hotel Archives - Doug Bolton

March 1, 2021March 5, 2021

Basic Training in The Military Can be Interesting and Quite a Rude Awakening

+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know about it.

___________________________________

I have had a drastic drop in subscribers recently. From 2-24-21 to 3-1-21 I have only had 7 new subscribers, when I averaged over 20 a day.

Am I doing something wrong? Are you not happy with something I am writing? Please let me know. The whole purpose of this site is to reach out to my fellow veterans and give them hope.

Please make comments in the comment area below.

___________________________________

I am going to share some more excerpts from my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of life. with you today. They are from different parts of my military career.

In Basic Training, back in my day, we still had draftees. we had two in my platoon. They were not happy campers. The rest of us who enlisted finally told them to shut up and serve.

One of the draftees wouldn’t stop. He was a Native American. He was a good sized drink of water. Looked kind of like a linebacker.

The drill sergeant finally had enough of his whining and told him to straighten up and serve his country proudly. The Native American told him where to go.

The drill sergeant then told him to come into his room at the end of the barracks. It was pretty quiet for a while, and then all hell broke loose from that room. You could hear crashing of things, grunts of pain; cursing, and screaming.

Then it got very quiet again. We all figured that our drill sergeant had been beaten up, because he was 5’9′ and couldn’t have weighed more than 150 pounds. The Native American was 6 foot tall and around 200 pounds.

The door slowly came open and out staggered our drill sergeant. He looked like he had hit by a truck, but he was still standing. We all rushed to look in his room and there was the Native American out cold on the floor.

We had nothing but respect for our drill sergeant after that. Even the native american respected him.

___________________________________

While I was deployed to South Korea, they gave us a thing called R&R. (Rest and recuperation.)

It was a week of going to Tokyo, Japan. All paid with free room and board. My very first vacation.

A buddy and I got there and settled down. The next day we went touring the area. We saw Japanese flower gardens. Pagodas, and lots of shopping areas. We were awestruck. Nothing like this back in the states!

Later in the week, we decided to venture into a bar that could be considered a disco bar later on in the states. We sat down and had a couple of beers.

Then an announcer who spoke English came on and announced that there was a belly dancer coming out to dance for us.

He went on to say that they were having a contest. The contest was to see who could hold onto the belly dancer’s hips the longest while she shimmied.

The dancer came out. She was beautiful and a caucasian girl. She started dancing around the circle of tables. At each table she would stop and invite a soldier to try to hold on to her. There were many who tried, but none that could hold on very long.

Then she came to my table. I had way too much the drink by that time and accepted the challenge. I put my hands on her hips and she began to shimmy. I kept a hold of her until she had to stop to rest.

I had won the contest. Then the announcer said what the prize was. YOU GET FREE DRINKS FOR THE REST OF THE EVENING!

Just what I didn’t need!! I also looked at my hands and they were full of blisters. The pain was setting in. What did I do about it? Had several more beers. I do not recall the rest of the evening. My buddy must have gotten me back to our hotel.

___________________________________

With God on Your Side, Who Can be Against You?

Can’t be too much going wrong today. The sun is shinning, and there is not a could in the sky.

I want to spend today just talking about perseverance.

Have you given up on something you once thought was your dream? Did a wall come in between you and a goal you have had for many years?

I went through that. Back in 2001 I was facing too many walls. I felt closed in and thought there was no where to go. On March 31st of 2001, I was sitting in my Explorer and considering about checking out of this hotel called earth.

God stopped me, and reminded me of a book I was working on that I had given up on. It didn’t relate at all to the final work that I had published. My book, “Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World,” was once called, “Close Encounters of the Cash Flow Kind.” It was a book written to help sales people to be better at their trade.

I had failed at several ventures that I tried, and thought this book would be a joke to readers since I wasn’t successful myself.

God opened my eyes, and showed me that this very same book could be altered and made into an inspirational book to help others who were struggling with, anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, self-doubt, low self-esteem, hopelessness, and the many other usual suspects.

It took me nearly ten years to complete the book, but I persevered, and now the book can be bought on this site, at www.amazon.com, www.barnes&noble.com, and www.chiristianbooks.com.

It is sold in many stores in the Northwest.

I could have given up, but God taught me patience, and perseverance. He helped me to accomplish something that I thought wasn’t possible.

What about you? Got a dream? Do you have something that you always wanted to try, and thought you weren’t capable of doing it?

