Old Friends and Fishing

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An old friend has gotten in touch with me after not having seen him for 37 years. Chuck and I were good friends and he brought up a lot of memories that I had forgotten! But how appropiate was his timing in that I had been doing alot of reflection on my childhood days.

I guess at our age were all probably doing alot of reflection and wondering what we have accomplished in our lives or what will we do with the years left before retirement. I wish I had thought more of my childhood when I had been raising my three sons. But, were so busy in our lives raising them and with the day to day activities we don’t have that much time to think.

But in reality I think many thoughts and ideas were instilled in me that I had to trust that we did a good job raising them. I guess it was instinct. So far, as I have written before, my boys have done pretty well. Yes of course I could have always done some things different. But so far they have turned out pretty good!

But back to my childhood friend… Chuck was a good friend and we went fishing alot. In fact as often as we could we would go to the County Forest Preserve Lake. Though I don’t ever remember catching anything big! Or for that matter catching very much except for misquito bites. I still like to fish even though I haven’t done it in years. Funny thing though, I never liked to eat fish. I’m a catch and release kind of a guy. I’m also more into being clean, not getting up so early, enjoying the services of a good hotel. So I’m not sure I want to go fishing anymore? Definitly not into camping at all! Ever since I went on a campout in Boy Scouts and in the middle of the night I “sleep rolled” out of my tent and woke up on the edge of a small cliff! Just not my idea of fun anymore.

So Chuck when you come home in December to see the folks I don’t think fishing will be a good idea. But hell, I am open to a good softball game on our street corner if you can get a game going?

My Life My Opinion about Finding Mr Right

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An acquaintance of mine (not sure if were friends yet as we’ve only met about 3-4 times) has her own blog. She has a great sense of humor and she really makes me laugh. I love her writing style. She’s a lot younger and she’s not married and much of her blogging is about finding “Mr Right” and the experiences she has gone through in that search. As a father I wish more than anything that I could help her in some way. I know she’s alone and being the young vibrant person she is, she wants a partner. We all want to be wanted by someone. We all want to have someone to share our thoughts and feelings with. We all want someone to make us laugh. She’s gone on many dates, done the bar scene, I’m sure her friends have tried to “Hook” her up on many occasions. Nothings clicked yet for her and she’s changing her writing to reflect a more upbeat positive self. I really hate to see her make this change.

What I enjoy about her is that witty sarcastic view of hers. She makes you laugh by bringing out the obvious. I’m sure their is someone out there that will also appreciate that side of her.
I’m not sure anyone has told her but, stop trying to find him. I think he has to find you! Live your life and let your life come to you. Stop trying to make it (force it) into happening. The right person is out there and sometimes it takes a little longer. I was with the wrong person in the beginning. Don’t make that same mistake, don’t settle because someone is there and “may” fit the bill. Don’t change to fit other’s idea of what you should be! Be Yourself! Don’t forget sometimes a prince is a frog first and its the princess that turns him into a prince!

My Life and My Sons

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Growing up I didn’t think that far ahead about my life. I was more into what was happening right there, right then. Or maybe I thought as far ahead as the weekend and what I was going to do. Sometimes we think farther ahead about our careers and where we want to be in five or ten years in regard to a position we may want to obtain or how much money we want to make. But beyond that I don’t think many of us think of many more details than that.

One of the things that I think alot about is wether I am close to my sons or not. Now the Adams men have always been pretty serious guys. My father was taken away from me when I was 11 years old. Their wasn’t a lot of hugging that I remember. He seemed to be a strong and confident man though. I wanted to be that for my sons also. Its hard to learn how to be a good parent but you want to do your best. Having split from my wife, my role with my oldest son changed alot. I was relagated by my ex to become the dislipinarian. She would call me during the week and have me yell at my son to get his homework done or his chores, what ever. I knew I was becoming the bad guy! I could easily understand why later on, he would rebel and why he would hesitate today to having his own kids and develop a family. I always told my sons that when they left high school that many of their friends would turn out not to be friends at all. If their lucky maybe one or two at the most you might keep up with. I’ve told them that family is the only thing that will always be there in what ever capacity they can be in their lives. Family is all we have in most cases. Families always forgive and families will always support. So my sons as I get older in my life I have learned that I should have more hugs to give and more support to show than I did before. I hope you learn from my lesson and start hugging now. It feels pretty good.

