An unusual start to my day yesterday. Woke up, walked past the laptop, left my phone on the charger, grabbed a cup of coffee, and went up to the roof. I sat there alone for two hours watching darkness turn to light. And thinking. About my life. About the future and whether I wanted one. I felt like I was at a decision point: Let go? Move on? Hold on? Ultimately, I chose to continue down the road I’m traveling, but with a renewed sense of caution and situational awareness. No one knows what the future may bring, but I’m going to do my best to be prepared for any eventuality that may arise. Yeah, wish me luck with that.
So, living this life I’ve chosen includes a Sunday Sweets Stroll. I put aside the negative thoughts and headed out to help spread some joy.
I took care of the Hideaway feeding, but I’m thinking I won’t continue that effort in the coming new year. It’s getting expensive, and frankly, that money could be better spent on other charitable endeavors. We shall see.
Next on my Sunday agenda was dinner John’s place.
As is our custom, we hit Red Bar after dinner, and then moved on to Jumpin’ Jacks for our nightcap. Suffice it to say, the evening concluded much better than the night before.
From the February 2016 LTG archives, I had begun my new walking lifestyle, and in this pictorial post, I share my journey to the top of Namsan and back. It was nice to see those old familiar scenes once again.
In today’s YouTube video, the vlogger recounts ten facts about the Philippines that most people don’t know. Well, after almost eight years, I found nothing surprising on his list. I was reminded why I dislike Manila so much. (The graphics in the video are not AI-generated, so don’t let the cover below put you off.)
And on to the funny business:
Anyway, things are pretty much feeling back to normal now, although I’m keeping my guard up so as not to get blindsided down the road. I’ll be heading out to the Hash soon, and we’ll see how I fare on a Leech My Nuggets trail.
You’re normally an over-confessional guy when something goes wrong in your life, so for you to be so coy about whatever happened most recently means it must’ve been pretty bad, whether you were the victim or not.
That looks like something I might have done.
The irony of the lazy smartass is that he expends more intellectual effort on being (unsuccessfully) witty than he does on trying to learn the lesson material. Why the hell is that? And Americans in particular are funny because, on one hand, they worship hard-working winners and team players, but on the other hand, they also worship the lazy smartasses, from Woody Woodpecker to Al Czervik to Ace Ventura to almost any character played by Bill Murray.
What happened to your calorie-counting diet, John?
Jordan, I lost my weigh.
Kevin, yes, no point in dragging someone else down with me. There was a lesson to be learned, and hopefully, I learned it.
“…they also worship the lazy smartasses, from Woody Woodpecker to Al Czervik to Ace Ventura to almost any character played by Bill Murray.”
My heroes! Hey, Americans have been rebels for going on 250 years now. Better to be a smartass than a dumbass, right?
>I sat there alone for two hours watching darkness turn to light. And thinking. About my life. About the future and whether I wanted one. I felt like I was at a decision point: Let go? Move on? Hold on? Ultimately, I chose to continue down the road I’m traveling, but with a renewed sense of caution and situational awareness
Again, my 2 cents from a 10,000 foot view and probably not seeing the whole picture……
I think you need a change of some sort. Not sure if that would be an extended trip somewhere, a possible change in location, a change in lifestyle, or something else.
Seems like your current lifestyle is not matching up with what you really want. You are in a good position in that you have the resources to make a change if needed. You keep mentioning the “too old to start over”, but what does that really mean? Do you really have such deep meaningful relationships (other than maybe Swan) in Baretto that doing something different would be earth shattering? What is so different about making a change at 70 vs 65?
Maybe we are only hearing the “downs” in your life rather than the “ups”.
Anyways, here’s looking at a brighter tomorrow.
Brian, I’m doing okay for the most part, just the occasional speedbump as I navigate life’s journey. It’s not so much an inability to start over as an unwillingness to go through the hassle of getting reestablished in a new locale. And for the most part, I really like it where I am.
I’m looking forward to two weeks in Vietnam next month. A nice change of scenery, and then it will feel good to be back home again.
Yeah, I do need to do a better job of emphasizing the positives. Last night on the floating bar is an example of that. In one sense, it’s more of the “same old, same old,” but it felt so good to be gently rolling on the water, taking in the fantastic views, and chatting with fellow expats. I never want to take this life for granted.