I received this picture yesterday from one of my oldest and dearest friends…
The Three Amigos!
I recognized the time and place immediately: 8th grade graduation night, Roger’s Middle School, June 1982.
It’s me. It’s always me…
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.
This is not the way…
‘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.
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.
Why, why did I wait so long?!?!
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.
No time like the present!
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.
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.
All day, every day…
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.
When I realize it’s time to go to work…
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.
I believe this element is one of my DNA building blocks
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…
The Mrs. and I were in the car the other day when I made a rather unkind statement regarding the incompetence of the driver in front of me, who was at the time driving between 15-20 mph BELOW the limit on the highway.
Before I continue, I will say I am by no means a fast or aggressive driver. I pretty much stick to the right lane and I haven’t had a traffic infraction of any sort since maybe 1992… I could be off slightly, but not by much. My point being, I am generally calm and mellow behind the wheel. Except in San Francisco- calm and mellow will get you killed in that city, but I digress…
Anyhow, the Mrs. says to me; “you shouldn’t grouse so much”.
Anyhow, I said, “yeah you’re right. I just get frustrated by nincompoops.” And she encouraged me to chill out and not let it get to me.
Ten minutes later I’m forced to react to another nincompoop that decided to change into my lane, without looking or signaling, and in that nanosecond that I was about to have another outburst, I remembered my wife’s words and all I said, calm as could be, was “Look, this is me not grousing.”
We had a good chuckle over it and a good conversation followed about, basically, not letting the bastards get ya down.
That’s a hard thing to do. Especially nowadays. It seems at every turn, somebody is trying to ruin your day. Maybe it’s your boss, maybe it’s a customer. Could be your mate, or your parent, or your kids. More often than not, a total stranger.
For me at least, a lot of my aggravation comes from other’s inconsiderate behavior. Whether it’s getting cut off in traffic or some dingbat blocking the entire grocery aisle with their cart while they compare labels. Maybe your neighbors play the TV too loud, or someone lets their Harely idle for half an hour, waking the neighborhood and the dead. It’s usually something small. Some irritating impediment. But when you add up 5, 10, 20 of those little irritations in a day, suddenly you find yourself wishing you had a nice, heavy mallet in your hand to help let your feelings be known to the irritant.
But that random comment from the Mrs. was a good reminder for me. Irritation is in your head, and you DO have control over how you react. You just need to use that control, and not let the irritants win. Simple, right?
Nobody wants to be “that guy” that bitches and moans about everything, or worse gets completely bent outta shape over every little slight. I can’t stand people like that, and they are everywhere. You don’t want to be in that club, it’s a miserable place to hang out.
You do NOT want to be this guy!
I don’t really believe everyone is out to ruin everybody else’s day. Most of them are just too stupid and/or ill mannered to know any better. That doesn’t mean their behavior is OK, it just means you don’t have to let it bring you down.
Just something to think about the next time somebody pushes your buttons. Or drives 47mph in front of you on the highway…
I tried, I really tried. I simply couldn’t get all the way through Biden’s “state of the union” speech.
Sloganeering, passing the buck, avoidance…it was all there, front and center.
I try to stay out of the political fray, as there are many others much more devoted to the subject but I do try to stay “informed”… Even that is painful these days.
Listening to Biden is excruciating. I try to avoid him speaking as much as possible because frankly it’s demoralizing, but this annual event is supposed to be a big deal. And they pushed it back immensely, from January to March, so I figured they must really want him to come out swinging. Uh, no. It was blather, and self congratulations and honestly just an embarrassment.
That about covers the SOTU last night.
I’m no longer a religious man, but God help us… I can’t imagine how we’re going to make it to ’24 with this administration. And for what it’s worth, I WAS a registered Dem for 20+ years… My disgust isn’t partisan, it’s simply based on competency and what I’m seeing all around me with my own “lying eyes”.
I should have known, with the media slathering praise upon him all week prior, the mask mandates “suddenly” coming down and the disingenuous push that our economic problems here at home are because of Russia. Lolz! When every media lap dog is on your side and you STILL come off as a lying buffoon? Not exactly inspiring.
Yep.
Well, if nothing else we can now put that clown show behind us. A little more worried, a little less confident (which I didn’t think was possible!) and less hopeful, but life marches on!
