So where is this going? What started out as largely introspective seems to have morphed into something else. It's been highly personal at times and sometimes not.
One of my more regular readers says he thinks these are my "morning pages" ( as in "The Artist's Way") and I suppose that is a good thing since at least for now I seem to have crapped out on those. Another friend/colleague/teacher/mentor has suggested a website called 750words.com. 750 words is pretty straightforward--it is "morning pages" automated and done on the computer. Seems to fit my current writing style a bit more, despite my beloved fountain pens.
I thought to avoid political commentary, but it appears it is close to not possible. If what this is is about my subjective experience of my world, then the political will inevitably creep in, or maybe even stomp right through. So much of what impacts all of our lives is currently tied up in the screwy political debating going on. Who would have thought that in 2012 we'd be talking about birth control as an issue in a national election.
So I guess that's what this is--just my subjective musings on my world as I see it and experience it. As an introvert in Jungian terms, a lot of that is going to be introspective. Most of you who know me, know that that is a big part of who I am. For the few who may get impatient with my "navel gazing," I apologize, but I make no promise that I won't go there often. And some of it is going to be about my outer world which will inevitably in this crazy year sometimes be about politics.
Right now my crazy world is about getting ready to be away from home for six weeks on the road in Europe. I'm still deciding what to do with this during that time. If you have broken the code, what you already know is that I just write these as they come to mind and then schedule them to publish some days ahead, and sometimes have several in queue. It means I'm not writing under any pressure about "gee I haven't put something up for a while," and I can write about what is on my mind when it is. Traveling may present fewer opportunities for reflective writing. Also I'm not sure travel reporting is a fit for this, but we will see.
I probably won't post quite as frequently here, but we will be putting pictures up on facebook, so if you want those as we go, we gotta be facebook friends. Sorry.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Trip Planning
I've been getting organized on our upcoming vacation trip for the last few weeks. I started last summer when my wife announced that she wanted to spend at least six weeks in Europe during her sabbatical.
My first reaction was my more or less typical, "we can't afford it," but after a conversation a few days later with a friend whose mother has a stage four cancer I came home and said, basically, "it's only money," and started planning the next day.
A trip this long presents some interesting options, but we are focusing on five areas--Portugal, the Madrid area, Sevilla and Granada, Barcelona, and the area around Arles in France. We'll have a few days in Paris on the far end, and have booked a barge trip on the Canal du Midi. After a brief consultation with one of the Rick Steves people we have been doing most of this on line.
It's fun. We'll be doing some train and some car. There are some limitations on how far ahead that train reservations can be booked and the overnight ones do have to be booked ahead. Cars are pretty easy and a lot cheaper than stateside rentals. What's interesting is deciding on what needs to be done ahead and what can be done on the fly. We really didn't want to book everything tight. The barge trip, accommodations first night in Lisbon, first night in Madrid, the overnight trains, and rooms in Barcelona and Paris which can be a challenge; but that's it. About two thirds of the accommodations we will make on the way. There are some advance tickets that are needed for certain sites, but most of this ip will be an adventure.
We've done it before. Turns out Rick Steves' guidebooks are a great tool. In Italy we were doing an unplanned road trip around the hill towns of Tuscany and rolled into Sienna at sunset. We walked into a small hotel Steves had listed that was just off Il Campo and had a room.
It's kind of a nifty way to travel. Makes me deal with my own stuff about insecurity. I haven't done it often, in Cornwall and Devon during a trip to England, and with my son during our cycling trip through Denmark. You'd think given my history I be a little less nervous about this kind of thing, but it is a stretch. Good to do, to stretch.
My first reaction was my more or less typical, "we can't afford it," but after a conversation a few days later with a friend whose mother has a stage four cancer I came home and said, basically, "it's only money," and started planning the next day.
A trip this long presents some interesting options, but we are focusing on five areas--Portugal, the Madrid area, Sevilla and Granada, Barcelona, and the area around Arles in France. We'll have a few days in Paris on the far end, and have booked a barge trip on the Canal du Midi. After a brief consultation with one of the Rick Steves people we have been doing most of this on line.
