Some of you have asked about the delay in updating here and whether it has anything to do with the Substack.
You’ll find part of the answer in Describe Yourself With One Word- GenXish but it won’t cover everything.
Nor will reading excerpts such as:
No one is obligated to be here. No one is obligated to read and this isn’t an airport so you don’t have to announce your departure.
But if you do choose to leave and ask for me to cancel your subscription I will sentence you to 3 months of hard labor in Cleveland and or charge you $100 per letter of my most recent post.
If you are from Cleveland I might force you to get baked goods from a real bakery because Davis can’t figure out how to make a good Chinese cookie.
I’ll also remind you that Pop is a description for a father and that your children say soda or use name of the actual soft drink.
But let’s go back to our conversation about writing online.
I can’t blame it on any one thing but a natural confluence of events and experiences that made me wake up and realize it has been a minute since I updated this.
The Season Of Virgos
I woke up Monday and noted it was the last day of August and remembered I know a few people who were born that day.
Briefly considered whether I would send a birthday greeting and got distracted by a text letting me know the garage door repairman was on his way.
Saturday afternoon I discovered the spring was broken when I tried to open it so I could hit the gym.
When it didn’t lift I disengaged it from the opener and muscled it open myself. Had anyone filmed me they would have seen the same Cheshire cat grin I must have worn at five when I lifted something heavy.
The difference between then and now besides the obvious is that in February I had surgery to repair a torn distal tendon.
It’s technically past six months and supposed to be fully healed but I have been cautious with my rehab.
Anyhoo, I didn’t think twice about using it to lift the door and I didn’t feel any pain so that feat made it clear to me I can push harder than I have been.
I added it to my list of things I am grateful for. I have a mental list I sometimes run through prior to closing my eyes.
****
Sometimes I look at my reflection and think about how strange it is to be in the latter part of my fifties. Young people see me as old and old people see me as not quite young, but not quite old either.
As someone else said we’re the freshman class of the old people but unlike high school I know so much more about who I am than I did then.
And I recognize changes and things that are about to change far faster than I did then.
That is the benefit of experience. That is the benefit of a lot of life and of almost dying. That is the benefit of being awake.
Communication
Someone asked me about a few people I lost touch with and whether I had any plans to reconnect.
I shrugged my shoulders and said that most days I say there is no fucking way I’ll be the first to reach out, short of hearing there is some sort of emergency they can reach out or keep listening through the wires.
And then I laughed and said I reserve the right to change my mind without any logic or reason for doing so.
“Does that mean you are looking for an excuse to connect?”
I laughed and said I don’t need an excuse. I generally do what I want without looking for reasons to explain.
And if I don’t want to do something I generally don’t do it.
That is one of the benefits of being part of the freshman class of old people. I woke up and remembered what I had forgotten.
That is all you get here, got to update the Substack too.
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