Sometimes you are Super Heros. In 1953, three budding superheroes stood in front of their parents’ cameras. My brother Jim, myself, and first cousin Ed Westfall were captured on film wearing makeshift capes. Sometimes you are Cowboys. Sometimes you are young teenagers. Sometimes you are older teenagers. But eventually, you are old men. You grow old, your body changes. Best captured by this Doctor Seuss poem.
I started the weekend of June 2-3, 2018 in a coma. Revived an hour later I then had a basilar skull fracture with “Battle’s Sign” (bruising of the mastoid bone behind the left ear) and a lumbar fracture. As Monty Python would say “She turned me into a newt … but I got better”. Undaunted and fully recovered, I then had a complete left femur fracture requiring a traction splint fashioned from an oar. The next day I had a left humerus…
Took a step toward Gunkholing this month. Uh, Tom, what is Gunkholing again? Glad you asked. According to Wikipedia “Gunkholing is a boating term referring to a type of cruising in shallow or shoal water, meandering from place to place, spending the nights in coves. The term refers to the gunk, or mud, typical of the creeks, coves, marshes, sloughs, and rivers that are referred to as gunkholes. While not necessary, gunkholers typically seek out the serenity of isolated anchorages over the crowds of marinas and…
Finally finished a Todo when I got a Round Tuit Advents were a popular, top-of-the-line stereo speaker in the 1970s produced by Henry Kloss, the inventor of the acoustic suspension loudspeaker. In addition to founding the Advent Corporation in 1967, he also founded Acoustic Research and KLH. Upon starting internship and residency in 1976 at Riverside Hospital in Newport News, I became interested in them and with my first salary (a whopping $13,000 a year for a 60 to 80-hour workweek) I…
Horizon’s Unlimited is an International Organization of adventure travelers, people who take off and travel around the world, mostly on motorcycles. While they have events all over the world, the Spring HU East Coast Meeting was in Appomattox Virginia from Thursday, April 26th to Sunday, April 29th. Not being a world traveler, nor an adventurous, rugged motorcycle type, I thought “I want to spend time with these characters!” These guys were only 75 miles away, so I loaded up my 1991…
Cruiser’s University is a boating education program for sailors and power boaters held at the US Naval Academy twice a year during the Annapolis Spring and Fall Sailboat Shows. This past Thursday, April 19th through Sunday, April 22nd, I spent four days attending four 90 minutes classes each day, selected from over 50 classes taught by very knowledgeable, experienced sailors. America’s Great Loop? What? Two years ago, I met a physician at a cocktail party and we started discussing…
Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be better To paint a picture or write a letter, Bake a cake or plant a seed, Ponder the difference between want and need? Dust if you must, but there’s not much time, With rivers to swim and mountains to climb, Music to hear and books to read, Friends to cherish and life to lead. Dust if you must, but the world’s out there, With the sun in your eyes, the wind in…
For the past several years I have been humorously predicting a financial catastrophe when I retire, partly because we are way overdue for a correction and partly because continuing to work is the best option for preventing poverty in old age. Keep the paycheck coming.
Sunday, April 2, 2018, I spent the day with John Kalinowski, the skipper of Sleigh Ride, the 32 foot Sabre sailboat down in Deltaville VA that I raced on the past two years. We “bent” on the sails (a nautical term for attaching the sails), tuned the rig (equally tightened the stays that hold the mast up using a metal gauge), replaced the fuel filter, disassembled a recalcitrant winch, and replaced an impeller, the rotating rubber piece inside the seawater coolant pump….
Another life milestone. On Friday, March 30, 2018, I retired from the University of Mary Washington where I served as Director of Student Health/University Physician for eleven years. I have been in school and/or working continuously for more than 50 years, yet on this day, I relinquished my educational degrees, my medical license, my professional standing. I am no longer a physician and a productive member of society living a life of structure and purpose. And … I accepted getting old. Will…