My Life as a TV Addict

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In my life I hate to admit it . . . but, I know I’m not alone, I am a TV addict. Yes, I watch the “boob tube” as our parents referred to it. Who can help it, there is  so much on it! I must also admit, I am a late bloomer in that I didn’t get “cable” until 2007. It was like my life hit the jackpot! I try to control it by going to my other “boob tube” the internet and I tell myself I’m learning something as I watch some dumb video on “Youtube.” I am insatisable when it comes to the screen. I even have to force myself to go to bed. I hate the imprint the keys make on my face when I wake up, they take a while to go away you know. I use to love watching the “Apprentice” with Donald Trump. Having worked for the man, I had  somewhat of an understanding of how he works. It was fun watching the board room, those idiots didn’t know when to keep their mouth shut. Some of them just didn’t understand that sometimes you have to step aside and get out of the way. We all have to be strong enough to defend ourselves.  Then there is that new “Top Chef Masters” show, where famous chefs have been competing against each other. The last episode really showed something important.   There is an old saying (yes I know I’m full of them) “you are only as good as the team under you” Chef Keller was brilliant at it and that is why he won. He knew he had good talent in his team and he used it to his advantage. He trusted his team and they worked their ass off for him. Chef Michael (the Italian American Chef) wouldn’t let any of his talented team do anything unless they did it his way. He wouldn’t ask them for help or ideas. His team ended up not supporting him and he lost. Now I know many chefs have big egos, but in order to get ahead in this world you are going to need some help. Many managers are afraid to hire good people, afraid they will take their job. Hell, they should take your job and you should move on and up. You can’t win the card game without a full deck. How will you play your hand. In my life I’ve been pretty trusting but I’ve also been burned. I think I will keep on trusting as they say (yes I know here I go again) “You’ve Got To Have Faith.”

My Life At the Emergeny Room

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Well it happened again in my life. In fact I think I’m becoming a regular going to the emergency room at our local hospital. First off you must know one thing, if you decide your going to visit the emergency room. You can count on at a minimum 4 hours if your lucky. On average, I’ve got to bet its more like 6.5 hours of your life.

Grandma (my mother-in-law) was sick so you know who “The Chosen One” (me) got to accompany her on this exciting experience. One new tip for those of you thinking of going down this path. Go on a weekday not a weekend! Everyone is off from work and doing stupid things on the weekend and their doctors aren’t available so they come in mass to compete with you for the privilage of who gets to go in first. I kept telling Grandma (who actually had Bronchitis but wasn’t coughing at all now that we were there) to pretend like she was having problems breathing but no, she sat there very quiet and eventually dozing off to sleep a little. Two hours later we both wake up to someone calling her name. So we get to leave the germ infested waiting area and get to go to room number 4. Of course now its time to punish me more… The last time I was here with Grandma we were in the same room number 4 and they had installed tv’s for your enjoyment! It greatly helped to pass the time away when we were here last time. Of course this time the tv didn’t work and I was having to face my mother-in-law for more endless hours of fun. In the middle of the “pit” (nurses station) they have a 42″ screen tv displaying all the patients like a spread sheet. I found my mother-in-law on line four and at some point the column for “length of stay” turns red. Two other people had red backgrounds also but they were at 6 hours or more. We had at some point passed 4 hours and it went red. At least you knew they were noticing you because as your hours increased they seem to pay more attention to you as if they were on some sort of time limit. I was afraid to see what happened once you got to 7 hours. So the hospital is trying to make an effort to improve your experience when you visit. Everyone seemed overly friendly compared to previous visits. Then I noticed they had signs all over about customer service and to please fill out their survey. The nurses kept repeating their names so we would remember them. Then when checking out, the papers had their names typed out so we could spell them correctly. You know I’m in the hotel business and when ever the guests have a bad experience like the tv not working they complain they want a free room for the night. I wonder how far I could carry this?