A Griffith Listing

Real Estate Services by Jon Griffith

You are here: Home / Archives for opportunity

She’s Not Homeless

by

She was still groggy.  I saw her shift into the kitchen, listlessly.  The faucet quickly supplied what sounded like a very small glass of water.  The cats outnumber the dogs under this house.  I sat near what appeared to be the cat room looking in at the hissing occupants as they assumed I was there to scrap, yet all I wanted was for her to let me in so I could play too.  She keeps feeding me, but I have never managed to make it inside the house.  She slips out quickly and closes the door behind her, and that’s when I usually miss my opportunity.  One of these days she’ll get herself locked out of the house.  I hope it’s today.

As I hastily consumed the veritable smorgasbord of kibbles and bits that I had been offered, as I was every day this strange creature existed here, I noticed the panic on her face, and the lack of pants.  Trust me, even though I’m menacing and appear large as I perch on people’s window sills, I am adept, agile, and very, very intelligent.  I laughed inside.  It was a purrfect moment.  I had wished that she would lock herself out for not allowing me in, and she did.  HA! HA!

Scamper scamper…

[Note: Cats don’t usually stick around long enough to divulge all of the information.  See her perspective here if you’d like to know the rest of the story.]

We Aren’t Supposed to Be Broken

by

The bottom line?  Broken relationships hurt.

We Aren’t Supposed to be Broken

I had a Honda Civic years ago, and with Honda’s being one of the world’s most reliable cars, I thought that there would never be a problem with it.  I loved how it sat low to the ground, had a fast engine, and a great sound system, and I loved how reliable it was.  It never broke down and I depended on it every day to carry me there and back.  It never even showed signs of breaking, then one day, it broke.  I never saw it coming.

Grinding the Axle

I have been entrepreneurial most of my life.  In high school I sold candy before class that I had purchase from Revco.  It was very profitable.  Every day I would turn 10 suckers for $1.00 into $2.25.  Not bad.  Not long after that, I purchased a Honda Spree scooter that was pretty beat up for $75.00 and sold it for $300.00 after cleaning it up.  Then, I caught wind of a go-cart that was for sale.  I had always wanted one and this was a perfect opportunity.  $100.00 later, I had a functioning go-cart.  At least that’s what I thought.

I was delivering newspaper at the time on a bicycle, and I saw the go-cart as an opportunity to be on the cutting edge.  I wasn’t thinking I would be re-selling it, I was thinking about using it as a business asset.  And I did.  With minimal expense, I had the mini-car up and running as my primary paper delivery vehicle.  Never mind how dangerous or illegal it was.  What I didn’t know, was that the left rear wheel, which was nothing more than the type of wheel you see on a Home Depot hand cart, was engineered to require two separate bearings, one on each side of the wheel’s hub.  Bearings allow the wheel to spin freely while keeping the axle centered so the wheel doesn’t wobble.  I only had one bearing, and the inside hub, unbeknownst to me, was rubbing the axle.  My go-cart, with which I had a great relationship, was slowly failing over time, and I had no idea it was happening.  The wheel was grinding away the axle, which wasn’t a replaceable part.  Eventually the wheel fell off and the go-cart was broken, as was my relationship with it.

Wear and tear will do that to a car, or go-kart, and it will also do that to a relationship, especially when we fail to pay attention our own personal maintenance needs.  In many cases, maintenance works, but what if there are deeper problems that we don’t even know exist?  What if the problems that are causing the grinding are so damaging, that they permanently render the relationship broken?

Building on Sand

Building a relationship with someone requires certain tools and materials.  When we start building a house without a foundation, with the wrong tools and the wrong materials, it falls over, and we have to start over again…repeatedly.  Until we lay a foundation that can withstand the forces that move against a structure under that structure, it will continue to fall.  Even if we build the house out of bent and broken material, if we assemble it in a meaningful and secure way, no matter what happens, the foundation will remain in tact to catch the pieces if they happen to crumble at times.  All of us have a store of bent 2×4’s in our lives; past relationships that didn’t work very well, marriages that caved under the pressure, abuse, death in the family, addictions, you name it, we have them.  That bent material contributes to the path that we travel on every day.

