On a recent stay in Oceanside, Karin and I were taking a walk around the harbor. It is a two-mile walk that is always interesting do to – – a constant and changing activity. There was a barge just off the rocks that formed the side of the harbor. A woman was using a small dip net to take tiny fish out of a large reservoir in the barge and putting them in a bucket.

Karin stopped to watch. The woman got in a row boat, with her bucket, and rowed ashore. There were two boys on the rocks fishing. The lady dumped her bucket into a bucket the boys had. She then rowed back to the barge.

Karin looked at me and asked, “I wonder what I just saw?” She had never been around fishing boats before. She was not satisfied with my answer of a bait barge and asked a bunch of questions.

I explained how the bait boats go out at night and net the small fish when they come up to eat the plankton that rise to the surface at night.  The bait boats put bright lights over the side to draw the plankton and the little fish come to eat them and get caught in the nets.

The bait boats come back into the harbor before sunrise and transfer the fish to the bait barge tanks. In the morning, the fishing boat charters stop at the barge on their way out of the harbor and transfer the fish into the tank on their boat. The fishermen/women now have bait to fish with.

The charter boats go out and fish for whatever time they are scheduled for. On the way back into the harbor the deck-hands clean the fish and receive tips from the fishers.

Karin was fascinated, and said, “How many people are involved with putting a fish in the frying pan?’ I had never thought of that. The boat crews, boat yard maintenance workers, the bait barge staff, and even the gas station attendants who put fuel in the boats. You could include everyone clear back to the geologist who found the oil and the people that built the boats.

It was a question that was above my pay scale and made me realize how totally dependent we are on each other. How many people, trucks, boats, etc., did it take to fill your coffee cup this morning? I don’t know either but I’m glad I drink coffee so they all have a job to feed their families.

Karin and I decided we should do our part and eat more fish.

The last two weeks in Hawaii were good weeks. The second unit we stayed at was set up better for us to write. We got a lot of work done – – Karin on her book, and I on mine. The birds kept us company all day, every day. When we left, I’m sure they missed us, like we missed them.

Being back home was kind of a shock after a month in Hawaii. We took care of the things that had piled up while gone, which took us a week. Then we went to Oceanside for a week to help us adjust to mainland life again.

We had walks along the beach, spent a day at the Wildlife Safari Park in San Diego with all the animals, and worked some more on our books. We’re now home again and continuing to adapt to our new normal which I think will still be with us for a while.

An interesting incident happened that I would like to share. It’s funny, but true. I was having lunch with a friend and I said something that my friend challenged. We do this all the time. It makes for stimulating conversations that we both learn from.

He said, “I always rely on logic to solve problems. Logic never sends you on the wrong path.”

I said, “Maybe.”

His answer was, “There is no maybe about it. Logic is based on facts.”

My mind was struggling to do what it used to, which is to process quickly, come up with an answer. “OK, a test is in order”

“Anytime.” He was glowing with confidence.

“Right now, let’s start with the facts.” My brain finally woke up. “Driving is something we all know about. Using myself as an example, the facts are:

            1. I am 86 years old.

            2. I can’t hear well, at all.

            3. I am legally blind in my left eye.

            4. Both my feet are numb due to physical damage to them.

            5. My response time is much longer than a younger person.

            6. My brain can no longer multitask nearly as well as it used to.

Do you accept these facts? I asked.”

“I sure do. They are obvious. Oh, sorry about that.”

“You’re right. They are obvious, and they all go together to cause a problem. I am not as safe a driver on the road as I used to be. Every time I drive a car, I am putting myself and other drivers at risk. Do you accept that as a problem?”

“Now that you point it out, I do. Let me know when you are driving so, I can stay off the road.”

“I have the solution. I have to limit the time I spend behind the wheel. Do you agree that will help mitigate/solve the problem?”

“I do. That is also a fact.”

“It’s a simple solution based on all the facts, if I drive as fast as I possibly can all the time, I would greatly reduce my time behind the wheel. You have to agree to that. It is based entirely on the facts.”

He thought for moment, called the waitress over, and paid the bill. Then he turned to me and said,” Maybe”.

