And again welcome to ā NTOOā. IĀ can not tell you that IĀ remember every stupid and dumb thing that I have done in life, but some of the more epic ones, can just never be completely put toĀ rest. On all accounts that is probably a good thing , because it should keep me from making the same mistake more than once,Ā but not so much! This journey called life has been fun packed,Ā with some heart ache mixed in along the way.Ā IĀ think life is like most things, we get out of it, what we put into it. The principle is reaping and sowing. If you choose to live your life on the sidelines,Ā then life will pass you by, and when you get to the end, you will wonder where all the time went too. And the other extreme isĀ true as well,Ā Ā if you burn the candle at both ends,Ā you may burnout rather quickly.Ā I want to say that Iām mostly in the middle,Ā but IĀ canĀ tell you that there was a time when I lived really hard. A little bit of an adrenaline junkie. Yes , IĀ use to prescribe to live hard, die young and leave a good looking corpse behind.Ā IĀ really didnāt think I was going toĀ live to see forty.Ā So what I have learned since then is that you take the first forty years and live rather recklessly Ā and you will spend the next forty years doing damage control, and hoping that the old body will just hold together, and I have multiple surgery scars to attest to that fact.Ā Some how your priorities change and family life comes along and you want toĀ be around for the milestones,Ā such as first stepsĀ Ā first words, graduations,Ā and of course the walking down the isle part,Ā andĀ believe itĀ or not, now Iām pappy to three terrificĀ grandsons.Ā Ok , we will getĀ to the circle part, but trulyĀ it has flown by.Ā Letās back track a little.Ā IĀ remember getting spankings before it was considered child abuse š. My mom didnāt play,Ā she was notorious for saying I brought you in the world and I can take you out, and make another one that looks just like you, and nobody will miss you. And since there was six of us,Ā IĀ believed her, she had credibility š. Soā¦if you are thinking of calling child protective services,Ā just go ahead and pack your bag, because it was going to be a one way trip. She was tough, but she kept us all on the straight and narrow.Ā Here is one for the archives,Ā when I was in my early to mid- twenties,Ā I was a restaurant manager,Ā and I was recruited away from aĀ full service restaurant to aĀ fast food chain,Ā felt like a fish out of water.Ā Ok, so when IĀ finished my training forĀ this fast food joint, the training manager always threw a partyĀ at his place for his trainees.Ā This is no lie, my one and only time ever having grain alcohol,Ā moon shine,Ā white lighting,Ā or whatever you know it as. They mixed it with one of those frozen flavored ice things that you usually pour soda over at a kids party.Ā It was so smooth,Ā but to this very day IĀ have no recall of that night.Ā IĀ woke up in a room full of naked people.Ā My brain immediately went to what the hell happened here? . Then as IĀ scurried around to find my clothes,Ā IĀ thought to myself,Ā how manyĀ otherĀ people woke up before me with that same thought process that I justĀ had. My head was throbbing,Ā not good when you are on a motorcycle,Ā and yes, swore I would never do that again,Ā and yes stuck to it.Ā Some how I got the feeling this wasnāt their first rodeo for that , but it was definitely my last.Ā It became the thing to never be mentioned ever, ever again.Ā IĀ sometimes wonder if Iām going to be old on my front porch rocking in a chair and the events of that night will come flashing back at me, probably not , we loose memory as we get older.Ā If you have been around for a while thenĀ it is no mystery that the older you get the faster time rolls by. WhenĀ we were kids, it took forever for Santa to come,Ā and now every time we blink , itās Christmas again. There was a song, and IĀ donāt know the name of it, but just remember a few lines and the chorus.Ā It stated that theĀ young become the old and mysteries unfold,Ā and itās kind of a brief description of life. There were so many things in life that I was just clueless about when I wasĀ younger,Ā and I was absolutely fine with that,Ā but as we live life it comes with certain understandings and knowledge.Ā I remember being aĀ kid, and then I had kids, and now my kids have kids, what the heck!!, and it seems as if it almost happened overnight.Ā I remember my daughter riding on my shoulders as a toddler,Ā and IĀ also remember feeling something really warm, and then it wasnāt,Ā IĀ sure hope that pampers are more leak resistant š. And now itās some what comical to watch her and her husband navigate parenthood.