Mr. Potato Head

My roommate is finally gone and I have a two bedroom apartment to myself. The silence is almost deafening. I keep trying to talk my landlord into putting in a hot tub so I can have some small scale, Hugh Hefner type parties here. My landlord's wife thinks I would turn it into something sleazy so she quickly vetoed the idea.

I have been sitting here looking at the beautiful green, tree covered landscape of Butt Mountain (and I am not making up the name of it) and trying to put my life in perspective. Sometimes that is a very hard thing to do. The past year has not been easy on me and it has taken its toll both physically and mentally. I am still facing two more surgeries before the end of the year. I am missing more parts than Mr. Potato Head.

Friends and family keep asking me about my future. I do not plan that far in advance any more. As Stephen King said in his novel 11/22/1963, "life turns on a dime." I do not know where I will be or what I will be doing a month from now much less anything farther out than that. It seems that everyone I come in contact with is trying to make sure that I am six feet under by then anyway. Life is short and needs to be lived, savor the good moments, and put the bad behind you as quickly as possible.

I remember what a man I used to work with told me one time. His family was tremendously wealthy. His father had built a business and was a multi-millionaire, his sister (who was smokin' hot by the way) had married a big time Hollywood Director/Producer, and his other sister had married a contractor who was also a millionaire and Sam changed oil for a living and had to make his own beef jerky and sell it to help make ends meet. I was teasing him about it one day and I said "Fred, you're family is worth millions. What happened to you?" He told me "I come to work everyday, treat everyone is well as I can, and at night, I sleep like a baby." He was right.