Perhaps we should always consider before we conclude with “Maybe“.

We settled in at the Mauna Loa Village, in Kona. A genuinely nice unit, its just ten steps from the pool. I have a pool-workout that lasts one hour. I do it every other day, so being close is a plus for me and Karin who also works out in the pool.

We had a surprise when a friend that I hadn’t seen for 52 years read in my blog that we were in Hawaii. He was here too. It has been a real treat to hear how his life evolved during all these ears. He is also a “water person” and we found we had a dozen mutual friends. He is 70 now and still swims three miles in the ocean most every day.

Karin and I have taken a few walks and enjoy the smell of the sea mixed with fragrance of all the flowers. What a powerful sense of smell is! It brings to the front of the memory list many moments in my life. Some of quiet introspection, some of maximum excitement being pulled through the water by a 300-pound fish on the end of my spear, some of just sitting around a campfire on the beach with my family all around me.

We are both writing every day. Karin is editing the first draft of her new book, and I am working on the start of a new one. I published two books in 2020, so I am resting. No pressure, this is a great place for that.

We found a place where we can rent a kayak for the day. That is in our plans now. We will be moving to a new resort on the ocean front in two days and be there two more weeks.

Getting here was not fun but being here is good. These birds will miss us when we leave – – we have breakfast together every morning. In October, we will be coming back to the island of Maui for two weeks. Karin and I realize that we are truly blessed.

We were very tired when we landed at 8:30 Hawaiian time (11:30 PT). We were tested again for C-19, then picked up our luggage. Moving everything out to the curb, Karin sat on the stone wall while I was going to pick up the car. I had to run to catch the airport shuttle that took people to the car rental yards.

Once on the shuttle and underway, I relaxed for about two minutes, before I remembered my wallet was in my briefcase back with Karin. When I rented the car on Priceline they told me all I had to do was stop and pick up the key at Enterprise. Everything was paid for. I got to the counter after standing in line for 30 minutes.

All was going well, I finally got to the point where I would get the key. I was very close. The key was on the counter right in front of me. Then he asked for my credit card.

I explained to him that it was in my luggage back at the airport. He said he needed the card to take a damage deposit on the car. “No credit card, no car.” I told him I would go with the car and get my luggage, along with Karin who was sitting on the stone wall for an hour now. I would drive right back with my card. He checked with someone behind the door in the wall then came back. “No credit card, no car.”

I was having to get back on the bus to get my card at the airport. If I hadn’t already been into this car rental for $1,400 (we were there for a month), I would have just taken a taxi.  I got back on the bus.

The driver was the same one that brought me to the rental car lot. He asked me, “What happened?” I told him my sad story. I should mention that I was using my walker this whole time. He told me he would drop me off to get Karin and my luggage then come right back after he dropped off the two other people that were on the shuttle.

I bounded across the street, grabbed Karin and said, “Hurry up!”. She didn’t know what was going on. No car, and we are rushing to catch a bus?  We made it back to the shuttle stop just as he pulled up. He jumped out and took care of all of our “stuff” and we were on our way back to the car lot.

When we arrived, the shuttle driver told me to go in and get the key and he would take our belongings over to where I could drive the car right up to them. I got the key then went out to find someone on the lot to find the car. The driver took the key and trotted off into the lot and drove our car right to our luggage and loaded it in. I think perhaps the bus driver was the reincarnation of one of my dogs – – I loved him.

Now very tired, Karin got into the car.  We set the GPS for the timeshare’s address which we had no idea how to get to, then pushed the GO button. The battery in the phone was dead.  JUST KIDDING. All went well. We found the timeshare with a note on the door which said, “Use the phone in the box on the door to call after hours.” It was definitely-after hours. We could hardly get out of the car. We made the call and were given a place to drive to and registered. A maintenance man, I think he was related to the bus driver, grabbed our stuff and put it in his cart and took us to our unit. I decided they were not related, they were just both Hawaiian.

