Seems as if everyone around us is running round with their hair on fire and scared to death about being �cancelled’

Well, Bucko let me assure you and set your little hearts at ease. you are not, repeat after me….you are not a stamp. You cannot be cancelled. You might be killed, you might die, you might be a lot of things, but rest assuredly you cannot be cancelled.

I can see those little wheels just turning like crazy in your head.

What does he mean?

Simple, for the most part, this is still a free country and we can say pretty much what we want, when we want and just have to live with the outcome.

For example, if you are silly enough to walk up to some 6’5” 300 lb. tatted up biker and say something vulgar about his or her mother…then you can fairly well expect the forthcoming results.

Having the freedom to speak is one thing, doing so with a sense of propriety and discretion is a different matter altogether.

You probably got away with sticking out your tongue at someone when you were 4 years old but I caution you not to do so when you are 40.  You may see different results altogether.

We all have said things in our past that we would like to take back if we could do so. Words spoken in anger or frustration about one thing or another. But once said, they are out there forever and ever and are difficult to correct, aren’t they?

I suppose it is a function of age that compels me to be more cautious of other folks’ feelings with what I say out loud. I know I have the right to express my thoughts, but do I want to do so at the risk of ruining or damaging a relationship, no matter what?

I notice that I tend to be more careful as the years go by.

What I will not correct is my opinion of someone who has performed a service for me.

I am hooked into several on-line apps that ask you what you think about say, a plumber or a fence guy or some restaurant.

Now, maybe it’s just me, but I tend to think that the value of any of these apps is to read and take heed of the various opinions any of us that live in our neighborhood might have and want to share.

So, the other day, a lady was complaining about some dude that charged her %500 for a down payment on her fence and was supposed to get back to her with the materials and install a new one.

This guy took her money and left and she has not been able to talk to him or get him to respond.

Now we got many different suggestions from about 40 people.

These ranged from filing a police report to taking the guy to small claims court.

My response was to suck it up and forget it and learn from the lesson. First off the police departments are not going to be very responsive and waste their time and resources on something this size. Trust me, I know this from experience.

Secondly filing a claim in small claims court generally involves a fee of $100 -$300 to get it filed.

So, the guy is a thief and has no money and the police won’t do anything, so does it make any sense to pour more money down a rat hole? Not in my opinion.

We have all been scammed at least once like this, you learn to pay after the work is done, not before and you have some contract or identification to know who you are dealing with if you should need it. This lady had none of this.

So, I went on the blog and posted my thoughts about what kind of a person does this kind of stuff.

I figure I have the freedom to express my opinion.

Apparently not.

I was severely rebuked by a number of folks who thought I was rather �harsh’ in calling this person a thief.

Apparently, I was supposed to be kind and think that he may have had one of the following happen to him:

1. Delay due to an accident
2. Lost his cell phone
3. Mother died
4. Aunt died
5. In the hospital
6. Wife left him
7. Personal emergency
8. Gone on Vacation
9. Trying to help others in more serious need

Since I was not aware of any circumstances that may have caused this individual not to be located or to continue the work or to respond to efforts to contact him, then I may be guilty of misjudging him and should modify my response. So, I was asked to do.

To which I clearly responded “I don’t think so.”

A thief is a thief in my book not any other word can be used to describe what he has done. I am glad I am old enough to still speak my mind.

Tune in next week for more exiting comments and pithy thoughts.

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