![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1451\/2024\/09\/my-ears-225x300.jpg\")
This time of year\u2026.<\/span><\/h2>\nThis time of year, I routinely don\u2019t feel good. I feel good in the sun, when its warm, but in the cold, I feel chilled, and achy, and not depressed, just kind of, well\u2014out of gear. Not like are we needed<\/em> head games. Being sick-but not really sick, I think, can cause us to go pretty internal. Nothing like that, just like I\u2019m in third gear instead of low, pulling a set of doubles loaded with engine blocks up that long-ass climb from the flat desert up the hill going to San Diego. Right lane, blinkers on, you can walk faster than I\u2019m driving.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s been this way most of my life. I can handle it when its 123 degrees. When it was 121 and 122 degrees on consecutive days in Phoenix, I was in a motor home with a broken A\/C monitoring a wiretapPhoenix\u2019s hottest day ever, other heat records that remain standing<\/a>. I had butt sweat and I was breathing air that was at least body temperature because I could not feel any cooling as I sucked in. I dislike the heat as well. You do one hundred days of above 110 and you start playing mumbley-peg Mumblety-peg \u2013 Wikipedia<\/a> with the neighbor\u2019s cat. If there\u2019s no cat, you go to the grocery store and try to crawl in the refrigerator with the cottage cheese.<\/p>\nBut cold is a different animal. I could survive in the cold if I had too. Unless we have to take our clothes off and spoon. We would just die then.<\/p>\n
Sorry.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Your dog would live.<\/span><\/h3>\nI can just survive, period. I would eat your pet bird and probably your cat. Your dog would live. But I think I would want to curl up and close my eyes and let my life leave in a blanket of sleep you feel right before you lose your shit, strip off your clothes and run naked in the snow yelling \u201cYonder are the lights of the great Mohicans campfires of the Mushka\u2019s!\u201d<\/p>\n
Listen, I know this is Phoenix, but it gets cold here. I don\u2019t want to hear from any of you Michiganians, or Minnesotans, and definitely no Canadians. I know we don\u2019t have numbers in the negatives like you guys, but the bitch will freeze your hose water. These was the coldest days ever recorded in Phoenix<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026I feel out of gear\u2026.<\/span><\/h3>\nToday, I feel, like I said, out of gear-whatever that means. I\u2019ve felt it for weeks, but the last couple of days have been noticeable. Nothing you can do about it. No fever, no kidney stones. Everything is working. I look at the board of systems on the flight bridge of my brain and everything is in the green. But this time of year, we are expected to be joyful, happy, bouncy, idea driven, taller, funnier. You all bring me joy, even those of you I shake my head too. That\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n
We live in \u2018Merica and you\/we are all allowed to be stupid sometimes. I discovered, this last quarter, I could never be a Navy SEAL. I watched them on the beach a month or so ago, sipping my coffee in my warm jammies, staying at a friend\u2019s place overlooking the ants on the beach. I got up with them in the pre-dawn as they went out to swim from A to B. I was cold watching them with my sweats on. They were in shorts and swimming in water able to stop my heart. It was then I realized, \u2018yeah, can\u2019t do that.\u2019<\/em> At least not now. Maybe when I was 10, when I swam in that same water like it was not a concern.<\/p>\nLook, most of us, well, maybe all but four of us, will be disappointed at this point in their life. I should have done this, I should have not done that<\/em>, races around in our head. We sit on our back porch, or patio, or street corner and we grieve what we haven\u2019t done. Well, guess what?<\/p>\nWe are perfectly placed.<\/p>\n
Yep.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026we are doing\u2026.<\/span><\/h3>\nFor some reason, we are doing this shit.<\/p>\n
Okay.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Dunno.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026The Plan is perfect.<\/span><\/h3>\nI keep reminding myself The Plan is perfect. It always has been. For some reason, I am sitting in a bar, with a Rusty Nail, an order of the best chicken wings in the western hemisphere, writing to you. You, apparently have importance. Significant importance. Like The Plan would not work if you didn\u2019t play. You, yep- you are critical to the puzzle.<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t imagine.<\/p>\n
Neither can I. I\u2019ve seen you pee on the restaurant toilet seat of the uni-sex bathroom just because. If my dead wife had to use that room and you did that, I would slash your tires on your new truck.<\/p>\n
The Author of The Plan knew that. And He still wants you in the game.<\/p>\n
So, what does this mean.<\/p>\n
