SamWatson.us
I like to gamify my life where I can. Duolingo is a big one. My Spanish might not have improved much but, wow, I stack those points. Another big one for me is my driving. Mainly where gas mileage is concerned.
A few days ago, one of my coworkers was not really complaining about it but just telling me of her financial woes. She mentioned that she was down to her last few bucks—enough for gas until payday.
Quite some time ago, I created a signup form to become a pen pal with me. We had sold our house, and my son and I were on our way to Costa Rica for a few months. Later we would be meeting up with my wife in Colorado and then all head off to Hawai’i. Since I was bouncing around so much, and lacked a permanent mailing address, I engaged the services of a virtual mailbox that would scan and send any incoming letters to me.
In the summer of 1994, I was turning 14. My grandparents in Costa Rica had a place near the beach. It was close to where the river ran into the ocean. The river would rise and fall with the tide. On low tide, you could walk out in mud quite a ways, and on high tide, you could kayak out from their place.
Age creeps up on all of us. It’s a tale as old as time. I never really cared too much when I started seeing wrinkles. A few sprinkles of grey made me look wise in my early twenties. Going completely grey didn’t affect me either. In fact, I had enough compliments and people calling me a “silver fox,” I thought it was a good thing. When the hairs on my cheeks turned white, I finally felt like I looked old.
My sister-in-law and her kids visited Disney World a few years ago with my son and me. My son had never been, so it was a real treat for me to take him. We rode the Millenium Falcon and saw the Star Wars area that had been set up, which was terrific. Storm Troopers interacted with the park guests, and we even drank blue milk. I was super pumped to find Admiral Ackbar memorabilia!
Last week, I wrote about expecting little out of others. You can’t expect others to see your viewpoint. Don’t think everyone will remember your birthday. Things won’t always go your way.
Except for the myriad of hearts I have stolen over the years (joking), I was once caught actually stealing. My belief is some good can be found in any situation, and for this one, I was always glad that I was young and my embarrassment was such that I would be inclined to play things above the board for the rest of my days.
My wife texted me earlier today asking if I wanted to picnic with our son. I tend to work more than I should, so I decided to cut out a little early as it was a special occasion. Once I came home, we left for Natural Grocers and then hit the park.
The other day at the park, my son Dash started playing tag with some kids. My son is super fast and very hard to catch, and he earns his name. To top that off, there is a play area with slides and ladders where he will camp out, making it impossible to tag him.