OK, I warned you that this column named “What’s the Point?”
would lean towards the pessimistic. So what better time to show my true nature
than a milestone birthday. This week I turn fifty-five. Happy friggin birthday
to me. Some people look at the proverbial glass as half full, others as half
empty, mine is not only half empty but it also has a crack in it.
So what’s so special about fifty-five? For starters it’s got
a nice rhythm and ring to it; fityfive. It rhymes well; I’m still alive at
fifty-five. I’m 99.9% sure that I’m more than half way through my life since
only a few dozen people have ever lived to be over 110. Also if I had the money
I could buy a house in Vacaville at the seniors community of Leisure Town. But
for me the real significance is that growing up, fifty-five is the only future
age that I actually thought about or aspired too. I was not one to spend much
(if any) time thinking about or planning for my future. But I was always told
that once you turned fifty-five you could retire. Nobody mentioned, or more
likely I wasn’t listening, that you needed to save money and better yet work
that one full time job for 25 or 30 years.
So using this birthday as an opportunity to reflect on my
life, what do I see? Well first I guess I could have used a better mental theme
song in my youth. Yeah, you know those
lyrics that are always floating around in your head. Well mine was “Lazy” by
Deep Purple. The one that goes, “Your
lazy, just stay in bed. You don’t want no money, you don’t want no bread. - Well
my trying ain’t done no good, you don’t make no effort, no not like you should.”
That’s me in a nutshell, not making the effort like I should.
My life is full of great starts, but lazy follow through.
When I started high school I was smart and liked to read. I didn’t like to
study nor do home work so when I discovered pot I artificially enhanced my
laziness 10 fold. After high school as a meat salesman there were many days
where I would just drive around telling myself that’s not a good place to stop,
nobody’s going to want to buy anything. As a manager at the beer
distributorship I did my job but didn’t try to be innovative or make more work
for myself. I tried to take some college classes while I was working but I
still hated studying so I quit again.
In spite of myself I’ve had some successes but then I get
lazy. The biggest success that I blew was Steady Eddy’s Café at the Flint, MI
farmers market. (I sold it 18 years ago & it’s still going strong) For the
restaurant business it was a dream come true. Basically it was a furnished
restaurant, with very low rent, only open 3 &1/2 days a week, great foot
traffic, meat and produce suppliers downstairs, and cash only. It was
successful and making money from day one. But after a few years my scheming
lazy side took over and I thought I could make more money while working
physically less. So I sold the café after having started Steady Eddy’s Gourmet.
That was a wholesale manufacturing business that bottled and sold my vegetarian
chili (still available at both Steady Eddy’s locations) to specialty grocery
stores. Since you can’t find my Vegetarian Chili or Salsas in the grocery
stores any more I guess I didn’t follow through on that either.
After a few more years of either quitting or getting fired
from management jobs I moved to California to work for and help my brother
expand his business selling and servicing sewing machines and vacuums. After 5
years of fairly easy work, the naively optimistic part of my lazy self said “hey
why don’t we open a Coffee Bar here in quiet Winters”. It will be a nice easy,
ma & pa business where I can drink coffee and read the newspaper in between
the few customers that we need to make a living. As any of you who have been in
the coffee house can attest there was nothing quiet or easy about it.
Those four plus years owning the coffee house were the
hardest my lazy self has ever worked so when I saw an opportunity to create a
full time desk job with the Chamber of Commerce I took it. That didn’t work out
as I planned but at least I don’t have to get up at 4:00 in the morning any
more.
So as I reflect on my fifty-fifth birthday, my questions
would have to be. If I’m so lazy why have I worked so hard, and if I’m working
so hard why can’t I reach cruising speed?
To view the column in it's original form go to page 14 of the following link. Winters Express 6/7/12
