Modern Man

How often do you say, “I can do that later.” or “We can do that tomorrow.”?

For the last ten years I have been telling myself that someday, I will get to Las Vegas to go see “Star Trek the experience”.

Well guess what kids, Tomorrow is its final day. After ten years Star Trek will be closing its transporters and leaving dock for the final frontier.

I had ten years and I blew it.

The part I want to emphasize here is, not that I missed Star Trek. It’s that you should not put things off. Be it Star Trek, a break for lunch, a night with friends, your kids ball game or dance recital.

If the something is even remotely important to you, do it. You may not put it off for ten years but it doesn’t matter. If you don’t do it right now, this moment, you may never get the chance.

How many things have you wanted to do, but didn’t because you can do them later? How many of those things could you still do if you had the chance?

I can think of so many things I wanted to do that no longer exist or that I’m physically not capable of doing any more. So many places I wanted to go that are simply not there anymore. People I wanted to see, meet, or talk with, that have moved away, or even worse,  died.

I had the chance to meet Dr. Seuss once. For a reason I can no longer even remember, I didn’t go. There would be another chance.

Wrong! 17 years after his death, I’m still bitter. Now I can add Star Trek to the growing list of, “Never got to do”.

There is no tomorrow people. Life is short and getting shorter everyday.

Next time you catch yourself saying “later”, stop. Think. Can you forgive yourself if later never comes?

In the end, it’s not the things we did, that we will regret, it’s the things we wanted to do but didn’t.

Anytime they need help moving a piano, or lifting something heavy, or want to have a party, but at your house not theirs. They show up uninvited and empty handed, with guests.

They invite you to dinner but you end up paying the check. They swear that they will get it next time, but there is no next time.

When they are invited, they have other plans. When they have a party, they forget to invite you. They didn’t really forget, you have a standing invite, they just forgot to mention it to you.

Anytime they need to borrow something, you are at the top of their list, and you seldom get your something back. When you need to borrow something, they lent it someone else, or it’s in the shop, or they can’t find it right now.

These same people call you friend. I don’t think so.

I call them “users”, and I for one have no time for you leaches in my life.

Your nerve is unmatched. Your selfishness is unparalleled. If this is they way you treat “friends”, I would hate to be your enemy.

Enough I say. I shall be used no more. I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you have proven time and time again that you don’t care about anyone but yourself.

I care not if I have only a few friends and not the crowds you call your own. I would rather have a few of quality than many like you.

You are not my friend as long as you act like an ass. Shape up!

In a country controlled by corruption and bureaucracy, (yes I mean this one) one of my favorites is the Credit Reporting System. (see sarcasm)

TransUnion, Experian, Equifax (The Big Three) and the all powerful, all important, be all end all for Americans, the FICO Score.

If this isn’t the biggest load of complete BS I don’t know what is.

Sure they justify it with lengthy legal ease, claiming it makes everyone equal, but that in itself is a lie because they compare you with others in a similar situation to your own. So you’re really only equal to others like you, not equal to everyone. Which skews the scores. But that’s not the point.

I recently found out that someone has assumed my identity in order to spend money that isn’t theirs. Some people are just scum. Bureaucrats included.

When I called the “Big Three” to put an alert on my account and check for fraudulent use, I was told that my information is classified and they couldn’t give it to me. However, if I gave them $8.00 to $14.95 they would be happy to send me a copy of my reports. Excuse me?

That was TransUnion. For the last few days I have been unable to reach anyone at Experian or Equifax. Five numbers for each of them and they just ring indefinitely. The websites are not much better.

Free Credit Reports dot com…Not free. They want all of your credit card information and it’s up to you to cancel if you don’t want to pay for the service after the “free” trial. That is not free.

The guy showing his Social Security number, claiming they can prevent ID theft, has had his ID stolen at least a dozen times now.

So basically, I now have to go through the red tape hell, for who knows how friggin long and prove that I’m not the criminal.

The chances of the police or other authorities catching the person doing this to me is slim to none and slim just left the building.

If and ever I get this all cleared up, are they going to put my credit and score back to where is was? Nope. The system doesn’t work that way. It will go up a bit but once I have put a fraud alert on my report it drops the score. All of the claims on my report drop the score. Criminals trying to access my identity will drop my score.

On top of all of this, the credit that is mine, has the right to up my interest rates, which a couple of them did almost simultaneously with the fraud. Will that go back or be reversed after this is fixed? Nope. Doesn’t work that way.
Did you know that I could pick one of you at random, report to the credit agencies that you owe me money, it goes on your credit report as a negative, and it’s up to you to prove that I’m not telling the truth. Even if you dispute the claim I can report it again, and again, and there is nothing you can do about it. It does work that way. How fair is that crap?

What all of this means is that the business I was trying to start is now on hold. My credit is frozen, my score is dropping like a rock in water, my interest rates are going up like helium, and I have stacks of paper work and claims to fill out.

The best part of all of this, is that I will most likely never know who did this, or how they got my information or who else has it. Because that information is classified.

Unless you happen to be a criminal or a bureaucrat.

Sure, I’m getting old-er, but this can’t be just me.

