Living in Contra Costa County

I am always being bombarded with "Free Offers."  No doubt as real estate professionals you are too.  In fact we get hit with the stuff in all walks of life.  Well Free stuff is costing me a fortune!  In fact the surest way to turn me off is tell me you are offering something for FREE! 

What has set the curmudgeon off in me this time?  Well my 7 and 6 year old got free tickets for Six Flags Wild Kingdom and admittedly they sent two along for the parents.  But I got a family of 8, the two younger ones are free to get in but I still need to feed the 2 year old.  I had hoped (very unrealistically) the older ones would not want to go as they have been before.  But I could not say no to the sad pleading faces; so two more tickets to buy. 

My wife is now on line looking at Meal Packages and parking.  My wallet is begining to scream.  I am figuring by the time all is said and done this day trip is going to cost me between $150.00 to $200.00.  Part of my pain may be the thought of hanging out with 6 kids at an amusement park all day on a Sunday in August.

I think I would have felt much better about the situation if someone had offered me a deal up front all expenses included for the family of 8 at $200.00 for the day.  I would be paying the same thing, but somehow would feel better about it. 

People like certainty, they do not like to feel like they are being nickled and dimed.  There is no Free Lunch or Free Drinks in Vegas.

A few years ago my brother Earl flew down to Alabama to go hunting.   When he got there he needed a dog and went to rent one.  The guy running the kennel said he could rent him a dog named Lawyer for $200.00.  Well my brother thought that was kind of pricey, but the kennel owner assured him Lawyer would do a good job.

Well Lawyer was a great hunting dog, helping him spot all the ducks and running them down for him. 

The next year Earl flew down again and wanted to rent Lawyer, but Lawyer now cost $500.00.  Earl thought this was outrageous.  But the kennel owner pointed out what a good job Lawyer does and told him Lawyer was in demand.  So Earl paid the fee and sure enough Lawyer did a great job.

This year Earl Flew down and went to rent Lawyer.  The kennel owner told him he could have Lawyer, that the dog was now useless.  Earl wanted to know what happened to Lawyer.  The kennel owner explained that someone had rented Lawyer, but forgot his name.  He started calling him Judge and now all that Lawyer does is sit around and bark.

If you want an Broker and a REALTOR® that does more than set around and bark please give me a call.

My Family likes to play board games.  I grew up playing a number of board games.  My personal favorites are complex military strategy games.  I am not talking computer games or video games; I mean game boards and dice.  However, with marriage, family, and a decrease in time my games have become more family oriented.

One of your Favorite Family Games is Settlers of Catan.  Settlers is a fun game, certainly no more complex than Monopoly, but with a lot more strategy, options, flexibility, and fun.  Settlers was designed for 3-4 players, but expansions will accommodate up to 6 people. 

It is an award winning game with over 15,000,000 copies in print and in 30 some languages.

The premise of the game is hexagon tiles that represent different resources (Wood, Wool, Grain, Brick and Ore).  The tiles are put together randomly to get a different playing surface every time.  You build settlements and cities on the intersections of the hexes with roads running on the sides of the hexes.  A number is assigned to each hex.  Every turn if a number is rolled on hex with your settlement or city you get resources to build more settlements, cities, roads, and other things.  You can also trade resources with other players.

That is the basics, but you really need to see the game.  Unlike Monoply as you get familiar with the game you can buy supplements to expand the rules, opitons and fun; including Seafares of Catan and Knights and Cities of Catan. 

There are also a number of off shoot games, using the same basic system but separate stand alone games with a specific focus and some modification of the game.  They include Starfarers of Catan, Struggle for Rome, Settlers of Canaan, Travel Editions, Dice Editions, Card Game Editions, and many others.

Don't get overwhelmed.  We simply started with a Basic Settlers game and added stuff for fun as we went along at birthdays and Christmas. 

We buy our Settler's stuff at Black Diamond Games in Concord California, an excellent game store.  I am heading over to Black Diamond Games today to pick up the new game Settlers of America: Trails to Rails.

It has been said, "Dad is a lot smarter now that I am 30 than when I was 15."  We all know that it was not dad that got smarter.  Here is a list of five things kids should understand about life.

1. Education might make you smarter about some things, but it is no substitute for experience and will not make you wiser.
   