It's fun. We'll be doing some train and some car. There are some limitations on how far ahead that train reservations can be booked and the overnight ones do have to be booked ahead. Cars are pretty easy and a lot cheaper than stateside rentals. What's interesting is deciding on what needs to be done ahead and what can be done on the fly. We really didn't want to book everything tight. The barge trip, accommodations first night in Lisbon, first night in Madrid, the overnight trains, and rooms in Barcelona and Paris which can be a challenge; but that's it. About two thirds of the accommodations we will make on the way. There are some advance tickets that are needed for certain sites, but most of this ip will be an adventure.
We've done it before. Turns out Rick Steves' guidebooks are a great tool. In Italy we were doing an unplanned road trip around the hill towns of Tuscany and rolled into Sienna at sunset. We walked into a small hotel Steves had listed that was just off Il Campo and had a room.
It's kind of a nifty way to travel. Makes me deal with my own stuff about insecurity. I haven't done it often, in Cornwall and Devon during a trip to England, and with my son during our cycling trip through Denmark. You'd think given my history I be a little less nervous about this kind of thing, but it is a stretch. Good to do, to stretch.
Friday, March 16, 2012
I Support Your Right To Arm Bears
And I have no desire to pry your firearm from your cold dead fingers, but I'd just as soon not have to pry it from the cold dead fingers of your child.
In the last three weeks the local news has had some horrific stories. The first was of an eight year old who took a gun from his mother, who he was visiting. He took it for "protection" because he was being bullied. The gun was obviously loaded with a round in the chamber because at some point he jostled his backpack and it went off, critically injuring a classmate. The mother and her boyfriend, both with previous felony convictions, are being charged with a felony.
A few days ago the parents of a five year old and seven year old left the children in the car to do a quick errand. The father is a police officer. The children found a gun in the car--not clear whether it was the father's service weapon--and the five year old shot the seven year old who later died.
Last night a couple stopped at a gas station and convenience store after midnight. The girlfriend went into the store while the man pumped gas. The three year old in the car got out of the car seat, found the gun left under the seat and shot himself. He died at the scene.
Children killed or seriously injured = 3; Dangerous Intruders stopped = 0
I suppose it could be argued what is the point of having a pistol if you don't keep it ready for use against those intruders. I do know that when I learned that my son had his Glock in the house without being in a lockbox or with a trigger lock I gave him the money to get a gun safe. I had visions of my granddaughters being an item in the news, despite being assured that they would "never do that."
I'm not anti-gun. I've owned guns, but never a pistol, which is basically a weapon for killing people. I mean really, lets be honest about this. The purpose of a pistol is to kill people. You can make all the "sport" arguments you want. That is the purpose. You can make all the "use it to threaten" arguments as well, but drawn a pistol is intended to be shot, shot it is intended to kill, or you shouldn't carry one.
I've enjoyed shooting and I'm a halfway decent shot, but if I did own a pistol, I'd leave it locked up at the range. Things get bad enough that I need firearms to protect me and mine then we're all toast anyway. Besides a side by side double would make more sense--easier to reload the cartridges and less likely to break down.
But the stats aren't in favor of the pistol owner. You're much more likely to get shot with your own weapon, shoot a family member, or have a family member shoot themselves or someone else than you are to actually use it against an intruder. I'm fond of the story I saw somewhere several years ago about a man who had a gun and surprised an armed intruder. They were in a small room and both men fired repeatedly, neither one hitting their target. I think the intruder fainted from shock. At any rate they caught him on the premises. Supposedly there was some underwear to be laundered. Could have been worse, much worse.
I really don't want to see another news story like those I mentioned at the start of this post, but with our wild west mentality I guess I am likely to. So you go ahead and make sure your bears are all armed and ready.
In the last three weeks the local news has had some horrific stories. The first was of an eight year old who took a gun from his mother, who he was visiting. He took it for "protection" because he was being bullied. The gun was obviously loaded with a round in the chamber because at some point he jostled his backpack and it went off, critically injuring a classmate. The mother and her boyfriend, both with previous felony convictions, are being charged with a felony.
