Out Of What Box?

I like myself, and I like my world.

I'm getting too experienced to do things much differently. I've honed my activities and procedures throughout the years into something that works for me.

For instance, I do not speed... I usually drive slower than the speed limit, unless I'm on the Interstate... and I've been like that since I bought my Vette in '73. Back then, one of the gals at work said "Some old guy was driving your new car!" and I answered "It was me!"

I've got to be me.

I'm good to the core and am also trainable, to some extent, but don't bullstuff me. Some other way may not work for me, and vice-versa. Tell me what you want, but don't tell me how to do it.

When bicycling or hiking, my second and third layers are zippered so as to better control body temperature and evaporation... and I use a convenient water bladder rather than bottles, food bars rather than meals.

Also, if somebody is mean in any way, I disconnect... whether it's a work association, a friendship or a relationship. All it takes is one bitching out or one sleazy action. Life is too short to put up with those people. There are plenty of nice people out there, and solitude is an excellent option.

As it is, every day brings something different to me. My daily prayer is for the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Theme and variation.

Actually, we all follow the theme and variation concept. I can accommodate and adapt, to an extent, but Popeye said "I am what I am and that's all that I am." And they say that you can't teach a pig to sing because it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.

I also believe we must treat people nicely, because of Karma... you reap what you sow. It's best to either accept or give up the pig... whether its them or me.

This pig likes a regimented and disciplined life, with variations. Yesterday it was carpet shampooing and weightlifting. Today it's gym cardio and office cleanup. Tomorrow is hiking and dinner out.


My workouts follow the theme and variation concept... a different one every day that include many different types of cardio, lifting, flexibility and relaxation.

It's natural.

Nature invented the theme and variation concept. Sundown always follows sunrise but there may be rain, heat or cold to accept. If you don't like it... tough. Nature sets the rhythm.


- copyright 2014 by Willy.

Family

The family gathers together... dad, mom and all the kids.

Dad addresses himself to the kids, points a finger and says: "You should take personal responsibility and care for your own lives." It's doom and gloom time.

Mom then smiles and says: "It is absolutely not hopeless. There's always something to do. There's always a place to begin." The kids smirk and smile.

But did the kids get it? Will they do something?


- © 2012 by Willy

P.S., I have a bad knee, so I'm going to bed.

The Best Sweat

There came a time during an elliptic gym workout when it did no good to towel my face dry of sweat... more was immediately generated. Then the same was true when climbing steep trails. Now, especially, in Hot Yoga class... I just leave the sweat.

There also came a time when sweaty people looked better... more accomplished maybe; tougher; or perhaps birds of similar feather. Sweaty faces are the best looking. As they say, the best kind of sweat is the kind dripping from your face.

Finally, my office temperature felt cold enough for me to open a window, since I do not control the wing's thermostat... nor do I want to... and my office neighbors said that I was creating tornados at my door. I noticed that I only use my home air conditioner to sleep... and the heater is seldom used, period.

Then I got my epiphany: it's not just the sweat. I realized that I'd rather accept most situations, and be happy. And admire others who do the same.

It dawned on me that I am not sweating life. That life is no sweat. Life has become easy. This is, by far, the best sweat.

- text © 2012 by Willy

Another Year Sets

Amazing! Christmas is about here and another year is down. This one went as fast as a whirlwind!



What did I do? Contributions at work, serious hiking, some bicycling and regular weightlifting. I watched more sunsets. I fed the creatures. Got a better diet lifestyle. Did some socializing. Best of all... developed better discipline.

What did I get accomplished? I finally got everything fixed in my old Vette, it runs great and I drive it regularly. I painted most of the house outside. I maintained my old physical self. I got a National Park Senior Lifetime Pass. And I discovered that my mental self has discipline enough to weather multiple storms simultaneously.

What do I want to do next year? Of course, shed a few pounds. But I want to think about what to do for the next... 30 years.

Why?

Because my favorite aunt has lived to that rich old age, and blesses me with her wisdom and counsel. It's been time for me to do the same.

