Categories I Use (click to see those posts)
- Adventure (42)
- art and illustration (15)
- At Home in Portland (183)
- audiobook (1)
- biography – autobiography (7)
- book challenge (5)
- books (176)
- Classical Music (14)
- Compass (3)
- Current Reading (118)
- e-book (1)
- fantasy (60)
- film (1)
- film music (13)
- Friday Forgotten Book (166)
- gardening (6)
- graphic novel (10)
- Humor (15)
- Jazz (2)
- Music (10)
- mystery (207)
- New Arrivals (160)
- Non-fiction (15)
- Personal Opinion (282)
- Poetry (3)
- Pulp (13)
- Quilts (5)
- reading (162)
- Review (203)
- Saturday Soundtrack (23)
- science fiction (121)
- short stories (15)
- sports (2)
- Steampunk (3)
- the Move (14)
- Travel (14)
- Uncategorized (19)
Blogroll
- Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine
- CleanTechna
- Davy Crockett's Almanack of Mystery, Adventure and The Wild West
- Ed Gorman's blog
- Fantasy Book Critic
- George Kelley's blog
- Laurie Powers' Wild West
- Lexicographer's Rules, the
- Meanderings and Sketches
- Mystery Fanfare
- NESFA Press
- not the baseball pitcher…
- Pattinase
- Pretty Sinister Books
- Reading California Fiction
- Rough Edges
- Scott A. Cupp
- SF Signal
- Stainless Steel Droppings
- Sweet Freedom, the Todd Mason blog
- The Cap'n's Blog
- The Rap Sheet
- Whatever
- WordPress.com
Archives
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
In a couple of weeks I’ll be speaking at a memorial service for one of my high school classmates. So you can bet I’m thinking about the same things, Rick.
This is timely for me as I stare down 62 on January 1. I am only one age each year. I’ve always found that annoying.
My wake-up brush with mortality came a few years ago with the death of Lance Casebeer. I had known people who died, of course, but this was the first death of a friend. To see his incredible book collection broken up and sold piecemeal was excruciating, and pains me to this day. Since then, my own book buying has trickled almost to nothing. I have nightmares about strangers picking through my books at a garage sale after I’m gone.
I have some friends who have passed away (my chosen euphemism), it’s never easy, and when they are younger than I, even more difficult.
I’ve lived more years than my father did. When I reached that age it had quite an impact on me.
All the more reason to do the things you want to do now! That’s my theory. No more waiting for “someday” which may never come.
As long as we have our health and can afford it, we’re going to do the things we want to do, like going to Jazzfest every year.
Time may be getting shorter but in this economy, surprisingly enough we’re in a position to do it so we are.
Ten good years since I retired and I’m taking it now a day at a time, hoping they’ll add up to a few more good years. After my 25th, didn’t pay much attention to birthdays until my 62nd and then my 65th. Hope you have many more!
David – thanks, same for you. This one wasn’t one of those round numbers, but for some reason it really made me think about my mortality.
Jeff -Yep, yours is a good philosophy.
I’m a believer in the Jeff Meyerson Philosophy: DO IT NOW!
The problem is, George, I can’t do everything at once, so priorities have to be established. Read a short story in that collection I’m working on, or listen to that new CD of symphonies, or clean the house, or watch the movie that just came from Netflix, or…?
Time passing comes under the heading (for me) of things we don’t need to stress over – like, why open the bills that come in the mail on Friday and just because the phone is ringing doesn’t mean you have to answer it.
I don’t celebrate my birthday and resent being reminded of it. Don’t celebrate New Years as I don’t drink and find banging on pots and pans out in the street at midnight just doesn’t do it for me anymore.
Finally: Kurzweil predicts effective immortality by 2045 and I figure I can hang on till them.
We are of similar but not the same mind on this one. I do celebrate the new year, not by banging on pats and pans but by trying to renew my sense of self and vow to do better. That usually lasts a few days. Unless I’m expecting a call, I don’t feel compelled to answer the phone when it rings: half the time it’s some yahoo trying to sell me something anyway (I have a land line). Whomever it is can leave a message. I’m not so stressed over the passage of time as the amount of it left.