My first blog post, and I vow to keep it going for at least my family if no one else.
I'm approaching the big Five-O in a few months and I guess knowing I'm probably more than halfway there, I want to leave some recollections of my past and how I feel about the future that might have a profound effect on at least one person in the world.
Most of my blog topics will be on my life experience in general, but I'll start with home, family, work, marriage, child rearing, invention, and an occasional rant. BTW... I'm not a psychologist, I'm an computer scientist and I think digitally sometimes but bear with me and I think you'll find humor and interest.
As we get older we get better at making decisions, but have you ever thought about how we obtain that ability? First and easy way is to first hand make a mistake. But that leads to another question. What's a mistake? A mistake is something that we feel shouldn't have been done or committed for some reason. So how do we know how to judge whether it was a mistake or not? Sometimes mistakes turn out to be the best things that ever happened to you, and sometimes they're a disaster.
Have you ever bought a Time Share?
We have a friend that just goes to hear the Time Share pitch and pickup free vacations (free?) and has a great time. No strings attached, just a little time lost. My family hadn't been on a vacation in a while and vacations are tough for a family of five, so my wife and I thought we'd try it. We went to this nice place that decorated really nice and were taken away to a room with thirty or more couples, each sitting with a sales person. Wow, what a culture shock. Then the hard sell hit, but we hung in there telling them that we were not interested. We're thinking, can we have our free cruise and go now? Next came the "big guns", that offered us a deal! A timeshare week plus occasional stays for less than some used cars cost. And you get a Deed that can be willed to you children. So, after 3 hours we ended up with a cruise, a Bahamas vacation with airfare, a stay in Hawaii, and a lifetime ownership of one week in a timeshare virtually usable anywhere in the world for $$$$.
Is it a mistake? I'm not sure yet, but I do know that we made mistakes during the process of dealing with the timeshare salespeople. The time share itself provides nice locations with nice amenities at places we can go on vacation yearly or more. We can even pass it to our kids when we die. The facilities are fair, not great. Reservations are a hassle. There are hidden costs like maintenance fees. Pet fees. People smoke in them. Then the sales guys come back and sell you upgrades. And to top it off, the free cruises and trips are bogus.
Would I do it again, knowing what I know today? Sure. But I won't pay as much. I'd buy it from others who already own them, or even on eBay. My lesson learned was to research a financial transaction like this prior to going through the ordeal. There are numerous forums for people to specifically ask questions about timeshares and other topics that can save you a bundle. Oh...if the sales guy is wearing a plaid suit and is missing teeth, that's a hint things are not right.
Look for my second blog entry will be about UNDO.