I found out that most of us really are self-delusional. That life is really about the fantasies. When I was a foolish young man, my fantasies might have been fast cars and loose women. Now that I'm an old man my fantasy is that I'm indispensable at work. The current fantasy is useful as a goal to keep me getting up in the morning due to the self-importance of what I do, but it won't do in retirement.

Or maybe because I want to use that Senior Pass just like the Vette uses Midas mufflers.

I've been through that age at which we have thoughts of wiping it all clean and starting over. And the age at which we come to grips with our own mortality. I've had enough difficult times that I know I'm living on borrowed time.

Do I really want to be around more years? Thirty of them!? Do I have any control over that? I don't know.

If so, there's gotta be a need to live, community in depth-and-breath, and planning and discipline.


Also, it would help to see problems coming... in order to accommodate or compensate.

After all, I'm a good controls engineer.

First is to get this plant... body and mind... in good order.

- © 2011 by Willy

It Does Matter

Lending a hand with loving kindness can change everything.

Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas? Edward Lorenz in 1972 stated that the flapping wing could cause a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena.

We each start changing the world the second we are conceived. Day by day, action upon action, smile upon smile, act after act, one decision after another we form our character and that of others, and change the world in significant ways. If a butterfly's wings affect the environment, what you and I do matters powerfully... beyond our imagination.

We're stronger when we think. Life is a game in which every act that we undertake... working, hiking, helping... each of those choices is a move, and every move forms the next, and that changes us. One action has a chorus of consequences. Like moves on a chessboard. The way to win is by playing.

Nothing in life comes without a struggle. The butterfly struggles out of its cocoon. Turmoil, conflict and chaos are all parts of life. Screaming and laughter occur simultaneously in every playground, and in every life. Out of that mayhem come relationship, love and joy.

Life is always surprising.

We are always stronger than we think.

We can't control everything but we can think and control ourselves and by that we indirectly affect others. Every new decision is another chance to do the right thing... it's all about what you do next.

Everybody matters. Everything matters. Everybody and everything is connected. Pass it on.


- © 2011 by Willy

P.S., The problem is the aholes... Lord Jesus have mercy on me.

Outdated or Wiser?

The same things are true in life as in fitness and in faith.

Fall color is here and leaves are carpeting our trails. Fall comes and fall will go, just as sure as the sun will return tomorrow morning. But we learn more each year. This year I discovered ruins just beside my favorite hiking trail.

I am a 60-year-old engineer and am outdated in many things, but not The Big Picture. Yes, kids know eye-opening computer tricks and give me six significant digits of accuracy but oftentimes they get the first digit wrong... that is, they went the wrong way. Can't argue about results based on experience. We know that kids come and kids get old and go, and we all learn from each other.

The AIG/bank/wallstreet/auto bailout came a couple of decades after the Savings and Loan debacle. The economy is a shambles and we don't have the power to fix it, so we wring our hands until we remember that this, too, shall pass. It happened before and it will happen again. I have faith that as liberals come then liberals too will go. The tide comes in and the tide goes out. It ebbs and flows. Are the politicians protecting worthless bank assets incompetent or just crooks? Yes, and then they go, and we relearn not to trust them, or the banks.

We will discover the motivation to embark upon a good fitness plan... then receive an overuse injury or accident, and we stop to heal, and start all over again. Only this time we will risk less to overuse and pick where we ride.

We're living the good life and divorce happens and life gets sour. And life ebbs and flows again later. We get mad at God and then, in His time, we go back, wiser, and learn not to enter another relationship like that.

In my business, the cannon is as outdated as the slide rule, and so is the canon... all of the canons... because the truth is that nothing stays the same.

Life ebbs and flows, and there's much comfort and tranquility in knowing that, and accepting it.


- © 2010 by Willy

Change?

Only babies like to get changed.

I like my life just fine the way it is, thank you. I like my routine because it keeps me sane amidst all the other change that hits me and that I have no control over.

Sometimes life is just a swirl of problems, especially this time of year... the government end-of-year. My world spins. Work has to be completed and reports are due, end-of-year money has to be spent, new year budget request are input. Everybody... but everybody... has things they want, new regulations to follow and demanded expectations to meet... in addition to my already overloaded schedule. I can do a better job if I stick to well-worn procedure and schedules.

