Well, I'm Awake Now...

Here it is 4:30 AM... my physical pfffftness program put me in bed bright and early last night. Geez, I'm a mess. Well, no time to start turning things around like the present.

I've been engaged in an argument over at another blog to which I am a contributor, or in their parlance, a co-conspirator. I was told I was an alarmist, defeatist, silly etc even by folks of like-mind. It looks like Alan Greensapn is going to ride to my rescue today in a speech. Well, soon as I heard that, I had to make a gloating post.

So now I'm awake.

My friend Gerri called me last night and I did not even return the call. Not much of a way to keep friends. But my gosh, I was TIRED. I'll get hold of her today and ask for forgiveness for what must be the twentieth time.

Work has been stressful. I'm working with a fellow who is basically running off a book of business. When that is done so will my job be done. I'm just feeling too old to go out and look again.

That concern is a good part of the reason I'm starting to focus on physical fitness. I need to raise my endurance levels a lot if I'm going to make it in this environment. This California place is for young folks, and I'm no young folk.

This weekend is the Salinas Airshow... ALRIGHTY! Things that go zoom! I love the smell of JP-A in the morning, it smells like victory! After burners are a turn-on. Feeling your internal organs vibrate as a bunch of F-16s come crashing through the air a hundred feet over your head is just awesome. My innerchild, Bart (as in Simpson) just loves that sort of stuff.

The static displays of the old war birds are wonderful too.

Then there is The Renaissance Faire over in Hollister next weekend.

Then the weekend after that I'll head up to the Sierras to catch some Fall color.

This weekend is Christine's 90th birthday.

So, there is a lot going on that is really good.

But oh my, I need way more energy!

MontereyJohn

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired

I just returned from the Foot Locker where I bought a nice pair of Adidas walking shoes. I am just fed up with having no energy. At my tender age, fiftyeight if you must know, feeling good just does not come for free like it did in the good old days, which I could swear were last week.

I was amazed when I went into the stores, Big 5 Sports and Foot Locker, what a MESS they were. They both looked like a teenager's bedroom. It was kind of depressing.

Further, the shoes are not on the floor. You look at the display shoe and then you ask someone to go get it in your size. I guess boosting shoes must be a problem. The sales person disappears into the back room and you wait for the verdict, have they got the style I want in my size? They did not have the number of sales people they needed, so there was much waiting around. Drum roll please. If they do not have your size in that shoe, then you start over. This process could go on forever.

But, I found what I wanted, and so here I sit proud as can be in my new shoes... blogging. Man, I can feel the increased speed and muscle tone. The heart rate must be all the way up to 75. We're pumping here boy!

I'm telling myself I'll go out after dinner.

I have noticed the decline in my physical condition over the last year in particular. I used to be a reasonably fit guy all my life. But now? I get winded and my legs hurt without much effort being put into walking. Kind of sounds like heart and vascular stuff, doesn't it?

My last physical in July was fine. That means I'm not going to keel over anytime in the immediate future. But as for quality of life, the salad days are way in my past.

Time to get going!

MontereyJohn

Adventures in Blog-Tech

Welllll... Last night I thought I'd try to go to the next level, Trackbacks.

What a fiasco.

I know nothing about code, so I went to Haloscan and tried their auto-install for Blogger. I decided on that provider when I saw the trackback festival going on with some of my favorite blogs. The auto-install was not functioning, so I screwed up my nerve and manually installed the code in my template.

When I previewed the main screen, sure enough, there were the Haloscan comment/track back buttons. Cool! I'm becoming a wiz here!

So, I closed the Blogger comments and prepared myself for my new adventure.

Then I tried to "ping" one of the blogs... zonk! Nothing! The error message said the target site was not a proper trackback URL. The URL was a Haloscan site! How could it not be a proper URL?

I dunced it around for a while. Still no pingy thingie. Grrrrrrrr...

Woke up this morning and tried again, same error message. Haloscan had a very helpful message board that had a post that they were aware of the issue and asked for examples. There was no solution offered.

So, I once more screwed up my digital nerve and removed the damn code from the template and reactivated the Blogger comments button.

Voila, I'm back where I started, by the grace of God.

So, you all have a fine day, and DO NOT mess with the template code in your blog without having a good stiff drink handy to steady your nerves.

Monterey John

Memories (Sifting Ashes?)

I spent a couple evenings starting to scan old pictures. I thought it was time to preserve some of these memories for posterity (like anyone would care other than me). It is a bittersweet experience. Looking at places enjoyed and likely never to be seen again, people who have come and gone, seeing what I used to look like and then looking in the mirror... time marches on.

Seasons?

It is so weird to be coming up on the first day of Fall and I have not had a summer. We basically have one season here on The Central Coast. It's never hot and it's never cold. It totally screws up my sense of time.

I had a few days of summer when I went over Pacheco Pass to go to Sacramento. It gets HOT over there in The Valley... 100 degrees plus regularly. That climate is less than an hour's drive away. But here on The Coast the range is 65-75 year in and year out. One day is the same as any other with the exception of the fog, and in the season, rain.

The hardwood trees, of which there are a few, mostly birches and gums, are starting to turn. (The California oak, the dominant tree in this area, is an evergreen.) But there is no cold to go with the leaves turning. They are just reacting to the shorter days.

So I find myself asking where the summer went. It didn't go anywhere as we didn't have one. I think I miss the seasons and will head up into the Sierras to at least experience Fall sometime in October.

Is there such a thing as too perfect?

Sadness and Gratitude

At the end of the day today a man walked into our office. He was obviously intoxicated. He talked to me for a moment. He said he "needed a friend," and asked if he could talk to me "one-on-one." He sat down in one of the guest chairs and then began to complain of chest pains. He told me he recently had stints put in his heart.

It was apparent that the man was in need of some sort of help whether the chest pains were real or not.

I called 911 and the EMTs were on the scene within minutes. They examined him and started a line. They got him on a gurney and put a mask on him. He was out the door within minutes.

I was surprised at how cool and calm I was. However, memories of all sorts flooded through me. Twentyone years ago I stopped drinking.

Had it not been for the grace of God and many of his helpers, the man on the gurney could have been me. I too could be heading to a hospital for the xth time. I too could be slowly dying. I too could be without hope.

But instead of being hauled off on a gurney, I am here to celebrate the beginning of life of my grandchild.

It's just one of those days.

God grant me the sernity to accept the things I can not change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

MontereyJohn

Ava Lee Wilson

Need I say anything at all... other than to identify the players? Baby Ava, and mom, Sue and my son, The Dad, Will.

Announcing the Arrival of Ava Lee Wilson

Time to change the style on this blog, we are no longer awaiting the birth of my first grandchild, she is here, and she is absolutely beautiful!

Please meet Ava Lee Wilson who arrived about 12:15 this morning with a fighting weight of 7 1/2 pounds, 19", beautifully formed, dark hair, and, for the moment, blue eyes just like her grandpa (and, oh yes, her mom).

More later.

The Gulf Coast Disaster - An Appeal to Give

Normally I'm documenting my life, delighting in the beauty of The Central Coast and the rest of California and other happy things. But tonight as I watch the ongoing tragedy in New Orleans and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast, I feel a profound sadness. How horrible it all is.

So let's get out our checkbooks. There are a million fellow citizens without something to eat, without something to drink and nowhere to go. I only wish we could do more.

Pray for them, pray for our country and pray for the good people rushing to their assistance... and GIVE what you can.

MontereyJohn