25,000 days and counting

One of the few advantages of age is realizing that you’ve done more things more times than others have. If you’re lucky enough to reach the age of 68 1/2, you’ve survived 25,000 days. I’ve gone a year past that, but what’s a few hundred days here or there?

We worry about our mortality, and life does often seem so short, but if I were to count the hours I’ve spent doing nothing of any significance, it would be depressing. I’ve slept for 17 years. Eaten 75,000 meals, and smoked a million and a half cigarettes.

If I had never cut my hair, and had managed to keep it all around, it would be 27 feet long by now. That would make one hell of a ponytail. Picture a couple of tail-carriers following me around. I’ve shaved maybe 8,000 times. I shudder to think what I’d look like if I hadn’t.

The stuff that’s easy to estimate over a lifetime is mostly the maintenance stuff, the necessary stuff. What’s difficult to measure is what we choose to do. How many years of actually productive labor, rather than years of being paid for showing up. How many times have you had sex? Difficult for someone of any significant age to remember, much less estimate.

None of these calculations are of any importance, except to demonstrate, perhaps, how much time we spend doing what we must do, rather than what we freely choose to do. Life is all about choice, after all. Some of us choose to lead quite ordered, routine lives (that make calculations like these easy), while others tend toward more extemporaneous paths. We have a strong tendency toward routine, because it’s relaxing and not confusing. I guess my tendency involves leading a rather routine life, but upsetting the applecart fairly often, leading to a different routine.

the boBLOG is back in business

After 5 years, I’ve given up on Blogger as the host of boBLOG. I just simply couldn’t get any new entries to post. Not sure why, but I’m tired of wasting my time trying when there are other alternatives, such as WordPress.

So… onward and upward.