At my touchstone, the swirling comes to a stop, albeit temporary. I stick to my routine of fitness and outside activities as much as possible, sometimes slightly modified, as I've done lately in training a buddy for his first big hike.

In early 2007, I updated the house to take care of ended-relationship emotional turmoil (one major change to help take care of another major change). I actually planned to sell but the mods came out so well that I kept the house... it would have been more change otherwise. But it was a year of pure hell. Not only did I grieve about the relationship end but also one night when I came home I found my mattress in the closet (and that's where I slept) because the hardwood guys put it there to get it out of the way.

A needed TDY to Hawaii? Not for me... send a kid. Invited promotion to an important and visible position? Not for me... get the other old guy. I'm just fine the way I am. And I suspect you are too.

And a corollary: I especially don't need some gal getting interested in me, because she'll want to change me.


-© 2010 by Willy

P.S., sooo... do you like the results of the change brought about by the new congress and the new administration?

Struggling Is Good

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were allowed to go through life without obstacles, it would cripple us... we would not be as strong as we could have been. Struggle is growth.

I'm mentally and physically tougher today because I've often struggled with work, kids, relationships and injuries. Relationships have been the toughest... I told my ex that I'd rather get shot than divorced. Monday I will effectively struggle with dozens of difficult people and scores of email where forty years ago I was struggling to know myself. Today I struggled pressing 100-lb dumbbells but twenty years ago it was 20-pounders, and in a week I will struggle with days of all-day hiking where fifty years ago it was the second lap around the track. I accept and even welcome these struggles.

Unlike Popeye, I am what I am, but that's not all that I am. Life will continue to hammer and strengthen me.


- © 2010 by Willy

It's Summer!

The Mayapple flower buds are peanut-sized, the Trillium were open and the sun was hot... that's summer in The South. I should have done this before (I've been busy and away) but today I put the plants and hoses out, raked pear leaves, trimmed dead bushes, sprayed weed killer, broadcast weed-and-feed and turned the sprinklers to Auto. I did all this after completing the usual 6-mile mountain hike in just 2 hours, which is pretty darned good time for the terrain. Did I get extra energy due to the summer sun? What's happened lately? It just might have been closure, finally. Let's hope this continues... it was a terrific day.

While I walked I was thinking that I did not need a reason to be happy... I just am. I am fortunate, too.

- © 2010 by Willy

Lock Up?

"We lock up more of our citizens per capita than brutal dictators like Robert Mugabe and Fidel Castro," wrote Cynthia Tucker in her request to end the War on Drugs.

I've got news for her. In the early 1960's, Castro's Cuban revolutionaries shot the entire previous party dead... up against a wall. No going to see a judge. It was televised, day in and day out. "Paredon!" they chanted. Thousands and thousands died, so there was no locking them up in the hoosegow. And many of the ones that were lucky enough to get to jail ended up dead anyway, due to starvation and sickness. Rape, murder and looting (in that order) were wholesale and only deterred by hefty walls and demonstration of defensive gunfire. No getting caught and going to jail for that, since the murderers were the new revolutionary party. Then in the 1980's, Fidel sent his prisoners here via the Mariel Boatlift and emptied his jails.

Since then, news and pictures have appeared of dissidents being beaten to death at the US Special Interest Section in Cuba ("the embassy")... no need to lock them up either.

Yes, Cynthia, brutal dictator Fidel Castro doesn't lock up the citizens... he kills them instead. Your statement is an insult.

"Tijuana authorities found 275 pounds of marijuana and a half-completed tunnel under the border," quipped Jay Leno, "Wonder why the tunnel was only half completed?"

Dahhh! Is it better to laugh with Leno and be ignorant like Tucker, or be stressed with the truth?


- text © 2009 by Willy

I Strayed

I have some wonderful friends.

I've had a support system for many years. For thirtysome years I've had the same mentors. For twentyfive years I've used a dry cleaner. For twentyone the same lady has cleaned my home. For seventeen I've lifted with the same trainer. For the last dozen years I've seen the same massage therapist. For the last ten the same fellow has cut my grass.

