As many of you know, I made my way into the rank and file of our company, PADI, because of my in depth knowledge of scuba instruction. Yes, my passion for scuba diving vaulted me into one of the most recognized names in the scuba industry. Yes, me and Captain Cousteau, oh wait a minute, that is not right. Oh yeah, I came on board here at PADI because my dad co-founded the company. Ooopps, forgot.
Anyway, as part of my coming on board, it was my role to facilitate a Trust, put in place by my father. I bring this up as now Devin and I are having to deal with certain Trust issues and I find it amusing to use the word Trust as the name of the document. Think about it, the definition of the word trust is "a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something." The document in question, at least ours, is 54 pages long and describes almost every possible way to insure your wishes are followed. Of course your wishes are enforced, when necessary, by attorney's and judges.
In essence, you are saying you don't trust anybody, (kids, siblings, attorneys, accountants etc.) to do what you want them to do, so you write a trust to insure they do what you want, so you can trust things will be handled as you wish via a Trust. Kinda funny actually, because there is no word that is an antonym of Trust which is really what the document should be called. You have distrust or mistrust, but no really new word that is the exact opposite of trust to call the document in place.
Once again, it's scary inside this mind of mine. That tirade just got me off my latest puzzling question as I saw a beautiful table setting with gold knives, gold forks, gold spoons and yet it was called, (wait for it) SILVERWARE. What up with that?
He's So Bright We Call Him Sonny
We have more good news about Man Childs academic performance. We found out that Jack got 142 out of 150 on his English Final. This is incredible as Devin and Kristin worked with him on the rote memorization of about 6 months worth of vocabulary terms and other important stuff.
Earlier in the year they did "Romeo and Juliet", and were asked to understand the characters and the settings and the literature mechanics of the work. When the test was finally given the teacher thought it would be fun to ask questions about Shakespeare's birth place and the climatology of the English country side. Ok, why would a teacher do that?
The good news is we have proven (As Salvay of the Salvay Lewcrum animations so eloquently pointed out.), you can take a holiday the week before finals and enjoy a nice quality of life and still excel in academic achievements.
Yes we are very proud of Jack. A chip off the old block. I remember getting straight A's in high school and achieving all kinds of scholastic awards, no, wait a minute, no, oh yeah, that was Devin and my daughter Kristin.
My greatest high school accomplishment was running "The Shack", the school based student run snack shop. It was our senior business class project. We built, staffed, and merchandised "The Shack". It was hit, till The Man came in and shut us down with just a week of school left.
Less fortunate students were selling their lunch stamps to buy Snicker Bars, Swizzle Sticks, Dolly Madison Zingers, Pixy Sticks, Sweet Tarts, Dots and Candy Buttons to name a few.
Each business class student put in 10 dollars and we formed The Shack Company and I was elected President. One student needed their 10 dollars back and I saw how profitable The Shack was and offered to buy his 10 shares for 7 dollars. I cashed out of my shares for 90 dollars and change and got my only A in my senior year. Dad was proud until he found a garage full of candy.
So how was our return today? We will tell you in a minute.
In the late hours of the afternoon, my lady asked me if I wanted to go to dinner. Dah! I suggested a place called Hannas. Perhaps you have heard of it. I have been trying to behave with my diet and drinking so I was determined to stick to the three major food groups. Starches, Grains, and Fruit. In that endeavor, I started out with a Vodka Gimlet (potato vodka, BTW, did you know the Gimlet was named after a 1700 British Naval Surgeon who discovered that the British Sailors were suffering from a Vitamin C depletion called scurvy. He introduced limes to their diet and saved the British Naval force. Henceforth, the Brits have been referred to as Limeys.), then I went to single malt scotch utilizing malt as the next leg of my health triangle, and then finishing with a great Italian wine (Nebiollo Grape) as chosen by Sean Reynolds. Ah health food. I treat my body like a Costco.
Ok its late and I have ignored the market long enough.
