I have mostly enjoyed my late-blooming career in teaching. I certainly have enjoyed my now 5 years at McMurray Middle School here in the city of my birth, Nashville, Tennessee. I most certainly will enjoy my retirement, which creeps closer day by day. After it is a reality, not an event planned and looked forward to? Much.
I have a beautiful wife of over 35 years, two (literally) marvelous young adult children, sufficient financial means, and a stocky 10 year old dog. I have friends, both here in around the country and globe. I have a raft of options for how to spend each day. I imagine myself awakening, arising, and choosing sometimes at the last moment--deciding in the now--very often. What are those options? In no particular order:
- Music
- I play mostly mandolin these days, and I am pursuing the Intermediate course--having finished the Basic during Covid lockdown--taught online by the amazing Sierra Hull. These lessons, completed linearly, can be 20 minutes or an hour and can be completed as frequently or infrequently as my time moves from day to day. Already I feel a much better mandolin player from her guidance and my practice and I'm looking forward to more of both.
- I also play guitar, ukulele, and a little banjo and can see myself branching back off to relearn any of those if and when I feel accomplished and adroit enough on the mandolin to make that kind of choice attractive.
- Writing
- Some may know I self-published a novel back around 2004, and I plan to set up recording gear to create an audio book of Lives. I have already spent those Covid years publishing to my blog a great deal of work, including short stories, my novella Running, and a good deal of poetry.
- I want to revise a self-published book of poetry to make something lasting and more substantial.
- I plan to blog regularly, having left off for a good bit due mostly to work and laziness. It's fun, challenging, and I have known it
- Fishing
- Yes, I love being out on the water, alone or with a good friend, and working at playing the fishes' game. That's right, it's their game: We just play it. I have always been a fan of nature and the out of doors. For nearly a decade, I have fished as often as I can 20 minutes up the road from my house, at Lake Marrowbone, near Joelton. It's a 65 acre State managed fishing lake, and I catch trout, largemouth bass, bluegill, redear, and catfish. Very often I catch and release, and I sometimes bring them home, clean them, and either eat them that evening or freeze them for later smoking, grilling, or pan-frying.
- I hope to travel Tennessee in future years, branching out to new fishing spots on short sorties into the beautiful state of my birth. This may involve renting boats and camping, or staying by myself or with a friend in cabins or motels; or, hopefully, with my lovely Lee Ann.
- Travelling
- I'll be tripping off to places as yet unidentified. Certainly to Texas to visit my dear brother Ed, perhaps to out of state fishing holes, and with my wife to distant places we are only beginning to identify as goals. We are beginning to contemplate a trip to Greece next year. We will be spending a week in Missoula, Montana visiting Colin and Kat this summer. It's such a beautiful place I cannot imagine our week this summer will be a one-off.
- I'm flying up to Albany in June and visiting Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where my dear pal James Morrison is performing a one-man play for a two-week run at Bard College. It's a quick trip, but I am so looking forward to the geophysical co-location, not to mention the hugs. I'll also get to see my godson Seamus and his lovely mom, Riad. The play, written by Jimmy and comprised of over 11,000 words (!) centers around the family's experiences with my godson's brain tumor surgery and recuperation. I have read an early version of it and was moved to tears by its originality and masterful script then; and I plan to pack extra hankies for this trip.
- Meanwhile:
