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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | To quote a movie line (which happens to be very true):
"We fall down so we can learn to pick ourselves up." |
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Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Whew. I thought I fell down because I was chewing gum.
Thanks, Paul. I feel better n..whooops! |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413
| My sympathies to everyone near/on/over the edge. Sometimes life just deals you a bum hand.
Politics or not - the fact that China owns trillions and trillions of US debt is going to rise up and bite somebody's ass one day.
That and people spending more than they can ever repay to buy things they don't need. |
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Joined:
October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | the US is about outta here. welcome to the north american hemisphere where canada, mexico and at least 49 states are amalgamated. not sure what they're gonna do with hawaii yet. probably ship some kinda virus over here to kill us all off and then use the islands as a playground for the elite. |
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Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | I'm with FlySig on his first post. What really matters to a parent is the kids. If the kids are doing well, I'm happy. When it seems like they're going down the toilet, I feel like I am helpless to prevent someone from flushing it. Stress and depression are linked to helplessness. If it's something you can fix, fix it. If it's something you can't do anything about, that's the tough part. We have to quit worrying about what we can't change. Since that is way easier said than done, if find that working on something I can change is the best distraction therapy. Playing guitar, pounding nails, kicking or hitting balls, whatever. It's all good therapy. Somehow being depressed about being a lousy golfer is easier to take than being depressed about job, career, health or kids. |
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Joined:
November 2005
Posts: 4815
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Originally posted by lanaki:
.....and then use the islands as a playground for the elite. Why bother? We/they do that now, and the service is better when cheap help is local!
as LBJ posted; poverty, stress, and joy are completely relative to your situation. A Mexican kid with a scuffed up soccer ball to share with every other kid in town can be much happier (and may well be) than a Canadian suburbanite teen who only has Guitar Hero I.......
BTW: Dental work is half price in MExico.....it can pay for the trip. You get the vitamin D dose as a free bonus. (and you can have fun in mexico my style for less than $50 dollars a day. beer included) |
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Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | and that's a lot of beer! I've seen him drink. |
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Joined:
September 2004
Posts: 1180
Location: Vermont USA | I don't place my trust in our economy or Politics, I choose to stand on Psalm 121
Pauly |
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Joined:
November 2005
Posts: 4815
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Originally posted by Mark in Boise:
and that's a lot of beer! Aww, c'mon. I was nervous! ;) |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1477
Location: Michigan | Wow this post got a lot more attention than I thought it would.
It seems we all have a story to tell.
This has been very THERAPUTICAL and interesting for me .
Thanks to all for the honest feedback and for telling us about some of your certain situations .Good Luck & God Bless to all who are having some bad Ju-Ju going on in your lives right now. GWB |
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 5327
Location: Cicero, NY | Believe it or not, I just gotta keep my mouth shut here.
Don't ever say it never happened. |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Cliff, I don't watch any news. It avoids getting worked up about things. |
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Joined:
April 2006
Posts: 1017
Location: Budd Lake, NJ | The most stressful time of my life was 2000-2001; my biggest fear up to that point had been losing one of my loved ones. In April 2000 we thought our 17-yr-old son had a brain tumor (thankfully, it wasn't) and then my sister-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer in May. She finished her chemo that December, and then we got Jack's cancer diagnosis on January 23, 2001, just four weeks later; almost exactly nine months later, on October 28, he was gone. Compared to those 18 months, nothing since has seemed all that bad.
LBJ has it right--bad times sure give you perspective on the good ones. And I'm with Pauly; my anchor verses are below my signature.
--Karen |
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Joined:
January 2007
Posts: 672
Location: New South Wales, Australia | I should be stressed and maybe depressed but I'm not. I'm earning not much more than I was 20 years ago but I've discovered there's so much more to life.
Tomorrow I'm gonna get up and jump on a little motorcycle for three hours and deliver mail to half my village with the ocean and the lake in the background...the seabreeze blowing in my face, and all the kids waving at me.
