Incremental Aging

On occasion, I do what I say I will or, rather, what I say I want to do. I looked back this morning at my post from a year ago and saw that I spoke about my interest in welding and woodworking and art—activities whose practice results in something tangible, something of value.  I promised I would make decisions about what I would pursue.  I made the decisions, but like almost all, none of them were cast in stone.

Since moving to Hot Springs Village, I have begun pursuing art, pottery, and woodworking. All three activities produce tangible products; thus far, none of them produce attractive products, but they are tangible.  At least I am pursuing things I said I would.  I said I wanted to pursue welding, to continue something I started years ago; that, I have not done.  But maybe I will one day before long.

Today, though, I’ll celebrate my birthday and offer well-wishes to a couple of others who share today’s reason for celebration.  And I’ll finish a book I started reading on Sunday: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami.  With just one hundred pages to go, I can offer the book up as truly engaging, though I have a few questions about the legitimacy of the translation from the original Japanese.

Tonight, we’ll go out to dinner to celebrate; I would prefer Bar-B-Q at a dive, but my wife seems to think birthdays should be a bit more upscale, so we may go to a more upscale place in Hot Springs.  I hope I am able to convince her to go to a place where shorts or jeans and flip-flops or sandals would be appropriate attire.