ANNIVERSARY TIME!

Tomorrow is a milestone for me! It marks the first birthday of this blog!

I got off to a halting start and sometimes had to publish things I had written and posted on another site. Lately, I seem to have hit my stride. I even published two blogs yesterday. It's gotten easier with time and practice.

More enjoyable too! I absolutely love blogging. Writing my own blogs and commenting on the blogs others write keeps boredom out of my retiree life.

I remember how boring and tedious life became for my father. He was an old retired North Dakota rancher who tried to alleviate the tedium of his life by making crafts out of wood and trying to sell them to people who didn't want to pay enough to cover the materials, let alone the time and work involved. One of his beautiful ship clocks hangs above this desk before which I sit.

Toward the end, he just gave up on the whole thing and sat in a chair day after day, along with my mother, gazing at the changeless walls of my sister's living room and the bedroom they shared. Once in awhile, we or someone else took a little of the boredom away by visiting or my sister and brother-in-law took them for a drive somewhere. Neither of them got their cataracts corrected, so they couldn't even enjoy reading, one of my mother's favorite activities. She couldn't crochet or embroider anymore either. Thanks to modern surgery, I see like I did 50 years ago even though I have to use reading glasses for close up sight.

I don't know what awaits me in my future, but if I have to end my days in anywhere near that condition, I hope I'll be able to get my hands on the right pills to take a handful of and end it all. Self-inflicted suffering and martyrdom makes no sense to me, and if it was OK for an Israelite king to fall on his sword to keep from being captured and humiliated, don't give me any religious crap about how evil it would be for me to do basically the same thing. Of course, if I were in the military and fell on a grenade to save my buddies, I'd be praised as a hero. Just as dead by own design, though.

I've had a lot to say about the insanities I see, and I have a lot more to say. I know only a handful of people ever see my gems of what I like to regard as a bit of wisdom. I can only do what I can do. but it gives a purpose to my life.

I'm writing this tonight because tomorrow I'm getting up early for another of my favorite activities -- going to garage, yard and estate sales. I'll be on my own tomorrow. Phyllis' adopted Yavapai Apache son is coming up from Phoenix on the casino bus from Sun City to get his tribal per capita check at tribal headquarters and spend a few hours with her at the casino, then back to Sun City. I stay away because I'm a "downer" at the casino. She sets a budget and often wins -- if I'm not around. She's sure to lose if I am. She can give Mike my regards.

I hope you'll keep visiting my blog and that others will start. Thanks for following it to all who do.