A few days ago the parents of a five year old and seven year old left the children in the car to do a quick errand. The father is a police officer. The children found a gun in the car--not clear whether it was the father's service weapon--and the five year old shot the seven year old who later died.
Last night a couple stopped at a gas station and convenience store after midnight. The girlfriend went into the store while the man pumped gas. The three year old in the car got out of the car seat, found the gun left under the seat and shot himself. He died at the scene.
Children killed or seriously injured = 3; Dangerous Intruders stopped = 0
I suppose it could be argued what is the point of having a pistol if you don't keep it ready for use against those intruders. I do know that when I learned that my son had his Glock in the house without being in a lockbox or with a trigger lock I gave him the money to get a gun safe. I had visions of my granddaughters being an item in the news, despite being assured that they would "never do that."
I'm not anti-gun. I've owned guns, but never a pistol, which is basically a weapon for killing people. I mean really, lets be honest about this. The purpose of a pistol is to kill people. You can make all the "sport" arguments you want. That is the purpose. You can make all the "use it to threaten" arguments as well, but drawn a pistol is intended to be shot, shot it is intended to kill, or you shouldn't carry one.
I've enjoyed shooting and I'm a halfway decent shot, but if I did own a pistol, I'd leave it locked up at the range. Things get bad enough that I need firearms to protect me and mine then we're all toast anyway. Besides a side by side double would make more sense--easier to reload the cartridges and less likely to break down.
But the stats aren't in favor of the pistol owner. You're much more likely to get shot with your own weapon, shoot a family member, or have a family member shoot themselves or someone else than you are to actually use it against an intruder. I'm fond of the story I saw somewhere several years ago about a man who had a gun and surprised an armed intruder. They were in a small room and both men fired repeatedly, neither one hitting their target. I think the intruder fainted from shock. At any rate they caught him on the premises. Supposedly there was some underwear to be laundered. Could have been worse, much worse.
I really don't want to see another news story like those I mentioned at the start of this post, but with our wild west mentality I guess I am likely to. So you go ahead and make sure your bears are all armed and ready.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Help Me Understand, Please?
I called up my doctor's office to make an appointment for my annual "wellness check." I asked to talk to the nurse to see if I couldn't arrange to get the blood tests done ahead so that we could talk about the actual results. What has been happening is that I go in, they do the weight, bp, and listening to my heart and breathing, we have a nice conversation, and the blood draw gets done and I get a letter in the mail with the results with little explanation except everything is within the normal ranges. What's disturbing is that the conversation includes a little go round about putting me on statins because of some unspecified risk factors and "it's something we can prevent." Presumably that refers to clogged arteries. He is "concerned" but my cholesterol while on the high side of normal is not high. So I have said "no," for two years running.
So this time I want a real review with him of the test results. No can do. "Medicare has no codes for doing that." I cannot get the tests done first.
The yahoos would say "see what happenes when you let gummint mess with health care," but I think that while the regulations and required procedures are annoying--there is now an anti-fraud questionnaire to be filled out every 90 days, inconsistent answers will get your file pulled--in my experience the insurance companies are just as bad. Switching plans when changing jobs I could never know what was going to be covered. And of course there was that "pre-existing conditions" bullshit.
Actually right now I may have the worst of both worlds. I have my supplimental insurance through an insurance company who by virtue of this becomes my Medicare administrator. So I've got both government and insurance companies messing with me.
Here's what I don't understand. there is all this uproar about how terrible it is to have government involved in our health care, but in the name of "free enterprise" we have willingly surrendered all manner of control to private often run for profit insurance companies. I know the argument goes that in a "free market" you can choose and that "competition" will keep things lower cost and reasonable.
Well, here's the facts folks. The market is nothing like "free." You take what your employer offers. The employer makes the deal. You don't. And unless you are willing to pay the hefty premium on your own there is no "free market." At best the "market" is highly "inelastic." In my state the insurance commissioner is investigating the four largest providers for keeping overly large reserves, that he says should be passed on to consumers as lower rates.
During the run up to the federal health care bill, there was all this screaming about "death panels" and "rationing" of health care which struck me as utterly absurd given that the insurance companies already have "panels" deciding what treatments will be paid for and which ones not and they already ration what they provide unless you are willing to pay extra outside of the system. What makes that any different in its impact on you than a third party payer system?
