It's been a while - and aging is not for the timid.

I haven't had much to say for quite a while, and have a backlog of rants that will sooner or later show up here.  Meanwhile, I am discovering that aging sucks if it is happening to you (or, in my case, to me!)

I will be 72 in February.  I still go to work each day (except for the last month or so, about which more later) and for the most part i enjoy it.  I like what I do, I like having the income, and the thought of retirement, with the attendant loss in income scares hell out of me. I like the income, I like having a bit left over for toys and pleasures, and it is not going to be easy readjusting my lifestyle to run on less than have of what we're used to, particularly when expenses are increasing.  I don't want to give up some of my toys.

The last month has been pretty rough.  A combination of things has caused me to be unable to drive or go to work, so I have been working at home, and damn glad that my employer has put up with it.  I rather like it, but really need to get back to regular attendance - hopefully it will start happening next week.

The causes of this little misadventure are several, but all go back to a decision I made in 1964, and got to exercise in 1965.  That decision was that I was tired of being a fat guy, that it was a problem that I could not manage by myself and that a gastric bypass would help me lose the weight.

The long and short of it is that I was right, somewhat, and wrong, somewhat - and it has taken until the past few weeks to let me know exactly how much of any assumptions I might have made were truly asinine.

This is going to take a couple of posts, just to separate the main events and put them in proper historical perspective, so I think I'll call them something like 'How I Got This Way' parts 1 through whatever it takes.

I can't do it all tonight, because it is late, I am tired, and after a while of late and tired I get stupid - and I want this to be right, or at least accurate.  It has taken me several years to understand just how life-threatening a couple of things that have happened have been;  suffice it to say that I could have been (and perhaps should have been) gone several years ago, and it is only a combination of fortune, a stubborn wife and daughter, and some superb medical care that permits me to write this and the following pieces.  I am starting to appreciate this - up until now I was getting really good at denying it.

More to come - I'm headed for bed!