December 4, 2011

  • A Meandering Mind

     

    TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

    I found myself up in the wee hours of the morning.  I had slept and I didn't feel tired so I got online and started reading the news.  Once I did that, I turned to the comics and read my favorites.  The site I was on had scads of different comic strips that appear all over the country, I guess.  Or maybe just in big city newspapers.  There were a few I had read when we lived in Ft. Lauderdale because they were in the paper there.  But what occurred to me was that if you haven't seen the strips before, you don't always *get it*.  Some were truly weird.  Must be New York comics. 

    Then I started thinking about my kids and their *bumps* in life that they had encountered and mostly had conquered.  I was happy they had done it but I still have kids that are climbing some bumps that have popped up.  One seems to be doing okay now and time will tell.  The other...I don't know.  I think they may have lost their way a bit.  No ambition and barely getting along.  That truly worries me.  All I can do is sit here and say a few prayers.  We all want our kids to be happy.  They don't have to be successful in a material way but they shouldn't have to struggle on a daily basis. 

    What do you do about jealousy?  I don't mean mine.  I'm way beyond that now at my age.  There is nothing that I want from life in a material sense.  I also am way beyond being jealous of other people and anything that goes on in their lives.  But what if you have kids that are jealous of each other or perhaps just one of the kids?   It's sad to see and know there IS a reason for it but there are also different circumstances that allowed it.  We reached a stage in our life that allowed us to give more to one child than the others had received.  One child told me that they were happy that we were able to do it and they knew it was because our business was successful and we finally had extra money to spend.  But.....hard feelings are around about what they feel is favoritism.  The difference is that the child has repaid us for all the things that they are upset about.  Somehow they seem to ignore that fact.  Or, perhaps, they don't truly believe it.  Whatever it is, I have no clue how to cure it.  Maybe if we hit the lottery, we can spend money on them and make them feel less deprived.  We just can't do it now that we are retired.  The Beast has spent so much of our savings that it's scary.  I'm not sure how much longer that will last for us.

    He went to Ft. Lauderdale primarily because he knows we are getting low and it's mainly his fault.  It sure isn't mine.  I don't spend that much.  He will earn a couple thousand dollars on his work there but it will take so much out of him physically that it worries me.  He's getting too old for that much activity that the trip will require.  And I'm not talking about the drive down there either.  He gets involved physically with doing a lot of the needed repairs.  He can't help it.  He's a tech through and through.  He loved air conditioning work because he was really, really good at it.  When he left the Union, they were really pissed over it because he was on of their best people.  Oh well, that's the past.  He just can't keep from doing the work himself if he knows what needs doing.  And no one knows this building and it's system as well as he does. 

    He's tried to helpl other techs that have worked on the building via the phone but they don't always listen.  Then the problems start and it gets worse and worse until he's compelled to go down there and straighten things out once more.  He keeps telling the owners to replace the equipment but they don't really want to spend the money.  Who can blame them in this economy.  But, they hope to sell the building soon and they just might have to do it or lose a lot of money on it.  Time will tell what happens.  If they replace the equipment, the Beast already knows that he will oversee it's installation.  He was already told that by the owners of the building.

    Have you noticed some of the commercials that are advertising for people that used certain drugs because they have caused side effects that they may have had?  I swear they are fishing for people who are just plain greedy.  Worse is the one where they have people saying, *It's MY money and I want it NOW!*  It makes me think of a spoiled rotten kid demanding a new toy or some such thing.  What do YOU think?  I just hate it and even if I had a trust or some such thing, I wouldn't use those people just because of their commercials.  Kids see that commercial, too.  I wonder what THEY think when they see grownups acting like spoiled brats?  Do they feel justified in demanding something that THEY want?

    Well, I should stop this raving.  It's becoming too long to justify just because I am up and my mind is meandering.  Love you all.  Have a great Sunday.