Advice from someone way smarter than me

Richard threw another barbeque tonight and it felt like a wake for summer, dark by 7:30. Although it was 90 today by eight it was coolish, and we enjoyed maybe the last corn on the cob of summer and a burger, shared what we had. I excused myself and went inside and lost two dollars in two minutes flat, falling with pocket kings to a smarter and luckier guy who had the good fortune to hold pocket aces. Statistically this happens once every 4000 hands or so, and when it does, you just smile and wish everyone good luck. Unless fortune tosses a stink bomb into your opponent's lap and visits you with a king.

Marie stayed over last night and it was wonderful to hold her again and wake up to the sight of her, pulling a tee shirt over her blonde curls. If I live to be 80 (and a lot of times I hope I don't) I don't think I would ever forget her. I sent her a mournful email when I got home. I can't shake the feeling that something is going on in her life, a new development, an alternate path. The last few times I've seen her as she's left I've had the feeling she was on her way to somewhere else. Of course thinking like that is foul and dishonorable and bound to turn things for the worse. Sometimes I am tired of living inside my own head. I ought to dig a ditch or something, so I could think only of cold water and how the sweat stings in my blisters. I spend too much time thinking, and that turns thinking sour. It's a fruitless pursuit, a bridge to nowhere.

Bridge to nowhere. That's been in the news. It's sad to me how the presidential race has turned. I think in trying to discredit one another they disgrace themselves, and there is too much innuendo and mischaracterization going on, trying to demonize the opponent and their views. People want real solutions and a more hopeful future, but all they're getting is a lipstick-on-a-pig show that threatens to turn mean. I thought it was a graceful touch that both candidates met at Ground Zero today. Maybe that will raise the level of discourse. It's a shame that so much of the electorate makes their decision based on an almost primal fear of what the other candidate represents, sold the notion that Candidate X will invade their wombs or their pocketbooks or make the world unsafe for decent and right thinking people. I don't think either candidate is a bad man. Certainly there are ambitious or they wouldn't seek the job. Ultimately that's the trouble--who would want that job?

Who I am kidding? I don't know anything. Here is some advice from someone smart:


"If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things."

---Albert Einstein

I am too blue to blog. I'll leave you with that.