Big Day

My wife is flying in from Florida today.  I'm glad she is coming up to NY.  I need to go into the hospital tomorrow for an operation and I was not thrilled at the idea of having to manage everything afterwards on my own. She is way better at keeping things moving in such situations than I am and anyway I like having her around to look after me.

I miss my daughter and I'm thinking of her right now.  I really need to get the journal started

The Next Book....

Beginning today I'll be reading Getting Things Done by David Allen.  There are 256 pages and I'm committing to reading 15 pages daily.  My target complete date is March 14th.  What I hope to get out of this book is some inspiration and tips for squeezing all the important things into every day.  I need to do this.

I don't know how much time I have left to live but time is a conscious factor in my life now.  As a younger man time seemed to be an inexhaustible resource.  I am now quite aware that this is a very incorrect assumption with far reaching consequences.  To start my spiritual journey I'm focusing on what was known in my time as the 7 Deadly Sins which are:

1. Pride-excessive belief in one's own abilities to the point that the individual's ability to recognize the need for the grace of God is interfered with.  Pride has been called the sin from which all others arise.
2. Envy-the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situations
3. Gluttony-is the inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires
4. Lust-is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body
5. Anger-is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury.  It is also known as wrath
6. Greed-is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual.  It is also called avarice or covetousness
7. Sloth-is the avoidance of physical or spiritual or physical work

Although the list of the 7 deadly sins has it's roots in Catholicism, it doesn't really matter what you think about organized religion or spirituality, these notions definitely have a bad vibe and have caused endless human suffering and grief.  Oddly enough they have also served as inspiration for hundreds, maybe thousands, of books, movies and plays.

My plan is to honestly evaluate myself against each of these behaviors and ensure I'm not immersed in any of them.  Right now I feel the closest draw to Gluttony, Anger and Sloth.  My next ring of trouble includes Pride, Lust and Greed with Envy a distant number 7.  We'll see if the evaluation changes the pecking order.

Now back to "Getting Things Done".  Following up on my self evaluation I need to assume that my days are numbered (and they are), then determine what I will do today if tomorrow is my last day on the planet.

Well enough for now.  As Arnold might say "I'll be back"

Slan...... 

 

A Repost from 2/14/2008

A Repost from 2/14/2008

Great Moments In Gender Sports

"I demanded a strange bride-gift such as no woman before me had dared ask of a man....to wit I desired a husband without meanness, without jealousy and without fear"....Madb (Mauve) from the Tain Bo Cualnge, a great Irish epic -----first documented circa 11th century

Abducted by Paris from Menelaus of Sparta, Helen became the reason for the Trojan Wars and was reknowned as "the face that launced a thousand ships" She also plays a significant role in both the Illiad and the Odessey---circa 5th century. Nations go to war over women like you. It's just a form of appreciation"......from a modern pop song

The plain fact is men have always liked women and love to please them. However, there has always been a major difference in how we each look at life, in what we value and in what we offer in tribute. Lysistrada, one of my all time favorite stories" is a wonderful study of the clash in perception of what pleases a woman (and what can happen when you don't succeed). For a more modern version of this tale try "To Marry an Irish Rogue" by Lisa Hendrix.

I'm certain that after nearly the entire civilized world went to war to claim Helen....men would call this a romantic notion worthy of the full attention and favors that not only Helen, but any woman, of these nation's might have to offer. On the other hand, dare I even write what I believe women think of such endeavors.

Likewise, the Tain is in a sense the Irish version of the Illiad and centers around the exploits of Ailill, Madb and Cúchulainn along with a cast of other characters. Why this is relevant is that Madb is a very influencial woman and daughter of a powerful Irish King. She marries under her own terms, finds a man who adores her, treats her as an equal and together they go off to conquer Ulster and take possession of the great bull, Donn Cuailnge. If you want to know why you will have to read the story. Bottom line though (from a man's perspective) is that Madb could have had anything she wanted by just taking her lead from Ailill. Instead, she wants the bull, so Connaught and Ulster go to war. Everybody ends up a mess or dead and in the end Madb is still miserable. The good news is that Helen and Madb both inspired some of the greatest literature in the world. The bad news is that the characterer differences between men and women haven't changed much over the centuries.....and for my money I hope these differences always remain. At heart, I am (and will remain) a caveman romantic as are most of my friends. We love our women, want to provide for them, keep them safe and out of harm's way. I want to be king of the cave and have my word accepted as law. I don't want to sit and watch sad movies, or shop six months before Christmas Eve, I don't always remember birthdays, anniversaries or the date and time of my first kiss (I do remember who though.....trophy!). It was sweet, sweet Christine Maloney.....at 13 years old I thought she was a goddess, ahhhhhhhhhh! Oops, back to reality, because it pleases my wife I try to be attentive and always let her know where I am, I'll do my best to remember stuff and I try to listen. I really do try to do all this sensitive stuff, but at the end of the day I'd rather just bring home a fish that I caught myself, have her tell me that it was the finest fish she ever saw and then kiss me for being her hero! Oops....back to reality AGAIN!

