STOPPING AT THE CONVENIENCE STORE...

So the boss told us to go home about 2PM to work due to the winter storm. I live a half hour away in Maine. I needed cigarettes so I stopped at the local gas station that has everything at high prices.

I passed a smartly dressed, attractive brunette in her 30's I guessed as I was entering the store and she was leaving.

I went up to the counter to buy my cigs however there was a heated debate going on. The woman had bought tubes that people use to pack somehow with marijuana. A couple of customers had asked about them as the woman I passed had bought some.

"What are those for", the customer (lurker) asked?

The woman behind the counter was likely in her early to mid- 60's, my age, answered, "they use them to smoke marijuana".

The customer was aghast. What cave she crawled out of I do not know,

"Her partner, an man in his 60's also along with the other customer said "I wonder where they get it?" The cashier says, "they have a state facility right in town".

"OMG", the female customer said... "drugs are legal now"?

I politely interrupted and asked the cashier, "could I please have a pack of cancer sticks?"

"I'm sorry, what brand?"

Much bigger fish to fry is all i could think about on my way home.

HOW I GOT TO WHERE I AM NOW

Everyone considered individually - how did we come to be where we are now? You might well imagine, given statistics, at any given moment an infinite number of things are happening.

Sex for the first time

Eating

Falling asleep

Getting to work

Lighting a joint

About to get murdered, get an award, get arrested, win a $500 million lottery!

Right now, somehow, we got to where we're at.

We're feeling what?

I ponder how I got here now all the time. I shouldn't. But I have my reasons. Before I provide those reasons, a friend of mine just provided me with an epiphany. An old friend - we go back to the 70's. You may need to read it a few times.

"It's only how we got here. 

If we have free will the future is open to a myriad of possibilities and if we don't it's not worth worrying about."

It doesn't matter what job I work, how I'm doing,  how successful I am, how depressed. 

Right now my major stress is my job. I've been there 16 years, full time doing technical support for computer software. I got there because in the 90's I got to love computers.

Fast forwards and frankly it's a nightmare. What was a well defined though chaotic job has become a circus where us employees are the circus animals. Finding a new job is the only out, and playing along doing what one can to add sanity is all one can do. 

But it goes deeper, into the whole concept of Work/Life management. Age doesn't matter. However age does factor in.

When younger the tendency is to weigh one's life towards thyself. Work 20 hours a week overtime, but it's nothing compared to what one does when they not working. Get older, you're more likely to sleep when not working. I'm 61. 

My job has begun to expect working after hours, on weekends. Their argument is "salary". Salary means you can leave early, no punching out, just let supervisor know. In return, work extra, no change in money earned. Salary is fixed income. 

This post isn't about my job however. It is about how we got here.

I'm not blind to the potential of this post... statistically any number of things are happening to people at any given moment. Much is beyond our control right now. 

I simply wish to share some wisdom... that helped me understand Work/Life balance. 

"WORK/LIFE INTEGRATION"

One needs to start somewhere. 

If we have free will the future is open to a myriad of possibilities and if we don't it's not worth worrying about."

 

BOBKAT'S INTRODUCTION TO 2016

The Good News:

Gas prices are way down from where they were! Gets me wondering what happens when the other shoe drops?

Other good news:

Marijuana is now legal in 4 states and several cities for whatever use they choose to use it for, if 21 years old or older.

Gosh... must be more good news, but rare these days.

Bad News:

ISIS
Turkey (the country)
Syria continues to be a threat.
Bad outlook for this year's economy
Increase in questionable deaths by police initiated shootings
No raise for over two years
Trump as the Republicans leading candidate



Need I go on?

I thought not. Yeah so Christmas and all the holiday stuff/crap is over. Time to start doing out taxes. In the north shovel snow.

Our human exposure to the Sun becomes limited leading to all sorts of maladies. Depression in particular. Just remember, you're not alone and this too will pass.

Careful as always what you wish for! Don't keep all your eggs in one basket. And remember, "love is perennial as the grass".

2016, here we come...

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND LET'S WELCOME 2016 !!

Wow! What a year!! 2015 was.

Started the year off with two friends, who are still friends, threatening to call the sheriff to evict me from my room. I had lived with my friends in that room for about 8, maybe 10 years.

Bought a house - my first at age 60. Same state as Stephen King.

Wonderful summer that found me learning to sit outside in my yard and enjoy that, along with my cat.

A year unlike any other. My mother, whom I have a jaded past with, diagnosed with cancer only to find out now it's not cancer and they don't know what it is. My mother with a mysterious illness. Of course.

And I have my illnesses... matters not, not that it matters.

A full year on FaceBook. Maybe not something to write home about. But at 61, looking back, it's extraordinary how things have changed. No more phones. Chat online or even make a call with video online. Had a video Christmas in fact with my family. 700 miles a part and we were together while unwrapping presents.

A difficult year.

New Year Goals:

1) Get exercising.
2) Resolve issues at current job of 16 years or find a new one.
3) Relax while still being productive.
4) Get out and meet people. Or decide to become a recluse.
5) Work on improving the new house.

I would like to write again, like fiction to publish, and found a place to do that: Nelson Algren Literary Awards. It would be a good thing to write again.

Have a Hppy new year :)

BobKat