Old Lang Syne

There have been 196 posts to this blog.  Which I suspect only a few bored Internet bots read from time to time mostly cause they are programmed that way. ( I call them Steve and Barry). But I like to think of it as a bit of a legacy.   No doubt about it, there have been some adventures from time to time that, well wouldn't have happened otherwise. A good number of them weather related, climate change be damned.    Speaking of damned.  40 mph winds out there and a 27 degree temperature drop In about an hour from the same system that just hit Dallas and created a EF4 Tornado..  A horrible tragedy and my heart goes out to the victims.  A bright spot, hot water heater still working when it sometimes gets blown out by a spring breeze.

So a few acquisitions.  Lloyd the camp host gave me a nearly new barrel BBQ.  Smoker style.  I haven’t personally smoked a brisket for quite a while so looks like a project for next week.   Second thing, I joined a gym.  For the better part of my life I have had a means to blowing off steam.  Not the case the past few years until I started looking a my rising blood pressure.  Sure I walk when I can, but it’s all about the location location location.  The gym is a fifteen minute drive from here.  The  best deal came from the most upscale.  And the drive along the bay is quite invigorating.  The workout satisfying. 

But to the point of this post.  Occasionally I'll break out of my shell and have a meaningful conversation with other age appropriate folk. anywheres from ten years younger to twenty years older than oneself.  Any older than that and you're talking to a parent, even if you are 61.  See he'll just profess to know a lot more than you  and begin directing forthwith. And yourself?  Thought we'd broke out of that.  At least by the mid thirties anyways.  OK, some of us are just a little slower than others. 

But one thing I’ve learned during our travels, that can grease the dialogue faster than anything else, muttering these few simple words having the potential to bring nations together,  is the simple phrase:  "What kinda gas mileage you get on that rig?"  Those few  code words align the synaptic brain response in a universally accepted and non aggressive disposition.  Incite the conversational juices for a couple of old guys like no other.  Familiar ground acquired each party then proceeds to comfortably wandering into more personal subjects’s one, well, wouldn’t feel right talking about beforehand. Such as “they just don’t build Fords like they used to”.   Now that’s opening your self up folks.  Party, culture and otherwise.  Soon a wellspring of opinions sprout forth.  Politics, family matters and personal beliefs.  Fifteen, twenty minutes is all it takes. Usually takes place in a neutral area, say in the middle of the road, casually and most assuredly stepping slowly out of the way of oncoming  traffic and never breaking eye contact, so’s to dispel the other’s notion that you might be afraid or something.  It’s also a spot where both geezers feel equally comfortable and in neutral territory.  After a reasonable amount of time, ( after all there’s other things needing attention,)  satisfied each walks away from the other simultaneously.  Has to be that way.  Mutual retreat. Even if it never happens again, it takes such an encounter for older males to be able to live in proximity to one another in peace in these RV places.  If that ritual doesn’t occur timely, it’s been my experience that suspicion,misgiving and ill will usually follow.

Now women adhere to different rules. Women speak tends to be a whole different form of communication.  I notice women tend to be more patient with other women, particularly when they are in a demanding mood.  They seem to get less upset.  A privilege not extended to us men.  

Recently, what with Lisa trying to get the house sold she’s been agitated more and more by circumstances being what they are,  1800 miles away and all.  She’ll talk k  over some of the issues with me, and my responses tend to be more direct.  Emotional, profound, requiring instant decisive action.  Yeah, I’m the decider as is my proper role.  Problem is I can’t make up my mind and tend to fritter back and forth sometimes.  A fact I’ll deny later if anyone asks.  But for some reason unknown to myself, this seems unsatisfactory to her.  So recently during a visit to a local real estate Office of the same chain being used in Idaho,  Lisa connected with  just what the doctor ordered, another woman.  And for the next forty plus minutes they danced around every aspect of every concern she had.  Drove down every street and looked at all the intersections.  Turned left, right and then drove back.   Then go down and explore some other dark street in their minds.  Naturally for the first twenty minutes or so, I tried to keep up, grabbing upon little tidbits of talk and instantly coming to the proper decision.  Cause that’s what I do being the decider and all.  But that folks got to be exhausting.  Even decider’s need naps.   After blurting out my opinion a few times just to be ignored, I was viciously overcome by a nap attack. No sense fighting it. After the mind meld,  I was rather rudely awoke by a more satisfied Lisa.  She seemed more pleased with whatever decision she’d come to.  Me, I had the satisfaction that she’d finally taken my  advice.  I was sure on that point.  

So I'll finish this.  Somewhere South of San Antonio. Middle of the night at the end of a Caliche road and just witnessing the arrival of 2016, with some satisfaction. Rain and cold wind blowing outside and my party, unlike the boozy nights of the past, amounted to popping a bag of popcorn and boiling a cup of water for one of the midnight worker’s unable to get away for a little food.  Sent him away with a couple of energy bars,  bowl of warm soup and a Happy New Year.  The same that I wish for all my friends and family.  And I’ll take a moment to remember  those friends from the past that never made it this far. And that friends will do me just fine