I MET HOMER SIMPSON! Well, not exactly. When he tells people that he inspects nuclear power plants, people usually say he's like Homer Simpson.(The Simpson character works in a nuclear power plant) He's been doing it for 17 years and travels around the country mostly, but has gone to a few foreign countries. He also gets the summer off, because the plants can't be inspected then. He told me, "There are 93 nuclear power plants in our country." Although he travels a lot, he does get extra vacation time and enjoys what he's doing.
THE INSPIRATIONAL REALTOR: As impressive as she is today, she had to be pretty awesome when she was 18. As a successful realtor today in Maryland, she has a couple degrees and 18 rental properties in Myrtle Beach and 8 more in Maryland. Over a span of a couple years a cousin who owned a lot of properties taught her what to do when she was in her teens. "I bought my first house when I was 18, I saved my money." It was a great way to start my day listening to this no-nonsense woman explain how she got started and how she operates her business today.
ENJOYING MY CAR: Rarely do I get a reaction as positive and enthusiastic immediately as someone steps into my car. The woman said, "I've never seen anything like this." When I started to tell her about all the foreign currency hanging in my car, she stopped me and said she wanted to film it. She introduced me on the video and said, "He's going to explain his Rider Museum, " and then she filmed me for the next few minutes as I went around the world with her. She said, "This is a great idea." She liked the fact that I was showing people places in the world that they may want to travel to in the future. From Maryland, she does a lot of traveling around the country planning conferences for the American Dental Education Association. She really didn't want to get out of the car and unfortunately it was a short ride.
ENDING HER ROUGH WEEK ON THE SUNNY SIDE: I had trouble finding my passenger, because she was at a junk yard which was way back from the main road. She had just dropped off her paperwork for her car of 27 years. The engine just died on her, and left her in a somewhat dangerous situation on the road, although she was helped by another driver and a cop who stayed with her. When she left the car she tapped the steering wheel and said to it, "You done good." It had over 100,000 miles on it, but she hadn't been driving it much for a lot of years. She told me, "My children will be happy I'm not driving anymore, but I'm not going to tell them for awhile." We both enjoy reading a lot and although she liked being an accountant, she said, "I like retirement a lot more." I had a very nice conversation with her and made her difficult moment a lot more interesting and manageable.
TALKING HOCKEY: Hockey is my fourth favorite sport, but I did get to speak with a former professional hockey player. He played forward for The San Jose Sharks for a year and played in the minors and overseas for many years. He grew up in Canada, but he rooted for the Boston Bruins and his favorite hockey player was the great Bobby Orr. He misses the interaction with his teammates, but he doesn't miss playing the game. I'm sure he enjoyed talking about being a professional athlete and I did too.
TALENTED MUSICIAN: If I drove him the week before, our ride would have been very different. He was having a very difficult day and the sign hanging in my car did mean a lot to him. The sign says, "If You Can't Find the Sunshine, Be The Sunshine. His girlfriend of six years just broke up with him that day, so I had to be encouraging, but more low key than normal. He's a good musician and lives locally. I checked out a few of his songs which I liked and I sent him a message on his Facebook site. Before he got out of my car, he gave me a very nice compliment, "You don't just get a person to their destination, you take care of them." He has a lot of talent and he'll be able to overcome his situation and hopefully his music will be a good outlet for him.
A POLITICAL JOURNALIST: Most of the time when I have the pleasure of having someone involved in politics in my car, it is a very short ride. This ride was only a few minutes, but I would have loved to talk with her for a half hour. She writes about politics for a British newspaper and she lives in Washington D.C. She worked one year for The New York Post, but I ran out of time and could not ask her about that experience. I told her that I went to a Nikki Haley rally in Myrtle Beach and she said she covered her opening announcement in Charleston. I told her that I thought Haley would be the first female President, but I wasn't sure it would be this coming election. She agreed completely with me on that as she shut the door and then she was gone.
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