"Turning SIXTY-TWO..."

10:11  PM, on Monday, August 1, 2016...unbelievably 2 years since my last Blog entry...and another fifteen days before my 62nd birthday...

Other than God, I don't think that anyone could predict the current state of our Country and our World...

To say that the pace of the last two years has been hectic, would be an understatement.   Currently, my personal schedule has gotten less busy, and time for reflection exists.   For all of the "business" of these two years , I'm don't feel that I've gotten too far after reading my "Turning SIXTY" last blog entry.

Small steps...I have the same shoe collection plus an additional pair of sandals and a gift pair of casual slip-ons...I have new pillow cases on new pillows in my "summer" bedroom...my library files have been "purged" and "filled" again...my travel files and logs have been updated...my "Daytimer" has a new leather jacket...my 3 days per week cardio has increased from 30 to 40 minutes...my 3 days per week swimming 25-meter laps have increased from 70 to 100...my body weight has plateaued at 238...my waist remained at 40 (on a good day, 39.5"!)...my feet and toenails are in better shape...my gums have just undergone a "deep" (expensive but less than the recommended orthodontist $5,600 treatment) $950 cleaning...and my latest dermatology visits discovered a chest basal cell  that was treated for (the incorrect) fee of $810...last month, I gave in...no more hair dye...so far I'm getting used to the close cropped  age-appropriate "white" hair... 

Larger steps...I'm ever-more appreciative of God's daily blessings...we have lost an immediate family member...my sister-in-law at only 45 from a silent heart attack a year ago...I lost a 35 year close (often mistaken for another brother)  friend and his mother after a hidden 20-month battle with colon and liver cancer...I have a few local very close friends (and at my 40th College Reunion forever close friends)....my career is in its "twilight" years...it has "changed" so much that I feel "removed"...I have a new 2016 Acura TLX, "high-tech" automobile (at a "good deal", it was the price our next to their last Westchester County, New York family home) that was hit in its first few months by three young girls who ran a red light through seven lanes of traffic before hitting me (the police report called it "no fault"!)...the DOW Jones Average and real estate values have "artificially, some say, risen...my mortgage balance is below $29,000...my grandparents' post-Depression mentality has made my account cash balances remain high...my travel blessings continued...with multiple cruises...and most recently memorable trips to Turkey, Greece, and Croatia...and Cuba...I still resist the all too often technology updates...Society and particularly  our politics (in this, an election year with the two least popular candidates ever historically) have taken negative directions...I'm preparing to write my suggested Presidential platform...

Goals...stay tuned for a possible future blog entry...

But...at the new "forty-two", I'm optimistic that with God's lead, we are all going to "keep on keeping on"...