I joined a football pool this year and I can't believe how much more interested I am in the games, or at least their outcomes. I anted up a few bucks and that has made all of the difference. It's not like there's a lot of money on the line, certainly no one is getting rich on the weekly prize. The actual odds of winning any of the cash are so high that I probably shouldn't count on using that money to pay for fixing my brother's boat. You may remember that I recently wrote about the vicious whale that attacked the boat and it was only through the courageous actions of her captain, yours truly, that all hands were saved from a Titantic-like fate. No? You don't remember? OK, so it may not have happened actually like that. Some of it is true though - I was using my brother's boat, it was on the mighty North Atlantic, and the rock that the propeller hit did very much resemble a whale. It's funny that when I told my other brother, Gord, what I did to Bill's boat he said he wasn't surprised. He told me that "they" had bets on when I was going to do something like that. I wish he had told that to me earlier so I could have gotten in on the action.
It appears that my family has developed quite an interest in betting on what I'm going to do, or not do, next. I guess it's a tribute to my somewhat erratic behaviour of late. Lynda has even taken to calling me a ping-pong ball. I prefer to consider myself as charmingly creative and imaginative. The opportunities available to me seem endless. I'm like a big kid in the candy store of life.
I wrote in my last story, which was four days ago, that I would not be a hockey coach this season. Well, since hitting the publish button on that one I wasn't coaching, I was coaching, I wasn't coaching...and now.... I am coaching. I also mentioned in that post that I am looking for a job and that I had "an iron in the fire". I agree that I was somewhat wishy-washy on deciding whether or not to coach and that was for something I love doing. So you can only imagine what's going through my head on whether or not to continue to pursue a part time position that pays just above the minimum wage. Or can you? If I'm a ping-pong ball then I'm the one being practiced with by the unconquerable Forest Gump in the movie of the same name. Brother Bill told me this morning that he has a pool going on how long I will last in that job. Geez! I don't even have the job yet and already the vultures are swooping over my corpse.
I know how to turn the tables on my family of Doubting Thomases. I will break open my piggy bank and bet it all on me staying in that job for the next ten years. Surely the odds will be so against that happening that I'll make a fortune when the time comes to collect. After all, as I wrote in the first paragraph, betting on something makes it more interesting. Maybe that will be in my favour as I try to plug in ten years at something I just may not be too passionate about. Hmmmm.....I wonder what odds Bill is giving on me not even taking the job? That's where the smart money will be.
Lynda is not a fan of being a character in any of my stories. As she is undeniably the most important influence in my life, it is hard not to include her in some fashion. I would argue that most times she is responsible for getting herself included. Her description of me as being a ping-pong ball was the inspiration for today's story. To honour her, I will conclude with a few, very fitting, quotes from Forest Gump:
- "My momma always said, Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."
- "I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floatin' around accidental-like on a breeze. But I, I think maybe it's both."
- "That's all I have to say about that."