So now with no employer I get Medicare and pay for the privilege of having an insurance company administer my Medicare for me. Worst of both worlds I think. I've been on it for two years and switched provider once already when I was about to get shunted onto a different plan by my original provider, and I am thinking very seriously about switching again. This time in part because my medical providers are part of the largest and most well regarded local hospital system, but which just acquired another hospital network which is Catholic owned. I'm not sure my health care directives would be followed in the new merged organization which has already shut down its reproductive health care center.
Just what is the *bleeping* problem with requiring employers to provide a specified range of health care coverages? We create this bastardized kluge of a system with private employers ("You don't have to work for Geogretown U., slut!") and private insurers in the mix, and now we should go around and make "exceptions of conscience" in what gets covered, at the same time that the use of a vaginal probe ultrasound is prescribed by a *bleeping* legislature as a tactic to embarrass women seeking to terminate a pregnancy.
None of this sounds very "free" market or otherwise to me. So explain please.
Oh, do us both a favor. DO NOT use the words "socialized" or "socialism," because what has been going on isn't even close.
So this time I want a real review with him of the test results. No can do. "Medicare has no codes for doing that." I cannot get the tests done first.
The yahoos would say "see what happenes when you let gummint mess with health care," but I think that while the regulations and required procedures are annoying--there is now an anti-fraud questionnaire to be filled out every 90 days, inconsistent answers will get your file pulled--in my experience the insurance companies are just as bad. Switching plans when changing jobs I could never know what was going to be covered. And of course there was that "pre-existing conditions" bullshit.
Actually right now I may have the worst of both worlds. I have my supplimental insurance through an insurance company who by virtue of this becomes my Medicare administrator. So I've got both government and insurance companies messing with me.
Here's what I don't understand. there is all this uproar about how terrible it is to have government involved in our health care, but in the name of "free enterprise" we have willingly surrendered all manner of control to private often run for profit insurance companies. I know the argument goes that in a "free market" you can choose and that "competition" will keep things lower cost and reasonable.
Well, here's the facts folks. The market is nothing like "free." You take what your employer offers. The employer makes the deal. You don't. And unless you are willing to pay the hefty premium on your own there is no "free market." At best the "market" is highly "inelastic." In my state the insurance commissioner is investigating the four largest providers for keeping overly large reserves, that he says should be passed on to consumers as lower rates.
During the run up to the federal health care bill, there was all this screaming about "death panels" and "rationing" of health care which struck me as utterly absurd given that the insurance companies already have "panels" deciding what treatments will be paid for and which ones not and they already ration what they provide unless you are willing to pay extra outside of the system. What makes that any different in its impact on you than a third party payer system?
So now with no employer I get Medicare and pay for the privilege of having an insurance company administer my Medicare for me. Worst of both worlds I think. I've been on it for two years and switched provider once already when I was about to get shunted onto a different plan by my original provider, and I am thinking very seriously about switching again. This time in part because my medical providers are part of the largest and most well regarded local hospital system, but which just acquired another hospital network which is Catholic owned. I'm not sure my health care directives would be followed in the new merged organization which has already shut down its reproductive health care center.
Just what is the *bleeping* problem with requiring employers to provide a specified range of health care coverages? We create this bastardized kluge of a system with private employers ("You don't have to work for Geogretown U., slut!") and private insurers in the mix, and now we should go around and make "exceptions of conscience" in what gets covered, at the same time that the use of a vaginal probe ultrasound is prescribed by a *bleeping* legislature as a tactic to embarrass women seeking to terminate a pregnancy.
None of this sounds very "free" market or otherwise to me. So explain please.
Oh, do us both a favor. DO NOT use the words "socialized" or "socialism," because what has been going on isn't even close.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Bullying Part 2
I wrote today's post a couple of days ago and then on yesterday evening's news there was a piece on a new film on bullying, "Bully," that has been given an "R" rating that would prevent it being shown in schools. The R was for violence--the violence of bullying.