Ā Itās comical because,Ā Iāve been there,Ā done that,Ā brought a T shirt, and wish not to go back there again.Ā What is it with little kids having to potty at every new location they find themselves at?. It kind of reminds me of dogs, marking their territory.Ā And when you take them to the restroom,Ā they have to touch everything.Ā Oh, and one of my favorites,Ā they have to pee, but their pants have to come all the way down to their anklesĀ Ā come on, its time to step up and teach the young lads how to just whip it out š. I think Iām chasing a rabbit down a hole again.Ā Iām the oldest of almost fifty grandkids,Ā and so for me I got to spend a lot of time with my grandparents when I was growing up.Ā I loved my grandmother,Ā but she was like my mom, she didnāt play,Ā but became very sweet later in life. My grandfather was like my best friend and we were really close and he did his darnedest to spoil me rotten,Ā just like I needed the encouragement š. He use to refer to me as M& M, yep, sorry to bust your bubble if you thought the musician that goes by that name was an original,Ā nope it was me, and yes, I know that he spells it differently,Ā canātĀ infringe on the little talking candies trade mark. Any how mine stood for Mr.Ā Mischievous. IĀ once remembered getting a spanking for something that IĀ didnāt do, and when the truth came out, there was no apology,Ā they just said chalk it up to something else that I did do, that they just didnāt know about,Ā so yeah, IĀ was probably do.š. My grandfather always had butterscotch lifesavers in his pocket,Ā they became my favorite and even to this day, it reminds me of him. IĀ was so cool, he let me drink coffee with him when I was around five years old.Ā IĀ have so many great memories of him. Oh, and then there was this one later in his life, when he was loosing his marbles .Ā He went outside to cut the grass in his boxers, with just a pair booths on, not a great look,Ā and not his finest moment. One last one before I scurry along.Ā As far back as I could remember,Ā my grandparents always slept In separate bedrooms and they also went to separate churches. IĀ couldnāt wrap my mind around it since they had nine children together. Iām not going to get into it, but IĀ will just say, when people pass away,Ā all of the little dirty secrets come to life,Ā or maybe that is just in my family.Ā Life is a circle because IĀ had a grandfather and now I am a grandfather.Ā And when you are young,Ā you really do believe that you are bullet proof,Ā or at least I did,Ā and IĀ see it in my son as well.Ā And of course Iām not speaking of actually being that, but just believing that a lot of life lessons donāt apply to you.Ā IĀ remember running around without coats or shoes in the winter,Ā high metabolism,Ā never giving arthritis a second thought , bad call on my partš, that is just one example ofĀ dozens that I could cite . IĀ loved my grandfather and spent a lot of time with him,Ā but IĀ donāt remember hair just growing from all sorts of weird places on hisĀ body. My ears have a mustache,Ā and hair growing from your nose, and donāt even get me started on those crazy gray hairs in my eyebrows, going any and every way they want to. Itās almost a full time job,Ā just keeping hair from places it shouldnāt be.Ā My mom is in her eightiesĀ now and seems to be getting frailer by the day, which is aĀ shame,Ā because she has always been independent and had her crap together.Ā I have seen first hand that growing older is not for the faint at heart.Ā The changes that our bodies go through is criminal. IĀ didnāt start wearing glasses until I was forty, and it was just the beginning.Ā Ā Around forty is also the time that my body decided that it wasnāt going to play nice with dairy products any longer as well.Ā Ā Some of you older ones in the audience, may remember that TV show back in theĀ 70ās , called āwelcome back Kotterā. Its the show that put John Travolta on the map. The teacher in the show, Mr. Kotter, use to talk about the noises that old people made as they got up around,Ā I always thought it wasĀ hilarious,Ā until IĀ became the old person, with all of those noises. And guess what ? , its true my body makes all of those noises and then some. Iām not going to complain,Ā because Iām pretty blessed compared to some individuals my age. Sometimes people live hard, such as in smoking,Ā or laying out to much in the sun. The whole thing with genes, can be a blessing or a curse. My friend up in Ohio lost her husband to a massive heart attack,Ā and he was in really good shape and was a runner,Ā but couldnāt escape the family genetics. And sometimes the genes keeps people from looking their age, it can over all be a crap shoot. Ms. Annomuis works in the health care field dealing with people who have memory loss, and issues with dementia.