College Football

Another year of college football is drawing to a close and it's coming pretty quickly.
I will admit that I have been a fan of college football since childhood and of the 3 levels, high school, college and then the NFL, I am 10 times more of a fan of college ball than any other.
I love the high school games and especially the playoffs and these guys are the feeder systems for my college ball. I love it.
But, I love college ball more. By the time they get to the Pros, it's more of a business and not quite as much fun. I still watch the NFL sometimes, but I never miss a college football Saturday if I can help it.
Soon, I will not be able to help it because the games will be over and I'll have to find something else to do with my Saturdays.

Searching the internet, I noticed there are blogs on college football. But, I was not that overly impressed and I want to write my own next season.
Now, we have 2 or 3 games left and it's over.

I am eagerly looking forward to next August already.

Waffle House, I am falling for you

Today, I fell for Waffle House in a big, big way.

The lifelong roommate and I were in Dallas this weekend seeing our family. We decided to eat breakfast at a Waffle House.
It was chaos inside with a lot of hungry people and limited seating.
As we were patiently waiting on a table, I got a call from our answering service about a particularly annoying plumbing problem which sort of upset me because it should have been fixed already.

I stepped outside to talk on the phone in peace.

With the problem potentially solved, I returned to our group to again wait patiently.

As I came in the door, a very small boy ran out in front of me. I didn't really notice him in time to completely avoid him and had to swerve to miss him.

It was all a blur at that point and I really don't know what happened, but I somehow lost my balance and was unable to correct in time before I found myself laying on the floor. I don't know if the floor was slippery, or if I tripped over my own feet. But, somehow I wound up falling completely to the floor.

Everyone was completely stunned. The family with the small boy was just staring at me with shocked expressions, not quite knowing what to do or say.
I was not hurt, I don't think. The family apologized, the boy was fine and all was well.

But, I was embarrassed.

Most of all, I felt very, very vulnerable. There's no way you can fall on your face in public and ever be cool again.
There's no way of falling and ever having a chance at saving face. You have gone from an unknown person in the room full of people to being stared at by everyone. I was anxious for everyone that had seen the huge incident to be leaving the restaurant and forgetting they had ever seen me and my embarrassing fall.

And, I really don't like being stared at.

This was just one more big, grim reminder that I am getting older and I am not the man I used to be. That is hard to deal with at times, but something that everybody goes through if they are lucky enough to become older.
Older people fall a lot and I am not at that level, but this fall made me feel a little older than I want to be.


I had kind of hoped to make it through my life without taking an embarrassing public fall.

Too late for that now.

Atrial Fibrillation

I have it.



I have it and I am sick of having it.



Approximately 2.2 million Americans also have it.



Compared to a lot of diseases and physical issues it's not a bad thing. It's not cancer.

But, it is annoying and can cause strokes.

A brief description of A-Fib is it's an abnormal heart rhythm.



I guess my main beef with A-Fib is doctors. I started having these problems years ago. I went to doctors several times complaining of strange symptoms.

I was told I had this or that and was given drugs to fight this or that. Only problem is, after a while, you realize these guys don't know much about what they are doing and they are guessing.



I don't like to be the subject of guesswork, but that is often what you are when you enter a doctor's office.



My dad went to doctors for three years complaining of headaches. Then, one day, he had a brain tumor and died a month later.

Well, what had he been telling doctors for three years? Could there have been a reason for a man to have headaches for so long?



After years of complaining that I didn't feel right, I finally had had enough and went to a minor emergency clinic near my house when the physical outbreak was actually taking place.

Of course, the doctor had no clue what was wrong and said I should go to the real hospital immediately. I was hesitant, but they insisted and even called an ambulance to haul me over.



Low and behold, it was the ambulance driver that instantly knew that I had Atrial Fibrillation. Doctors may have never figured that out on their own.



The biggest step is often figuring out what exactly is going on in your body.



Well, not so fast.



Heart specialist prescribed drugs to control the A-Fib.

But, the problem is, the drugs don't work and A-Fib continues to creep up from time to time.

Too often to suit me. 15% of stroke victims have A-Fib and I don't want to be in that 15%.
I don't intend to be in that 15%.

At this point, I am reasonably convinced that doctors don't care because they make more money if people are sick.

Bringing the world to West Texas

One of the things I have enjoyed about owning a business here in West Texas is the opportunity to get to know people from all over the world.

You wouldn't think people from all over the world would be here, but they are.

Abilene Christian University brings in a lot of them and for really weird reasons sometimes. Some foreign students simply pick up a guide to American colleges and ACU is one of the first that comes up.

Strange way to pick a school to attend, but they come from all over.

ACU also has a world class track and field program which brings in runners from all over but particularly, Africa. They bring in weight throwers from Eastern Europe mostly.

So, there is a melting pot in the track and field program alone.

Dyess Air Force Base is another producer of outsiders.

Weirdest thing to me is that a lot of them wind up staying here after college or when they get out of the Air Force.

That doesn't seem logical to me, but it happens.

In our business, we have to have people help us with the maintenance and up keep.

Presently, I have help from Kansas City and from Fort Collins, Colorado.

