I have always been a little bit impulsive, not so much with the big or major things in life but the little things.  Maybe that is just another way to say I am not self-disciplined enough or just don’t like to plan my leisure time.  I was fortunate because Sharyl shared that spontaneity.  Her illness forced a lot of changes; we had to plan a little bit and to have a lot more structure in our lives.  I think I forgot how fun it is to be impulsive.

The last time I was here I talked about starting to do things because I wanted to.  I think some of the impulsiveness is also returning.

Last Saturday evening I decided I would like to have Sunday lunch at BJ’s, not the one on the other side of town.  I wanted to go to BJ’s in Lewisville, Texas.  If Sharyl would have been here she probably would have looked at me like I was crazy and said “you wanta do what?”  She would have given it a moment’s thought and said, “Let me change clothes and get my purse.”

Many times the trip is more fun than the destination, thanks to GB and Deb, this time the destination was more fun than the trip. I may just go back to Lewisville for lunch or maybe dinner someday.

A few weeks ago while I was at the lake I started one of the boats. It just seemed like the thing to do at the time.  I didn’t bother to pull one little plug and drain the water out of the engine before I came home; after all I was going back in a couple days.

Before I left Lewisville I checked the weather forecast. I got a little bit nervous about what those freezing temperatures could do to my baby.  You guessed it, instead of I 35 north I took US 69/75 northeast for about three and a half hours.

Trust me on this one.  If you need to go from McKinney, TX to McAlester, OK don’t do it on Sunday afternoon. Almost everyone is in a hurry (it would be better if everyone was); traffic is bumper to bumper.  There are a lot of little towns and all those little towns have city police playing “cops and speeders”.  Caney, OK population 199 and not even visible from the highway had not one but two police cars on the highway, I guess they were keeping the citizens of Caney safe.

I spent about five minutes with the boat; found my way up to I 40; set the cruise at an appropriate speed and started the last two hours of my little Sunday drive.  I did dinner at a Subway in the convenience store; you know the one that is always at the next exit on the Interstate.

I am still planning (everything is not spontaneous) that little run I talked about a couple or three posts ago.  The weather has delayed that one.  I want to go north and take care of a couple of bucket list items.  I guess the Sunday drive (535 miles) provided a little training; kind of like getting ready to run a marathon, but I don’t run.

You probably guessed by now that I’m having one of those nights.   Can’t sleep so I might as well take out my frustration on this old keyboard.

I hope your Easter holiday is everything you want it to be. Please keep me in your prayers.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave

Throughout life we all do a wide range of things for a variety of reasons.  Some of the common reasons are:  I had to, I needed to, I wanted to or maybe it just seemed like the thing to do at the time.  My experience with the last one is usually not good.  Interpreted it means “God I should have been smarter than that.”

The past year or so the only reason I have done anything is because I needed to. I’m not really talking about things like laundry, housecleaning, and flowerbeds, those will forever be “have to” or “need to” things.  My contact with the outside world has been limited and has only happened because I knew I needed to do some of those things.  Thanks to some very good friends and family members for initiating most of those events.  They have been enjoyable even if I did them because I needed to not because I wanted to.

Recently I have had the opportunity to spend time with some old friends and some new friends.  I initiated the contact and I did it because I wanted to, not because I needed to.  I enjoyed the time immensely; I hope my friends enjoyed my company. I didn’t really give it any thought at the time but later it occurred to me that I did those things because I wanted to.  I guess it is just part of the “getting better” process, I just hope it continues.

I know there will be bad days in the future but they are easier to deal with because the light at the end of the tunnel gets just a little brighter each day.

It has been about ten days since I’ve been here.  I still haven’t made that little run I talked about last time.  It is still on the agenda, life kind of got in the way; I’ll probably do it in the next couple weeks or so.

In addition to spending the quality time with friends, I have been in a real battle with my allergies.  I’m still not sure who is winning.  I didn’t have many allergy problems the last four years because I spent most of that time inside away from the elements; I think as I spend more time outside my resistance to those bad things will increase.

You know I have a computer habit; this blog is a bi-product of that habit.  The last anniversary/birthday/Fathers day gift Sharyl gave me (actually she forced me to go buy it) was an IPAD.  I tried to convince her I didn’t need it, I finally bought it just to make her happy.  I absolutely love the thing.  I had used it for a few months and had it set up like I wanted it.  I decided to Sync it with a computer just for backup and I read somewhere you should do that from time to time.  I tried to use one of my laptops.  It didn’t work; I lost everything I had on the IPAD.  It took a little while but I got it back like I wanted it.