   
2. Poverty does not cause crime, but crime will cause poverty.
   
   
3. Things will not go as you plan in life - Plan on it!
   
   
4. You can spend a life time earning a Good Reputation, but blow it all in five minutes.
   
   
5. Stop whining about what you do not have to do what you want.  Figure out what you can do with what you have.  You will be surprised about how creative you can be and how little you really needed to begin with. 
   

I am sure there are many others.  Just a few things that have been on my mind.

Put Curt Flood in The Hall of Fame

Yesterday I read an article about Curt Flood in the Contra Costa Times by Carl Steward and it was very enlightening.

Curt Flood gave up what could have been a Hall of Fame career to challenge baseballs reserve clause.  The reserve clause tied ball players and the rights to that player to one team.  It was a virtual slavery.

Now I know many of us think ball players are over paid, and you may be right, but at the time they were not.  Furthermore, if you think they are overpaid you have a right not to go to the games and not to support them.  I honestly rarely go to major league games and spend my time watching the Class A Stockton Ports.  But this is for another day.

Curt Flood was a champion of freedom and it goes beyond baseball.  He stood up for people to ask for what they are worth in the open market place.  I think that applies to real estate agents as well as people in a number of professions. 

Curt Flood left baseball as a player before he could achieve stats that would have put him in the Hall of Fame as a player.  There is no category in Hall of Fame voting for him in management, broadcasting or other areas, but he was a baseball pioneer and some one to be admired. 

There is a Facebook Group lobbying to get Curt Flood in the Hall of Fame and give him his due.  Link here and join:

Put Curt Flood in The Hall of Fame!

Please join this group.  They have 2,420 members right now.  Let's overwhelm them with Active Rain Support.

Please Pass it on.

This is a cheap post as I am simply going to link This Article in the American Spectator on the American Ruling Class and the disconnect many of us feel.

Rush discussed this extensively on his show today.  Although a long article and not for the faint of heart is summarizes many of the issues we face and the challenge of bringing America back to the basis of the Constitution.   

Census Says I cannot be an American!

When I completed my census card I was confused on the entire race issue and left it blank.  As I expected I got a call from the census.  The main reason they were calling is I have 6 kids and there had not been space for all of them on the form.  They also asked me what Race we are.

I was concerned about this question as the only Constitutional Reason to ask a persons race was to marginalize people as 3/5's of a person.  Fortunately amendments to the Constitution made this irrelevant.  When I was told I had to answer this question I answered "American."  I was told this is unacceptable and "American" is not a race.

I was confused by this as my family background is basically a mutt (I should have asked if I could put Mutt.)  There are many definitions of race and Webster has one of them as, "a class or kind of people unified by shared interest, habits, or characteristics."  I thought that was the best definition and certainly described me as an "American."  Some others dealt with ancestral background and interbreeding within a group.  Well in this country there is certainly a lot of interbreeding (vs being inbreed). 

I asked what was allowed under the "other" catagorey and he said other groups that may have been left out.  I asked for an example, hoping he could help me figure out what I am.  He could not tell me.  I asked him why the had the catagorey then, and he could not tell me.

Finally he put me down as refusing to answer, but I did answer, he just did not like my answer.

No pictures and No names (at least not many) for this post.  I do not know the names of all the people involved.  It is a great and sad story.

My 11 year old son plays in the Majors for the Continental Little League in Walnut Creek California on the Diamond Backs.  He is a good player and plays first base and outfield.  The best player on his team (and maybe in the league plays 1st ahead of him.) when that player pitches (as he is also the ace) my son plays 1st.

Today the number 2 pitcher on the team went through 17 straight batters.  In Little League the games go 6 innings and 18 batters is a perfect game. A perfect game and any level of baseball is an amazing accomplishment.

The last batter on the other team came up (The Cardinals) and his name is Chris.  Chris is not the best player, but not the worst either.  He is scrappy and loves baseball.  He started in left field today and played the entire game there.  He also batted 9th.  Chris backed up my son who started at 1st on the Fall Ball team and I had watched him there.

In Chris's first at bat today he hit a sharp one back to the pitcher for a ground out, which was more than most people were doing.

As Chris came to bat today I was on my feet with a few others.  Some did not realize what was going on and I explained to them.  Some knew it was a no hitter, but did not know that we were on the verge of a perfect game.  To add more drama to the situation there was an issue with the pitch count and how much longer the pitcher could stay in the game (I think he only had 11 pitches left for the game.  This rule has changed some and I am not sure of all the details and how it would have played out).  

