Most of what I write are simple musings or ramblings of an old man. The idea or motivation behind it was to document entering 65 and the journey afterward. To make observations of random things I encountered. generally in a light-hearted or humorous way.. Occasionally they may even have a point (I hope). Sometimes it is tougher to find and sometimes, like today, I don’t feel the need for a laugh-track. The last several weeks have been emotionally difficult. I find myself in a position that I need money and have none. Real estate, for us at least, is painfully quiet. Low inventory and rising interest rates cut sales by 27% in June. July isn’t showing much joy either so the bank balance continues to evaporate. Yesterday I emailed the forms to cash out our life insurance policies. This one isn’t as scary as it sounds out loud. Kids are grown so they don’t need support if (and when) we die. This is what I tell myself anyway. Still it sounds pretty pathetic. The silver lining here might be to get caught-up with doctor appointments when the funds come in.

While working to get motivated with real estate and looking for additional income streams, I started listing stuff online. I had four channels I planned on developing: The first was a local marketplace called KSL Classified. I had mid-ranged stereo equipment and 100+ vinyl albums. Sold a little but mostly radio silence. Next came Facebook marketplace. I posted this same equipment on an audiophile page and while I enjoyed a few back and forth comments, nothing sold. The one I really had my eye on was Etsy. This seemed logical because Lisa has an uncanny eye for quality and value and had accumulated several very nice pieces perfect (I thought) for Etsy. I spent several days creating a logo, a storefront and listing six items ranging from a $100 vintage crystal perfume bottle to a pair of unopened Hermes scarves. I have had views but no meaningful activity. I get regular status reports and all sorts of Etsy kudos but again, zero. The final one was the big-one, Ebay. I had spent so much time building the Etsy site, I breezed through the set up. I had tried selling here before with zero results, but had the basic infrastructure in place and ready (or so I thought) to go. Lisa has the PayPal account so I figured we were good to go. Firstly, I decided to sell my old Nikon to start the process. After talking and uploading pictures, I researched my setup and peripherals, founding one already listed so it went quickly. I hit the list button and sat back. I was stunned. Within minutes I had multiple offers well over my starting price. Awesome! After realizing I had 23+ hours to accept an offer I decided to list two more items, Same thing happens again-Boom! Multiple offers. This is easy as I bragged about my prowess. I’ll accept the offers in the morning and collect my money. Ha! Suffice it to say all three were scams! Much of what had been thrown at me was well documented on Ebay-if I had studied it. Between calls, chats and emails I spent the better part of four hours navigating out of this mess. After taking a break, I came back and spent the next day and a half educating myself and making sure things were set up properly, especially a new PayPal account. I almost had my proverble ass handed to me my two different fraudsters. The third one just disappeared. So now I regroup, reeducate and relist. OK, this one was moderately humorous, although not at the time it was happening.

Here is the toughest one. I have two sons and they are both great kids (if being in their 30’s is considered a kid-mute point). They cause me very little heartburn, so when one goes off the rails you obviously do all you can to help. As the story evolves and more truths are made available, the more difficult for me it becomes. This has led to a extreme difference of opinion and sadly into a conflict with the other one over it. Even though only three people will likely read this post, it is a confidence that I cannot break, so pardon the vagueness of the storyline. The gist of my frustration is when I shared my thoughts about this in a personal and private email, my opinion was scrutinized and criticized. This came after a long talk the night before where I ranted and raved and he humored me by listening. This email was meant to show my progress in dealing with the issue and was labeled as such in the subject line. This is particularly painful because it comes from the son not in crisis who is judging my view from a viewpoint that doesn’t include the life experiences of being a father. He isn’t one so I find his judgement of that perspective sadly misguided. So here I sit, the ultimate damned if you do and damned if you don’t. And yes, I really don’t want to play today and if I could run away, I just might.