If you have the power to control stuff, people or whatever, would you be grateful for your power, or would you abuse your privilege?
Two things happened this week that I would like to talk about. One to Doris and I personally, and the other to a famous person. Bill Belichick. Let's talk about him first.
Like many people, when the news of him not getting voted into the football Hall of Fame, I was shocked, just as many others were, because even if you don't like him, he does deserve to be in Canton. As he was also, like when he asked the rhetorical question to an associate, "Six Super Bowls wasn't enough".
A lot of people were outraged because apparently 10 or 11 out of 50 voters, voted against him. Was it "spy gate", "deflate gate" or just his lovely persona to the press. Turns out one writer/voter came up with an explanation that it was about the number of votes allotted in the final round. It appears when it comes down to picking a final three out of five, that he went with somebody that was on his last chance, while the GOAT, will be up again next year.
Funny thing about this article which I read on Thursday, is that on Wednesday, Gary Meyers, sports writer, had the same explanation. Although, he quickly pointed out he voted for Bill to get in.
So, in my eyes, in this case the power wasn't abused to beat on a guy that spent his coaching career beating others. It was to give another nominee, in this case a Senior, on his last opportunity to make the coveted HOF, get in.
Now to us. We were told, rules are rules and they cannot be broken, by a a person in charge of maintaining those rules. We are renting in a development in Naples, Florida again. This time we are in an area called East Naples. Which actually means we are very far away from places we normally frequented in the past. We now have to get the lay of land in Marco Island, which appears to very nice.
We started an online application process back in December and I say that, because we originally applied by hard copy in November, but it was rejected. We were informed it needed to completed 30 days prior to arrival, online, and the online app is through a third party.
We did what we thought was correct, hey we are Seniors, and I'm not looking to get into the HOF, just the pool. So, every morning, since the beginning of January, Doris and I would get a text message saying our application was pending. This went on until about January 11th or 12th. Now, keep in mind, we called this outsource company to see if they could tell us what was wrong. Basically, they said, "nothing's wrong, It's pending and you need to wait".
Then one morning, Doris sees a line that we needed to add the address, which is ridiculous, because the people at the complex knew where we would be staying. Then, almost immediately, we got the approval.
You are probably thinking, "if you could read, you wouldn't be having this issue". You'd be right, but hey, it was a oversight. I'm thinking, shouldn't somebody be saying, you need to look at the application again?
Then we noticed on our approval that it was starting on February 14th. But, look, the car is packed, it's cold and we just want to get there. I'm sure we can talk to them.
Boy, were we wrong. The power to be went as far telling us, we not only have to wait until the 14th, but since it's a Saturday and Monday is a holiday, we will have to wait until the 17th, until I can dip my toe in the pool or pump some iron in the gym.
Look, we're upset, and I wish they would reconsider, but right now I need to be like Rocky when he went to Russia to fight Drago. Exercise in nature!
In business for thirty some years, we also had rules. We were also aware that there needed to have some flexibility to rules.
John A Sutich