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This is not about my time in Hawaii, but about the actual process of getting from my house in Aliso Viejo, CA to Kona on the Big Island. I have made this trip many times before and the process was always simple. Buy a plane ticket and fly to Kona. Rent a car and drive to my timeshare. This was not to be, this time. Due to a combination of the CV-19 virus and my incompetence, (I blame on my age not my IQ), it became a frustrating and expensive experience.

The process started when I found a flight with the perfect times for us, a direct flight out of LAX to Kona, taking off at 7am and arriving around noon. It was on Alaska Airlines. I gave Karin the fight information and she booked the same flight, but it was with American. Same plane and times. A few days later I got an email notification from Alaska saying,” Your travel plans have changed.” I was now on a flight that arrived in Kona at midnight, and Karin, was left on the original flight. I called and told Alaska that “my travel plans did not change” and I wanted my money back so I could buy a new ticket on American and be back with Karin. I did that.

All seemed to be back on tract. A few days passed and we got a message that our American flight had been changed. We were now taking off at noon and arriving in Kona at 8:30 pm. I called and changed my car rental to a 9pm pick up.

We got the information that we had to be tested for CV-19 within 72 hours of our take off time. OK we can do that. Then we were told that it had to certain type of test by a certified facility that the airline and Hawaii accepted. They gave us a list. I started calling places on the list and found out that we had to pay for the test because it was considered to be a voluntary test, not a medical test. I could understand that. After calling a number of places I finally found one in Carlsbad, 60 miles away, that only charged $170/test. Everyone had a different price. Some were up as high as $395 each. We drove to Carlsbad on Tuesday morning to get our test within the 72 hrs.

We were told that we had to create an account with the state of Hawaii and upload our results when we got them by email. Karin did that on her computer and I did it on my computer. We were under pressure by now because we needed to upload a picture of ourselves, fill out a health form, and upload our CV-19 results from an email we were to get on Wednesday. Once it was all complete, a QR code would be sent to us which we must have on our phone or we couldn’t board the plane.

With the help of my daughter and her husband we were able to figure out how to do the health form and the photo. I received my test results, but Karin’s didn’t show up in her email. It was now late Wednesday and I’m going into panic mode. I called the Carlsbad testing site.

They had sent her results to my email address, instead of hers. They guided me through how to find it on my computer. I found it, then sent Karin an attachment for her to upload into her Hawaii travel account. It didn’t work. I printed a copy of it and took it to the airport with my fingers crossed. It worked – – they let us on the fight.  We landed in Kona at 8:30 p.m., Hawaii time. I’ll pick it up at that point in my next blog. The adventure isn’t over yet.

Wondering what I should follow my last blog about exercise with, it only made sense to also encourage you to get an annual checkup. Thinking on that subject I remembered what was perhaps the most hilarious thing that I can remember in my entire life and it happened in a doctor’s office. (I wouldn’t want you to think that I have become a serious old curmudgeon just because I’ve turned 86)

I had a back operation and was in the hospital. The doctor said I could go home if I could empty my bladder. I really wanted to go home so I used the bathroom in my room and emptied my bladder really well before he came to see me. When he came in, I told him what I had done. He said I had to show them, not tell them.

I was dry. I really wanted to go home. He said if I had a catheter put in, I could go home and come back the next day, then have the catheter taken out and tested. I said, “Great.”

A nurse, that had never inserted a catheter before, was told to do it. She forgot she had to lubricate the tube and was only successful in making my little man raw and bleeding. A doctor was called and he did it with no problem. No that wasn’t the funny thing – believe me, but I got to go home.

I was back at the hospital early the next day, worried about the test. I didn’t have any urine in my bladder; it just ran through the catheter into a bag. The doctor told me not to worry, it was OK and handed me a gown.

I took off my clothes and put on a gown that covered nothing like most hospital gowns, laid down on my back and he proceeded to pull the long tube out of my little man. He had a nurse there to aid him in the procedure. I think she was a trainee. She looked about 18 years old and very cute. He told her to give me the test and left.

