BS: What would you change?

Subject: BS: What would you change?
From: Mickey191
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 08:50 PM

In our lives we make many decisions. Is there one standout decision that you wish you could change?


Here's mine: When my car first died I should have lit a candle-said a prayer-and dumped it. Instead, I've been spending big bucks to recessitate it. Bloody DUMB!! Last week I spent $225.00 plus $20.00 tip and it's deader then a doornail. Now the mechanic has not got a clue as to the problem.   

In the scheme of life-I know it's not really _that_ important, but I could spit nails.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 09:07 PM

I immediately thought, buy the house, rather than the apartment.

This was wya back in 1979, & I'd borrowed %6000 of the $10,000 deposit from my parents, & would have needed to borrow another $2000 cos the apartment was only $40,000 & the house was $42,000.

The apartment was perfect, & ready to move into as it had been renovated 12 months before, & the house had both toilet & bathroom (2 rooms) outside the back door, & I only had 1 months mortgage payment in the bank before my next pay in a fortnight when I would have enough for the next month's payment.

What I would really like to change is my (ongoing) extravagant spending, then I would have had enough to buy the house & renovate without borrowing from my parents!

It's that time of the year when we get our tax statements & I will once again look at total taken home & total in the bank, & wonder once again where it all went, even tho I have only worked 8 months in this tax year as I retired in February!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 09:17 PM

I can probably change a five....

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: kendall
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 09:28 PM

I would never marry the same woman twice.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 09:42 PM

I would change just about everything. That's why I'm planning to reincarnate and do it all differently next time...

If it's any comfort, Mickey191, I have spent far more than a measly $245 trying to get a dead car going again, but without success. $245? Ha! A mere scratch.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 10:13 PM

Uh, that one kid.....no, make that 2 kids for very different reasons. I'm sure I'll pay/atone for both someday.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: pdq
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 10:13 PM

I would never marry the same woman once.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Mickey191
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 10:37 PM

LH, I guess I didn't tell the tale correctly--I'm a wee bit light headed after today's news that the guy can't figure what the heck the new problem is.I just shouldn't have bought this bomb for $1600.00 -Another $200.00 a few months ago. I would have had 2 grand on a brand new car.


Old too soon-smart too late.Confucius-one smart dude!

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 11:43 PM

Well, here's a tale of woe for you...

I bought my first car, a Honda Civic, in 1974. It was a great car, and suited my needs to a "T". In it's 9th year, however, it began to get kind of dodgy, and just wasn't running right...and NO mechanic could figure out why! I had it in to one place...they replace a bunch of stuff for about $800. NO CHANGE in the car's problems. I went to a second place...they did more stuff for $500...NO CHANGE whatsoever in the basic problem, which was that it was running rough and stalling. The car wasn't even worth $800 to sell, but a guy I knew said he would buy it for $800, because he figured he could get it running right if he tinkered with it some...he was good at stuff like that.

I sold it to him for $800, sadly, because I really loved that car.

Well, he put that car in his garage and started tinkering with it over the weekend. It turned out that the carburetor was really dirty, so he took it all apart, cleaned it totally, reassembled it, replaced nothing...and the car ran perfectly!!!!

So those f**king repair places ripped me off for $1300 replacing all kinds of stuff that probably needed no replacing, because they were too lazy to just disassemble a carburetor and clean it (I guess...)...or maybe they figured that wasn't an expensive enough repair job to suit them. Who knows?

(sigh)

This is why it's handy to know how to fix your own car.

I sympathize with your problem. I had a (not very well) used car later that cost me a bundle, and I should have parted with it much sooner. It was a lemon. It's always a good thing to know when to abandon a sinking ship.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 12:02 AM

What would I change? I'd take the blue pill.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: JennyO
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 12:09 AM

There are some things that I would like to be different, but I don't see how I could have done things any differently with the knowledge I had at the time. So these are not really regrets. I don't really think that way most of the time. Regrets seem very negative and waste energy. On the other hand, like Little Hawk, I wouldn't mind another life so I can have another crack at it though!

I wish I owned property - any property. But that was not to be. In relation to cars, I kept the car before this car going long after it was economical to pour money into it. I was trying to get to the holidays at the end of the year before giving up and buying another one. I had good reasons at the time, but it turned out to be probably not the best choice. In the few months before it died, I spent a lot of money to keep it on the road that could have been much better put towards my present car.