Then I'm gonna come home, play guitar for a couple of hours until my kids get home from school and we're gonna fool around for an hour or so until my wife gets home from work.
I'm so lucky and also thankful. I'll never be rich...well not financially anyway...but life is good.
I hope everyone's Xmas is happy and merry and that you can forget about life's problems at least for a few days.
Failing that, you're all welcome to come and check out my little piece of paradise any time you want :) |
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Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | I'm Happy for you Oz!
And Thanx for putting things in perspective.
Money is NOT the root of all Happiness.
They have done surveys that discovered that Poor People are often happier that the Rich.
(Poor and Rich being relative terms that, like Beauty, are in the eye of the beholder.)
[Money is Not the Root of All Evil, either...
The LOVE of Money is the Root of All Evil!] |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 370
Location: Isle of Man, UK | This seems like a good place to dip my toe back into the OFC.
Yes, for some reason these do seem to be very stressful times all over the place. A lot of my friends have been all snappy and nippy at each other, and the general atmosphere has been a bit pants.
Myself? Well, after seven months of particularly dark time that I won't bore you with (lots of things just all hit at once), I'm on an upcurve. Things are getting back to normal (ish), and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m picking up my guitars “to play” again, and not just gig work, which is always a good sign.
I can't explain why things were bad. I still don't know. I had my physical health, steady income, bills always got paid, my family and friends had their health. Just that the stresses of being constantly busy in work and outside of work, and not really being able to deal with anything hit. Not proper stress as in "where is the next meal coming from?", but business stress.
Then you feel bad because (on the face of things, particularly in comparison to some people) you have absolutely nothing to feel bad about and keep thinking "just pull yourself together".
I sympathise with anyone feeling bad, and I always will after my recent times.
Aside from the stresses and strains, I hope that everyone has been keeping well around here. I apologise in particular (publically now, rather than privately as I did a few days ago) to Schroeder who must have felt like I was abducted by aliens without so much as a by-your-leave.
Take care, and remember – keep playing the guitars. That’s why we have them and what they’re there for.
JB |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413
| You were in jail, admit it. |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 370
Location: Isle of Man, UK | No comment.
All I will say is that I will, from this day forward, always use soap-on-a-rope.
JB
(it's like I've never been away...) |
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Joined:
November 2005
Posts: 1126
Location: Omaha, NE | Originally posted by Mauvais Beal:
Cliff, I don't watch any news. It avoids getting worked up about things. There's something to be said for that.
Want to have some fun? Go to your local library and pull up a 30 or 40 year old newspaper. Stuff that seemed like life and death back then will seem like...well, like yesterday's news. |
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Joined:
November 2005
Posts: 4815
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | It's always more right now than it's ever been before in all recorded history......
......perspective is something you get only miles and years from an event. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7210
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Interesting read.
We are in a pretty desperate state ourselves and in fact the only thing that keeps us moving forward is where we live.
Most don't know it, but everything that could go wrong with a move did in our case. I've moved many times in my life. From across town, to around the world. I've assisted others and even worked as a mover. I guess this last one was Mr. Karma's chance to make up for all the flawless and near flawless moves of the past.
Some highlights...
[list]
[*]Movers were supposed to bring 2 trucks. On the day of the move, they only brought one. I had to travel across country, hire a crew and the 2nd truck myself and drive back across myself.
[*]Real Estate agents, don't even know where to begin. They priced the house initially too high based on bad data, the sell market fell. One of my best friends and the husband of the primary agent was diagnosed with Cancer so the focus was obviously not on selling my house.. etc etc etc.
Carpet cleaners ruined the carpets resulting in haveing to replace carpet in entire house.
[*]House Cleaners ruined brand new baseboards so had to have repainted.
[*]Due to all of above (and more), house didn't sell for 11 months.
