It was a dark and stormy night...

"It was a dark and stormy night," or so Snoopy's book always starts.

If you're thinking this way, then you are going through another of life's little disappointments which may be unwelcome but are always expected.

We can't change the wind but we can set our sail. The sun will come up again tomorrow. The tide ebbs and flows.

We all get through these downers and on to yet another high.

I have had my own struggles at work and elsewhere. They're not as bad lately. I had divorces, an angry son, two unsuccessful dissertations, two hospital stays and other. Such is life.

My daughter is going through trauma now. I am proud of her and of what she has become. She has a great goal, she is resourceful, and she will get through this too. I'm glad that she's gotten herself some help. I think of her and pray for her several times a day. I look forward to her continued growth and her bright future... but it is her future, and she has to do it.


- text © 2011 by Willy

Yet Another Adventure

Life has been busy, with no time for blogs. I continue my fantasy that I'm indispensable at work, I've been trying to clean up home after some tornado damage, and been training hard for my multiple summer hike adventures.


I nicely completed two back-to-back hikes. The first in The Smokeys followed by an A.T. hike in northern Virginia and West Virginia... going up LeConte with old folks, followed by multiple rollers in VA-WV with my daughter, and a home mountain hike my last vacation day. I was proud of myself, having done 8, 8, 17, 16, 5, 0 and 10 miles of hilly terrain in a week. Not bad for an old man, and good training effectiveness ("train like you play"), even though we did violate our established rules.

I continue training for an upcoming two-week Yosemite trip... up Half-Dome, then a circuit in the High Sierras.

- © 2011 by Willy

Reflection

"Only when I was alone, in quiet and reflective moments, did I have not only clarity but an inexplicable inner peace... a peace that exceeds human understanding." - Mike Huckaby on his decision to not run for president (believe it or not!), 13 May 2011.

That could have been Henry David Thoreau, or just about any monk on the planet.

Peace, reflection and mental health go together.

Solitude is underrated.

Old Men Aging Well

Five of us old guys at a nice German restaurant had just finished a good dinner. The fraulein, dressed for effect, was showing us a dessert tray. One of us said "Look at that!" and all of us looked at the desserts rather than at the amply endowed waitress. After we drooled and ordered no-sugar, low-fat cheesecake, another said "Yeah, you can get the dessert a lot cheaper than the girl."



The youngest old guy had just told us that he's just gone through a divorce in which he lost pretty near everything. My own divorce drove me insane and took a couple of years to recover.

Pitiful, but expected... both about the dessert versus girl and about the divorce settlement. This is the South, where the judges are biased. One urban legend goes that the feds, a few years ago, entrapped a judge in chambers after a divorce ruling with a wired undercover policewoman on her knees and his legs spread open for payment. And (some) women start preparations for divorce before they marry, believing of marriage as a very good tax-exempt long-term capital gains investment. Sex has always been a currency for (some) women. Men will throw away their whole lives and their careers for sex.

What a sad state of affairs.

The solution: Some of us finally learned to order dessert. That is a decision that we can still make that will prevent a future problem.

OK, solved that problem, let's go on to another.

None of us old men had a good solution to the economy. What's a solution to the plundering of this country by some politicians, bankers and CEOs working in cahoots? We must be insane to let them get away with this, we can't just order dessert to solve it, and it will take a lot more than a couple of years to recover... it will take throwing more bums out by electing fiscally responsible people. And where can we find responsible professional politicians? WHY does anyone want to run for office? What's his gain? Anyone who will do whatever you have to do to get elected shouldn't be allowed to run for office.

How about something like jury duty or military service draft? Twenty-five years after college graduation you are inducted into office... compulsory... for one term. This may be even better than term limits, and/or Tea Party. Heck, let's try something different... what we are doing now is not working.

You think about it while I go to the gym and work out that cheesecake.

- text © 2011 by Willy