I really like my car now - a Ford Fairmont - but it has cost me more money than I would have expected, for a variety of silly things, such as the power windows, the windscreen wiper motor, the central locking etc etc etc, but it runs like a dream, so I tend to forgive it those other things. One annoying thing that took a while to solve, was when it was running smoothly but 'hiccuping' while idling, and also hard to start. All sorts of things, such as the oxygen sensor and the map sensor (neither of which I had even heard of before) were replaced before discovering that the brand new coil which had only been replaced a few months earlier, was faulty. At the moment it's fine, and I don't regret the money I've spent on it. I think it's just the nature of cars - they are a money pit. If I could do without one I would, but for various reasons I need one. C'est la vie!

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Mickey191
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 12:11 AM

Ok LH--You win! That's a heck of a tale.

Bee-Dubya-ell, My blue pill puts me to sleep. Only tonight I don't have one-cause I can't get to the store-cause my car.......

What does your blue pill do?

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Ebbie
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 12:18 AM

A car? A house? A pill? Ya don't even know what regret is.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Mickey191
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 01:48 AM

Ebbie, I know full well-But I'm not speaking of the death of a beloved husband--such as I've suffered.

That can _Never_ be changed. Lighten up!

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 01:53 AM

I'd never change anything, and here is why

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Mickey191
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 02:51 AM

Very Good George--The Last Line - terrific. I couldn't figure why you wouldn't change some of the bad behavior, but if you did change one iota-the ending might have taken you elsewhere.

A friend told me once that on a Sunday Morning she suddenly changed a 10 yr. habit And went to a different church. She said it was a strange compulsion that changed her path. She dropped her handbag & the contents spilled out. A young man helped her gather the contents up. Fifty two yrs. later they're still together.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 03:55 AM

I'd have to change the school I went to. Single sex Grammar school (when England still had such things), curriculum firmly and immovably rooted in female orientated career choices - nurse, teacher, mother. It was also still firmly adhering to the thought that the world was forever going to be 1952. Punk was a shock of world shattering proportions. Sex equality meant nothing, despite the Sex Discrimination act being a year old when I started there; to suggest to any teacher that you wanted to follow a career path that was more traditionally male (say.. police officer), you were considered abnormal.

Although I've enjoyed several of my 'career choices' since leaving school, none would have been considered suitable by my careers mistress and none have been what I really wanted to be back then.

Of course, being told by your father at 14, that you were going to be the good little girl who stays at home with mummy and daddy did sort of put a crimp in any plans I might have had.

Yes... definately the secondary school I went to. I never fitted in, I never had the money for extra curricular activities, I was the only one in the class who couldn't go on the French exchange and I never had the incentive to work.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 04:27 AM

I'd change the time I was born in. I should have lived my life in one of the less reputable mediaeval monasteries. Is preincarnation possible, LH?

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: The PA
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 05:51 AM

I would not have hesitated and gone with my instincts - 33 years ago. Too late now.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: kendall
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 06:28 AM

I don't let anyone under my hood. (Bonnet)

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 06:33 AM

Like the words George!

Even before reading them I was reaching for anything that I would change - the sum of my experiences have formed the person that I am today and I am quite happy with that person and with the life that those experiences have led me to.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Mooh
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 06:55 AM

Well, there was that girl...what was I thinking? Geez!

I wouldn't change anything if it meant loosing what I've got now.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 07:59 AM

PMB - Yes, I think that what you term "pre-incarnation" probably is possible, perhaps not in the literal empirical sense of it...but what I mean is, I think the soul can incarnate in such an incredible number of time-realities and different places (not all of them on this planet or even in this whole time-space continuum that we are familiar with at the moment) that you could place yourself in any kind of society you are capable of imagining.

So, yeah...I think it's an option. Pretty cool, eh?

What do you figure life would be like in a less reputable medieval monastery?

Me, I'd like life in a simpler and more pastoral society than this one. With horses and sailing ships instead of engine-powered vehicles. I'd like travel to be slow enough so that you can appreciate every bird, bush, tree, and cloud along the way. And I'd like a world with no commercial advertising.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Bert
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 12:31 PM

Nice one Bee-Dubya-ell!!!

