An aside

I just received a Thanksgiving email from an old family friend. They were next door neighbors when Mom and Dad moved (back) to Rosslyn Farms, just after I was born. Uncle Harry was a family doctor who made house calls (they had the first answering machine I ever saw - about the size of a suitcase if I remember correctly), and Harry, Majorie, and later RoseBud, were sort of like cousins, or the like, in those early years. Even more so for my brother who is older. ( I found out years later that Dad and Aunt Rose planted a garden on their lot on Winthrop Circle and carried buckets of water in the car trunk each night to tend the garden. Didn't know Dad knew anything about a garden until I heard that story.) We bought our house on Alden, and they eventually built a beautiful home on Winthrop, so we stayed neighbors and close friends for all these years. In fact, the 2nd to last time Dad was hospitalized, his room was back to back with Aunt Rose's and they were neighbors one last time.

So today, Rosemary writes me that she follows this blog, and likes it, but hates the title - The LAST Adventure (says it should read 'greatest' or 'life starts now" ) So I wrote back to her:
Well, it IS the last, but it is funny you say that. A few weeks ago, I did a pretty poor job of getting the thought on paper, but if you look back, you will find a picture of Mom and Dad's marker at Arlington, and picture of Denise's kids, Anna and Andrew Foster. I TRIED to say, that that day was a turning point for me, mentally, to look to the future more and not the past so much. When I started the blog, that was where my mind and heart were- in the past. Somewhere in my writings, there is mention that I have had a great life, with very low low's and some great highs, but I look at the whole 56 years as a series of adventures; getting to make decisions that others with wives and children, perhaps, were not able to choose. And doing stuff that was too risky for the average guy in similar shoes. I built a home from scratch which could have been a disaster, financially. I flew airplanes and bungee jumped and started businesses that failed, and moved around a bit. Bought a small nightclub on a whim. Got into the rental business without much forethought, and perhaps, for the wrong reasons. Think of your friends who are married or with children and what freedom you have that they don't. Maybe their Christmas mornings are a bit more full of cheer, but we single, with no kids, people can make choices that they cannot, or perhaps, if prudent should not consider at all. So, yes, it is my last adventure. If God takes me right now, then I am fine, because I got to "go" - to start the adventure. (My biggest fear this summer was getting sick, or injured, preventing me from that actual departure.) When I was chasing women all the time, (years ago, of course, not now!) I used to say, taking an expression from hunting, that sometimes the chase was more fun than the kill. In this case, I HOPE that preparing for this was the work, and now I get to enjoy the fun part. Will have to hold off on saying whether that is true or not, but that is my expectation.
So, here I sit. Broken down. In one paradise. Not mine, yet, but it is out there waiting for me. And I AM living my last adventure. Now, how great is that!

And since it is apparently fast approaching, Happy Thanksgiving to all. Every day is Thanksgiving now, for me.