No idea.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026so are the potato skins\u2026.<\/span><\/h3>\nBut the scotch is good, so are the potato skins and for some reason, I feel warmer and cozy now. So, the bike ride, or the gym before the dawn, or fixing the flange adapter on the coupling seem to be what we are doing today or tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Could I swim in the ocean? Sure. But I don\u2019t want to show those young guys what an old man can do. I can also order a good wine at dinner. But that doesn\u2019t save the world or fit the plan of things.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or does it?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been this way most of my life. I can handle it when its 123 degrees. When it was 121 and 122 degrees on consecutive days in Phoenix, I was in a motor home with a broken A\/C monitoring a wiretapPhoenix\u2019s hottest day ever, other heat records that remain standing<\/a>. I had butt sweat and I was breathing air that was at least body temperature because I could not feel any cooling as I sucked in. I dislike the heat as well. You do one hundred days of above 110 and you start playing mumbley-peg Mumblety-peg \u2013 Wikipedia<\/a> with the neighbor\u2019s cat. If there\u2019s no cat, you go to the grocery store and try to crawl in the refrigerator with the cottage cheese.<\/p>\n But cold is a different animal. I could survive in the cold if I had too. Unless we have to take our clothes off and spoon. We would just die then.<\/p>\n Sorry.<\/p>\n I can just survive, period. I would eat your pet bird and probably your cat. Your dog would live. But I think I would want to curl up and close my eyes and let my life leave in a blanket of sleep you feel right before you lose your shit, strip off your clothes and run naked in the snow yelling \u201cYonder are the lights of the great Mohicans campfires of the Mushka\u2019s!\u201d<\/p>\n Listen, I know this is Phoenix, but it gets cold here. I don\u2019t want to hear from any of you Michiganians, or Minnesotans, and definitely no Canadians. I know we don\u2019t have numbers in the negatives like you guys, but the bitch will freeze your hose water. These was the coldest days ever recorded in Phoenix<\/a><\/p>\n Today, I feel, like I said, out of gear-whatever that means. I\u2019ve felt it for weeks, but the last couple of days have been noticeable. Nothing you can do about it. No fever, no kidney stones. Everything is working. I look at the board of systems on the flight bridge of my brain and everything is in the green. But this time of year, we are expected to be joyful, happy, bouncy, idea driven, taller, funnier. You all bring me joy, even those of you I shake my head too. That\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n We live in \u2018Merica and you\/we are all allowed to be stupid sometimes. I discovered, this last quarter, I could never be a Navy SEAL. I watched them on the beach a month or so ago, sipping my coffee in my warm jammies, staying at a friend\u2019s place overlooking the ants on the beach. I got up with them in the pre-dawn as they went out to swim from A to B. I was cold watching them with my sweats on. They were in shorts and swimming in water able to stop my heart. It was then I realized, \u2018yeah, can\u2019t do that.\u2019<\/em> At least not now. Maybe when I was 10, when I swam in that same water like it was not a concern.<\/p>\n Look, most of us, well, maybe all but four of us, will be disappointed at this point in their life. I should have done this, I should have not done that<\/em>, races around in our head. We sit on our back porch, or patio, or street corner and we grieve what we haven\u2019t done. Well, guess what?<\/p>\n We are perfectly placed.<\/p>\n Yep.<\/p>\n For some reason, we are doing this shit.<\/p>\n Okay.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Dunno.<\/p>\n I keep reminding myself The Plan is perfect. It always has been. For some reason, I am sitting in a bar, with a Rusty Nail, an order of the best chicken wings in the western hemisphere, writing to you. You, apparently have importance. Significant importance. Like The Plan would not work if you didn\u2019t play. You, yep- you are critical to the puzzle.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t imagine.<\/p>\n Neither can I. I\u2019ve seen you pee on the restaurant toilet seat of the uni-sex bathroom just because. If my dead wife had to use that room and you did that, I would slash your tires on your new truck.<\/p>\n The Author of The Plan knew that. And He still wants you in the game.<\/p>\n So, what does this mean.<\/p>\n No idea.<\/p>\n But the scotch is good, so are the potato skins and for some reason, I feel warmer and cozy now. So, the bike ride, or the gym before the dawn, or fixing the flange adapter on the coupling seem to be what we are doing today or tomorrow.<\/p>\n Could I swim in the ocean? Sure. But I don\u2019t want to show those young guys what an old man can do. I can also order a good wine at dinner. But that doesn\u2019t save the world or fit the plan of things.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Or does it?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Your dog would live.<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026I feel out of gear\u2026.<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026we are doing\u2026.<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026The Plan is perfect.<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026so are the potato skins\u2026.<\/span><\/h3>\n