Cheap Charlie’s owner, Alessandro, was also a bookie I was
told. He always put the odds in his
favor. Even in a business contract, the
other party always had to pay his attorney’s fees. He was driven, completely driven by money and
he made a lot and had a lot. When he
died, very few were at this funeral; none of his children. BUT he had a lot of money in his estate. He was a very confident and an obnoxious
man. Maybe he was happy and felt very
successful. GeorgeTheCrook says--Maybe
he was simply a genus! Maybe and maybe not GeorgeTheCrook; how will we ever
know. ObnoxiousJerry says—Genius is not
perfected, it is deepened. It does not so much interpret the world as
fertilizer itself with it. I have a
friend who is going to have a kidney transplant soon at Mayo. We talked and he told me that their success
rate is at 98%. I told him—I like those
odds.
A friend and I eat at a certain restaurant; it’s like the
ATandT ad that says—it’s ok! (i.e. I answer with an “AT and T ok” when folks
ask me how we are doing). ANYWAY, I
always laugh when I sit down at this restaurant. They have bench seat booths but soooo many
folks have sat in them that it feels like bucket seats; it’s like an old
mattress. While eating breakfast, my
friend gave me this wisdom of a couple of his business associates that maybe
you might what to think about. One guy
when presented with a business opportunity will listen, ask many questions,
talk some more about it and then change the subject. Then in a few days, he
will call and accept the deal or nix the deal.
Another person will ask the other person if he understands him right and
repeats what other person has said; then changes the subject but comes back to
it latter and asks the exact questions again; and guess what, he will do the
exact thing the third time. I think both
of those folks are trying to gain confidence in their decision.
A friend told me that his adult daughter is not a good
decision maker with money. She is way
tooooo impulsive and her decisions usually end up being bad decisions (i.e.
that is her past history). He is concerned about her handling his estate
someday. He asked me what I thought to remedy this. I suggested that she gets good folks around
her and get their impute. He said—That
is the problem, she has not good folks around her; her selection is not
good. He doesn’t have a lot of
confidence in her.
Because of Arlene’s Alzheimer’s, I have had to change my life
style. That’s just the way it is for me.
I elected to take the route I did; others might take a different route. BUT because of this, I have learned to
appreciate things differently; part of that change isn’t soooo bad and the
other part is not soooo much fun. I have
learned to slow down more (i.e. I have no choice); I have for the most part
enjoyed that (i.e. enjoyed life differently). AND it doesn’t really make any
difference that I do it now or half an hour from now (i.e. like eating or
washing the laundry, going to bed, etc.).
It just doesn’t make any difference.
Such is life. I seem to be living my life less pell-mell! I realize that some of you won’t understand
that and others will. That is ok, I
understand that also. Yabut I have a
friend (i.e. who never seems like he’s in a rush) who says to me—erv, hurry but
don’t worry! I recently made some new
pickleball acquaintances (i.e. I played in a different venue). When I was changing my shoes after playing, one
of the folks talked to me. He is about
my age and seems to be in good physical shape.
ANYWAY, he invited me to come back and play with them and told me he
plays most mornings except in the summer when he only plays 2 mornings a week;
I play golf 3 days a week; my body can’t take doing both in one day anymore!
I told you before that I bought a used snowblower. Every machine and person seem to have a
little different personality (i.e. especially a 10-year old snowblower run by a
73-year old guy who has peculiar quirky mannerisms). ANYWAY, I have learned toooo deal with the
snowblower’s and other folks’ idiosyncrasies; I just have to adjust and get use
to them. My snowblower tells me that I
have to turn the gas off each time I use her, or she stinks up our garage with a gas smell, I can’t choke her when starting.
The other day the starter froze soooo I had to thaw it. I don’t have a
lot of confidence in her right yet; I think in time I will when I adjust to her
(i.e. she ain’t going to adjust to me).
She sure can blow the snow, but she seems sorta kinda weird and temperamental!
I used her 9 times this winter at $20 to $30 a pop, she has paid for herself
already. I just need to put up with her idiosyncrasies!
OneSmartPerson told me—erv, folks can make 10 great business
deals and then make a very bad business deal and ruin all 10. I asked him, why after 10 great decisions does
somebody make the next one soooooo poorly?
And he said—Usually it is because that person gets cocky and thinks they
know all the answers and don’t do the due diligent work that they have on the
first 10 (i.e. over confident). Staying humble is sooooooo important in the big
picture he said; most can’t do it; they become over confident a.k.a. very
egotistical. Ouchy ouchy! Hey, if the shoe fits and it hurts, I’m sorry; I’m
just telling you what OneSmartPerson told me.
I
read this in the paper soooo it must be right--Embrace pessimism—Most of us don’t
like to dwell on what could go wrong and many of us believe we’re better at predicting
the future than we actually are.
Overconfidence, excessive optimism and the conviction that the recent
past will continue in the future mean many of us don’t adequately protect
ourselves. Or as my mentor would say to
me—erv, it’s not at good as it looks or as bad as it looks; it will change.