Get rid of those negative whispers in your ear from Satan. He wants you to believe that you aren’t worthy of doing anything worth while. It is time for selective hearing. Only listen to God’s gentle voice and follow His lead.

I would love to get a comment from one of you that tells me that you broke through those walls, and accomplished your dream.

With God on your side, who can be against you?

___________________________________________________

You can order, Signs of Hope Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World,” right now by going to the top, and clicking on the “Bookstore,” tab. There is a big special going right now.

The books has been for sale for $19.99 and had $4.70 in shipping. Right now you can get the book for $15.99, and only $2.35 in shipping. That is over $6.00 in savings.

There is more… you will also get an autographed copy. Only if you order from this site.

Please check it out. There is a full description of the book in the bookstore above.

July 28, 2010

I Wanted to Check out of this Hotel Called Earth

I will be changing the format on my author site. I need to get back to sharing with you about my book, Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World.

In about two weeks the book will be officially in the marketplace.

It has been a hard, long road I have traveled to get to this point. I started writing, Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World, almost ten years ago. It will be ten years next March.

Why did I start writing the book? I am glad you asked.

I was at the end of my rope. I didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I felt the ship sinking and I didn’t have a life jacket.

I was having weekly pity parties, and no one was showing up to help me celebrate. I was fighting self-doubt, anxiety, fear, failure, depression, hopelessness, and the many other usual suspects.

I was ready to check out of the hotel called earth.

I was in a school parking lot on March 31st 2001 sitting in my Ford Explorer considering suicide. I didn’t want to face the trails of life any more.

I had retired from teacher, and was going from one job after another searching for something that I could feel good about after retirement. Nothing was working for me. I failed at each job I partook in. I even started my own business of find funds for businesses when they needed some while waiting for their invoices from costumers to come in. That failed because I couldn’t see taking money from them when they desperately needed cash at that time.

Every job I tried I needed to try to convince people of getting something they may not need. I worked at a department store in the housewares department. I sold pots and pans, coffeemakers, knifes, etc. I was pretty good at it. I even earned a seven day free trip to a health spa for me and my wife because of my efforts.

One Christmas Eve, I was working the late shift. I noticed that there weren’t any women shopping in my area. It was all guys desperately looking for something for their wives at the last minute. I had a field day. I came up to a guy and asked him if I could help him, and he said, Yes! please find something for my wife for christmas. I can’t think of anything! I saw dollar signs in my head, and directed him to the sets of pans. I convinced him his wife would love a $500.00 set of new pans.

There were several men just like him wandering around, lost in my section. I sold something to eveyone of them. I set a record for sales that night. They bought from me because I was a man and they trusted me.

I went home that night and wondered, What have I done? I sold a bunch of men something their wives probably didn’t need just so I could make another sale. I was very upset with myself, and quite the job a couple of weeks later.

( Men…never buy your wife something for the kitchen at Christmas. Go down to the jewelry department. You will be rewarded much more if you do that.)

So I went on like this, going from one job after another in sales. The last sales job I had was in leasing, and the same nightmare was forming while doing that. I was trying to have someone lease something when it may be better to buy it outright.

I hit rock bottom on March 31st. I drove to that parking lot I told you about. I was sobbing so much I could hardly see out the window of the rig. I stopped and parked, and was on verge of doing something very drastic.

I finally cried out to God, “I can’t take this anymore!” There was a sudden calmness inside my rig, and in me. The air even seemed different. It was as if God was saying, “It is about time you came back to me. Now let me carry you the rest of the way.”

The rest is history. I started writing Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World, a couple of weeks later.

It took me almost ten years to get my thoughts down, and organized. There were doubts along they way. Satan did every he could to stop me, but I prevailed, and now you have to chance to read my story and learn for yourself how to survive in a not so friendly world.

I hope you will read it and let me know what you think of it. I have been blessed with some very impressive endorsements written in the book. I have had many authors and important people in the publishing world recommend the book.

You can preorder Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World, and save 27% by going to www.winepresspublishing.com. Go to the top and click on “bookstore.” Write in the search area, “Signs of Hope.” That will take you right to my book page. The book will only cost $14.59 there for a short time, and then it will be $19.99 once it is public. Take advantage of that now.

God bless you nad NEVER give up. Fight back the attacks of Satan and turn to God to supply you with all the armor you need to survive.