had to put a phone receiver on a docking station to connect to a network. Not the “internet”, but A network. Yeah, I’m old, kids…

Of course as high school came along, our paths started to drift a little… Joel’s career in the RC world took off like a rocket, while simultaneously getting suckered into playing football for the school team.

Pablo worked his ass off all through HS. Excellent grades (as if his mother would accept anything less!!) to get into college and the boy ALWAYS had a job. Always.

Myself, I would get eyeballs deep into music, forming bands and playing every house party and event that would let us, culminating in my first professional night club gig about a week before my 18th birthday, which was just a few days before (barely) graduating.

Our meandering paths would continue to cross over the decades and although sometimes there would be big gaps, whenever we’d reunite it was like no time had passed.

Patrick and I continue to get together from time to time to go for a surf or just hang out, but sadly it’s been a pretty darn long time since I’ve seen ol’ Joel. But since he’s the one that kicked this off by sending that pic out to Pablo, I think it’s high time I get off my butt and get in touch with him.

Hold on to your friends, people. I don’t mean farcebook friends, but REAL people that actually know you. Its difficult in modern life, but it’s important. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes so bite the bullet and dial the phone. Or send an email. Whatever. Personal relationships are precious and even if you’re lucky, you only get a few of them in life. Foster them, protect them, feed them.

‘Cuz before you know it, you’ll be 40 years older, wondering “what ever happened to…?” Your life will be richer if you don’t have to ask those questions, but already know the answer.

Thanks for reading!

Don’t get excited now, this isn’t a post about politics or vaccines or maniac warmongers. Well, I guess it could be, depending on how YOU relate to the message, but that isn’t my intention.

No, what is on my mind today is undecidedness and “shortages” or shall we just say the current state of commerce.

Our story begins with a guitar. A beautiful, black Gretsch semi-hollow, electric 6-string. Left handed, of course.

Me being a drummer primarily, and not really an adept player of stringed instruments, I really had no need of this guitar, it was more of a lifelong quest to own one like this. To be perfectly, 100% honest my dream is to own a left-handed Rickenbacker 360 in a jetglo finish, but spending $3k for an instrument that I’m only noodling around on would be insane. But after much research and comparison, I “settled” on the Gretsch as an acceptable alternative and had it on a “wishlist” with one of my favorite vendors.

About a year and a half has passed since I finalized my decision. I have no idea how many times I went back and looked at it, and told myself “not now, but soon!”. There was always something more important to spend money on, and I already have one guitar that I don’t spend enough time with, so it was easy to keep talking myself out of it and to keep waiting.

Finally, yesterday I decided “today is the day!”. I’d received an unexpected bonus and decided I’d take a little bit of it and treat myself to the guitar I’d been longing for.

I went to the vendor’s website, pulled up my wishlist and…the guitar isn’t there. Huh? I’ve looked at it every couple weeks for the last year and a half, where is it? I did a search and the same model came up, but not in black. I’m not here to judge, but honestly I cannot believe some of the colors they put on instruments these days! Anyhow, I proceed to check a couple other places online and find the guitar in the right color, but nobody has it in stock. So I go back to my preferred vendor and contact my rep there, who informs me the guitar has been discontinued. “You’ll have to hit the used market if you want one”, he tells me.

So now I hit the usual suspects of the online used gear market, trying to track down this guitar. No dice. Not a single one to be found.

So naturally I’m a little bummed out by this development. But luckily this was for a completely superfluous purchase. Something I did not need whatsoever, and something that will not effect my life in any way at all by not having it other than some mild disappointment.

Yes, you could say I got lucky. But what if the “wishlist” item WAS something critical? What have you been putting off, waiting for the “right time” to purchase? Maybe your oven crapped out…maybe your car tires are bald…maybe those solar panels you want to help yourself be a little more self reliant. Whatever it is, if you have the means, get it NOW. We’re in unprecedented and unpredictable times. That common thing that’s always been there may not be there tomorrow. I went through a similar situation with a rifle a few years ago…waiting and waiting for the “right deal”, then the Plague hit, and that particular rifle is STILL unavailable more than 2 years later. You just never know.

I realize that right now with runaway inflation causing astronomical food and fuel prices, it’s hard to think about spending anything beyond what is absolutely necessary, but keep in mind that same inflation is decreasing the purchasing power of the dollars you possess every single day you hold on to them. For example, last week we had a blowout, requiring a replacement tire. The destroyed tire was a year old, almost to the day. That one cost me $250, the replacement last week was $309. For the exact same tire, from the same vendor. That’s a big increase in a single year. Keep that in mind when you’re saving for rainy day. It might make sense to buy your umbrella NOW, and hold onto it, rather than waiting for the storm only to find out umbrellas are now 3x the cost or simply unavailable at any price.

