It’s been a hectic summer evidenced by the fact I haven’t written a post since spring. We’ve been busy, not with travel but with the pleasures of summer; evening meals on our screened porch, long bike rides, walks in the evening to avoid the daytime heat, hikes in the mountains. While these activities don’t appear to add up to the full days, weeks or months of summer, I admit there was more going on.

Early in the summer I received some great news.  Instead of trying to explain it I’ll allow the email I received do the talking. First allow me say this; you can’t believe how long it takes to count $4,209,000 and decide who gets a $420,090 grant from that sum!    “Greetings. The recent winner of Power ball Jackpot “Tennessee 20″ has deem it necessary to donate the sum of $4,209,000 USD each to you and Nine other lucky beneficiaries, in fulfillment of giving out 10% of their winnings as donation grant. Mind you, this is not a regular circulation, contact Patrick Dean, the group’s President and CEO via: kxxxxk@gmail.com for more information about this donation and for confirmation of this great news, click the link below”.

Once we received the money we needed to do something with it. As chance would have it I received an email with yet another great piece of news. But first let me say, Diamonds, what an outstanding investment;   “I got your contact in the cause of my serious search for a reliable foreign partner through a profile in which convinced me of your honesty. However, I am Ahmed Yashire Abbas my father was a businessman and also one the leaders of Libyan United for Reconciliation and Democracy movement that fought against the Government in Libya African.
I confide in you hoping you will never betray me at last, My most required concern is for you to recognised me as a friend/partner while establishing a long lasting relationship for our future. Presently, I am in Europe with substantial quantity of diamonds and the sum of Twenty Million Two Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$20.2m)”. 

The email goes on and on about boring things such as how this money was obtained and that it had been earmarked for arms, munitions, etc….blah blah blah. Suffice it to say the wife now has a very nice pair of diamond earrings that would put Oprah’s to shame. Plus I’ve got a great new friend in Ahmed, I ‘recognise’ that!

Speaking of shame I must admit that once you get a taste of wealth there’s no such thing as too much.  Fortune came my way again (just as I was getting bored with the diamond trade) with the following email;  “I have tried to get in contact with you previously, however I am not sure you got my previous email. I am reaching out to you again today because I have a Proposal you maybe in interested in.

I have chosen to contact you directly because I need a reliable partner I can trust; who can help me with the transfer of a huge sum of money deposited with the vault company I Presently work for. Obviously because of my terms of employment and conflict of Interest, I cannot Legally apply for the funds to be released directly to myself, hence I need you to come in to partnership with me; to be the named the beneficiary to the deposited funds.  Please acknowledge receipt of my email for further details to proceed.  Regards, Raymond”

Raymond, what a guy, and now we’re partners!  But counting money is not an occupation, and it does get boring. I knew what I needed was a challenge, something I could sink my teeth into, something I could build.  As luck would have it I received the following email from my new friend Lilian;  “Glad to hear you are in textile–knitwear market, we are knitting sweater manufacturer which located in shanghai.      Our product quality in line with European and American standards, competitive prices Product range is: sweater cashmere sweater woman sweater knitted sweater etc We always developing a series of new design to help our customer catch the market   Best regards  Lilian  Shanghai Qinchuan Apparel CO., LTD”

Now I don’t know the first thing about the textile business (don’t tell Lilian), but with all my good fortune this summer I’m sure our new sweater business with Miss Lilian will be a great success.

My good fortune just kept on rolling in this summer;  Mrs. Sofia Shaw had $5.5 million to share with me (if a portion went to a charity of my choice; reasonable); Ms. Ella Golan of Israel had more money in the International Bank of Israel to share; Mohad Kwame of UBA Capital (Europe) informed me that I was the recipient of 30% of $10.2 million. There are so many more opportunities that came my way I just don’t have time to list them all, plus I’m not one to boast.

I don’t get this obsession we have with education, jobs, saving for retirement;  just check your in-box and money practically falls on your lap.  Are people that lazy? I guess so. Oh, got to run; Sgt. Monica Brown is waiting for me at the airport; she’s made me her ‘personal courier’ (she really trusts me even though we’ve never met). I’m picking up a bunch of boxes stuffed with money ($25 million in $100 bills US!). It’s all on the up-and-up, she’s just not a citizen so can’t legally pick up all those boxes so she asked me to help…I couldn’t say no!  She said just look casual and don’t look anyone in the eye!

So, what did you do this summer?