In the film a boy who was being bullied is followed and filmed, one presumes with hidden cameras, while he is hit and taunted repreatedly. The telling scene was when the parents went to a school administrator to tell her how hostile the school bus environment was for their son. The administrator: "I've been on that bus. They are little angels on that bus."
As far as I am concerned that kind of attitude and response should justify the woman being charged as an accomplice in a physical assault, and being jailed.
There's is a movement afoot to get the film re-rated, as PG-13 (still to restrictive in my opinion) so that it can be used as an anti-bullying tool in schools.
In the film a boy who was being bullied is followed and filmed, one presumes with hidden cameras, while he is hit and taunted repreatedly. The telling scene was when the parents went to a school administrator to tell her how hostile the school bus environment was for their son. The administrator: "I've been on that bus. They are little angels on that bus."
As far as I am concerned that kind of attitude and response should justify the woman being charged as an accomplice in a physical assault, and being jailed.
There's is a movement afoot to get the film re-rated, as PG-13 (still to restrictive in my opinion) so that it can be used as an anti-bullying tool in schools.
Bullying
One of the recent ways our locale made the national news was the case of the nine year old boy who had taken a gun from his mother's house and put it in his backpack. It went off in school, seriously injuring a girl in his class. She has a bullet lodged near her spine and is still in critical care after several days. The boy has been charged but is being put into some kind of treatment program. He was being raised by an uncle after his family situation pretty much melted down. He got the gun during a visit to his mother who no longer has custody of him.
The first question up for me is who keeps a loaded gun unlocked where a child can get it with a round in the chamber and the safety off? But that aside there are some other disturbing things about this case that echo other similar events. Police initially reported that the boy supposedly indicated that he got the gun for "protection" because he was planning to run away. Now it comes out that in addition to his really shitty family situation he was getting bullied and had been suspended not long before after an incident in which some other kids "jumped" him and a friend after school. The school in its unselective bureaucratic "don't make me have to really solve this" wisdom simply suspended everyone involved. At which point the bullies threatened retaliation. The gun was taken for self-protection.
I'm not justifying the gun. Please don't think that.
But if you think bullying "is just part of growing up," I say bullshit.
In almost all of these kid perpetrated gun violence in schools incidents it eventually comes out that the kid had a history of experiencing bullying. In addition in many of the teen suicides it comes out that some kind of bullying was involved. Sometimes like the cyber-bullying case last year or the year before it actually involves an adult.
But here's my point today. Even if adults aren't directly involved, they are invariably complicit in allowing it to happen. I spent most of my teens getting bullied until I ended up for one year in a school that didn't accept it as the way things were.
Adults, teachers, administrators, whoever--in the past at least, adults didn't want to get involved and they typically made that plain to any bullied child who complained of it. Parents, often engaged in their own tsouris either don't want to get involved or aren't paying much attention. Trust me. I was one of them. Despite my own experience I was unaware that my oldest was having the same experience even though he was coming home and taking it out on his younger brother... (get this) for years. One of my most embarrassing things as a parent is to have learned this in the last few years.
Adult intervention is often simply absent, three monkeys style (see no evil, etc.). Often it is minimalist--"That's just the way things are. You have to learn how to handle it." Frequently it is indiscriminating as in the everyone involved gets the same treatment and it is to suspend rather than to counsel or advise or teach. I knew I never could count on adults to help me, not even my parents for a variety of reasons regular readers might appreciate. I knew I would be seen as the troublemaker if I complained. "Shoot the messenger" starts early in life.
What you do is you learn to avoid it. You find new routes out of school and home. You know what groups to avoid going near. You learn to be a little sneaky and operate in the seams. You still get caught. I was in my second year of high school when I became the target of a nineteen year-old who was in his third year for the third time--a really shining example of suthren amurican manhood. He would hunt me down outside of school even on weekends in order to pummel me. One of my problems was that once caught I would not back down. "Go ahead, hit me if it makes you feel big." Once I'm pretty certain I was concussed. Didn't let my mother know. What could she do? She had her own health issues which were killing her and was working 13 days out of 14 to keep things together.