Over the years, we have had employees from all over the place. The farthest employee from home was a rather wild and crazy individual from Russia. He hardly came from Russia with love as he was sort of an angry fellow, but he was extremely interesting and opened a lot of thinking in my mind.

I like, and liked, these guys because they are not like everyone else around here. They bring variety and color to the area.

One of the things I appreciate most about them is the different dialects they bring. I really don't want to talk like a West Texan and these guys help with that.

As long as we are in this business we will probably always have at least one college kid around to help with painting or other maintenance issues. I will always hope the kid is from somewhere far away so I will learn more about their area of the world, but also so they can help prevent me from falling into the rut of being like all my neighbors.

Not that there is anything wrong with them.

Letter to Mini-Me

OK, OK, I know this makes me look weak, but I am going to post it anyway.

I went through some hard times, lost a lot of money, lost my self-respect and put my roommate through some really rough times.
They aren't over yet. But, I am probably a little hardened and tougher now.

But, at the time, I went to a counselor just because I needed to talk to somebody outside my family and I had no real friends that I would burden with my problems.

He had me write a letter to myself when I was a kid. It's really too bad I couldn't get the letter to myself when I was about 10.

I called this the Letter to Mini-Me and I was going through my documents on my computer and thought I would post it here.

Stop calling me a wimp and get to reading.





LETTER TO MINI-ME
Dear Mini-Me,
Relax little fella, everything‘s going to be all right.
Trust me on this, some day you will have the final say, the last laugh if you will. Anyone that calls you stupid or insinuates the same, doesn’t know the real you or what’s inside of you.
Hold your head up and look people in the eyes, because they don’t know what’s in your heart. They don’t know your desires or your capabilities. They don’t know that you can do or be anything you want if you have set your mind to it.
Just because you don’t know the name of some tool that does not make you ignorant. In fact, I think that makes you brilliant at even an early age. Even then, you could see the uselessness of doing manual labor and realize, even though you were not fully aware yet, that you can be far more successful using your mind as opposed to your hands.
Because of your early life, you thought you had to live up to other people’s standards or lifestyles. You didn’t.
I wish I could tell you this now in reality and save you lots of wasted time and pain. Hard work is good, but only hard work that will take you in the direction that you need to go. The guy under the car is not the bright one, or he would have brought the tools he needs to get the job done correctly. You are a kid, be a kid. You want to play ball, look at girls and other things boys do.
Let your imagination run wild, because that is what will take you places. The traditional way of life may be good for some, but it will never be for you. Make your own way and don’t worry what others think. Worry about what God thinks and when all is said and done, you will be more successful and happy.
The world really is your oyster. You can do, or be, anything you want. You can live anywhere you want. Experience life and don’t be afraid. Fear is nothing but a lie and you don’t have to live under that. People will try and push you away, don’t let them. Stand tall and firm and fight for what is right and for what you want.
Decide what you want and just go for it. Don’t let things and especially fear hold you back. There are no legitimate excuses for not doing the things you are capable of doing.
People usually don’t mean to harm you or to do the things that they sometimes do to others. Rise above it and be strong, because that’s what you are. Be strong and courageous.
You don’t have to listen to what somebody else tells you that you are or how somebody else defines you. Define yourself and make your life the best that it can be.
Press on, Mini-me, but enjoy life now.
Sincerely,
Me

Cruise Night

Yesterday, they had a car show and a cruise night here in town. I was a bit skeptical and was not expecting much.

We did not make the car show, but attended the cruise night.

We found a nice place to pull over and park and just sat there for a couple of hours watching the cars and trucks drive by over and over.

The weather was perfect and in fact, was almost chilly out. I had a really fun time, actually.

There were a lot more cars than I expected and some were even really nice. Nothing like the car in the picture above which is a 1969 Yenko Camaro and is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But, there were some nice cars. There were also a lot of ugly cars and stupid looking cars which were kind of amusing to watch.

This was a nice reminder of yesteryear. There were old guys and young guys and all kinds of cars, pick up trucks, low riders, and a wide assortment of vehicles.

Maybe the strangest one of the night was a pick up truck that somebody had removed the bed and replaced it with another front so it looked like two trucks backed up to one another and one pulling the other. Wish we had taken a picture because it was too strange to believe and quite the riot.

There were muscle cars. There were classic cars. There were piece of junk cars. Everybody that liked cars of all kinds were either driving one or sitting on the side watching.

It was a fun night for me.

I am an old guy, but I am just a little bit too young to have experienced much of the 'good old days' where every small town had a spot where all the teenagers cruised looking for racing action or whatever else might happen in the growing up years.

In my town, people circled a Dairy Queen. When I started driving, they blocked off the route around the Dairy Queen and the 'good old days' were effectively over.

People were sort of poor in my day and in my town. There weren't a lot of new cars in the high school parking lot, but there were a few muscle cars about.

Even though the hang out had been closed down, it was still possible to meet up and find somebody to race, occasionally.

But, for all purposes, I missed the really good ole days.

Just barely.

So, You Want to be a Landlord

I have decided to write a book about my experiences as a landlord. It makes perfect sense to share some of the experiences that I have known in 20 plus years in this business.

I am going to write about the good and the bad and there has been a whole lot of each over the years.

I'm not sure what this will do to my blogging time, but I will soon find out.