Ā She sometimes tells me sweet stories about older people caring for one another after a lifetime together,Ā but there are also horror stories as well.Ā Speaking of horror stories,Ā IĀ will throw this one in here for free, and no, IāmĀ notĀ trying to make a case for assisted suicide.Ā So a little background.Ā My ex wife,Ā nor myself were raised byĀ parents who were forthcoming with information about sex and life, I believe it was just that generation.Ā They either handed you a book, or they sheepishly , thought oh, they will figure it out on their wedding nightā¦.yeah right it was the seventies. If IĀ recall correctly the montra of the seventies was sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Anyhow,Ā so we wanted to rectify that with our kids, because they can get a lot of bad information from their peers.Ā Ok, so we basically did a one ā eighty from what we were raised with.Ā We wanted our kids to be able to come to us and feel free to talk about anything and we would be straight with them. Iām not going to tell you that was a flawless plan,Ā but for the most part it accomplished what we were hoping for.Ā Ok, so now fast forward some twenty odd years and our 30 something daughter still communicates with us in that same fashionā¦.awkward,Ā and way to much information sometimes andĀ guess what? , sheās passing it on to the next generation.Ā I know that girls have girl talk, but somehowĀ , Iām included in that as well,Ā so the conversations she has with her mom, I get as well.Ā She isnāt perverted so she is not sharing graphic details about her love life, but some stories not far removed from there. And so this is where this horror story originates from.Ā And if you are squeamish,Ā just stop reading now because you have been warned.Ā My daughter has been helping her mom take care of her ninety year old grandfather,Ā who is pretty much where my grandfather was with the combat boots and boxers while cutting the front lawn. Well thatās not exactly true,Ā because he is in a little worse shape.Ā I always loved my ex father in law,Ā but he has always had health problems, and IĀ gave him a shout out in the post about trauma,Ā go back and read if you missed it. Ok, so he is in an assisted living facility,Ā mind kind of going and he needs help going to the restroom.Ā So , heās overweight and remember heās ninety.Ā So my daughter is giving me the scoop about her grandfather being uncircumcised and how menās penises shrink from lack of use, ok enough said, you can feel in the blanks. IĀ love my daughter,Ā she is a super blessing in my life and we are pretty close,Ā I believe itās fair to call her a daddyās girl,Ā but sometimes I just wish she would hold back a little.Ā The truth of the matter is you want that closeness,Ā and IĀ have no idea how to back track from here without her feeling that she canāt share honestly and hasĀ to pick and choose, what to say to us. Her mother and I created this monster and since her brother shares very little to nothing,Ā IĀ guess its a fair trade off. Again, Iām a bit long, but I think you get the point about how life is truly a circle. I think one of the saddest things is how my daughter tells me he sits around with a glazed over look,Ā like heās ready to go be with Jesus.Ā Life can most certainly be rough at times. I want to say and believe that people have more useful information about how to take better care of themselves,Ā so that the golden years wonāt be so tarnished.Ā When I was younger,Ā much younger and played sports, we use toĀ have to spend aĀ significant amount of time getting in shape for football condition. I hated those two a days. That is when you practice in the morning before it getsĀ to hot out, then come back in the evening and make another go at it, Iām getting exhausted just thinking about it.Ā Ā The point being,Ā now with better information,Ā it makes better sense and cuts down on injuries if you just condition your body year round,Ā instead of going out and working a summer job, bringing back memories š . So if our parents are getting rickety,Ā there is a possibility that will be our summary as well,Ā because life is trulyĀ a circle and things come to full term by the grace of God.Ā This further means that we become our parents andĀ then magically become our grandparents.Ā I guess if Iām going toĀ be cutting the lawn in my boxers, then IĀ should probably work on my tan, so my legs arenāt to pale. šIĀ almost shared about the similarities ofĀ child birth between my wife and I,Ā and then for my daughter,Ā but IĀ donāt want toĀ steal that title from my daughter of being the queen ofĀ TMI š.
