Wowza.

So today is the yin of yesterday’s yang outside (and in more ways than one). Sunny and warm. Instead of hearing rumbling thunder and rain, it’s all about birds chirping and the back-and-forth drone of some not-so-distant neighbor’s lawn mower. Looking out the window I see that everything has been washed clean and I begin to get a true feeling that spring has finally sprung in Texas.

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“Rollercoasters are intentionally designed to be uncomfortable,” I remember my ground school skydive instructor saying last Saturday morning. “They do all that rising and sudden falling and jerking you around so you’ll purposely get that weird, uncomfortable sensation in your belly.”

Hmmm…

So I can see with a little reflection that that makes some perfect sense. I mean, wouldn’t it be a little silly to get on a roller coaster and feel…nothing? I guess then there would be nothing “roller” about it then? Just all “coaster.” The ride would be more like a train, I suppose –flat and uneventful and boring. But it seems I’m forever on a rollercoaster of sorts. You know, riding out the good times/bad times and going up and then waaaaaaay down and then up, up, up yet again.

Uncomfortable, but at least… not too real awful boring most of the time either.

Heh, I don’t know where I’m going with this. If I did I’d say so.

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So last night I fired up the grill and popped a top under the cover of the carport out of the intermittent rain. After slowly downing a couple of brewskies waiting for the mesquite wood to burn down to cherry red coals I put on a nice, plump ribeye steak that I split in half with my youngest son. Heh, and we split a baked ‘tater too. Funny how my appetite –both for the beer and for food- has waned. Neither one seemed to do the Thang for me like they used too.

Weird.

But I’m really glad now that they don’t. I guess it’s because I have new Thangs in my life now.

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I’ve always, all my life, lived in this fantasy world that I was, well…invincible.

I mean, I always lived under the illusion that I could -without consequences- climb trees, drive fast, not wear a seat belt, ride motorcycles sans a helmet, chain smoke, drink like a fish, have unprotected…well, I think you get the general idea.

The thing was, I’ve always felt I was different –that I was the exception to all the rules. Heh, I was always good to go man!

And so far, so good –most of the time, anyway.

Heh, wasn’t it Tom Petty who said if ya never slow down you never grow old? But the thing is now, in my middle age, I can see that a lot of shit HAS to slow down and come to a complete, screeching STOP if you have any designs on the good aspect about growing old.

…but dammit! Just not everything.      ; )