A Trip to Branson? I guess not!

Another Tuesday without my senior fitness program. I can do some of the things right here at home, but it’s simply not the same. Of course I don’t have the equipment available to me at the physical therapy center, but I could walk a little. I do have some weights, but the doctor doesn’t want me to lift them for another couple of weeks. The exercise cycle I have is older than the hills and doesn’t work very well anymore. So I’ll be here until sometime between 7 and 7:30 this morning thinking of what could be.

We have a storm still forecast to begin late tomorrow and last into Thursday. It will probably start out as snow but change over to rain, especially here along the coast.

My regular blood draw to check certain things is scheduled for Thursday. I’ll probably use the “window” and have it done this morning to avoid the storm.

I got what turned out to be a rather fun marketing phone call yesterday. Some guy who said he was calling from Branson, Missouri, was calling to offer Gator Wife and me a four-day vacation out there for some ridiculously low price. What was fun about it was he sort of knew right from the moment I answered the phone he didn’t have a sale.

I’ll give the guy credit, though. He did go through most, and I mean most not all, of his spiel before we said goodbye. I don’t know why I was in such a good mood. I’m usually cold, sarcastic, and mean when I get such calls, but this guy was so congenial I just fell into a trap. Well, at least I talked with him.

He said we had been referred by old friends of ours, and then he made a huge mistake…he didn’t know that friend’s name. “It was Victor, er, Victoria Mich…” and he fell apart. “I don’t seem to be able to get that last name.”

“You don’t seem to get that first one, either,” answered I. “No matter, I’ve never heard of that person. I’d guess you never have, either.”

We then had three or four minutes of laughter filled banter.

He finally got around to telling me, “The reason for the call is to ask you to come visit us in Branson. We have dozens of shows, several nice hotels and motels, and restaurants galore. Included in your package for only . . . I forgot the price, but it was under $500 . . . you get four days and four nights, tickets to two shows, a chance for some great shopping, and a visit to an amusement park.”

“I do no business I do not originate,” was my simple statement.

“Huh? What does that mean?” he asked. I thought I was talking to another product of today’s education.

“Do you have any idea what your chance of getting me to buy into your package?”

“Probably not too great,” he correctly guessed. He then went to the backup page of the presentation. “Do you and your wife like to take vacations?”

“Certainly,” I responded. “In fact we try to get away for a month or so every year. But, unfortunately, Branson has never been on our list of ‘Places We’d Like To Visit’ list. And after this call, I’m afraid it’s still not on the list.”

“We really want people to come and enjoy Branson,” he said. “How about if I cut a couple hundred dollars off the price?”

“That would be a horrible mistake because then I’d get nasty and rude and tell you less kindly than this that I could never accept now because I’d always wonder how much lower I could have gotten the price.”

He laughed, again, and said the company had never mentioned that one to him. “It is a great point,” he added.

A few more moments of joking, laughing, and conversation led to his thanking me for my time and we ended the call. He never did get to the part where all I had to do was spend a few hours listening to a time share proposal.

For brevity’s sake, I’ve really left out at least half of the call, but it was fun. For once, I didn’t get nasty.

GiM