Facing up to the pain

I stopped by a pawnshop owned by a friend today; Just to pass the time and see if there was anything worthy of spending a few shekels on.

He offered me a shiny silver looking mans bracelet.....supposedly of 14 kt white gold, it after all was stamped on the catch 14k. The feel was about right....73 grams. A quick check though prompted some questions as to whether there was any gold content after all.

"But it has to be gold, I checked it", he said. "I gave that guy $850.00 for it".

Considering that it might have been worth over $1400.00 scrap value it would have been a good deal for him. Had it been gold....

Oh, did I mention that he might have had a little bit of the grape coursing through his veins?

Oh Yeah.

I told him I'd be able to tell him with 100% certainty before dark tonight. It's not gold.

It seems that a large portion of this countries adult (and even some not so adult) population are beginning to realize that those golden gods we have installed in Washington, DC might not be as pure and as wise as we'd hoped for. Indeed, they're kinda like the watermelon the wife brought back from Wally World the other day. It looked good on the outside....when sliced open the smell made my mouth water a bit. But, when bitten into, with great expectations, was quickly spit back out by both the wife and I at almost the same instance.

Spoiled.....rotten to the core...awful it was. Quick rinses and gargles at the kitchen sink helped take the taste from our mouths. Quick dispatch out to the compost heap got it out of our sight. But the memory lingered. I'm sure we'll be a little more cautious about the next one we slice open.

Hopefully the electorate will remember the bad taste and odor seeping out of that swamp on the Potomac.

Maybe they'll choose with a little more care next time.

But......in the meantime.....do I call my friend tonight while his pain will be dulled from the grape, or wait until the morning when the pain will only be amplified by the harsh light of day? Will the pain be blamed on the messenger?

UPDATE: I waited until the next day. He moaned and groaned a bit, but not too bad.
Hell, we all make mistakes from time to time. What matters is that we continue on
on our journey, trying not to repeat them too often.