In athletics and basically everything, if a person has confidence,
things seem to go way better for them.
And of course, the opposite is true toooooo. Sooooo how does a person get confidence? Does success help? Probably. Long run of
failures? Probably not. GeorgeTheCrook says—Some folks can handle failure much
better than others; some will never try anything for the fear of failure (i.e.
they probably will never be an entrepreneur but maybe an accountant). I heard that an average business owner will
fail 4.5 times before success. JoeBlow says—Do you know that many times the
bean counters end up running the companies?
Yes they do. Why is that do you
think?
We
have neighbors, family, friends, acquaintances, and even folks we really don’t
know very well that give us food (i.e. good folks with good hearts). It’s really good stuff let me tell you. We really appreciate it; yes we do; no
question. A couple of our friends really
make me laugh; yes, you gals do (i.e. you know who you are). One gal usually says—It’s what we eat; it’s
nothing fancy. The other one says—I
don’t cook very much anymore; you know me.....zero confidence in my cooking!!! They
just make me laugh! Then we have other friends (i.e. a husband and wife team)
that bring gourmet food. And we have
many of you who bake banana bread for us (i.e. especially for me). I have never
tasted a bad loaf!
I heard a sport announcer call a
player “ultra confident.” I never heard
that before. What does that mean? How can you tell if a person is “ultra
confident?” What do you think of this comment I have heard a friend say--Being
confident and being cocky are not the same thing. AverageJoe says--You should be confident in
your abilities and who you are, but you should never brag about them or be
boastful about your accomplishments. Remember that being loud and being truly
confident are not the same thing. Just because someone is loud about what they
are doing or what they have accomplished, it does not mean that they are truly
confident. I know many of you folks quite well (i.e. I think soooo anyway or
you are fooling me ha ha). Many of you
are confident folks. I know that and besides being confident, you are humble. Goodness gracious alive!
LouLouLou says--Christians need to
have the humility to concede that how the universal love of God and the
particularity of Jesus fit together isn’t exactly clear (i.e. now that is for
sure—my opinion--maybe). Furthermore, the fact that Christians belong to Jesus
doesn’t mean Jesus belongs to us. We do not control Christ, nor do we have the
authority to place restrictions on his love. Jesus the Good Shepherd has the
freedom to call into his flock whomever he chooses, however he chooses,
whenever he chooses. As C. S. Lewis observes in Mere Christianity,
“God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are” (p. 65).
But as for me, and I hope for you as well, I intend to take Jesus at his word.
Even though
some of you are sooo confident that you are right, you still don’t always get
it right! ha ha A distantrelativein-lawFran
(i.e. has a lot of confidence) sent me this pic of her refrigerator with a note
which part of it said--erv these sayings that I have on my refrigerator and as
you can see I fail them miserably. She is a good person with a good heart (i.e.
my kind of person). ANYWAY, ain’t that
the truth now that we fail miserably sometimes. I have a tendency to say to folks—I
try! I think the person who think they
are perfect, are not (i.e. fooling themselves); they just think soooo. I admit
that I’m a hypocrite but at least I admit it some of the time; the times when
I’m not perfect (i.e. which is ALWAYS)!
ha ha
The other day I took Arlene to an assisted
living/dementia care facility to visit a gal from our church (i.e. and to make
our rounds to see some other folks that we know). Arlene gets buggy in not
getting out (i.e. the winter has been brutal).
ANYWAY, the gal who we were going to visit was in the common area
playing bridge with other gals of the community. All four gals we know as some go to the same
church, some Arlene played bridge with for years and also socialized with for
years. All reacted to Arlene differently
(i.e. that is always soooo interesting to me).
That experience and maybe just being in the care facility (i.e.
particular the dementia section) really dissolved the little confidence Arlene
had. It was really hard on her. My
intuition was that she saw her reality.
Such is life.
I have no idea why but it was what it
was. I got Arlene up early last Saturday
morning to go to the bathroom. She was
happy and seemed stronger physically and mentally than she has been for a long
time. She said to me—do something. Crazy!
I text our son, Chet and asked if we could come for a short time to see
them and Charlie and Rookie. It worked
out soooo I got Arlene some breakfast, gave her a shower, washed her hair, got
her dressed, brushed her teeth etc. and we headed to Waukee for a 2.5-hour
visit. Some of you think we are crazy
spending 3.5 hours on the road for a 2.5-hour visit. Believe me, it was worth it; maybe the last
time it will happen. We played charades
and Charlie and Rookie put on a magic show for us. Right after Jessica took the picture of us,
Rookie says to me—Grandpa, you have hair growing in your ears! What a hoot. The visit was soooo fun but yet
soooo sad. Some of you will understand and others of you won’t; I
understand.
Have a FUN day my friends unless
you have other plans. (-:
erv
MyFriendJean says—Truth has to
only change hands a few times to become fiction.
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