100knottape

Once long ago, I thought about the defining moment when one becomes an old fart. After chewing on it and invoking thoughts of the old farts that I knew for reference, I decided that old farthood begins at or about 55 years of age. That ought to allow for some variance, I reasoned.

Of course, these thoughts were worked out from the comfortable and safe vantage point of twenty-something years of age.

I had a minor epiphany a while back as I waited in line in a small convenience store. I was waiting to make my purchases and get on with my day, but there were folks in front of me who were taking up everybody's time as they idly picked out scratch & win tickets with the care usually reserved for when one buys an automobile. I've heard these tickets called a tax on the stupid, and I tend to agree in principle. I might revise my opinion if I actually won something, but since that's never happened the few times I've played... I came very close to speaking my thoughts and asking them to please hurry up and decide while I was still young. I realized with a start that I probably didn't have any youthful features left. Then I remembered the mile marker that I had defined for myself years before.

Damn, there comes a time in every man's life when he just has to take the bull by the tail and face the situation. Like it or not, and by my own youthful, misguided yardstick, I have arrived. And for some reason that frankly baffles the hell out of me, a friend of mine suggested that I write a blog. About me? Well I tend to live my life by my own lights and that involves a couple of concepts that I believe shouldn't be in as short supply as I notice when I take a look around.

I consider myself to be rather unremarkable. You can be as self-important as you want, but we all look pretty much the same after 6 months in the ground, so what's the point in chest-pounding?

I say what I see most times. I see no point to calling a spade a spade when the correct term for the circumstances might be to call it an effing shovel instead. I'm not being cranky, just honest.

And I try to find some humor in life. Without that, most of us are looking at 22,000 days or so of being miserable. Take a look around or just in your local paper. My conclusion is that a lot of us are taking ourselves far too seriously. I usually start my day with a chuckle, & I get that for free in the mirror when I shave. If I don't feel like laughing, hell, I grow a beard. It happens from time to time.

When I'm not busy being an old fart, I'm a bit of a photographer and I tend to ride a motorcycle for basic transportation and giggles, local climate notwithstanding. I'm not into "the lifestyle" (see Self-Importance above), I just like to ride a bike. My favorite ones have dead bugs squished on the front of them. It means they've actually been around. Like mine and for better or worse, like me.

Without the uh, bugs, of course.