Be it ever so humble and all that jazz, it’s good to be back and into the swing of my so-called life. I think being away for even a few days helps give you perspective. Sometimes I lament the meaninglessness of it all in an “is that all there is?” kind of way. But hey, I’m retired, I’ve made my contributions to society and I have the pension to prove it. For me now my job is to not lament what I’ve lost, not to regret what I don’t have, and to be satisfied with the life I’ve chosen in the here and now. Knowing I can always change my life should the need arise.

So for a retired guy, I guess you could say I do lead a pretty active lifestyle. I’m out walking every day of course. That’s a healthy thing to do and I occasionally even enjoy it. I’ve got a couple of Spotify music playlists I’ve created, Walk and Roll and Walkaholic, that helps pass the steps when I’m out and about. And of course, there’s the nightlife.

So yeah, I have my favorite hangouts. Some are for darts, like Alley Cats. Some feature my kind of music. And others are just good places to sit and chat with my fellow expats. I’ve mentioned before that Barretto often feels like a big retirement community. We are all kind of in it together and making the best we can of whatever remains of our time amongst the living. If that constitutes settling, then I’ll settle for that.

And it’s not all about bars and women.

This is the life I’ve chosen and I’m going to try and live it without regret.

Oh, Facebook reminded me this morning of another walking milestone in my “career”.

Today I participate in a social activity that involves both of my pastimes–walking and drinking. Yep, I’m talking about the Hash. And in other Hash news, this week I’ll be making a road trip to La Union (about 4 hours north of here) to participate in the Haggis Hash there. I’m not sure what all that involves, we’ll do a walk on Friday and a bar crawl that night. A walk on Saturday and then the “games”. No idea what that’s going to entail, but I reckon I’m going to find out.

So stay tuned and thanks for joining me for the ride of my life here at LTG.

And when I was twelve years old
My daddy took me to a circus
“The Greatest Show on Earth”
There were clowns and elephants and dancing bears
And a beautiful lady in pink tights flew high above our heads
And as I sat there watching
I had the feeling that something was missing
I don’t know what
But when it was all over, I said to myself
“Is that all there is to a circus”

Is that all there is
Is that all there is
If that’s all there is, my friends
Then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is