[/list]
So for those keeping track, there was more, but just the above errors accounts for about $15K of unexpected debt, then add, 9 months of unexpected mortgage and bridge loan payments is another $45K of unexpected debt, plus of course the move itself that was budgeted debt of $30K. Yep that's $90K folks not including normal expenses. The real kicker was that without just the "big" issue above, I would have come in UNDER budget on the move and had cash leftover instead of debt.
One of the goals of this move was to open a business, but based on the above, and having no real local connections, no one would touch us to start the business. Great credit before this year, great business plan (lenders words not ours) and we ended up starting an eBay store. Now Lisa is also working again. The Ovation Collection WAS our retirement fund, now it's our meal ticket.. literally.
The ONLY saving grace is that we live/moved to the best place in the world to live for us. We can't imagine living anywhere else nor can we figure out really why it took us so long to move here. Perfect weather, year-round riding, 4-seasons, great food, great outdoors etc etc etc... Today I could go diving, or snow-shoeing within an hour.
I have lived in Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, Connecticut, Philippines, Guam, Virginia, Maryland and Washington and I can attest that climate and surroundings weigh heavy on health and attitude.
Some people can't take "grey misty days", Lisa and I think they are the best. Some people like sunshine all the time. Been there, done that, can't stand it. However, all in moderation. I'd hate grey skys all the time, but I've lived in Hawaii and Philippines and was thankful I lived where it got cloudy and rainy sometimes.
So all in all, 2006 and 2007 has SUCKED in a royal way... but as soon as I walk outside, it all seems better.
So to answer...
"IS THIS THE MOST STRESSFULL TIME OF YOUR LIFE ?"
Not even close!!!! Not even a close 2nd or 3rd most stressful time of my life. It's not great, but it's been soooo much worse at other times. |
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Joined:
March 2007
Posts: 665
Location: Tychy, Poland | i hope it will work out for all of You.
i've just decided to buy Cort KX-1F Katana electric guitar, and i think i'll get one next week. finally.
i had to sell a lot because of mothers surgery - a car, 4 guitars, part of my audio system... but i can always buy it again.
and for me, even with not so good ending, 2007 was better than 2006 (and 2005) and i hope that 2008 will be better than 2k7. |
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Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | We built our house about 12 years ago. I thought that everything that could go wrong did. I thought we were just steps away from divorce and/or being buried in debt over her "dream home." She thought it was fun and wants to do it again.
At the same time, we were restructuring the business and I stood to lose thousands of my investment. I was given an option of a buy out and hang out my own shingle. I decided to stay over my wife's tears, in part because I figured we'd blow the buy out money on the house and wouldn't have enough to start the business.
Then we sold our old house and had to rent one until the new one was done. The landlord was a con and took our deposit and never really owned the house.
We got our money back, a friend rented us a house they were trying to sell, our house got built and we lived happily ever after. Yeah, right. Things actually do seem to work out with time. And someone always has it worse. Look at Al's garage project, for example. |
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Joined:
August 2006
Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | Miles - glad we can help by making sure that some of your collection gets a good home ;)
This is a relatively good time for me - The wife and I are both working and the kids are healthy and happy.
I did however talk to my sister yesterday and she is just getting blasted with bad news. To begin with, she's pregnant, and she found out a few weeks ago that the baby was going to have downs syndrome. That in itself is horrible news. I found out yesterday that her husband was laid off from his job around that same time. To top it all off, he went into the hospital night before last with pain behind his eye and they checked him in. Of course with him being laid off, medical expenses will be ridiculous.
A month ago, they were doing great - they have another son who is 1 1/2 yrs. old and everyone was healthy and employed. It's amazing how quickly things can change.
Please keep her and her family in your prayers. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | Jeez, reading all this, I'm starting to think that my life so far has been perfect. Well, expect for the time in prison..... |
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IS THIS THE MOST STRESSFULL TIME OF YOUR LIFE ?