So you avoid, and you probably fantasize or day dream about getting revenge or justice. I know I did. I've talked to a few others who had similar experiences, and they did, too. Mine were heroic dreams about how bad guys invaded the school, did in my nemesis, and then I somehow was involved in saving the day. Kills two birds with one stone, so to speak--gets rid of my problem and makes me popular.
The difference is that most kids who get bullied don't act on it in one of the negative ways. They don't plan to shoot up their school. They don't actually commit suicide. They pay a price to be sure, one that requires them to do some healing as an adult. One of Sheldon Kopp's Eschatological Laundry List is the line: "Childhood is a nightmare."
Still, I think it is great that more and more effort is being put into anti-bullying programs in schools. More of it couldn't happen soon enough as far as I am concerned. Most of the schools I knew as a teen ( I went to a few) were only a few notches removed from "Lord of the Flies." The kid culture in them was something adults actively avoided and some pretty horrific stuff went down. Despite some injuries nobody died, but there are times looking back that I wondered how we all survived.
Counter to all this is another local news thing gone national: Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" project to help youth of all persuasions but especially LGBT youth understand that there is life after high school, life where you don't get abusively teased for who you are or beaten up or ostracized. Maybe this is part of my "It Gets Better" statement.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Tin Soldiers
Over the years I have acquired and dropped hobbies the way a snake sheds its skin. I learned how to sail in my late teens at a public facility. Had a passion for it for two or three years getting approved as a racing skipper and even racing for my college team as a freshman. Got married, transferred to a different school, and so much for sailing. Considered buying a small sailboat a couple of times but nothing came of it.
The case could be made that I have been at flyfishing the longest, but maybe it is skiing. I downhill skied between 1962 and 1995 never avidly, because it's expensive, giving it up only after my wife dropped me at one of the cluster of areas near us--she was headed to cross country--and what turned out to be one of the steepest mountains I had ever been on. I had already had problems because the boots I had purchased to replace my beloved Hansens didn't quite fit right despite repeated visits to the shop. I got off the lift that day, took one look down the hill, and walked down. My skis went to the dump a couple of years later. Though state of the art when purchased, at nine years old and despite limited wear (I only skiied three or four times a season) they weren't even wanted by the second hand sports equipment places. She thought I was better than I was.
I've been flyfishing since 1985, so I'm catching up. If I last it will be my longest lived "hobby" in 2018. The equipment doesn't get superceded quite as quickly as with skiing. A cane rod is still pretty much the same as one made 50 or 75 years ago. They issue new graphite compositions every year or so, but I can never tell that much difference in the actions. You get new lines, a new reel once in a rare while. The rod companies guarantee their products for life even if the most frequent ways they are broken is getting slammed in screen or car doors. I'll probably still be fishing my beloved 1 weight, or the lovely 5 piece 3 weight, in 2018.
There is another hobby that I have had for a long time. I'm a gamer. I'm not a totally addicted to one game gamer like the D&D crowd, but I did have a D&D character. I have a pretty complete set of "Traveller" materials. "Traveller" is a space opera style role playing game put out by Game Designer's Workshop. I also have some stuff from a related futuristic after the apocalypse gaming system.
But my game preference was historical miltary simulation games. I played off and on and collected them from the early sixties into the early eighties, and acquired a few even since. I was a long time subscriber to Strategy & Tactics which featured a game in every issue. The games are realistic simulations and take a while to play so it is hard to find opponents. I haven't played the table top variety for over twenty years, but there are some on-line incarnations that work like the old play-by-mail versions of things that I have played more recently. It's a tenuous business model so they go in and out of business pretty often.
Along that line in the later seventies I started to paint armies of 15 mm figures from the Napoleonic era. I worked on them off and on over a dozen years, and moved them now six times. I still have a number of unpainted figures, and painted I have a couple of different French cavalry units, two regiments of British horse, artillery for both sides, and something like two or three battalions of infantry for each side. I may have actually played with them twice. Those rules are pretty complicated, too.
In any case what I told myself was that "when I retired" I'd spend my time painting. Well there are some inconvenient facts. One, I don't think I'm about to have that kind of retirement. But even more to the point, they way we have chosen to shape our lives and living arrangements doesn't allow for the kind of space it takes for the hobby. No place to set up a table, not much of any place to paint.
