Wednesday, February 28, 2007

No Good Deed...

No good deed goes unpunished. I heard this interesting quip today and it really fit the situation. When people have done something to help out a friend, they hope that it betters their friend's situation. Does it sometime show weakness though?

People who try to do good things for others get labeled with the do-gooder tag, and set themselves up to be walked all over. Hence the saying, no good deed goes unpunished. You try to help someone out by giving them an inch, and they turn around and take a mile.

It doesn't have much to do with me, more just friends of the family. They hit hard times a few months back and we helped them out of it. One of the conditions though, was that it was a one time deal. Surprise surprise, who comes back 3 months later asking for something else? If there was any chance of some kind of reparation I wouldn't look upon it as such a bad thing. Without that though, you're getting screwed on both ends. You're being taken advantage of and you end up holding a little bit of a grudge.

The grudge just happens. You might try not to hold ill will towards those folks, but simple enough, they pop up. You start to avoid them, for fear you're going to be taken advantage of again. Saying no would be the panacea for the problem, but who can tell a good friend no? You feel the obligation to help, because you are in the spot where you can do so.

Ha..This has been weighing on me today. A lot has been weighing on me. Imagine all of that load in addition to all the poundage I already carry around. Sheesh, my legs should be toned by now. I just hope that I get everything swirling around in my mind figured out soon. I'm about to pull what little hair I have left out!

Thank goodness for good friends...

I'm out...have a good one, one and all!

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Boycott

Nothing too much new to report. I did today though, decide I'll be boycotting two local businesses. I won't say their names, but instead tell the stories...

First off, my vet. Today was Gus's one year check up. Everyone knows I ain't got no job, so money is tight. I was needing to transfer some money from one account to another. A process that sometimes is done automatically, but when you really need it, takes 3 friggin' days. Well, so I ask the vet's secretary if there is any way they can bill me. Keep in mind that I not only use this vet for Gus's medical needs, but also anytime that I need to board him, I take him there. So in the past year I've probably spent over $500 there (and paid in full when picking Gus up). Well the secretary very rudely doesn't say anything but no. I told her I'm in the midst of transferring some money from one account into the other, and was afraid that I'd write a hot check if I wrote one today. She said, sorry I can't help you. So this afternoon, I went and paid with a check regardless, and also got all of Gus's records copied. He's gonna' have a new vet next time he needs something.

Second...On my way to pick up Gus, I stopped at a convenience store and put some gas in my truck. I went inside to pay, and picked up a Gatorade because we had a basketball game this afternoon, and I needed to recharge my electrolytes. When I was paying, one of the girls behind the counter walked up next to the girl that I was paying for my gas and drink and asks me if I want a shamrock. I had no earthly idea what she was talking about, so I politely said no thank you. Then I looked down and she had all the shamrocks that benefit M.S. or something like that. Had she asked if I wanted to donate a dollar to help fight M.S. I would have given her a dollar, put my name on a shamrock, and posted it on the wall next to the others. Instead she just asked if I wanted a shamrock without making even a gesture to the stack of the paper ones that were a bit out of view on the counter. So after I said no thank you, she looks at me and says, "Well you are probably going to hell". Straight up tells me that. I didn't know what to say, so I said, I guess so. I grabbed my Gatorade and change and headed towards the door.

The second of these was one of those times when you think of all the perfect things to say 10 minutes afterwards. I could have just said one word that would have trumped anything she could have said. Starts with B and sounds like Witch. I'm above that though. I won't be buying any more petrol from them...

The Basketball game...Wow, it was a blast. We played for about 2 hours. I still am not worth a dang, but I have fun. I'll be extremely sore tomorrow.

Houston Go Texan Barbecue cook off this weekend. It'll be a blast...

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Just Cause You Have the Hat...

I had an interesting weekend. I went to Rockport to go to another wedding. I really should have kept count of all of these. This was the second weekend in a row that there was a wedding to attend. They were both fun, I had a good time, and got to see/spend time with people I hadn't had the opportunity to be around in a while.

The Rockport wedding though, wow, what can I say. I'm going to guess I've been to around 10 weddings since last May. That's not too far of a stretch if it's below that number. They've all been traditional, and really organized. Rockport wasn't all that organized. It was a small wedding, I counted while my Dad and I were sitting in the pew. Including the wedding party, and preacher, there were 42 of us in there. I think the thing that struck me different about that is that all the other weddings I'd been to were about anywhere from 3 to 10 times that size. All in all, it was a nice wedding, they got married, mission accomplished. The reason for my disbelief was how on a day of such happiness, there was big time division within the crowd. Over half of the crowd was Mexican, and the other half white.

There were two separate sides at the reception, and the looks the in-laws were giving their new family struck me as odd...I won't go into too much more detail...

In the past week, I've been into three different churches. 2 of the 3 were, umm, different. For some people, being in 3 churches maybe isn't something news worthy, but other than weddings and funerals I can't tell you the last time I was in a church. I'm not complaining, or being braggadocios just stating the fact. The last two were by far the least "traditional" of all. I actually felt a little uncomfortable. Not being blasphemous, just truthful.

On the lighter side, I was within earshot of an interesting argument this weekend. Two guys in a big argument over which of the Texas Universities is better. One was for A&M, the other for UT. Of course I'm a Red Raider through and through, but I pull for the Texas school when they are playing someone from out of state. One guy had on his Longhorn hat, no doubt purchased after the national championship last year, the other guy was Aggie clothing free, but still pulling for the collie and the farmers. It was all in good fun, no doubt just two friends at a bar continuing the never ending debate. Neither of these guys attended those schools, or probably any school. I can't imagine those guys if they actually went to school at UT or A&M. I'm sure I sound like a complete ass with this one, but it cracks me up regardless.

I have a new guilty pleasure, well kind of. After all of the trouble this past week at Daytona, I was suckered into watching the Busch series race yesterday, and a large part of the big race today. That's exciting stuff. If you can get past the fact that it's just a bunch of cars driving around in a oval for 500 miles, there's many sub-stories involved. It's not all just pedal to the metal, there's strategy involved. Just watch the last lap of today's race. There's also the wrecks, a lot of danger involved, but if no one gets hurt, they are fun to watch...That's all for nascar, maybe I'll watch again next week, maybe not. I enjoyed it this weekend though...

Guilty pleasures, I have a few more. They're of the tv show variety. The Sarah Silverman show is hilarious. It's not very politically correct, but that's the funny part. Dirt on TNT...I haven't missed an episode. Then of course 24 and the Unit. The Unit is my favorite of all, but they're all good...

Oh well, sorry it wasn't an exciting one...Hope all is well, and everyone is doing better than great!

Have a good one!