I’m going to try to make”my world” a little better, and ignore the “rulers”. They haven’t done diddly for us in a long time anyway. I think I’ll just do my best to ignore them for the next 3 years. Not like they are telling the truth about anything anyway.
Tomorrow is a new day. Let’s all try to make it a better one, even when “they” tell us it’s all going to hell in a handbasket.
There is an awful lot of fuss about “hate” these days, as if you didn’t know. I don’t really understand it to be honest.
Personally I LOVE a lot of things, I dislike a lot of things. I’m indifferent to MOST things. But I HATE very little in the grand scheme of things.
If you listen to the “mainstream” you’d be led to believe that it’s an either/or world. Black or white. That is to say, if you don’t love then automatically you must HATE. I call bullshit on that one.
My BS meter is pegged.
The truth of the matter, for me at least, is that unless we’re talking about something that directly affects me and mine I don’t really pay much attention or care about it. Sorry to disappoint.
I’m very much a live and let live kind of person. I’m weird and I know I’m weird, so I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. By the same token, I’m not going to agree with everyone or the mainstream in general. But that doesn’t mean I HATE the mainstream. I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if I personally think their opinions are moronic. That doesn’t mean I hate them. Feel free to think I’m moronic. You won’t be the first or last in that regard. But you shouldn’t hate me for my opinions. Life is full of grey areas.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
For example, I am a big admirer of art – painting for instance. I love the classics, Van Gough, et al and I love surrealism like Dali and Escher and even a lot of modern works. But if you paint a big square, monochromatic, on a canvas and try to pass it off as “Art”… well, not to me it isn’t. But that doesn’t mean I hate Art, or the artist of said monochromatic square. I just don’t like it or care about it. It’s not going to make me angry that it’s hanging in a gallery. I’m just going to ignore it and move on to what does interest me. Simple.
This is not to say you should accept or support ideas you don’t agree with. By the same ideal, you shouldn’t demand acceptance and support for all of yours either. A good idea can sell itself, you usually don’t need to force it upon others.
Reducing someone to one simple fact and then deciding to hate that person because of that one thing is beyond absurd. I’m sure there are exceptions to that, you know, for serial murderers, corrupt politicians, IRS agents, etc. but generally speaking most people are complex and don’t fit in to one little box.
For another example, you could say (vehemently) that I do in fact HATE the accordion. Its sound to my ears is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard, combined with a cat who’s tail has been stepped on. But that’s just me. I don’t hate accordion players for their terrible life choices, but I sure hate the sound of their instrument on a primal level. By extension, you could say I hate Tejano music, as it features the accordion prominently. But that by no means equates to hating Latino peoples. It means I most likely won’t attend an event that features Tejano music. That’s about it… I’m not going to go around demanding Tejano music be banned because I hate the accordion. I’m not going to scream “cultural appropriation!” <gasp!> because Tejano uses western European styles (polka, etc) as their base. I’m just going to move on to something I DO appreciate.
It feels like the media is trying to whip up this frenzy of hate, but if you look below the surface, most of it is hogwash.
Sure, there are certainly some idiots out there that will lay their blanket of hate over an entire group, whether it be racial, economic, religious, gender/orientation, whatever. In my opinion anyone like that is stunted at best and certainly not playing with a full deck. No matter what club/clique/organization/lifestyle you identify with, chances are there are some major differences between you and the rest of the people in your group. That’s life. That’s humanity. We all need to learn to not take ourselves so seriously, and more importantly not let the media lead you around by the nose, looking for a boogeyman behind every utterance and action.
I’d love to see everyone just calm down a bit. It’s OK, not everyone is going to like you or what you’re doing. It doesn’t mean they hate you. But trying to force your will on them, might make them turn that corner. And besides, hate is exhausting. It takes effort and dedication to TRULY hate someone. Talk about wasted energy! To quote someone I can’t recall: “Holding onto hate is like taking poison everyday, in hopes that someone else will die from it.” Wise words…
Another thing, and I say this as delicately as possible… Over-use of the word “hate” will eventually render it meaningless. Much like what happened with “racist” over the last few years. Now, because “racist” lost its power, it morphed into “white supremecy”, which has caused yet more friction, division and anger. But that’s a story for another day…
While I don’t believe for a nano-second that “words = violence”, words DO have power. Using them incorrectly diminishes that power and inflames people. Not a great habit to get into.
