good and bad company

An Apache proverb found in the Superstition Mts along the Apache Trail is this—A danger foreseen is half-avoided.

Disclaimer:  Remember folks, when you get something free, you can't complain about it. And this "It's Saturday" is free! Besides, most complaining doesn't seem to get folks much anyway. CryBabyJoe says--I complain to my mom and she gives me what I want (i.e. food and a clean diaper). . 

George Washington said—It’s better to be alone than in bad company.  How in the world can we discern who is bad company and who is good company?  SusieQ says--I pretty much end up being like the folks I’m around. WorldClassLarry says—I can and you can toooo figure that out in no time; it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out but first of all we have to decide who we are and most folks have a hard time doing that.  If we don’t know who we are, we become like the folks we are around. 

A friend told me this funny story (i.e. maybe it wasn’t soooo funny to his mother)—His parents wintered in the south for maybe 10 years.  His dad was a great guy and was also very handy (i.e. could fix about anything).  His mother was telling my friend on the phone one day that she was really unhappy with him.  He would go for walks and the widow ladies would approach him (i.e. butter him up) and ask him if he could fix their problems in their houses.  He was kind and always would do them.  She didn’t like that; she though he spent way tooooo much time with those ladies!!!!!

MyNeighborAcrossTheStreet told me that he used to know almost everyone in the park (i.e. about 1,500 folks when it’s full) but not anymore. In the last several years, about 60% of the folks have changed. In the little town I live in, Aplington with a population of about 1,000 deep in Butler Co., I think that percentage is about the same or maybe even more. I have had multiple folks encourage me to move here in the Valley full time (i.e. I don’t know about that, I really like most of the folks I still know back in IA). GeorgeTheCrook says—erv, there are good and bad folks were ever you go. Yabut I have some pretty special long-time friends back home. Hey listen erv, folks do it all the time.

I recently talked to a gal who is about 90 I would guess.  She seems to be a very nice person as I have ran into her like three times now (i.e. one time she sat next to me in church). ANYWAY, she said to me this last visit that she was married three times.  Her first husband who fathered her children wanted a divorce after 20 years of marriage, the next husband died after 17 years of marriage and the third husband died recently after 18 years of marriage. That is not unusual here in the Valley with older folks.  There are all kinds of lifestyles, living accommodations, relationships, etc. and maybe a lot more that I have any idea about.  You can’t tell what folks’ backgrounds are by just doing activities with them.  I’m just surprised when they tell you some of their backgrounds. That isn’t any different than the folks who live in Butler Co. Many folks do not like to be alone.  My local bank warned its customers in their newsletter--After investment scams, romance scams are the second most profitable types of fraud on social media. More than 33% of people who said they lost money to an online romance scam in 2021 said it began on Facebook or Instagram. Such is life.

I read while eating my oatmeal with half a banana on it—Pain is enviable, but misery is optional. I played golf with a guy who had arteritis pretty bad and was in pain, but he was not miserable; he had a good time. He really had a good attitude. We probably all have had stuff in our past that is painful, but we don’t necessarily have to be miserable.   Maybe that is up to us.  What do you think? That is what I thought.  And guess who gets to make the decision. Such is life.

It’s nice when folks tell each other that they care for each other.  Even if it’s a simple text saying I care about you.  Someone stopped at my house, but I wasn’t home.  They left a message that they care about me (i.e. unique message shown in the pic).  I had to laugh.  I ask folks (i.e. some of you guys) what is a good book to read and I read many of them that you suggest.  I think it’s a way of showing that I care about you. Many folks have different tastes in books for sure. A bookseller conducting a market survey asked a woman, "Which book has helped you most in your life?" The woman replied, "My husband’s checkbook!” Oh for Pete’s sake!

Here is an interesting thinking.  A friend called the other day and one of interesting things we talked about is him doing “iron man competitions,” he’s a real strong guy in soooo many ways.  He is 59 and the competitors are in age brackets of 5 years.  He is in the oldest year of his age bracket which make it hard to compete as he is dealing with folks basically 5 years younger than him.  It doesn’t seem a big deal but the older a person gets, the more noticeable it is.  Every five years can make a huge massive difference in some areas of our lives.  Others not soooo much.  BUT my friend, wait until next year when you will be the youngest in the 60 to death age bracket. You will kick butt for sure (i.e. if that is your objective)—you’ll have the newest and most powerful motor in the group—and ramped up to its peak performance). If you don’t win, it will have to be the equipment!!! haha

