At the risk of - - - - .

At the risk of looking like his PR guy I again recommend a visit to Harry's blog:
http:///www.harry2335.blogspot.com

His latest entry discusses something to which I can relate. It will also impact anybody who has lost someone as the result of a vehicle accident.

While I did not have the same accident experiences as Harry, I do remember climbing into many a wrecked car seeking documentation for a claim investigation and never getting used to the blood spatters on the broken windshield or the hair jammed into it's cracks.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons I become frustrated with people who slow down to view an accident scene which is surrounded by and attended to by much more qualified individuals that most of us. It puzzles me whether these people are seeking a thrill or just a story to tell.

Maybe these folks should also follow Harry's advice. It's just not kids I'm targetting here.

Before going any further it's important to make clear that I really do like kids and am impressed with so many that we meet when we go out to a restaurant or imbibe a little wine at Geckos on 70. Most of the servers are far more mature than I was at their age. and they do a great job attending to the whims and sometimes silly complaints of us seniors. Heck, they even laugh at our jokes.

But, some of the "youngins" still don't get it. So, this is for them.

I recently received an e-mail that was alleged to be from a speech given by Bill Gates to a high school class. I'd like to share the 11 rules contained in the speech:

Rule # 1: Life is not fair - get used to it.

Rule # 2: The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule # 3: You will not make $60,000 right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a cellphone until you earn both.

Rule # 4: If you think your teacher is/was tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule # 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule # 6: If you mess up, it's not your parent's fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn
from them.

Rule # 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you
thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's
generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule # 8: Your school may have done away with winner and losers, but life has NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This does not bear a resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule #9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule # 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule # 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Now, as a friend liked to say, "Before you get your knickers all tied up in knots" (OK, an o-l-d friend) and start getting defensive regarding the exceptions, please take the time to think about how many of these so-called "rules" really do make sense.

I truly love and am proud of my kids as well as those I inherited via marriage. However, I wish I had shared a few of these rules with them as they went through some of the same struggles we did in that cross over bridge to adulthood.

The rules suggest that maybe a few of them might even have even gotten through to my generation.

Of course, we were much too busy debating whether we were going to support the Whigs or the Tories in the next general election.