I hear you Squeaks. Those schools had a lot to learn.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Becca72
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 12:40 PM

I would have learned very young how to say "no thank you, I'm full".
Thanks mum.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: gnu
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 01:40 PM

Being better at making all the decisions I screwed up.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: HouseCat
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 01:42 PM

My education/career choices. I wouldn't have listened so much to my parents about my course of studies (If you study business, you'll always have a job. Music should be a hobby!) I would have loved to have been a working musician all my life. Less money, most likely, but perhaps more satisfied with myself at the end of the day. Not to say that I don't have a very good life, for I do have so much to be grateful for! There are just some things I would have done differently.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Midchuck
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 01:45 PM

I'd of really worked at music from an early age, so I could have made a living at it somehow.

F*** this lawyer s***.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Kim C
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 03:57 PM

I would have gotten on Prozac a lot sooner.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: frogprince
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 09:28 PM

"There's nothing I would change
For fear of missing out on meeting you."

That hits the nail on the head for me, personally, too. I went from high school to a fundamentalist Bible Institute. It was in many respects a total waste of three years of life. But I kept in touch with just one roommate from there, and his wife, over the coming years. Dropped in to visit them on vacation, and they introduced me to a strange young woman. We're up to 23 years of good hugs and squeezes. Go figure.
                      Dean

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Mickey191
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 10:10 PM

Dean, Happy for you-but would she be upset at use of "strange?"

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Peace
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 10:16 PM

"What would you change?"

I'd change the human sensory system so that we could see beyond the spectrum and hear beyond what we do at present.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:30 PM

LTS -- I think I went to the same school!!!! And KimC - if Prozac had been developed when I was a pre-teen, it might have made life just a tad easier -- gotta love that drug!

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: GUEST,Keinstein
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 04:06 AM

Why would you do that Peace? Whatever spectrum you choose, there's something outside it, and you quite soon get into fog beyond the ends of the visible spectrum - that's why it evolved where it did. Even bees and butterflies don't see that far into the UV. High frequency sound is only useful at short range (bats use it for homing in on insects), and low frequency would just make next door's heavy rock sound worse.

If you want extended senses, electical and magnetic field sensors would be much more life- enchanting.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: M.Ted
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 12:58 PM

Peace: I see and hear far too much already. As to the question "What would you change?" more important to think about "What will you change?"--

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 01:18 PM

I'd change my socks.

- Chongo

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Ythanside
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 02:01 PM

George, you nailed it. Great writing, BTW. Profound philosophy stated simply, and you can't beat that.

Ythanside

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 02:58 PM

Thanks, buddy. You're too kind.

- Chongo

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: kendall
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 07:49 AM

I tried Prozac, Zoloft, Paxel, St. John's Wort and one other to no avail. The price of those drugs made me depressed. All they did was kill my libido.

However, all is not lost. I discovered another way to deal with the "Feeling unnecessary" that I suffered for years. I found an almost perfect partner, and a hobby!

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: SharonA
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 02:26 AM

Living a life without regrets is a relative thing. When I was in college and beginning to "doubt my faith" (i.e. use reason to mentally extricate myself from the evangelical-Christian fanaticism in which my parents raised me), I had a conversation about it with the pastor of my family's church. At one point he said that at the end of his life, even if what he had believed in and had been preaching turned out not to be true, he would have no regrets about what he had done. Having heard this man say some really outlandish, prejudicial and uncharitable things from the pulpit over the years (and seeing my parents and others in the congregation regurgitate, and try to live by, that outlandishness), I found that comment of his to be the most bizarre of all.

There are few things more dangerous than a person who believes with all his heart, soul and mind that what he is doing is right -- and staying the course despite clear evidence to the contrary -- take George W Bush for example!

My own attitude toward "what-would-I-change" is paradoxical: I am always changing, and always staying the same. I am always seeking to improve myself, and I am always holding myself back. I wish I would have made different decisions in the past, and I realize that I didn't know any better before I learned lessons from having made those decisions. I know that if I had changed the direction of my life's path here and there, I would have met different people but I wouldn't have made the friends I've made on this path... and I wouldn't even have had the pets I adopted on this path! I have bad memories, and I have good memories. I have millions of regrets, and I have none.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you change?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 01 Jul 07 - 03:37 PM

Well most of the things I've done in my life have lead to great happiness if not wealth so maybe I wouldn't change too much.. With hindsight I wouldn't have spent all the insurance money when my husband died to have the house converted to help my mother. Don't get me wrong but sadly she died shortly afterwards and so the money could have been used elsewhere. Doubt if I'd do any different now though.