Just something to think about. Thanks for reading!
A quote from Tulsi Gabbard from the CPAC (?!?! a bold and shocking move for a Democrat) yesterday in Orlando. “Those in power see themselves as the high priests in a secular theocracy. This explains why they see those who disagree with them as heretics. So it’s not surprising that those who reject their leadership, these are the people who were targeted by Biden’s attorney general as domestic terrorists simply for holding anti-authority views,” she said.
I’ve never understood the “frothing at the mouth” political movements in the Land of the Free. These latest “progressive” movements are every bit as Oppressive as the so-called “Moral Majority” back in the 80’s, which is obvious…but the loudest voices of this “movement” weren’t yet born or at least weren’t old enough to be aware. I just never connected the dots. Makes sense to me now that I see it explained in this way.
I walked away from religion in my late teens, and I certainly don’t need to replace it with worship of government.
Tolerance and inclusion goes both ways. Agreeing to disagree doesn’t mean you “lose”. EVERYONE is entitled to their own opinion, even if yours is divergent from the “norm”.
The other night, the Mrs. and I were watching the toob and an all-too-familiar commercial started playing, imploring the viewers to donate “just” a few cents day to help the poor and impoverished in Africa that are starving and have no medical care.
It was, as I’m sure was intended, a heart wrenching sight. Anyone with any sense of humanity would feel for these people and want to “help” these less fortunate souls.
But what struck me, was how this commercial in 2022 was almost EXACTLY like the ones all over the airwaves in the 1970s. And all throughout every decade since. And those are just what I can personally remember, they may have started earlier, I just have no personal recollection prior to maybe 1972. Geez, it got so common the South Park guys took a run at it, at least 10 years ago. Anybody remember Starvin’ Marvin from Ethiopia?
So this got me thinking… We’ve been “helping” the poor and impoverished of that continent for at least 50 years and nothing has improved? How can this be?
I’m as sure as can be without having actual proof that corruption on the part of the charities and any and all government agencies and/ NGOs is part of the problem, but surely that isn’t the only problem.
And it isn’t just Africa, we’ve seen this same plea for kids in Central and South America and Haiti too. And yet millions of dollars and thousands of voluneer hours later, all these places are still in squalor, with sick and malnourished people dying on the vine at every turn.
Have we disturbed the natural cycle of things? Is that why, in spite of decades long attempts to bring a better life to the less fortunate, its as bad or worse than it ever was?
We see similar things roll out here stateside, but more often from the grifting political class than charity organizations, but they do it too. It’s often for the children, or that’s how it’s framed anyway. “We’ve got kids that can’t learn on empty stomachs” so we NEED to raise taxes (or your donation) to provide discounted lunches to the poor. Then free lunches. Then free breakfast AND lunch. Then breakfast, lunch AND after-school care… The government’s solution is ALWAYS to take more from the “haves” to give away to the “underserved”. And the massive, decades long investment has brought dropping grades, lower graduation rates, and fewer kids ready for the real world. The “solution” to these drastic failures is always more money for more “programs” from the tax payer. Toward the end of that line we get the sob stories of the debt-burdoned; they’ve amassed six-figure debt to get their Bachelor’s degree in grievance studies, but now nobody will “give” them a job. They can’t pay back their student loans AND pay their lease payments on the new Lexus on a barista’s wages, so it’s back to the government’s trough for “relief” from their bad decisions… And then they have the gall to shout they’re protesting for “economic justice”?!?
Justice for who? Certainly not the tax payer bailing you out of a really bad life choice. I have a crazy, outside the box idea…I think all those people that paid those exorbitant tuitions and wound up with a useless degree and zero employment opportunities should ask the universities for refunds. After all, they sold a defective product, right? Many universities have endowments that reach into the BILLIONS of dollars, AND they already get government monies. If they are graduating students with no marketable skills, why should the taxpayers be further responsible for the costs? Maybe if the universities had some skin in the game, they would stop with the foolish feel-good degrees and indoctrination and get back to teaching valuable skills.