After that experience I was reluctant to have the IPAD and that laptop in the same room. Until this week the IPAD was never connected to another computer.  I wanted to run some newer stuff. In order to do so I had to upgrade the operating system.  I had to connect it to a computer to do that upgrade.  I was as nervous as I was the first time I typed a C:\ on an old DOS computer.  It took me about four times as long as it should have but I now have the new system and I didn’t lose anything.

For you WordPress bloggers that read my stuff, if you haven’t tried it and you have an IPAD or IPhone, I think you will like the WordPress app, it makes managing your blog on the portable pretty easy. A word of caution; you may need to upgrade your operating system.

I quit smoking thirty years ago this month.  It was one of the hardest things I have done; I still remember details of the process. For the past three months I have been trying to quit taking the newspaper.  I think this is going to be more difficult than giving up the smokes.

I am kind of impulsive and never know when I will be gone for a few days. A pile of newspapers in the yard is an open invitation for the bad guys to come get some of this guy’s stuff.  I allowed my subscriptions to expire in December then I spent the next few weeks on the phone assuring the circulation department that I didn’t want the paper at any price; it wasn’t a money issue, I didn’t want them to throw a paper in my yard.  Problem solved; wrong.  Last week I got a letter from them. I opened it to see if I owed them money; it said something about complimentary papers.  I pitched it in the trash and forgot about it, until Sunday.  There in my drive was the Sunday Oklahoman and on Monday the Daily Oklahoman.  I called Monday and was assured delivery would stop.  I felt good (kind of like that last cigarette) Tuesday, no paper.  Apparently the Wednesday guy didn’t get the word, they assured me again today that delivery would stop.  I can’t wait to see the Thursday headlines.

Just a little look at what makes the old man’s world spin.

Easter is rapidly approaching, if I don’t make it back before the holiday, I hope you find a basket full of eggs and please remember the real reason we celebrate.

Thanks for riding along.  Please say a prayer for me.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave

Those nights when sleep doesn’t happen have become less frequent, however for some unknown reason tonight is one of them. I usually find myself at the keyboard sharing my thoughts with you when I have one like this.  Tonight, that presents a bit of a problem because, I really don’t have a thought worth sharing.

I guess I will consider it a little test of my blogging skills.

Worst case, I pound the keyboard for an hour, read what I have written, toss it in the recycle bin and get some sleep.

Best case, I pound the keyboard for 30 minutes, read what I have written, think of a title, hit the publish button and get some sleep.

The past seven weeks or so have been a little bumpy.  No I’ll be truthful they have been extremely bumpy.  Those bumps were no surprise and I believe there will be bumps in the road from mid January until early March for the rest of my years.  I also believe the bumps will be less severe next year and even less severe the year after that, but it will never be smooth.

Sometime last summer and again in the fall I talked about three goals. Learning to enjoy the lake again was one of them.  It is different and always will be but I have learned to enjoy my time there and I am looking forward to the spring.

Included in my New Year post was some talk about reflecting and refocusing.  I am using some of that refocus effort to attack the other two goals, weight loss and improving the outside appearance of my home.

My weight is still much closer to what it was five weeks ago than what it was five years ago, but I think I am on the right track. My approach is, nine of these big blue pills for breakfast, fourteen little green ones for lunch and a handful of assorted sizes and colors for dinner.  Not really, I’m trying this new deal called diet and exercise.  I’m just eating a little smarter and getting more exercise, so far it is working, not as fast as I would like but it is working.

Cale and I are on a mission to get the yard (2 acres) back to his Maw Maw’s specifications, we aren’t ready for the “yard of the week” inspection committee but we have made some progress.  I think we are going to lose the old spec sheet on the flowerbeds and just do them in Monkey Grass or Bermuda or something.

We planted three trees this week and I have two to plant at the lake. The trees at home are to replace some we lost.  The ones for the lake are because Sharyl wanted some shade trees there. I bought some that are supposed to grow fast, I thought at my age slow growing trees were not a good idea.

My feet have been itching; I think a road trip may be in the works.  I had planned to return to West Virginia this spring, those plans have changed.  I think I will just go somewhere I’ve never been.  I will go by myself; I still have some stuff I need to figure out and I kind of like to do that out on the open road alone.  Maybe when I go I will find some interesting blog material.

As spring approaches, good people across America are gearing up for the annual “Relay For Life” fundraiser.  I encourage you to get involved in a very worthwhile event, either with your time or a monetary donation or both. Last year I attended the one in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, it was a very heart warming and refreshing experience.

Thanks for riding along; I still need and appreciate your prayers.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave