Stuff I Miss
I must admit that I'm a little disappointed that due to age and illness there are things that I can no longer do.
The Lord allowed me twenty years to work on my art. I made a prayer which asked the Lord if he would allow me to live I would consistently pursue art until I was eighty. We both managed to honor the contract. However, today I think that my pursuit of art is over. In my present condition, it is very tiring…and I suspect the world will get along just fine without my artistic contributions; but I do miss it a little.
I miss playing golf. As a practical matter that ended a few years ago. I recall the day I knew I had to give it up. I was always a terrible golfer, but I enjoyed the friendships and interactions with fellow golfers. I still feel that I could play reasonably, but for only a brief time.
Again, so be it.
I miss a little not being able to go on vacations. Our favorite trips were to New Orleans. It was very entertaining for us. There are two reasons I can't go back: my health and New Orleans has become dangerous.
I love to gamble. Casinos are my Disneyland. Because of my health problems, going to a casino is out of the question. I was hoping the state legislature would allow casinos other than the three Indian casinos. That didn't happen. I was also hoping that the legislature would allow Texas residents to participate in online gambling which is legal in many states now. Nope. Oh well.
I miss our, Linda and mine, drives through our hometown, Somerville. We counted cats (see http://oldartguy.com/Counting_Cats.html) and inspected the progress and regression of our community. Today, it's just not worth it---not the town's fault: it's doing fine.
I miss riding to Brenham to make a stop at Walmart and often Walgreens? I quit driving several years ago, which I don't miss. I'm strictly a passenger now. I'm sure I'm quite capable of driving today, but who cares. I just guard the car while Linda touches stuff before she buys it. As for my shopping, Amazon is a blessing. I do miss the short trips with Linda to Brenham.
I miss visiting with friends in their homes or in restaurants. We used to eat at a local restaurant at least once a week. We were usually accompanied by friends. I guess I could still do this, but I also suspect it would take a pretty long time to recover from the outing. We order a lot of food via telephone. Of course, Linda picks it up. We do have friends who pick up meals and we eat together in our home. I enjoy that.
One thing I really miss is being able to repair things and build things. I remodeled our home years ago: it needs it again. It's hard to find people to do home repair work, and if you do, they are expensive.
I'm grateful I started writing---essays, fictional short stories, and poems---years ago. I don't think I'm knocking Shakespeare off his throne, but I do okay. That's something I can still do. I don't know whether I'm getting better at it or not, but I'm definitely getting faster: I have twenty new essays for the current issue of Old Art Guy.
I still maintain my website, http://oldartguy.com/Home_1.html. The website has always taken a lot of time, but it's mainly computer work which is not exhausting. This will probably end suddenly when my old computer dies. It's fourteen years old now. The software program won't operate on newer machines and things on the internet change so regularly, I expect my website, oldartguy.com, will suddenly be no more…well, it will continue after I'm dead and gone as long as someone remembers to pay the bills. I presently have forty-eight guest authors and myself writing pieces for the site and sixty-eight artists who have made contributions of their work. I'm a little reminded of the old joke about a fellow about to be hung who said, “If it weren't for the honor of being hung, I would probably decline the opportunity,” but I still need a place in which to share my writing.
One thing that I'm grateful that I can still do is talk. Come by for a visit, and I'll give you a demonstration.
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