The same is true for other friendships at work, gym and elsewhere. I maintain close contact with many friends, meeting over coffee, bicycling, hiking or just visiting. These are strong bond friendships, which have lasted me far, far longer than any intimate relationship or marriage... and about as long as my oldest machine. I've continued to be blessed by receiving wonderful new empathetic, caregiving friends.

I've been no island. I do need others. I am not really as independent as I fantasize, nor as afraid of people as I thought.

Unfortunately, having the typical "guy independence" has backfired... I just hurt a friend's feelings because I did not ask her to help. It felt like I was being unfaithful to my wife (oh, well... another guy screws up again). I've got to say "Yes," and make it a resolution to ask for and accept help, accept compliments and accept whatever others offer to give me. I'm not the only giver.

- © 2009 by Willy

The Path Well Traveled

Unlike Robert Frost, I took the path most traveled.

Since the beginning, I took a path forward that appealed to my interests, a path that satisfied my curiosity, and a path that was easy given my talents.

As a boy, I took apart toys, figured how they worked and put them back together. A top was magic. A camera was a wonder. As a young man, I brought home every piece of junk piled on the street. I tinkered with cars before I could drive 'em. My bolt-action .22 was interesting but a semiauto gun was a marvel. I wondered why the doctors did not just coat my grandmother's bone joints with Teflon to reduce friction and improve action and I was fascinated with the concept of the human body as a bio machine of bones and muscles as levers and actuators. This all came easy for me because it fascinated me. An engineer was the easy way forward, and one that appeared to be the well-traveled path.

At school I had A's in "interesting stuff" and B's in the required humanities (who cared for a topic so subjective that it had no wrong answer?). For my BS I took every course offered in electronics and computers, resulting in a double major. For my MS I completed the required PhD courseload and I wrote a kickass thesis that was used as teaching material at UCLA. I continued towards a PhD and took every course in electrical engineering except electronics (done that for the BS) and many in other disciplines. I was just taking was what interesting and thus easy.

In the sixth grade, Robert Frost's poem intrigued me... why didn't he check out ALL the paths?

I took the course most traveled, I contributed, and made a difference. I am the better for it.


- © 2009 by Willy

Retirement?

My backyard is full of wildflowers, of all kinds, from March to October, with Indian Pink out now, next to fading Rue Anemone and Common Violet. It starts with the Daffodils, followed by the Periwinkle and Bradford Pear. The Elderberry tree flowers right at tax day every year.

From my front porch I watch beautiful sunsets most of the year. There's nobody around at home to bother me, but all year long the wild birds I feed adorn my deck as well as my bike-commuting route, along with squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, skunks, turtles, foxes, deer and the occasional snake. I'm healthy and fit enough to hike, bike and lift, and do so, although much more so on weekends, so that I'm glad when Monday rolls around so I can rest.

Since I've been in the same line of work for 38 years, I get a great sense of accomplishment and enjoyment out of my contributions and the busy days. I'm old and up enough so that I do what I want... although I aim to serve. I enjoy my work and my peers and I bring in cakes to enjoy celebrating our birthdays.

I have breakfast or lunch with good old friends on a regular basis. I love machines, so I have 3 cars and 4 bicycles which I use regularly. I fly some for business, have regular adventure vacations, and visit family. A day seldom goes by without having given me many smiles.

Why in the world would I want to change this?

Retire? Retire from what?

And marry? Yeah, right.



- © 2009 by Willy

Open Your Eyes

Pepito tells his teacher late one afternoon that his cat just had five kittens and that all of them believe in Fidel and the Cuban revolution.

The following morning the proud teacher takes Pepito to see the principal.

"Pepito, tell the principal what you told me yesterday."

"My cat had five kittens, and two of them believe in the revolution."

"Pepito! Yesterday you told me that all five kittens believe in the revolution. How's that?"

"Oh, yes, teacher... but this morning three of them opened their eyes."


[This anecdote was popular in 1959]


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