The last few years the pleas have started to rachet up to help the “unhoused”… No doubt there are many folks that ended up on the streets due to forces beyond their control, but far more are there only because of the choices they made and continue to make. In fact, just last weekend we encountered one, walking down the street on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, screaming obscenities and being generally aggressive to everyone in his path. And since this person clearly has nowhere to go, he will just roam the town, accosting everyone unfortunate enough to be in his path.
And the government’s “solution” to this problem, when anything is done at all, is to build housing units that come in at 6-figures per unit? Really? And the home and business owners who are unfortunate enough to be in the crosshairs when tent cities and squalor show up on their doorstep? Nothing is done for them. If they try to do something on their own, or <gasp> try to organize amongst themselves without bureaucratic nonsense, they are now the bad guys. Not the person shooting up in their doorway. Not the person breaking into their cars to steal anything that will get their next fix… There is such a weird logic surrounding this stuff… “Your problems are less important than theirs because you have more than them. So because you are “privileged” to have a roof over your head (note that what YOU have is never earned or deserved, regardless of how hard you worked to get it!) you have no right to complain about a junkie passed out in your doorstep.”
That’s a lot of gov’t cheese!
I don’t begin to think I know all the answers, but it seems pretty apparent that what we’re doing now, and for the last several decades, sure isn’t doing the trick. Things are worse in every metric.
Yep.
I think I’ve reached maximum empathy. Looking out for me and mine is exhausting as it is, and no small amount of elbow grease and sweat equity goes into what little we have. This is not to say “every man for himself!”, or to even imply that we should no longer help our fellow man. But let’s face it, your twelve cents a day isn’t going to amount to a hill of beans (figuratively OR literally) for the kids in third-world hell holes. How about instead, make a sandwich for a hungry person in your city? Or get involved in a community garden? Hell, even picking up trash off the road has social benefits. There are a dozen things you can do in your own neighborhood to make your “world” a better place. If everyone concentrated on their own street/town/county and made small improvements individually or with small, self-contained groups, lives would be changed.
The next time your local ballot asks “should we raise taxes/issue bonds/increase fees for…?” the answer should be a resounding NO. Nobody is more careless with your hard-earned money or accomplishes less with it than your government. Despite ever increasing tax rates, the problems compound annually. This isn’t news, it’s common knowledge. Don’t belive me? Spend 10 minutes here: https://www.openthebooks.com/ and you’ll never look at “government spending” the same. Its beyond outrageous! I’m not sure how Americans came to believe that the answer to all of everybody’s problems is MORE government, more regulation, more taxation. I will never understand this mindset.
And the next time your guilt compells you to call that 1-800 number and bust out your credit card to “help”, ask yourself “how much of somebody else’s 60-cents-a-day was used to film that commercial?” And how much are they paying to air it? That airtime, even on cheesy late-night stations isn’t inexpensive. I do believe -100%- that a business can be charitable, but I also believe any business set up as a charity, is suspect at best.
I understand that this post might make me out to be a cold, heartless bastard. And I am, sometimes. But generally speaking, I believe most people, like 90%, are genuinely “good” and Americans overall can be exceptionally giving and generous. Unfortunately that leaves a large pool of suckers to be preyed upon, by tugging at your heartstrings, for the 10% that have no conscience or morals…
I guess what I’m saying is try to be a good person, but be smart about it. Don’t let your kindness be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous.
I’m not trying to be a downer, and I do really try to keep this a positive place here, but this situation has been nagging at me for days now, just had to get it off my chest.
I am a very lucky man, married to a wonderful, gorgeous woman for over 30 years now. We still enjoy each other’s company, we still make each other laugh and we still have more in common than not, even after 3 decades.
But on this notoriously difficult “holiday” of Valentine’s Day, I know that most folks aren’t in the same boat as I. And for those without somebody special in their lives, or worse, if they’ve recently lost that someone special, today is especially difficult.
I just want to out it out there, to try to be just little more kind and compassionate towards those you encounter today. A friendly hello, a kind smile, those little things can go a long way for someone feeling the blues today.
And if you are fortunate enough to have someone special in your life, make sure you let them know. It doesn’t take money or a bunch of time, just tell that person how much you appreciate them being part of your life.
Helping someone have a better day isn’t difficult and we if all give it a try, we might just find ourselves in a better place.
The Boring Old Man 