I want to be heard

This "It's Saturday" could stink just like how the water in my park model stunk when I turned it on when I got here.  It stunk like rotten eggs.  BUT I have toooo remember that it is water from melted snow off the Rocky Mountains, which ran down the CO River, saved in Lake Mead and then canaled down to Mesa, treated with chemicals to kill everything, and then sat in my lines for a summer of 100+ temperatures.  And I wonder why it stunk! Da! And MaryBlah wonders why she stinks! haha

SusieQ who can be a hand full, says--I want to be heard and I demand to be heard; it’s my right and besides I know almost everything! The problem SusieQ is that you must have an audience to be heard. A bigger audience than you talking to yourself in the shower. Maybe, just maybe, not as many folks want to hear what you have to say as you think!  Yikes! But you can gain a captured crazy audience on social media like many do. A guy asked OldGuyJoe who was waiting his turn to play pickleball here in The Valley of the Sun how he was doing just to make conversation. Sooo, OldGuyJoe told him about all his aches and pains and problems. The guy never asked OldGuyJoe again how he was doing!

CoachB says--Maybe we all need a vision board which isn’t nuttin more than a board where we put pictures of exactly what we want, where we are now, where do we want to go and what do we need to do.  RickyRick says—"The truth is, life rarely goes back to “normal” after a difficult season. Hard times change people—and not just people but also the world around you. To resume life successfully after a difficult time, you’ll need to make some adjustments…  Maybe you too have experienced conflicting emotions when easing back into life after a period of suffering or loss—the loss of a loved one, a job, a home, or a friendship. It’s 100 percent normal to feel grief mixed with joy, and sadness mixed with excitement.” These ideas are good for me to think about with my time here in AZ.  For sure. I don’t have an agenda, but sorta kinda maybe!  haha  You hear me!!!!

I was hiking/jogging up ‘er in ‘em mountains the other day and met a guy coming down who wanted toooo be heard soooo I stopped.  He was a lean, displaced Nebraska Cornhusker who told me he was 50 and a runner but was walking and our conversation went like this—I must have stepped wrong as I stressed a muscle that runs from my ribs down into my leg, I have never had an injury before; I think if I walk it will get better—probably—my doctor tells me the best way to prevent injury, disease, and to look good is to stay lean by eating right and exercising—that sounds good to me—but it appears the majority of Americans don’t agree with us—we can only control ourselves and not others—ya, probably; have a good day—peace and prosperity to you and your family—thank you!

Things always don’t go the way we say now do they!  And many times, things are not as folks tell us they are or show us they are on social media (i.e. not quite the real deal).  I had a friend tell me when he got back to AZ that his relationship with the lady he was seeing didn’t work out over the summer.  He said—erv, I will tell you about it sometime but basically, as I see it, she’s a 5-star person and I’m a 1-star person!  A friend told me before I left for AZ—erv, are you looking for a lady? erv, if you are looking for a lady, make sure you find one that is compatible, especially one that is a believer or that can put a lot of strain on a relationship. Hey folks, you might not want to hear what some of the other advice I got from some of my buddies!  haha Maybe some of their advice came from their experiences!  Could be. Experience is a mean teacher alright. AverageJoe who some say has a severe behavioral disorder, says—And I’m still living with some of the residual effects of my experiences; It looks like I will have to pay for them for the rest of my life.  Are you listening to me erv? Don’t make the mistakes I did! Pay attention!

I talked to a guy in our park who lives in Loveland, CO but winters here in The Valley of the Sun. He moved from IA to CO 50 years ago. Loveland was then an extension of the Midwest and had a population of 16,000.  Now it is way different with the population being 100,000 and with the CA folks moving in with their ideologies. They all want to be heard.  I said--You need to make more noise than they do—no one listens to an old guy like me!

Soooo I went down the street and talked to a guy who moved from Eastern MI and now lives here full time. But they sold their place and are moving to GA this spring—how come—we want to try something different again; I really want to have more space than a park model; I want to mow the lawn again. Also then our families from MI can stop and see us on their way to FL; they don’t come to AZ very easily.  I heard him!

Soooo I walked a little farther and talked to an acquaintance who is from IL.  They sold their house in IL and lived the last year in our park in their winter house but are planning to build a house in SD--why SD--sounds crazy but we like the Black Hills area where they get 115 inches of snow--are you crazy--They don't have state tax.

