Welcome to my blog. My name is John Reseck Jr. Most people that have blogs have a particular theme that they are interested in promoting that they assume they know a lot about. I too have a base for my blog. There was a time in the past when I could have bloviated on a number of subjects that I was well informed on like Diving, Judo, Bike racing, and Marine biology: but now at 81 years of age I find the only thing that I might pass along to my readers with any authority is how to live this long and be happy doing it. It is also important to make the people around you smile a lot so they won’t mind hanging out with you.
In order to accomplish this daunting task I will try to follow some rules I just made up.
•Each posting must contain a stepping stone to being happy.
•Each posting needs to make the reader smile, even if just a little.
•Each posting must not be either religious, or political.
•All postings must be positive; there is already too much negativity in our world.
I am going to reach back into my life to share some of the things, and people that taught me how to be happy. If they make you smile then I have helped to make your life better. Every time you make someone smile you have had a positive effect on them.
My definition of success in life is based on my life as a boater. Life on earth is a journey not a destination. It is spent on the journey and when you reach the final destination, you’re dead; therefore, to be happy you must enjoy the process of adapting to the changes that happen to you on your journey. At the end of your journey if you can look back at the wake you made through the sea of life and say that all of the people that were jostled by your wake when it rolled pass them were better off than they were before, your life was a success. It has nothing to do with how many toys, or how much money you die with, just if you were a positive influence on the people your journey brought you in contact with.
I will end this posting with a bit of advice given to me by my father when I was about eight years old. Think about it, believe it, it really helps not to be surprised when things happen so you can just handle it.
We were digging potatoes in the hard ground on a hot day when I stopped, leaned on my shovel, and said, “This is really hard work.”
He looked up at me, sweat running down his face and dripping onto his blue Sears overalls, and said, “Johnny, life is hard, but don’t worry, it will get harder.” He started digging potatoes again, and so did I.
John's Book of Life 
I have not been a blogger before but you have me interested! Just thought you would like to know you have been an inspiration since I had the chance to take a marine biology class, learn to scuba dive, be a part of an exciting open water Baja Experience for college credit and continue to get out at least once a decade on a scuba trip (with a refresher class) with your background of teaching as a starting point. I still have my autographed copy of “Scuba Safe and Simple” . It makes me smile to look forward to be abel to follow what you have to shout out next. , I still “ba-ooo” at the moon and look forward to swimming in a phosforius sea again. DeDe – Denise Cingo Hitchcoch.
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Thank you for being one that strives to walk on the edge. I hope I helped you to want to do it, and left you with some skills to do it safely.
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Well, John… Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe you to be the same John Reseck who took a physics class taught by Mr. Gardner, who was at the time teaching us about horsepower, and had us run up the stairs to see how much horsepower we were generating. You put out the most horsepower, because you were the heaviest student in the class, and among the fastest up the stairs. My life, too, has involved boats…I have lived and travelled somewhat on cruising sailboats, one of which I have now owned for about 54 years, a 49-foot Norwegian double-ended cutter my first wife named “Gladhval” (“Merry Whale”). I am still active as a marine surveyor in Norway. Your comments in the introduction to your blog are, in my opinion, very well placed. I would appreciate the opportunity to get to know you better.
For sixty years I have been known as Jeffrey Lane, as my first wife didn’t like my original name, and I didn’t much like hers, we gave each other first names we liked, but chose our own middle names. I chose “Mitchell” as my middle name, as I respected Colonel William “Billy” Mitchell, the man who unsuccessfully tried to convince the powers that ruled our military at the time that they should pay attention to air power, rather than to battleships. Some years later, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor proved him, sadly, to have been correct. The Mitchell bomber was named after him for that reason.
This is the first blog I have ever commented on, or even read. I think it must be one of the better ones, and respectfully thank you for writing in such a positive and sensible way. I, too, am soon to be 82 years of age, and recognize the truth of what you feel to be important in life at this stage. The good lady I live with brought a bathroom rug with her, among many other things, when she came to live with me. I read that rug very carefully each day…It says, “Life isn’t about Finding Yourself. LIFE is about CREATING YOURSELF!” I believe that. …Until later, Jeff Lane
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Hi Jeff. I moved a lot faster in those days than I do now, but I still move. Life has been good to you like it has to me. I lived on my various boats for a total of 7 years and loved it. One of my books is about a 1200 mile Kayak trip from San Diego to Cobo San Lucas. I had the pleasure of spending 18 years, in my retirement, working for the Coast Guard, writing several training manuals and acting as a Qualifying Examiner. The sea has been a major part of both of our lives. It’s impotent to remember that some of our best years still are ahead of us. Logic will get us from A to B, but only a seance of wonder will take us to points unknown. Your friend in stair running… John Reseck Jr….AKA…TOMATEOTS (The old man at the end of the street)
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Jeff, I don’t know if you will get this or not, but I wnted you to know that I think of you offten. I am writing this off the coast of Norway right now. I am on cruse ship stopping in Norway for three stops. Everything I needed to know in life I think I learned in High School physics. Today we are in Trondheim, 5/11. On 5/13 we will be in Tromso. On 5/14 in Honningsvag. I have no idea where you might live. Our boat is the Volendam. My email is resecks@yahoo.com.
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