Previously Lost Evidence Found in Hudson River Crash

by

[ad name=”ad-5″]

oceanichudson3

NEW YORK – Investigators have uncovered unbelievable new evidence in the recent flight incident in the Hudson River. Previously thought to have been downed by a flock of birds shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia, what officials had originally identified as US Airways Flight 1549 was in fact not involved in a mid-air collision with birds and was also discovered not actually to be a US Airways aircraft. Flight 1549’s current whereabouts are unknown, causing concern for the families and oceanichudson2friends of the passengers aboard. In the early morning hours of Saturday, January 17th, as divers were retrieving the black box, a flight recorder installed in all commercial aircraft, an unprecedented discovery was made outside of the cabin as the pilot of a rescue Zodiak noticed a tear in the US Airways logo near the right wing exit. Upon further investigation, it was determined that the US Airways identification was a decal covering up the true identity of the aircraft, a decommissioned Oceanic Airlines Airbus A320 hybrid. Upon further investigation, it was discovered inside the cabin as oceanichudson1NTSB dive master Colonel H.M. Hornacek III entered the plane that “there was no way the plane could have been carrying passengers. There are no seats from the cockpit to the rear of the plane.” Hornacek also described the cockpit as “violently damaged, as though something had vandalized it severely.”  This obviously raises questions regarding the origin of the “passengers” who were rescued and the validity of their accounts has been under scrutiny by the NTSB since the discovery.

Officials aren’t sure what to make of the situation at this point, but will release more information as it is uncovered.

In another report, the free availability of the popular Lost Boarding Pass Invitation that thousands of people have downloaded has created opportunity for you to hold a Lost Themed Party like no other.  The Season 5 Premier of LOST on ABC is scheduled for this coming Wednesday, so you’ll want to make sure you get your copy of the invitation for your event now, so you have time to print and deliver it.

Since so many of you have requested it for LOST events, birthday parties, weddings, anniversaries, you name it, I am hoping some of you will return to post your story here so we can all share in the fun.

LOST on ABC PARTY REPORTS

We’re looking for your report this season!  Download the boarding pass, send it out as an invitation, throw a killer LOST theme party, take lots of pictures, and I’ll post them all here along with ours.  We want to bring the fanatics together!

LOST Poetry Video

Season 4 ended with a bang at our LOST Season 4 Series Finale party where we recited some pretty creative poems with LOST as the theme.  I’ll be posting the video here on Wednesday sometime before the premier.  If you’d like to be notified when the video is posted, submit your e-mail address in the following form and you’ll receive an announcement.

E-mail
Name

LOST on ABC Season 4 Premier Party

Need some ideas for the LOST on ABC season 5 premier?  Then read about our Season 4 Premier.

This year, we’re hosting yet another premier party, only this time, we’re going for “best costume.”  The catch is that the costumes will be modeled after a thing rather than a person, or a situation.  Anyone can dress up as a character.  This time, we’re dressing up as situations, things, or places, or characters in a particular situation.

As usual, we’ll have lots of pictures, and I’m sure we’ll give those of you who miss out on a great theme party the opportunity to think about this season’s finale!

Why You Shouldn’t Wait Until It’s Perfect

by

Every day I have the opportunity to meet people, to present my ideas, and to be successful.  Every day I also have the opportunity to fall victim to what many of us do when we have a vision for something great.  We wait for perfection.  A perfect website, a perfect presentation, a perfect, a perfect, a perfect.

Not going to happen.

The word perfect has been defined in many ways, but for the most part, the common understanding of perfect indicates absolute conformity with a standard or ideal, unimprovable, accurate or correct in every detail, etc.  It’s just impossible to be perfect.

I supposed one can expect to be perfectly imperfect in everything they do, which is why waiting around for that perfect performance, the perfect document, the perfect way to say something is only going to keep you from experiencing failure, which is what forces you to improve.  Without failure, you become stagnant, and without input from others, you’ll miss growth opportunities.

If you are on the cusp of a breakthrough but aren’t able to make that next step towards success, ask yourself if you’re holding out for perfection.  If you are, throw it aside and just take the leap of faith.

Whatever it is you’re working towards, you must expect to fall short from time to time.  Surround yourself with people who understand this, practice this, and can offer you constructive criticism to help you get better at whatever it is you fearlessly attempted to do, imperfectly.

So You Found The Right House, Now What: Part 1

by

Before the internet existed, the process would have occurred in a different order. You would have first sought out your real estate professional, then you would have begun searching for a home. This is still happening today, but now you have the ability to find the home you love on your own. There’s no substitute, however, for seeing the home in person, and that’s what you’ll need a licensed real estate agent for.

Let’s say that you did find that dream home on the internet. You drove by it a few times, maybe even had the opportunity to talk with the owner [Read more…]

Happy Mother’s Day

by

I had the opportunity to participate with our media directory at New Valley Church this past week by offering my words of praise to my mom, who recently moved from Phoenix to Ruidoso, New Mexico. In doing so, I was introduced to GrandCenteral.com which is a great site that allows you to centralize your phone traffic and even record conversations. Jeff Krieger called me up and asked me a few questions, along with some other volunteers and the result has been posted here…