apologize

Sunday Poser — Hold’em or Fold’em

FandangoLeave a comment

For today’s Sunday Poser, Sadje wants to know…

When there is a tiff, are you the one to extend the olive branch or do you wait for the other side to make the first move?

I suppose my philosophy on this comes from Don Schlitz, the lyrics writer of the mega-hit song from Kenny Rogers, “The Gambler.”

You’ve got to know when to hold’em
Know when to fold’em

I try to weigh the consequences of my actions. What is the likelihood of the other person making the first move to apologize? What will happen if I wait and the other person stubbornly refuses, where does the relationship go from there? And is my being stubborn and refusing to budge worth the inevitable outcome?

Sometimes I’ll try to get by with a non-apology that may sound like an apology. “I’m sorry if I said (or did) something that offended (or upset) you.” That way, I’m apologizing that they were offended (or upset) by what I said (or did), not for having said it or done it.

Sometimes that works; sometimes it doesn’t.

But if the stakes are high enough, and the loss would be greater than the humiliation of having to apologize for something that I might feel doesn’t need an apology from me, I’ll “fold’em” and say that I’m sorry.

But there have been times when I will stubbornly “hold’em,” and gamble that doing so doesn’t come back to bite me on the ass.

And I will admit that when it comes to tiffs between me and Mrs. Fandango, I am more likely to fold’em than to hold’em.

Sunday Poser — Who’s Sorry Now

Fandango4 Comments

For today’s Sunday Poser, Sadje wants to know…

When you have a tiff, are you the one to make the first move and apologize?

Over the course of my 45-year marriage, I have embraced the old saying, “Happy Wife, Happy Life.” Thus, I have learned that when my wife and I have a tiff, even if I have said or done nothing wrong, which is the case most of the time, it behooves me to apologize for whatever I said or did to cause the tiff.

So, since I know that I’m going to be the one who ends up apologizing anyway, it’s better to do it sooner than later. Better that than to let it fester, right?

Photo credit: Bing Image Creator.

Apologize

Fandango5 Comments

“You look like shit, dude. Your eyes are red and your skin looks yellow and clammy. You are the very portrait of a drunk with a bad hangover,” Dan said when he met Dwight at the coffee shop.

“Red and yellow? Oh man, Dan, I’m in a real pickle,” Dwight said. “I got drunk last night and, of course, opened my mouth when I shouldn’t have.”

“What do you mean? What happened?”

“That’s just it,” Dwight said. “I must have said something dumb or irrational that got Barbara really upset or angry because she slapped me and ran out of the tavern in tears. I don’t remember what I said, but based upon the number of empty beer mugs on the table, I can guess it wasn’t good.

“You need to reach out to Barbara and apologize for whatever it is that you said,” Dan advised. “And then you need to stop drinking to excess if you aspire to keep her as your girlfriend.

Written for these daily prompts: My Vivid Blog (portrait), Ragtag Daily Prompt (red & yellow), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (pickle), The Daily Spur (mouth), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (irrational), Word of the Day Challenge (numbers), and Your Daily Word Prompt (aspire).

Please Bear With Me

FandangoLeave a comment

Dear friends,

4F6571AC-D5A4-4773-81D2-095330481DE3As of yesterday at around noon my time, my wife and I became the proud (?) owners of two homes — the one we are currently living in and the one we’re moving to in about two weeks.

Earlier today I was at our new house way out in the suburbs awaiting some tradespeople that I needed to meet with before we move in. While I was waiting for them to show up, I was looking out of my backdoor, which is actually an oversized sliding glass door, admiring the view. It was a clear morning, and, because our new house is situated near the top of a hill, I could see for miles. It’s quite a different view than we have from our home in the city, which is basically the side of the apartment building behind our house.

But I digress. We have about 10 days to get our belongings all packed up (i.e., our shit together) before the movers show up to empty our current place and move our stuff to the new place. And then, in about a month, after some painting, minor repairs that need attention, and staging, our existing house will be going on the market.

I’m hoping that it will sell within a few weeks and that we’ll close within 30 days of the sale, or about two-and-a-half to three months from now. I don’t relish the idea of paying insurance and utilities on two homes for much longer than that. But, as they say, what will be will be.

Finally, I want to apologize to those of you I follow. With all that’s on my plate right now, I haven’t had sufficient time to go through my reader and read many of your posts. Nor have I been as prolific as I usually am when it comes to publishing my own posts. I’m hoping that within a few weeks of the actual move, we’ll be settled in enough that I can resume reading and posting at my traditional superhuman pace. Until then, please bear with me.

Best regards,

Fandango

Written for Ragtag Daily Prompt (looking out of my back door), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (clear).

Thanks…and I’m Sorry

FandangoLeave a comment

4309368D-15B0-405C-B121-D38C03390913Last night at around 10:40 my time I did something pretty pathetic. I sent out an S.O.S., a call for help. I wrote a post literally begging for some “likes.”

I had just received a notification in my WordPress reader that I had set a new record of likes for one day. 199 likes. Was I happy about my new record number of likes? You’re darn tootin’ I was.

But then I got greedy. I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to hit 200 posts in one day? And so, figuring there was over an hour left in the day, I sent out my solicitous post asking for likes.

Well, it worked. When I woke up this morning and looked at yesterday’s stats, I had received ten additional likes, for a total of 209 for the day. Woo hoo!

So first, thank you for helping me surpass my goal of 200 likes in one day. And second, I apologize for my brazenly egocentric and manipulative tactics in a lamentable effort to jack up my stats. It’s inexcusable.

Now let’s go for 210!

I Stand Corrected

Fandango10 Comments

AA7BD683-988A-47C5-B659-8BDE8CF14FE6I sincerely and humbly apologize. I am guilty of having passed fake news on to all who read this post of mine yesterday.

In that post, I wrote that televangelist Jim Bakker claimed that the reason Donald Trump was in a hotel room all alone with Stormy Daniels was because he was sharing with her how Jesus Christ had changed his life and how Jesus could also save her from her sins as a porn star.

Last night, I was in bed and couldn’t stop thinking about that story and how it truly seemed to be beyond belief. Well, it turns out that it was, indeed, beyond belief. I went to the Snopes.com website and learned, much to my chagrin, that the story was a complete fabrication.

My source for that “news” that I posted about was an article in The Babylon Bee. I have since discovered that The Babylon Bee is a satirical evangelical Christian website that is known (although not by me) for its over-the-top fake stories about pastors, politicians, and celebrities.

And now I feel awful about having posted what turned out to be total bullshit.

I do hope that my credibility with you, my readers, hasn’t been completely destroyed and I am asking — no begging — for your forgiveness for having uncritically passed on what I should have recognized as satire.