Rick Ranson

My brother Mark is lucky. My brother-in-law Paul is creepy lucky. Me? I flip back and forth between being really lucky and running down the dock to buy that last ticket on the Titanic.

Napoleon believed in luck. When asking about a subordinate who he going to promote he said: “Yes but is he lucky?”

Looking it up I found that lucky people have several traits.

They believe they are lucky. They don’t pump themselves up about it, they actually believe they are lucky without question. Right down to their socks.

Lucky people are always open for opportunity.  Everybody has war stories about how they were offered a ski-resort condo in Breckenridge Colorado for $5,300 down that is now $2 – $3,000,000 MILLION F#$$%^& DOLLARS!!  Lucky people ask why not? They are open to try. So try.

Not that I know anything about ski resorts in Colorado.

Lucky people have a mindset that is open for opportunities. When they drive passed an empty building lot they don’t blame the local government for leaving the lot empty; they say ‘I wonder what would go here?’

Lucky people play their hunches. A distant friend moved to Australia years ago and once he got there said ;
“‘You know what Sydney doesn’t have? A MacDonald’s.”
The person he was with said;
“What’s MacDonald’s? ”
(Remember, it was a while ago)
He contacted MacDonald’s in the US and applied for Australia’s first MacDonald’s Franchise. With the Franchise application in his hand he approached a local Australian bank and on the strength of a piece of paper and his bluster they lent him enough to start. By the time the bank found out that our Franchisee was so poor he living with his in-laws they were committed for a couple of million, and this guy already had customers lined up around the block.

Lucky people have the almost creepy habit of turning bad luck into good. I know a multi-millionaire that had a heart attack in a gym and fell down virtually at the feet of two cardiologists, and a defibulator machine twenty feet away.  Most people would be twenty miles off out in the woods somewhere, him? Exactly where he should have been. But he felt a heaviness in his chest and was going to call his doctor later but stopped in at the gym because he had a feeling (hunch).

So GO, DO play your hunches, become open to chances, and most of all, believe.

It was January 30th in Winnipeg. The wind-chill was -30. The weather channels said that travel outside of Winnipeg was not recommended because of blowing snow; and let’s face it. It was Winnipeg in the winter.  Where it hurts your face to go outside.

I’m sitting in the car dealership lounge and some guy on his bicycle peddles passed down the ice covered street.  Every customer and sales-rep inside the dealership watches him.

Dustin the Manager looks up and says:

“Oh. That’s just Sammy on his Dewy Bike.”

“Dewy bike? ”

“Yeah. D.U.I.”

 

I was visiting a friend who glanced around his unkept apartment and said:
“My housekeeping style can be summed up by saying:
“There appears to have been a struggle.”

 

 

Dave, my Cop buddy at the resort I was staying at off-season, gave me a word of advice and a warning:

“One of the things they don’t talk about in all these fancy resorts is the STD rate. They did a survey of STD rates for … (Insert your favorite resort name here) … and it was the equivalent to a 2,000,000 city.

An X-Ray company in a pulp mill inadvertently exposed a group of Welders to an X-Ray while they were checking a weld on a stainless steel pipe.

The Welders naturally protested and in the resulting investigation the X-Ray company apologized all over the place. But in their defense the company said that the workers only received the equivalent of one head to toe X-Ray.

However

One  Welder said he was going to sue. He brought it up at the next Union Meeting that he was going to seek legal council.

When it was brought up that our welder was nowhere near the X-Ray incident when it happened, in fact he wasn’t even on the same floor,  he told the union meeting that:

‘Never mind, I’m feeling the effects of the X-Ray right now.’
The Union Steward asked him to describe those symptoms.
“Well for one thing , my feet are glowing.”

It was Mark’s first job as an apprentice. His ride had left earlier, so Mark wandered out to the parking lot to see if anybody would give him a ride to town.
Sam walked up to him and said:
“You need a ride into town?”
“Well, yes I do.”
“I’ll give you a ride, C’mon.”
Half way into town Sam turns to young Mark and asks;
“If I hadn’t picked you up how would you have gotten into town?”
“I guess I would had to phone for a taxi.”
“How much would a taxi have cost?”
“Oh about $10.00”
“I’ll take $5.00”

 

This happened in the power plant in Munroe Michigan.
“Hey Eric! I got good news and not so good news.”
“So what’s the good news?”
“There’s one of those armed guards that really thinks you are cute.”
“Well, what’s the bad news?”
“There she is…”
“Ewww.”
“I did say she was armed, didn’t I?”