She explained that she was going to put in another catheter (I almost got up to run out of the hospital) and pore a flask of water into a funnel through the tube and into my bladder to fill it. Then she would take the catheter out and I would have to empty my bladder into a container and they could measure it and tell if I was able to get it all out. I will not describe the procedure she had to go through to accomplish this, let’s just say that she and my little man became very close friends before it was through. My bladder was full. She pulled out the tube. All that was left was for me to urinate into the container.

She handed me the container and looked me right in the eyes and said (with a straight face), “Would you like for me to leave the room, so you can have some privacy?”  I couldn’t contain myself. I started laughing and then she fell apart and we were laughing so hard I almost missed the container.

I’m not sure what the message of this blog is, but I think it is to see your doctor at least once a year for a good checkup.

No, I’m not out of my mind, and I am talking to you. I can’t help myself – I just want all of my friends and family to stay as healthy as possible. I didn’t give exercise the credit it deserved for helping until I got older, and many of my age mates/friends didn’t as well.

I have only six or seven close friends who are enjoying gift years beyond their mid-80s.  What do we have in common with each other that helps to answer the question why? The only thing I could come up with is an active/physical life style. We are all still active, both physically and mentally.

We have aches, pains, and handicaps that we mitigate the best we can and just handle the ones we can’t. We don’t complain because no one wants to be around someone who complains a lot. It doesn’t help, anyway.

Built into our daily routine, we have all done things that have kept us moving. Two of the ladies started aerobic workouts when they were in their 50s and are doing as much as they’re able in their late-80s. Several go to a personal trainer twice a week and have for 35 years. All of us have had severe physical and mental trauma in our lives and believe we survived mainly because our bodies and minds were in good shape for our age. Two among my small group of friends just recovered from Covid-19 at age 86.

I’m going to use myself as an example, but realize all of us are the same, we just have different life challenges. I get up in the morning and put on my glasses so I can see well enough to find my hearing aids. Next, I lay down on the floor and do a combination of a yoga, stretching, Pilates, and a dumbbell workout. It takes an hour; I do these four times a week. Daily, I talk a half-mile walk with my walker, because I have numb feet and a bad back. I do this twice or three times a day, as time allows.

When the pandemic arrived in March of 2020, I couldn’t go to 24-hour Fitness. It was closed. I had a Concept II rowing machine in storage that I had used to train for my kayak trip down the coast of Baja in 1991. It was too long to fit in my room so I put it in the garage where it fits just fine, plus it’s available 24/7. Then I bought a Total Gym machine; it fits in my room. I work on them four times a week. Now, I have no reason to have a gym membership. I can do everything at home that I did in the gym. When I travel, I work out in the pool. My pool routine takes one hour.

None of my friends have the time or inclination to work out two hours a day, like I do, but they all do some exercise most every day. It’s working, we are all still active and mobile. Because I love you all, I have a favor to ask of all of my readers. Please exercise at least 30 minutes a day. I don’t want to be the last one standing. It’s lonely at the top.

   

Enjoy Every Day. Open Every Door. Try Everything. You Can Do It.         

                                                                                   

Talking to my friends that are well along the road, shall we say to Act #3, also known as the “Golden Years” of their lives, the topic of conversation often turns to, “What can we do that is worthwhile”, in our remaining years. We looked forward to retirement and now we have it. We’re still alive, healthy and bored. Most of us travel for a while but can only be unproductive so long before we start wondering why we are here.

If you create an honest list of the things you can still do, at least semi-competently, it will be a lot shorter than the one you could have made at the age of 45, but it will still be a list. You still have options. Looking at the list, rank them in order to which ones you would most like to be involved in now, and go for it.

I had to do this at age 80 when my wife lost her fight with cancer. The plans we had made together were now non-existent. For about a year I was at a loss as to where I was going or what I would do if I got there. I made a list. It was short. The item on the top was to stay in contact with my family as much as possible. Our pandemic has made that hard but I do the best I can.

The second on the list was to write. I have published three books so far and several short ones. I now have a path. I’m not a great writer but it’s OK; I’m not great at anything anymore, however, I am a happy person that knows he has something to do. I hope my readers find the tips I sneak in on being positive in all you do and to learn from everything you do to be worthwhile.

