Loss.

I already know this is going to be a bad idea...

My blood pressure has been really erratic. I have gone back to doing martial arts to get healthier. Ok to look better... But primarily because I now accept my mortality. I know my body has a shelf life.

I do not know how I got this notion, but somehow I think I have maybe about a good 15 years. To some that is morbidly scary, to a few that is a lot of time.

Being around people younger than me, I want to think that their youth and passion rub off on me. My arrogant self though wish that something of me rubs off on them too. One thing in particular:

They should appreciate their youth because it does pass quickly.

In what seems like a blink of an eye, hairlines recede, you get rounder around the belly, eyesight start failing, droopy eyebags, hair where you didn't think hair belonged. Meds of all sort lining your bedside table, pissing with your hand pushing the wall for balance... yeah i thought that I was gonna burn out and not rust... but here I am... rusting away.

But what happens when somebody so bright, and cheerful and full of promise is gone? It effs me up even more. It is like basic rule just got broken. That somebody cut in line. That the world is not right.

As I write this I can feel my blood pressure is getting up there again. I know because I get this throbbing first on my shoulders, then neck then finally my head feels like a bowling ball. Oh the people out there close to my age know this feeling all too well. But I keep writing...   because I know if I stop I will never finish this. Oh yeah, procrastination... it did not seem to leave me with age.

Yeah I am part of THAT demographic now. I used to think people over 29 were old. Yup how stupid.
For a while before I started this particular spiel I said I was going to write my 18 year old self.. but then I knew my 18 year old self... he didn't listen to anybody. Definitely did not care to follow advice. I was the guy who touched the iron even when I was told it was hot. I wanted to burn for my self.

I am in pain. No. Actually I am pissed. The world is not right. Things aren't right. Fly the flag upside down.

There was this trashy Justin Timberlake movie about Time... I knew it was crap but I watched it... because the premise intrigued me. In the movie, people got paid in time. You do work you get paid in minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years. But even in the movie, life was whacked. Some people barely scraped by and some had centuries of time.

I am old. But if I do have just 15 more years left, I should make it count. Because I lost someone who was 19.

The world lost a little bit of it's color last Friday.

The problem is, we think we have enough time.

I feel old.

I took my love and I took it down
I climbed a mountain and I turned around

And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
'Till the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
I'm getting older too

Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I, I built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
I'm getting older too
I'm getting older too

So, take my love, take it down
Oh climb a mountain and turn around
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide will bring you down, down

And If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well maybe the landslide will bring it down
Oh oh, the landslide will bring it down

Time.

I have time for:

 • Facebook 

 • Twitter 

 • Texting 

 • Eating 

 • Listening to music 

 Now notice bullshit wasn't on that list.

Taking One Marble Out (An inspirational story)

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable. A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it: I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say:



"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital" he continued; "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousandmarbles." "You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years." "Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part." "It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays." "I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear."



"Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."



"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."



"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, (...), clear and going (...), good morning!"



You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'm on honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast." "What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."



Author Unknown