What is wrong with peoples priorities?

When I was riding my motorcycle and got hit by a car. The first thing “everyone” asked was, “Are you going to sue?” Not, “Are you alright?” Honestly, it hadn’t even crossed my mind to sue. I walked away with out even getting dirty, let alone hurt.

When I mentioned that things weren’t going well with our business partners, they all asked the same thing. “Are you going to sue them?” It was partially my idea. We were partners. It was no one’s fault, it just didn’t work.

When I mentioned that I was going to spend several months away from my wife and child because of our business they all said, “It’ll be nice to spend time alone.” and “I wish I could get away from my family for a few months.” As if it was a chore to spend time with their own wife and kids.

I do not understand other human beings.

What I do understand is that I don’t look for ways to screw some else over, in order to make a buck. I do understand that no job, is worth giving up your family for. The money will not make you happy. With minimal effort, your family will.

Spending three months away from my wife and child will never happen again in this family. The kids will adjust and move on. I may not.

There are so many truly important things in our lives, why does it seem that we have all forgotten what they are?

Family, Love, Friends, Peace, Happiness…All of these things are free. They wont cost you a cent and they will last you a lifetime.

It’s Wednesday night about 7 pm. He drives for two hours to the nearest airport. Gets a room at an airport hotel for the night that will let him leave his car while he’s away.

His wake up call is for 3:30 am. He’s awake when they call. He hasn’t slept at all yet. If he rushes he can be at the airport at 4: 30 am to catch his 5:30 am flight Thursday morning and still be able to grab a quick bite before the plane leaves.

He’s on his way to Denver to meet his love. She flew in from somewhere else. They managed to get the same connector flight from Denver to there final destination, into the middle of Nebraska.

For in the middle of Nebraska is a wedding. One of his loves friends from high school is finally getting married. All of her school friends will be there. Family is there as well.

By the time they reach the middle of Nebraska, nine hours later, he realizes that the breakfast he hate at 4:30 was most likely bad. The distinct feel of on coming food poisoning. He had felt it before.

For those of you that have never been to Nebraska, in August, it’s hot and humid. They have mosquitos that can carry off small children. Locusts and his favorite, the cicada bug. The size of bloody humming birds and they make a noise similar to a chain saw.

That evening they had a pre-wedding party to attend. It was about 100 degrees out side and about 90 inside the house of the party. There were times he thought he might pass out. For her, he hung in there the best he could. There were about thirty new friends to meet, for the first time. People very important to his love. Around 11 pm they made it back to her brother’s where they would be staying.

By now he wasn’t feeling very well at all so they turned in. It was a hot night and neither of them slept well.

It was about 5:30 am Friday morning, they were awake and restless. He felt alright. A touch led to a kiss. A kiss led to more touching. More kissing. Just as they were in the throws of passion she notices that there are family members awake and that the door to their room was not shut.

This is where it gets ugly.

He jumps out of bed to close the door. Hops back into bed. His stomach does a few cart wheels and rumbles. His eyes open wide. He takes a deep breath, grabs a towel and runs for the restroom.

He spends the next 25 minutes evacuating the entire contents and then some, of his innards. Love making is officially over.

His love gets up to chat with family at around 9 am Friday morning. He stays in bed. Around 1 pm the family wants to go to lunch. Sucking it up, he goes with them.

The sight of food makes him ill again.

The wedding is at 5pm Friday. An outdoor wedding in a park. It’s about 98 degrees outside. They found a spot in the shade. It was only about 92 in the shade. At one point he thought he was done, but hung in there.

After the wedding was a reception and dinner. The most amazing wedding food he had ever seen. Curry’s, salmon, fowl, vegetables, Indian stuffed bread things with chutneys. Fabulous.

He took a few bites of the mildest of what was there. So far so good.

After the reception, his love and her friends wanted to get together for drinks to catch up. Twelve of them in all went to a local tavern/hotel for drinks. He did not drink. He sat and talked and tried his best to look half way alive.

They manged to get home around 1 am and crashed right away.

He woke at 10 am Saturday morning. The few bites of dinner the night before were no longer happy being inside and demanded some fresh air. Great yellow gobs, up chuck it came!

At 11:30 am they had to head for the airport to catch a 1 pm flight back to Denver. The flight was an hour late. More being sick at the airport.

They get on the plane and are told about thunder storms over the mid west. The flight might get bumpy. Great. For the first time in almost a hundred thousand miles of flying, he got sick on the plane.

In fairness, it was a twelve seat plane. It was tossed and thrown like he had never experienced before. Pale and weak he stubbled off of the plane and headed for the terminal to catch the connectors.

Both of their connecting flights were delayed by more than three hours. His made them get on and then made them sit on board for more than a hour at the gate before leaving. This flight also, even though it was a much larger air craft, would be flying through bad weather. It hit some serious turbulence. He spent most of the flight in the lavatory.

Upon arrival he had a two hour drive back to his home. Still sick

Love makes a person do some amazingly odd things, like fling to Nebraska, in August, while sick with food poisoning, and he would do it again in a heart beat.

For her.