I love being a grandpa and a great-grandpa. I have had the joy of watching my 11 grandchildren grow into strong upright individuals, all very different and that makes each one of them very special. I would like to share what they have become as adults. Please tolerate an old man as he brags a little. Some of their occupations include lab technician manager, urban tree specialist, computer programmer, tattoo artist, hair stylist, engineers – good jobs in varied fields. The only problem is they are now adults and not inclined to sit on my lap. But it’s OK because they have given me, so far, nine great-grandchildren to take their places.

I love being the elder in my family. I get to love them all and have no responsibility. I used to help them do things. Now they all are there to help me do things.

I do my best to be like Clint Eastwood. When he was asked how he kept so active at age 88, he said, “I shut the door tight and don’t let the old man in.” Keep your door closed, remember that getting old will happen, if you are lucky, but being old is a mental state of mind. Don’t let it happen to you.

I wrote a book recently about making choices in life that set a person on a path to follow. A few people choose a path and never deviate from it their entire life. It could work out well. They might win an OLYMPIC Gold Medal. Unfortunately, most that never deviate from their original path become good at whatever they are doing in a short time, and that stops the learning process available free to them in life. They also can get burned out or just plain bored and be unhappy with where they end up. Retirement is often depicted as sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch watching the world going by.

I believe a person should take advantage of every opportunity offered to them in life. How else can they find what they are good at and what they love to do. I have taken many paths. One I stayed on because I loved it. Teaching was my calling and became my life’s freeway, but I continued to constantly take side trips to keep learning.

There are those that believe you should change your profession/work every five years or so, to stay in a constant learning mode your entire life. You are not learning when you are repeating something you do well. I find I am not on either end of that pendulum. I am halfway from the center to both ends.

The pages in my book, Life According to Grandpa II, the world is a classroom well spent as a Wonderer, tells the story of many of my side trips. What fun I had on them and how important they were as classrooms in my school of life.

Take as many side trips as you can. The freeway you are on will lead you to many off-ramps for you to try. There is always an onramp ahead to get back on your freeway. Each side road is a classroom full of wonder for you to add to your map of life.

Strive to be the one whizzing by the porch, not the one in the rocking chair. It really is worth the effort; and the bottom line, as you as you gain the wisdom of many years, you can always do anything that you can still remember. That’s the hard part.

There have been a number of books written that tell us how we can compartmentalize our lives into various sections. All of them are true for the writer of that book. We only write about what we know, however, we all live in our own worlds which we have created in our minds. Reality for us is only found within our personal world.

I have trouble at times accepting the realities in my world that I have to modify as the environmental and cultural worlds evolve around me with the inevitable passage of time.

I no longer live on a farm where I could step out of my front door with my 22-caliber rifle and shoot a rabbit for dinner. I now live in a city where if I was seen with my rifle out on the street I would be shot or arrested. What has changed?  First of all, the rabbits that live around my apartment complex are now considered wildlife pets, not food. Second, the hundreds of people that live in close proximity to me would be afraid I was going to shoot them.

Over the 85+ years in my personal world the physical environment has changed so that I am now packed into a cement container along with several hundred others in their containers called condos where our enormous population of humans live like bees in a hive.  We all come and go from the hives, and call them complexes.

The cultural environment has changed just like the physical. The people that lived around me when I was growing up made eye contact with me when they passed on the street and said hello. Now they look at the ground and try not to make eye contact because it might be taken as a challenge.

I understand the changes in the physical environment and the adaptations we all have to make in our personal lives to be happy and accommodate the huge world population growth. What is hard for me to understand, and adapt to, is the hate and fear that we have created and accept as the new normal for ourselves.

Where did it come from? How did we let it creep into our society? More important, into our personal worlds. We are not born with it. We have learned it from the people around us. It makes me want to go back to my old world where gasoline was only 17 cents a gallon and most people were looking ahead at the horizon and smiling, instead of down at their phones, doing their best to ignore what is going on around them, seemingly denying any responsibility for it.

I think the rabbits are much happier now, because I put food out for them instead of using them as my food.