Things I Can't Do

I'm turning 41 next week, and I'm coming to terms with some things.

1) I'm never going to be a professional athelete.
2) I'm not going to be the President
3) I'm not going to be a secret agent (a la James Bond).

Now, getting those things out of the way, the world that is ahead of me is nearly unlimited. Growing up, it was often stated that I can be anything I put my mind to. That is stuff we say to our kids, I guess because most kids will never have the talent to be truly great atheletes in anything they choose.

I would have also said that most kids aren't smart enough to grow up to be President, but the bar has been lowered so greatly the last few years that this is still a possibility for any native born citizen (who's grandfather was a Senator and whose dad was President). (Side note: my friend says, "George W. Bush was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.")

Let's see what I can still be, if I want to dedicate some time to it: Truck Driver, Lawyer, Plumber, Nurse, Doctor, Stock Broker, House Builder, Cashier, Accountant. Shall I go on? The future is so bright, I gotta wear shades.

There's still plenty to do and plenty of time to do it. So don't waste it. Get to it.

When You're Doing What You Want To Do...

I regularly have found friends and acquaintances talking about how hard it is to date and meet good people. Despite trying to meet date-worthy people thru friends, the internet, social activities, etc., they can't find those really good people.

I think it relates back to how one lives one's life. And, to me, that says, "When you're doing what you want to do, you'll meet the kind of people you want to meet." I think it relates not only to work but the things you do outside of work.

Why would someone want to meet you? What is it about you and what you do that makes you special? Is it your ability to go out and really have a great time at happy hour? Is it that you volunteer at the animal shelter?

There's a lid for every pot in this world, so I've been told anyways. But, to find your lid (or your pot), you may want to think about getting an objective look at how you live your life and some things you can do to make it better.

When I was living in San Francisco, I wasn't dating that much and I wasn't meeting the kind of people I wanted to date. Then when I started living my life like I really wanted to and moved to Kentucky to build houses with the Christian Appalachian Project I started meeting lots of great people. I also met someone who I dated very seriously while I was there. Though, it didn't work out with her, the whole experience was a great time in my life.

It reminded me, again, of the importance of living my life the way I want to live it. Then I often am not as concerned about dating as I am about living. So, of course, then I often meet someone wonderful.

The Great Ones Get Away Too Often

I was out walking today. When I'm up in Maine, I usually try to get out and walk around the pond each day. It's about a five mile walk with some nice hills. It's solitary, relaxing and very enjoyable.

One problem that I have is that while I'm walking I have some good ideas about things to write or inventions or whatever. That's not the problem. The problem is that I usually don't have paper and pen, so they don't get written down.

I try to remember them, but by the time I finish my walk, the idea is long gone. So is my chance for fame and fortune.

Que sera, I guess. But, I'd really like to remember some of them because I think they were half decent. Starting tomorrow, I'm bringing my notebook and a pen with me on my walk.

A Good Pass To A Bad Player...

When I was in college, I played water polo. One of the other teams we often played had a really tough coach. He would berate and insult his players in many ways.

One time, he was commenting on a pass that was made and he said, "A good pass to a bad player is still a bad pass." Thru that statement, he really insulted one of his "bad" players.

In many ways, I think that's how Mr. Bush has handled the war in Iraq. I think the statement here could change to: "A good plan very poorly executed is still a bad plan."

The current administration has totally ruined the plan to invade and change Iraq and now we're about to fall into a civil war over there. A CIVIL WAR! This in a country that we seem to think we're in charge of. We can't get out of there fast enough and yet we can't leave.

And, our President and his mouthpieces seem to spend all their time telling us that we're being unpatriotic if we don't finish the job over there. This is a job that was poorly planned, poorly executed and will be poorly run indefinitely. And, yet, we're supposed to stand by and keep supporting his awful ideas.

Of course, the current democrats won't be able to get themselves supported enough to take over the House and Senate this fall because they're all so tainted and corrupted. So, we either have to stand up to it personally, or we have to sit and take it.

One thing that doesn't seem to get mentioned is how many more terrorists there are since the war in Iraq started. So, we should continue down a path that's causing a problem to get worse? I guess so.

Let's ask our President his plan for getting us out. Or maybe we should ask the men, Dick-Don-Karl, who are really running the country.

Shutting Down a Business

It's been an interesting week. My brother-in-law ("bil" as he will now be known) is shutting down his business. It's a family business that has been around for 69 years, but things have changed and he decided to shut it down.

He also personally owns the building that the business was in. He decided to sell the building at the same time, so that he would have nothing left to worry about as he decided the new direction for his life. He's 44, so he has several more years to work and wants to do something that he thinks is meaningful.

So...as things were winding down, he was hit by a lawsuit. He's being sued by one of his building's tenants who thinks that he had an oral agreement to sell the building to. There's a paper trail a mile long showing that he decided not to sell the building to him because he's unreliable at paying his rent and following through on things (among other reasons).

Since my BIL is being sued, though, he's unable to sell the building to new buyers until this lawsuit is settled. It could take up to 18 months to settle the lawsuit. In the meantime, he can't get new renters into the space and he can't sell the building. So, he has to come up with payments for, possibly, the next 18 months until this gets to court. It's a tough row to hoe, but I think he'll make it all right.

From this, I've learned (or been reminded of) the importance of keeping good notes in any financial transactions. Also, when selling (or buying) in a major transaction, it's important to make sure you have a few months running room. If you don't and something unexpected happens (like this), you need to be prepared.

I think the ideal situation here would've been to sell the building first. Get that all taken care of and rent the space back from the new owners for 2-4 months. Use that time to wind down the business, so that one thing is settled at a time. Instead my BIL was hoping for both things to happen at once. Because they didn't work out perfectly, he now finds himself in a difficult situation.

Like I said, I think he'll make it, but it's added a lot of extra stress to his life.

Everything Happens For A Reason (and other nonsense)

I've heard it said many times. "Everything happens for a reason." "There are no coincedences."

It's often said with the idea that a higher power had a had behind making it happen. I have to really wonder about that.

I think that things happen then you take from it what you can. You can sometimes make your own reason. But not always.

The idea that things happen for a reason means that children are abused for a reason, people are murdered for a reason, horrible things happen for a reason.

I don't buy it.

It also means, then, that everything is predestined. Everything is guided by the "hand of God." (and not just Diego Mardona's goals). I believe in God, but I believe in a free-will God. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm wrong quite often in my life.

But, I don't buy the fact that "Things Happen For a Reason."

Reading The Bible In a Year

I've decided I'm going to read the bible from cover to cover. O, sure, a lot of you are looking at this like it's no big deal. You've read the bible several times.

Well, I'm Catholic, and Catholics don't read the bible. We have it read to us. So, I think that for me to read the bible is something that I'm hoping might give me a few more insights into Christianity.

I've wanted to do it for a while, but when I've tried, I've found the book to be a bit boring and difficult to stay focused. Recently, though, when I was riding the bus from NYC to Washington, DC, a woman across the aisle from me had a "One Year Bible."

It breaks the bible down where there's a reading from the old testament, new testament, psalms and proverbs for each day of the year. If I read it in order, I'll have read all the books of the bible in a year. I'm hoping to do it a bit faster, so I'm reading about three days' worth of readings per day. I'm 27 days into it, and I've read 70 days worth of readings so far.

If it turns out well, I might be interested in trying to read the Koran in the same way. And maybe some other great books. A year can make an overwhelming task very managable.