A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting a local “watering hole” that has some great bar-b-que. I was sitting at the counter when a fellow I barely knew came up and sat beside me. We started talking and he certainly had a tale to tell.

He talked about this wife (number four!), his good for nothing sons, his one good son, etc., etc., etc. We sat there for about 30 minutes while he shared with me, a virtual stranger, his many woes.

He said his wife had left him.  Ran off with a high school sweetheart that she had connected with on-line. (An image of a overweight middle age woman passionately involved in a romantic fling came briefly into my mind.)

He said that he had just paid $30,000 to keep his wife out of jail and then she ran off!

Rather rude of her I thought. I suggested that he bill the new boyfriend for making her available to him. “He can have her as far as I am concerned” was his retort.

He said he planned to sell his property for $110,000 and move to Florida. Now, you might be wondering how he could just up and leave his property for Florida but he said something very curious in the discussion. He said he had to get his disability check tomorrow (he had contracted lime’s disease and it affected his heart and he cannot walk over 100 feet without resting.) $250,000. My jaw dropped but he said it so casually and without further elaboration that it sounded like he got these checks all the time. Maybe I mis-heard him but I wasn’t sure how to respond.

$250,000 + 110,000 would certainly be enough for me to get started somewhere, anywhere, especially Florida. We parted amicably and I wished him luck in Florida. Send me a postcard.

Your Geraldo Rivera Reporter,

Frank