Soooo recently I was at the grocery store getting a few groceries  and was checking out at a self-check out station. There was this couple checking out next to me. They were maybe 80; I don’t know if married or just friends. ANYWAY she was the bitchiest lady I have been around for a long time. She bitched about everything loudly and to him as well. He was calm and and talked in a slow, soft voice in trying to help her. She was impossible; I thought she was going to beat the crap out of  all of us with her cane—I know how to do it and you don’t; just get out of my way; okay if you know how to do it then do it; she raged on the employee who tried to help her who just sorta kinda left as he had enough of her. She wanted to be heard let me tell ya. It was the best entertainment I had for a long time; I had such a great internal laugh; what a hoot.  And the price was right! Saturday question—Why do you think she was soooo bitchie? I parked next to this car that had this on the back window. I backed out and parked down farther; I didn’t want anything to do with this lady let me tell ya! ItchieBitchie says--Obviously she has a cocklebur in her underwear! She sounds like she's a Jezebel! You remember the Jezebel in the Bible?

An old college buddy/friend from Northwestern College who gets it done come hell or high water, called me to tell me another old NW friend just died. We are both now 77.  He said—I use to think my old friends who were 77 were old and my heroes.  It seemed that they had to be 77 before they told the truth about life.  erv, now we are 77.  He’s had two new hips, stints, bypass surgery, new knees but he still is tough as nails.  He goes to the farm and feeds his ponies every day.  He says he just plain enjoys it.  He takes his wife who can’t be alone because of Alzheimer’s with him every day.  It is a blessing for us he says. He slipped on the ice feeding those ponies and broke his hip. He called his neighbor who threw him in his pickup and he drove himself to St. Mary’s which they did surgery and the next day he was home again! Sooooo the other day I dropped a book off at a gal’s place who loaned it to me.  It was maybe 9:30 AM; it was an electric moment!.  She answered her door.  She sent me this text latter—"Sorry u had to see me in my old lady nightgown. Hope you’re not blind. I’m usually up and dressed much earlier.” She is probably about 70. She made me LOL! Soooo I rode my bike over to another 55+ community and saw an friend who I made through golf maybe 13 years ago. He told me he's doing well; never thought I would live to be 81. I shot my best round of golf today BUT I do have a leg problem and my wife has to help me put my underwear on every morning!

RonnieTumbleweed from near Buffalo, WY with his spurs a jingling says—It appears that most everyone wants to be seen and heard even sometimes when we know that it ain’t good for us.  CrazyMarvin says—"If you were offered the great powerful poison chalice of money and fame and even if you knew it was poison, would you drink it. It’s hard to be humble. It’s hard to be spiritual when we are offered a whole lot of money and fame. If you were given the situation to have a lot of money and fame and you know it is poison would you drink it?”  CadillacJack who really is a nice person, says—I think most folks would drink it.

We discuss in business, socially, and spiritually what we want our future to be.  Sooooo here is some fuel for thought that WorldClassLarry says to consider—Where are you, where do you want to go and what do you have to do to get there. Probably if we aren’t where we want to be and we keep kicking the same can down the same street we are not going to get there.  Almost certain. But us humans are something else. We really say we want the truth but maybe we really don’t.  An economics professor was teaching a statistics class and had his students calculate the odds of winning the lottery. They found out that they were near slim to none.  He told them that the lottery is a tax for dumb folks.  Some in his class got way upset about that statement. He discounted using that in his lectures.  Maybe it was hard to get voted the professor of the year offending the dumb folks like that!

Hey, it's cold in IA and all of the North country. BUT even at that, at the many holiday parties gals wore clothes that were less than what they wore swimming just a few years ago. They want to be heard and seen I guess. I would freeze wearing that little bit of clothes! I grew up in a very modest farm house a mile and quarter south of Roseland, MN and it was cold in our house. I wore long underwear as a kid. Sven said--I remember the old timers would wear their long underwear until the 4th of July. Of course that was Minnesota!

In a Louis L’Amour western novel that I just read, there was a fight between the good folks and the bad folks over a mountain. In the end the good folks won as they always do in his books. ANYWAY, one of the characters in the book was a mountain man who always showed up at just the right time just out of nowhere on the mountain (i.e. an old guy who I think was about 77) and helped the good folks but never said much. At the end of the book all the folks went their own way, and the old mountain man went back up the mountain alone.  Then the book ended with his statement by the mountain man--The problem with people is that they make so much noise; they always want to be heard!

The world does not understand theology or dogma, but it understands love and sympathy.--D. L. Moody  I hear you Mr. Moody, I hear you!

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

erv

MyFriendJean said--You should not pray for rain if it causes you to complain about the mud.