Do we ever speak out of both sides of our mouth? I was hiking on one of my favorite trails late in the afternoon up ‘er in ‘em mountains (i.e. just plain beautiful). I met a biker coming down and he stopped to let me through.  We talked.  JoeBike was a 40-year-old rivet supervisor for Boeing. You like your job—it’s monotonous but pays well—is that an electric bike you have—yep, it will go up the mountain trails very well—maybe about a $2,000 bike—you crazy; where have you been; this is an aluminum one and not top of the line but it cost $8,000; sorta kinda in the middle price range; it’s paid for but I drive a 2002 Ford Ranger that is paid for toooo—you must be a good money manager—now I am but when I got out of the Marines I was upside down; had no money management sense. He splattered his conversation with some colorful language that he maybe learned in the Marines and in the factory.  Sooo we ended our conversation and I said to him--peace and prosperity to you.  As I started up the mountain, he hollered—God bless you. I waved back. Then he hollered—Good day my friend. I waved again. Sooooo did our conversation in the mountains give him an opportunity to speak his heart and soul in a non-intimating environment (i.e. we will never see each other again and we were not around any other folks)? I will never know. I don’t need to know.

I have a friend who told me some of his story of good and bad company.  He told me that he had no plans when graduating from high school.  I think he said a relative said if he would move to a different state that he was in, he had a job for him.  He did and did very well for himself.  Sooooo he went on to say that if he would have stayed in his old environment (i.e. bad company) he would have probably drank himself to death and had 6 illegitimate kids.  I think he made the right decision.  But 6 illegitimate kids; he said he had a lot of girlfriends!!!! I can’t imagine the monthly child support bill that would have been. He would of probably became a mountain man and got eaten by a grizzly bear and never seen again. But he would have made the grizzly bear happy!

One of my neighbors here in the park I didn’t know if they were good or bad folks.  The reason was I don’t know them is because I never see them.  I talked to him once in 2 months.  The other day he was out smoking and I was doing a project and we talked again. Then his wife came out and we all talked maybe a half an hour.  Seem to be really nice folks but they did admit that they are very private.  Since then we communicated more and more. They’re good folks. Now isn’t that interesting.  Abraham Lincoln once said: The best way to make a friend of an enemy is to love them. It’s hard to get to know folks if you don’t associate with them. He has some health issues soooo I said I would trim his orange tree for him.  He said—erv, you don’t have toooo.  I know but I want tooooo! He laughed.

I have learned here in Sun Valley that sometimes I’m good company to myself and sometimes I’m bad company to myself.  What I mean about that is—sometimes I think good stuff that stimulates me positively and sometimes I think actually bad stuff that really hurts me.  I was particularly thinking about thinking negative stuff about/against folks.  They don’t know I think this bad stuff of them; I’m the only one that knows my thoughts.  Sooooo I’m really only hurting me, myself and I.  Flip the pancake. If I think good stuff about folks, I’m the only person who knows what those thoughts are also.  Soooo I really get the benefit of that thinking.  Sooooo the conclusion of the matter is, I can be good company to myself or bad company to myself. Like my deceased friend would say to me—erv, decisions have consequences and guess who gets to make the decisions! Saturday question—Can you and I control what we think?

Happenstance, na, I don’t think soooo! Recently, I had breakfast with an old friend who we met here in the Valley starting maybe 8 years ago.  After breakfast at Mickey D's, I stopped at the Wal-Mart in Apache Junction. I parked in the outer back edge of the parking lot.  As I got out there was a cart sitting in the middle of the parking lot.  A guy walked over to it and pushed it to the collection area near me.  I said to him—you are one good guy—he pointed to his cap and said he was from MN—I pointed to my cap and said I was from IA.  He was a retired farmer from SW MN.  We talked and found out we both lost our wives about 2 years ago.  We shared our emotions and feelings as we had a lot in common.  He shared that he had two wives and they both died.  The more we shared the more we had in common and seemed to really like each other (i.e. one common area was that we are both believers).  He shared that when he got married the first time and after about two years, their marriage was not going well.  He realized that a big part of that was due to him being all about himself (i.e. a great humbling self-evaluation).  One night he went up in a bedroom of their old farmhouse and laid on the bed and just cried and asked God to change his life.  God did and he was never the same again. The more we talked the more we seemed to like each other in the parking lot of Wal-Mart in Apache Junction, AZ. Crazy for sure!

Have a FUN day my friends unless you have other plans. (-:

erv

MyFriendJean said—It’s good to be blessed. It’s better to be a blessing.