curmudgeons

An acquaintance told us that they are a certified, full time curmudgeon—a cantankerous, crusty obstinate, bad-tempered, argumentative, uncooperative, grumpy, grouchy, testy, and crotchety person! A real killjoy! 

Bobby, anybody can be a Bobby, says--Studies and research teams did research on leaders of the highest-performing companies. What they discovered was that in most cases, the top corporations were not headed by well-known, charismatic personalities, but by humble individuals whose passions for excellence and success were balanced by great humility. Looking over the research, they observed, “The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results.” Now that research describes those top-notch folks who are like you folks, expect for one of you and you know who you are! 

CoachB says—You old hunk, don’t judge anybody because they are a lady or a man, young or old, as you never know what they know and who can do what you need done, even plumbing! In our culture we live in, I am just amazed how males and females are soooo capable and knowledgeable about both blue jobs and pink jobs (i.e. that definition was given to me by a friend). Really there are no pink and blue jobs anymore; we have come a long ways baby. Yes, we have. I would guess curmudgeons won’t understand that. What do you think?

Curmudgeons are real killjoys, now aren’t they! I had a friend in college who told me that she could memorize very well and did very well academically (i.e. got good grades) but she told me that she never knew what any of it meant (i.e. didn’t understand the meaning or application).  Another friend told me that he got an advanced degree in a certain area and went on the job, but he didn’t know nuttin; he had to basically learn it from scratch on the job. Or a new mother told me, I had a baby but didn’t have a clue how to mother the baby. I remember on my first real paying job out of college, it was my first day and an old curmudgeon (i.e. his name was Marty) called me a punk kid; it really hurt my feelings as I thought I knew a lot and was important as I just graduated from college a.k.a. a real hot shot alright! Basically, I knew nuttin! I still remember that and that was 57 years ago. And I’m still really a punk kid who still knows nuttin! Nuttin has really changed let me tell ya! Such is life.

If I was going to war I think I might pick a curmudgeonJake as my war buddy! I think I would. I think he would be trusted and tough. I think I could trust my back side with him. He would fight for me and the cause. I think he would be loyal!

Fred had no self-control, pig headed, stubborn, doing shenanigans, and he left a path of destruction behind him and being just plain obnoxious He was a four-hundred-pound hog who got loose in Colorado last fall. He covered four miles over ten days, tearing up lawns and digging up roots along the way. He was finally captured by animal service agents, who found him a home at a local high school’s agriculture farm. And you thought I was telling the story about the curmudgeon you know down the street! 

I was talking to a couple who own and operate a towing company. They tow vehicles from all over the place. I asked them if they have a hard time collecting their fees—no no, the folks we help are soooooo happy that we will help them and are very happy to pay us to get them out of their messes; many of them are on the interstate with traffic going by them 90 mph or in an area that they are scared to death or they really need help badly or have been sitting stranded for hours—they just love us when we are their savior. Even the best curmudgeon is happy to be saved or brought out of harm’s way. Aren’t we all sorta kinda that way. We will pay any amount to get out of a big mess. Sooooo flip the pancake, when we have everything going our way, we don’t have that feeling of appreciation but grumble like the best curmudgeon but when things are going south, we sure change our tune, (i.e. oh, what a relief it is to have someone get us out of our mess). Huh, interesting!

You ever get goose bumps? I wonder if curmudgeons ever get goose bumps? TheButlerCountyThing who thinks they aren't a piece of the pie but are the whole pie, says—I doubt it; they are tooooo crusty to get goose bumps; nuttin affects them; they have no emotions; they think they are always right; they know everything, they think; if you don’t believe that, ask them. King David is one of my heroes.  In Psalm 8, the prophet Nathan just exposed David to his face that he was a big sinner by having sex with Bathsheba. This is paraphrasing by erv—David humbly confessed his sin to God and humbly asked God to restore joy in his life which it appeared God did. That same equation will work for all of us. I believe it will even work for the biggest curmudgeon on this earth. I believe that. Now that’s a wow!

The curmudgeon has shown up in me I think. RickyRick says—"You’re always going to get discouraged when you try to be a superhero and do more than is humanly possible. You need a more realistic view of yourself: You can’t fix everybody’s problems.” It might be fact or opinion that we can’t fix hardly anyone’s problems if they don’t want them fixed! Soooo our smart tv said that there was no internet connection. I checked the modem, went through all the settings on the tv and even read the directions but no success. Jeanne came in and unplugged the tv and plugged it back in—bingo, fixed! Da!

My friend, Hank, anybody can be a Hank, suggested that I should buy this battery-operated warning light that twirls an obnoxious red light if the temperature in my IA house goes below a certain temperature soooo my neighbors can see it.  Sooooo of course I bought it. Why not! It seemed like good business to me. Wouldn’t it be great if we could buy a warning light for our mind and body that would do that (i.e. have it installed on the top of our heads). Maybe the warning light would go on when we become a curmudgeon. The problem might be that there would be obnoxious lights flashing all the time. Now that would be a mess! 

Soooooo we had lunch with a couz and hubby at Grayhawk Golf Course. What a hoot we had. They are soooo much fun. Sooooo we were wondering how much it cost to play there soooo I went in the pro shop and asked. It was what they call Dynamic Pricing—what’s that—we have a guy on staff that changes the price every 9 minutes based on supply and demand but currently because of the high demand, the price will vary between $300 and $400 a round—really?—really! That is about how much I pay for a membership for the whole year at Aplington Golf Course in Butler County. And the curmudgeons in Butler County think that’s tooooo much! Hey, like the assistant pro told me, it’s what the market will bear.

A friend, George (i.e. anybody can be a George), was showing me his new golf cart that had a lithium-titanate or lithium-titanium-oxide (LTO) battery.  He said they are really pretty simple erv—George, it’s much like me, pretty simple. And George responded--It’s ok to be simple erv, you don’t have much that can go wrong! 

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

erv

MyFreindJean said--Praise does wonders for the sense of hearing.