Later....................

A Not So Very Presidential Day

Here it is 12:00 PM on President's Day and I'm not doing much of anything.  I awoke to snow....what a surprise.  I sort of tired of being in snow and am looking forward to signs of Spring.  I'll try and get some things done today, but I don't feel very motivated.  I have some ideas as to why, but too soon to say for sure.  I'll just need to push through it as with every other similar time

Am I Serious?

Ride my bicycle 100 miles from Babylon, Long Island to Montauk Point.  I'm not sure yet if this is a question or a statement.  I registered back in January to ride in this event which is being held on June 18th.  As of this post there are 117 days until ride day which means there are approximately 100 days to prepare

Why do I want to do this?  Riding to Montauk in a car is a pretty far drive and still beautiful.  So what is the allure of making this journey on a bicycle. I don't know.  I've done several of these long distance rides but never 100 miles. I'm 60 years old now.  Is 100 miles a little out of my reach?

I never did this when I was in my 20's, 30's 40's or 50's.  Why now?  I think precisely because I am 60 now.  That is correct, spell it; S-I-X-T-Y.  Somehow, the thought of what 60 should feel like and what I actually feel like at 60 don't reconcile.  Don't get me wrong, I am now paying for a multitude of sins in my younger years.  My knees hurt and I've recently had surgery to repair a torn meniscus. I shoveled snow several weeks back and tore a muscle in my left arm and now I'm headed into Huntington Hospital to repair a hernia that was originally repaired several years back. I have problems with my blood pressure and my sugar.  This just doesn't sound like the promising physical profile for an athletic event like riding a bicycle 100 miles in a single day.  Even if I do a good job of preparing, I'm looking at nearly 7 hours of bicycle riding at 15 miles per hour.  I'm more of a 12 to 14 mile an hour kind of rider so I'm looking at nearly 8 hours.  This is a major undertaking.  Am I up to it?  Am I committed to even trying?

Signing up was the easy part.  I need to give myself a hard stop date to decide if I'm committed to this event or not. If I am then a training plan and execution is in order.  If not, then I need to walk away gracefully and blame my surrender to being 60.  I think resolution here is still very much a question. Am I serious?  We shall see.

By the way Blue Point Brewing is a major sponsor of this bicycling event, ergo the logo up front

Slan....

Thoughts on a Sunday Afternoon

Well the day has sort of faded away without me accomplishing anything of note.  I did do the wash and mail a few letters.  Beyond that the day has been sort of a lull. I would guess I have mixed feeling on this.  I've decided that I'm going to try this journaling business for certain. Don't know where it will lead or what will be accomplished, but I feel an urge to follow this path, at least for a while. 

I just finished reading a book titled Journal to the Self by Kathleen Adams.  To practice each of the techniques in the toolbox section of the book I'm going to use them in turn and see what comes of the experience.  The first one we will try is called Springboards.

Springboards are designed to aid in focusing one's thinking around a central theme or topic, similar to the way a springboard or diving board launches a diver into a specific trajectory and direction.  There are two types of Springboards; questions and statements.  Questions tend to stimulate right brain or emotionally driven thoughts while statements focus your attention on facts and demonstrative thinking.

I need to think of a topic to use as a Springboard and come back to write my post

Later.....

Just A Thought

I received this Blue Mountain card from  Maryann on Valentine's Day this year. Maryann and I  have known each other since 1969.  In retrospect our relationship has not been one of tender love or the sappy love like the kind they put you to sleep with on the television.  It has not always been a collaborative love where we would sit and work all our problems out together and come up with the optimal solution.



I would say our relationship has been more an evolution fueled by confrontation and bounded by some loosely scripted rules always subject to change.  It has been an interesting love and one I'm thankful for

Slan.....

Here again after nearly 3 years.

How quickly the time passes.  I've been up here in New York since September 2008.  I work for a company here that specializes in the development and sale of software to automobile dealerships.  I like what I do and I hope that I'll be doing it for a while yet to come.  I've rediscovered this BLOG and I think at least for a while now I'll come out here from time to time and shape my thoughts or record an observation or two.  I like the idea that I can write in public for the world to see yet rarely if ever be seen.

My first order of business is to put some order to my life and maybe, just maybe, get some insight into what I'm all about these days.  I'm really just not sure.  I hope over time some patterns will emerge and I can say with some certainty "Now I understand!"