Adulting Anxieties: Trading Cars

For me, the two things about being an adult that I painfully dread are buying/selling a house and trading cars.  I have rarely had good experiences with either.  When the time comes my anxiety is extremely high.  I wish someone could just put me to sleep and when I wake up it is all done.  

Recently, we have come to the place where we needed to decide about our automobile.  The manufacturer warranty is going to run out soon and any future repairs would be costly.  We decided to trade.  

I can never understand why it takes so long to get this process done.  It has always been where the salesman gives the estimate but then when you go to the finance person, the price zooms out of the range you were expecting.  Adding this and adding that and a lot of things you really don’t need but you feel like you have to have.  It’s crazy.

Once the salesman asked what payments I was wanting.  Later, the payment turned out to be far out of range that I could afford.  I told the salesman that it wasn’t anywhere near any ballpark.  I learned early on that they can deceive you.  I will be fair and not lump all cars sales people in the same boat but I have encountered many.  I just don’t like the whole process.  I have spent an entire day in a dealership which is totally ridiculous.  

In my world, I would go to the dealership and pick out a car and test drive it, if I liked it then I would go to a kiosk and select what I wanted and enter all of my information.  (Each car could be assigned to a salesman so I wouldn’t want to cut them out.)   Then just sign everything electronically and leave with the car.  None of this waiting for the next person to do something.  In this day of the technology that we have, there is no reason this couldn’t be done.  

Again, I’m not saying ALL car salesman or finance people are bad.  I’m mostly saying the process could be improved.  

We will talk about buying/selling a house in another blog.  

 

When You Get Knocked Down

I often post blogs which are transparent at times with my relationship with God. Well, today wasn’t one of my best days. My so-called Christian example went out the window. I’m not feeling real Christian-like right now.

Today I lost my temper. Yep, this shinning example of a Christian was anything but that today. My anger was justified but I failed miserably in the way I handled it. I had been better with handling similar issues and finding a way to bring peace and deescalate situations but I spiraled out of control today.

Right now I’m feeling pretty bad about it. Today I failed. I’m not anyone’s example. I could have done better.

I don’t know how to fix what happened today. I will just wake up in the morning and try to make it a better day. When you have disappointed yourself, you have to take the loss and regroup. I will be honest that it’s hard to regroup or be my own cheerleader right now.

It’s not important to share details about what happened. I don’t want to rehash it - although I have already done it hundreds of times in my mind. I wish I had a redo. I’m not sure that will happen. It’s funny how things can get out of control so fast. Hopefully I can learn from this and get back on track. Honestly, it may take me a while.

I have no Bible verses to quote right now or any clever sayings I found on the Internet. This is real life folks. We all screw up sometimes. Being a Christian doesn’t make you perfect. I’m sure this is why God has never used me in any official ministry because I’m not one of those “special Christians” who can speak in tongues all the time and have visitations from God on a regular basis. I’m not an apostle. I’m simply me. I fail sometimes and sometimes I screw it up big time. I’m just being real. It makes you wonder if God can really use you.

I know I will have better days and I will have days that I get it right but it is days like today that you feel like any good you have done was wiped out with one heated moment of emotions. I’m human. That’s not an excuse but it is honest. As much as some would like you to believe you can just float around in this world like the Holy Ghost, we are still flawed humans.

Today I got knocked down but I will get back up.

Georgia High School Football: My 50th Season of Rivalry Games

This year is my 50th season of following Georgia High School football.  Today I look back to the rivalry games I have witnessed.

The very first rivalry game I attended with in the Charlton County-Clinch County series.  In 1975, I attended the Region 2-B Championship game at Waycross Memorial Stadium.  It was Clinch County's first playoff game in their history.   I was living in Charlton County at the time and attending Bethune Middle School.  My dad had played football and graduated from Clinch County.  They let me sit on the Charlton County side in that game.   The Indians won a hard-fought 6-0 game for the region title.

This rivalry has been called "The Swamp War" over the years.  The series is currently tied 31-31-1 when the two teams meet on October 4th in Homerville.

The second rivalry series I encountered was the Villa Rica-Carrollton when I attended high school in Villa Rica from 1977-1980.  These two teams are in Carroll County and pretty much a lopsided rivalry with Carrollton leading the all-time series 47-5-7.  The last time Villa Rica won a game in this series was 9-7 in 1998.  Carrollton won the last meeting 50-0 in 2023.  The two teams do not play this season.  Incidentally, the last game I played in as a player was a spring game with the B-team in 1980.

The most intense rivalry I have witnessed has been the Warner Robins-Northside game.  It was like no other I had attended before.  I had never seen as many people attend a high school football game as I had seen in my first experience in 1985.  

Warner Robins came from behind to tie the game on a touchdown run by Lane Maddox with 47 seconds. Maddox completed a pass on fourth-and-10 earlier on the drive, and the Demons controlled overtime. Lester Efford scored the game-winner in overtime with a 17-yard touchdown with 1:01 left in the second overtime. Northside went for a gadget play for the second straight year, but a hook-and-lateral came up short, and Ben Smith recovered the fumble.  In the 1989 game, Warner Robins entered the game as USA Today's top-ranked team in the nation.  Northside scored early in the first quarter on a touchdown catch by Jo Shuttlesworth.  With a minute left in the game, Warner Robins quarterback Eric McDowell connected with Chad Bowen from 22 yards out, but the extra point was missed.  

In my last time attending the rivalry game, it was the most improbable comeback in series history, Warner Robins came back from a 20-0 deficit in the fourth quarter.  On fourth-and-7, quarterback Maurice Dudley found running back Jonathan Jackson for a 47-yard touchdown pass with two minutes to play for a 21-20 win.

This series once was called the "city championship" until Houston County and Veterans opened.  It also used to determine the region champion and a few times both teams were undefeated going into the game.

Warner Robins leads the all-time series 41-25.  Warner Robins has won the last seven games in the series including a 39-35 thriller in last year's game.  Northside's last win was 55-3 in 2016.  The two teams renew their rivalry tonight.

Rivalry games have been some of my most memorable moments in following Georgia High School football.