Thorns and Roses

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.”
— Alphonse Karr

Alas, it is morning, the coffee maker is singing, I have my coffee in my favorite cup, a cup that simply shows three letters, d a d, it’s my primary role, my daughter bought it for me.

I ran a meeting yesterday with a good friend; he’s buying a building, he needs insurance.  It’s what I do; we went through the ins and outs of what he will need during construction.  My father stopped by to fix our clock.  I headed a few blocks over to meet with a client to review their cyber insurance.  We had a good discussion; I was there for an hour and a half, a good chat with a long-time friend and client.

I headed back home, met with the Air B and B folks; the locks were being installed, the keypad on the front door, locks on our personal space, and our thousand albums.   After today, our home will be available for $500.00 a night with a three-night minimum.  If you are visiting Indy, stay in our home.

I pre-ordered an UBER, a new trick, don’t wait until you need an UBER to order one.  Before COVID, an UBER was 3 to 4 minutes away; now, it’s easily 10 to 15 minutes from the time you call; always pre-order your UBER!  A familiar face picked us up; he’s ginger; I called him Ed Sheeran last week, he remembered us, took us to the same place he took us last time, the best eatery in Indianapolis, Geraldines Steak House.

We met an old friend we had not seen in some time.  Sara is a 20-year-old friend; she has a new man, Tim; we met for dinner to catch up.   They brought us home, and we listened to some vinyl; it’s fun letting a guest roll through our collection and see what they pick.  Last night it was Dave Matthews Band in honor of my friend Paul, Grux it was.

They left, we watched a little tube before hitting our bed.  Today we will pack our car and begin heading west.  We’ve got a 5-hour tour today, 7 hours tomorrow, and four the following day before arriving at our mountain top chalet on Saturday.  

I’ll begin organizing our corporate hikes, corporate dinners, gatherings of thought leaders now that the pandemic is over.  It’s time to bring good people together to further the state of humanity.  A bold statement, but I mean it, we all have the power to change the world, and one way to impact our world is to bring together like-minded people.

I downloaded a couple of audiobooks for our trip; one is a mystery and one about psychology; we will learn as we travel and listen to a good story.  I always am a little sad when leaving home; we have many friends here; I’ll see them soon; you experience roses and thorns living in two communities.  

We took JoQueen back to her mother’s home.  Her inlaws will take care of her until her mother returns in mid-June.  We plan to see our kid play baseball in South Carolina; we will be home a week before traveling back east to connect with our family and watch Nick hit dingers.

A few months ago, I wrote a piece about Fauci being an asshole; one of my friends kicked back and said he was a national hero.  They just released his emails; I stand by my statement.  The man is a shill for his agency; he misled our country, he and his minions cost us billions of dollars, killed many people, the truth is now coming to light.  Bureaucrats will be Bureaucrats whilst the rest of the world is kept in the dark about the true nature of gain of function research.

June is pride month, a time to celebrate our homosexual friends.  Homosexuality is an outdated term according to Grammarly, so I’ll say “gay” friends.  I have many; I don’t care if you are gay, you do you, I’ll do me, and forever we can be free.  My wife and I have attended many Pride events; I support one’s ability to be themselves, be yourself everyone else is taken.  

Watch as many corporations and people virtue signal to the gay community, but only this month.  In July, the rainbows will be replaced with whatever those that make the decisions to highlight a group of individuals.  Here’s a question, why don’t we celebrate white people?  Uh oh, there he goes again, seriously, we celebrate everyone, but the white folks, what’s wrong with the whites?

Oh yeah, we have privilege; we need to be put in our place.  We need to be reminded about the systemic racist society we created when we’ve been around maybe 50 years.  It’s racist to call me a racist for my skin color, just like it’s racist for me to look at another and judge them based on one factor of their identity.

Do you guys know the mayor of Chicago, the failed state?  Her name is Lori Lightfoot, and she checks two boxes in the hierarchy of oppression.  She’s black and gay.  She’s recently coming out and sharing she will only take interviews from people of color.  Her thought process is that most people in her community are people of color, so it’s fair to only talk to people of color.  I wonder if the mayor of Carmel, Indiana, a predominantly white city made that same claim about how it might go over with our woke media.  When everything is racist, nothing is racist.

Enough white guy stuff, I’m sure you have your opinion, and I’m happy to hear it.  I’m not afraid to share where I stand, and I hope you feel the same.  We can learn from each other through open and honest dialog.  It’s time for me to wrap this up, shower, and hit the road.  I’ll be writing in Missouri tomorrow, home of the Ozarks, a beautiful state with beautiful people.  Saturday, I’ll pen some thoughts in Kansas, and Sunday, I’ll be back in my purple bean bag writing chair sipping coffee watching the sunrise.  Life is beautiful; trust me, it is.

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.”
— Alphonse Karr