Chris hit a dribbler between 1st and the second basemen.  The pitcher might have been able to get it or the second baseman, they both moved to it, but so did the 1st basemen who got it and stumbled.  He may have been able to get up and run it over and get the out still,but he tossed it to the second basemen who went to cover first.  The toss was low and bobbled.  Chris tripped on first and got the wind knocked out of him, but was safe. 

The perfect game was lost.  The coaches took a time out and got the kids focused.  The next better flew out and the pitcher got a no-hitter.

I shook the pitchers hand after-wards and told him it was one of the finest games I had ever seen pitched.  I am 49 and have only seen one other no-hitter.  Nolan Ryan vs the Oakland A's.  I told him this, he is in good company. 

The pitcher did not seem happy and the first basemen seemed upset too.  It is a sad thing.  However, they are young men and will accomplish many great things yet in life.  There are old men whose only accomplishments in life that they talk about are what the achieved in Little League or high school, that is sadder. Failure at any age is something that can be built upon and turned into achievement, but especially at a young age.  It is also sad that what should be a great thing (a no hitter) will be overshadowed by what it could have been.

I am thankful for 2 things:

1. I am happy for Chris.  He will probably never play ball at the same level as the pitcher today or the first basemen on my son's team, but he accomplished something great for his team.  I hope they gave him the game ball.
   
   
2. My son was not playing 1st base when this happened.

Do We Need More Football? 

We have the NFL rolling and it is a very exciting season so far.  College Football has it's great games.  The High Schools and Youth Leagues are out in force.  But maybe you haven't had enough!  Perhaps there is one or two nights a week you have no Football to watch!

Well the United Football League (UFL) it rolling out on October 8th.  The United Football League has four team for it's first season and will play a game a week with a championship game over Thanksgiving Weekend (When there are not enough quality pro and college games). 

You can catch the exciting action on Versus or HDNet.  Most games will be on Wednesday and Friday Nights, although it seems the opener is on Thursday.

Photo by Ron Almog on Flickr

Each Team is tied to 2 Divisions in the NFL (although I am unaware of a formal connection or arrangement) to pick up cut players and such.  There is speculation the United Football League will expand to 8 teams next season and be ready to fill the gap if there is a strike or lock out in the NFL.

Our local San Francisco Bay Area Team is the California Redwood which will be playing in AT&T Park in San Francisco.  Other teams include the Florida Tuskers, Las Vegas Locomotive, and the New York Sentinels.  Some games will be played in neutral stadiums around the country.

Will you be watching?  I will!

I hate the phrase "Teachable Moment" and I even hated it before Barak Obama uttered it in regards to the incidents in Cambridge recently.  I hate it when a Little League coach runs across the field shouting, "Teachable Moment, Teachable Moment."  And yes I really did see that last one.

I am not against learning from ones mistakes, and it is even better if we can learn from others mistakes (usually cheaper too).  Maybe it is because it sounds so touchy, feelly, New Age?  Or maybe it is because it takes out the responsibility of the "Mistake."  I realize when dealing with conflict (I also shudder at the expression "Conflict Resolution" but that is for another day.  Some might say World War II was Conflict Resolution in Action.) either as a mediator/judge/umpire or as one of the parties is sometimes only inflames the issue to point fingers.  On the other hand you must also find a way to call it as it is, and you must also try to see both sides.  Failure to call a Mistake a Mistake sometimes keeps people from really getting the point and actually learning from it. 

Are kids so fragile that we should quit using the term "error" in baseball.  Mistake does not necessarily imply a moral wrong.  In fact when people have a moral wrong they often call it a "Mistake" because that is a step down on the social afront meter from other terms that could be used.  Mistake is an honest error in judgment or failure to correctly do something.  It implies a lapse in judgment.  In baseball this could be throwing to the wrong base, moving in the wrong direction, not getting the met down fast enough; none of these are moral lapse, but they are mistakes.

I have made mistakes in investments, my career, and as a parent; that did not represent a moral lapse.  We all have moral lapses too, but they are more than mistakes.  Teachable Moment removes the "Mistake" and responsibility.  We need to take responsibility for our mistakes.  When we begin to take responsibility for our mistakes we are less likely to repeat them.  A Teachable Moment is for everyone and everyone can learn from someone elses Mistake, but when you make a Mistake you need to take responsibility for it.  If you make a Teachable Moment it almost sounds like you should be rewarded.

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