Idle Thoughts and Other Comments
Random ramblings from a curmudgeon spanning two millenia.
I have a small group of very long-time friends. We’ve known each other since the seventies – some even before then. Our group meets once or twice a year to keep caught up on what we are all doing; who has more grandchildren and who has died. And we reminisce about the old days which we all seem to remember differently, if at all. The old saying “If you remember the seventies then you weren’t really there” applies whole-heartedly to this group.
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Moral dilemmas come in all shapes and sizes. One of the most common is what does it take to be a good neighbor? Another is how do you avoid making enemies? These all come down to what is the definition of a good deed? […]
Do-it-yourself is getting more popular all the time. The really ambitious DIY people take on huge projects with no thought about what kind of help they might need or find.
My daughter lives in the suburbs north of Dallas and works in the banking industry there. The man she married is a great guy but he’s a bit of a good-ole-boy and what I call a tinkerer. He’s very handy at house maintenance and has no fear of failure in any type of construction project.
Recently, he and my daughter found a piece of land just south of the Oklahoma border outside a small town and decided that’s the place to build their getaway cabin. My son-in-law decided he and my grandson were gonna try to do most the work themselves.
Construction has gone well and the cabin is almost finished. Last week the only thing left was some of the final painting. Things slowed down a bit however when my son-in-law brought up a TV to watch March madness and my grandson was busy with school and his day job. The pressure was still on though because my daughter was threatening to come up for a wifely inspection of the work.
That weekend all of the painting supplies were sitting outside ready to get started on the porch. But the basketball games were about to begin. Luckily about that time one of the young kids from the nearby town came by. She said she was looking for a way to earn some extra cash. She saw the painting equipment and asked my son-in-law if there was any painting she could do.
Well, he jumped at the chance to get the painting done and still watch the game. He tells her he’d give her thirty bucks to paint the porch on the side of the house. She says, “Deal” and takes the paint, rollers and brushes around the side of the house while my son-in-law settles down to watch the game.
Before the game gets to halftime there’s a knock at the door. The girl is standing there. “I’m all finished”, she says. My son-in-law is still reaching for his wallet when she continues, “But it’s not a Porsche, its a Lexus”
Gotcha!! Have a great April Fool’s Day everyone.
One of the results of a lot of life experience is that you develop a lot of interests. I chase hobbies and professions like a dog chases squirrels and shiny toys in the backyard. I’ve tried everything from fairly normal hobbies like model railroading and photography to the unusual like candle making, meteorology and stand-up comedy. From that last one mentioned, you can imagine why some lasted longer than others. But the real tragedy here is that none of them have really retained my interest. […]
Thirty some years ago, anytime I would wake up with the bed-spins meant that I had spent the night before “socializing with friends”, reaching new extremes of bad behavior that are much more unacceptable now than they were back then. Today, in my sixties, when I lie in bed and the first thing I notice in the morning is that it hurts to move my head it means an ear infection. Because of this infection during the last couple of days, standing upright and walking a straight line has been an approximation at best. It’s really brought back some fond memories of the good old days. Think of it as a hangover without the upset stomach.
Maybe the worst part of growing old is having to take pleasure in the little things. I could probably go off on a tangent about size not mattering. But in most cases it does and that’s fodder for another post. What I mean here is small things like appreciating an ache or pain that has gone away.
You may have noticed that I haven’t written much lately. Well a person doesn’t reel much like writing when they hurt. A couple of weeks ago I fell on a patch of ice. It seems that I’m making this into an annual event. Last year it resulted in a mild concussion, this year a cracked rib. But the point is its been hurting to take a deep breath or twist or reach for something for weeks. I noticed the last couple of days it hasn’t been hurting as much to do those things. When you appreciate a pain that has gone away, or even notice that it’s gone away, you know you are getting old. But now maybe I’ll be writing more.
I’ll bet most of you can agree that having a thirty year old mindset inside a sixty year old body feels like a betrayal. We still want to do the things we did “back then” but find an afternoon nap much more appealing. Maybe a nice walk around the block to enjoy this mid-February thaw will get the blood moving again… and stretch those sore ribs.