I’ve seen all kinds of shortages and delays since the Plague hit . Of course the infamous toilet paper shortage of 2020, but things like SPAM (the food, not the email irritants) were unavailable for months. Air filters for the furnace were unobtainable for months. N95 masks and latex gloves. Now we’re hearing tales of major shortages of wheat this year and another round of bird flu, on top of last year’s swine flu killing off livestock, adding to meat supply shortages. I regularly purchase from the LDS Cannery for long term storage foods and even they are sold out of things like flour, wheat kernels, pasta…

These kind of things don’t happen overnight, but they don’t “go back to normal” overnight either. Plan accordingly. If there is something you NEED, and you can (legally) get your hands on it now, do not hesitate.

With the way things are heating up, both here and internationally, and with the gaggle of dingbats at the controls, none of us have any idea what’s around the next corner. Do what you can NOW to make your future a little more secure.

Just my two cents…

Thanks for reading!

Back at work today.  Another “typical” Monday, as if such a thing truly exists.  I just cannot seem to get in the swing of things today, and the day is half over already.

It’s not because I had a little too much party in my weekend, it’s not a daylight savings glitch.  Nothing bad has happened here today,  in fact it’s been pretty smooth, all things considered.  I think it’s simply a case of burnout.

I’ve been working in senior living facilities for 15 years now.  This is my 3rd CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement  Community) in that time, and I think I’ve just had enough.

I fell ass-backward into this industry, due to a really aggressive recruiter that simply would not take no for an answer, and at the time it seemed like a good opportunity.   And it was.  That first community was great.  Ownership was good, the residents for the most part were nice, I had an AMAZING crew and the icing on top was that the facility was only 0.6 miles from home, so I was able to walk to work for 6 years, and it was fantastic.   It was another recruiting experience that got me to jump ship to a new facility.   Within a week I knew beyond all reasonable doubt that I’d made a HUGE mistake changing jobs, but I was determined to make the best out of it and I stuck it out for 5 long, grueling years at the most repulsive, toxic workplace I’ve ever encountered.   It wasn’t all bad, I did learn some extremely valuable lessons working there, I made a couple friends and I made some excellent contacts there, but the overall experience was beyond negative.  When I got to my literal breaking point, that very same day I got a notification about an opening for my exact job at a place revered amongst senior care facilities.   The absolute Pinnacle of the industry.   And I got the gig! 

It took quite a while to become dissallusioned with the new place.  After a few months I felt, not quite “tricked”, but certainly the victim of lies-of-ommission.  I was lead to believe this place was a fine-tuned machine, with a place for everything and everything in its place.  Well, that turned out to be about 20% true.  The OTHER 80% was up to me to figure out and put in place. 

Now here I am, just having had my four year anniversary last month, and I feel I have completely,  utterly lost my taste for the work on pretty much every level. 

Don’t get me wrong.  This is not simply a case of being ungrateful.   This job has been pretty much the ONLY time in my entire adult life that I’ve been financially “secure”.  I do have some really nice, talented people working for me and I’ve been able to promote some really deserving staff into higher levels, which is rewarding in its own way.  I’ve learned a lot here, and the experience isn’t without some positive moments.

The problem is I really just don’t care anymore. I’ve got a staggering, debilitating case of indifference, and it’s making it hard to function effectively.

Changing jobs is a stressful situation, not to mention the whole “interview process”. I’m not in any hurry to jump into that can of worms. But I’ve got another 2 decades to go before “retirement”, which in my case will likely just simply be dropping dead, as the entirety of my *wealth, and thus retirement evaporated in the DotCom crash many years ago, never to be restored.

The thing is, I don’t have any sort of objection to working. With the exception of a prolonged stretch of unemployment during the same DotCom crash era mentioned above, I’ve been holding down jobs since I was 14. Even younger if you count the newspaper delivery routes I did as a kid.

When I worked as a tradesman, you’d have moments where you could stand back and say “yeah, I BUILT THAT!”, or “I FIXED THAT”, or what have you. There were moments of pride, of feeling accomplished. Something untangible… the feeling of turning raw materials into a finished, useful product, made you feel GOOD. Being productive is good for you mentally. Solving “real world” problems that are literally sitting on the bench right in front of you gives you that dopamine rush everyone is trying to glean from FB and IG…

But now? Now my days consist of 70+ emails a day, at least dozen phone calls a day, countless meetings and conversations about everything and nothing simultaneously. It’s exhausting, and yet at the end of the day, on MOST days, I find myself wondering “what did I do today?”. Oh, I assigned, I delegated, I sorted out, I circled back…I do all sorts of stuff, all day long. But really, I don’t feel like I’m accomplishing anything, just spinning my wheels, keeping the wheels of this places from coming off.

I don’t think this is what life is supposed to be like. As a middle-aged, “CIS-gendered” paleface without a college degree, I don’t have a lot of options open to me. I just simply cannot continue to do this for another 20 years. I still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up, but it sure ain’t this!

Can one actually DIE from BOREDOM? Asking for a friend…

Thanks for reading!