So they are taking up storage space, and memory share. Not much space, as they are all in boxes along with the brushes and what's left of the paints. I don't even know where I could replace the enamels I used. They were a specialty item and the last store I knew of in town that carried them went out of business a couple of years ago. They are there along with my collection of S&T games.
It's the memory share that is up for me now. I enjoyed them, enjoyed making them; and now it seems like some silly wasted effort and I haven't a clue of what to do with them. The spouse says Craig's List, but I would have to dig it all out and lay it out for photographs, etc. etc.; and besides it oddly feels like disappearing a part of myself.
So despite waking up thinking about it this week, I don't have a clue what I am going to do.
The case could be made that I have been at flyfishing the longest, but maybe it is skiing. I downhill skied between 1962 and 1995 never avidly, because it's expensive, giving it up only after my wife dropped me at one of the cluster of areas near us--she was headed to cross country--and what turned out to be one of the steepest mountains I had ever been on. I had already had problems because the boots I had purchased to replace my beloved Hansens didn't quite fit right despite repeated visits to the shop. I got off the lift that day, took one look down the hill, and walked down. My skis went to the dump a couple of years later. Though state of the art when purchased, at nine years old and despite limited wear (I only skiied three or four times a season) they weren't even wanted by the second hand sports equipment places. She thought I was better than I was.
I've been flyfishing since 1985, so I'm catching up. If I last it will be my longest lived "hobby" in 2018. The equipment doesn't get superceded quite as quickly as with skiing. A cane rod is still pretty much the same as one made 50 or 75 years ago. They issue new graphite compositions every year or so, but I can never tell that much difference in the actions. You get new lines, a new reel once in a rare while. The rod companies guarantee their products for life even if the most frequent ways they are broken is getting slammed in screen or car doors. I'll probably still be fishing my beloved 1 weight, or the lovely 5 piece 3 weight, in 2018.
There is another hobby that I have had for a long time. I'm a gamer. I'm not a totally addicted to one game gamer like the D&D crowd, but I did have a D&D character. I have a pretty complete set of "Traveller" materials. "Traveller" is a space opera style role playing game put out by Game Designer's Workshop. I also have some stuff from a related futuristic after the apocalypse gaming system.
But my game preference was historical miltary simulation games. I played off and on and collected them from the early sixties into the early eighties, and acquired a few even since. I was a long time subscriber to Strategy & Tactics which featured a game in every issue. The games are realistic simulations and take a while to play so it is hard to find opponents. I haven't played the table top variety for over twenty years, but there are some on-line incarnations that work like the old play-by-mail versions of things that I have played more recently. It's a tenuous business model so they go in and out of business pretty often.
Along that line in the later seventies I started to paint armies of 15 mm figures from the Napoleonic era. I worked on them off and on over a dozen years, and moved them now six times. I still have a number of unpainted figures, and painted I have a couple of different French cavalry units, two regiments of British horse, artillery for both sides, and something like two or three battalions of infantry for each side. I may have actually played with them twice. Those rules are pretty complicated, too.
In any case what I told myself was that "when I retired" I'd spend my time painting. Well there are some inconvenient facts. One, I don't think I'm about to have that kind of retirement. But even more to the point, they way we have chosen to shape our lives and living arrangements doesn't allow for the kind of space it takes for the hobby. No place to set up a table, not much of any place to paint.
So they are taking up storage space, and memory share. Not much space, as they are all in boxes along with the brushes and what's left of the paints. I don't even know where I could replace the enamels I used. They were a specialty item and the last store I knew of in town that carried them went out of business a couple of years ago. They are there along with my collection of S&T games.
It's the memory share that is up for me now. I enjoyed them, enjoyed making them; and now it seems like some silly wasted effort and I haven't a clue of what to do with them. The spouse says Craig's List, but I would have to dig it all out and lay it out for photographs, etc. etc.; and besides it oddly feels like disappearing a part of myself.
So despite waking up thinking about it this week, I don't have a clue what I am going to do.
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