AI Working With AI (Ancient Intelligence Working With Artificial Intelligence)

I had a lot of work, A LOT of work to get done coming to Ghana. Big projects related to fundraising and business development requiring detailed process development and content creation. It is hard to do these kinds of work when I'm home because my days often have meetings (physical and virtual) and I (at least) need uninterrupted blocks of time to do massive process and content work. I have been looking forward having numerous days relatively free from interruptions to do this work here in Ghana.

What I did not expect was a massive leap into the use of AI to assist me. 

Over the last month, I have been dabbling. I had used it mostly to edit and reformat written content and for some research. I had not used it to map out an entire campaign. But on the flight out, I had layovers and I tried for the first time to put into AI (I am just using ChatGPT at this point) a request for developing an entire campaign. That led into developing ideal target definitions. This led into the creation of separate documents to be used in the campaign.

There were things I wanted done by my team that were going to stretch their capabilities. I was able to generate instructions and scripts that took into account the strengths and frailties of my people. 

I am learning how to iterate. By that I mean, give the AI a set of instructions, edit the response, and ask the tool for what additional instructions would assist making the work output more in line with my desire.

I know I am just taking baby steps. I have not succeeded in creating any fully formed, formatted end products. I am giving things to my team to for them to do final formatting. I find when I ask Chat to create an original document, my prompts (instructions) don't seem to be clear enough and it comes out not very close to what I desire. On the other hand, when I give it content I've written and ask it to make it more impactful, or more emotional, or more concise, I get much better results. 

On the whole however, I have gotten WAY MORE done over the couple of days I've been here than I would have thought. So I'm looking forward to see what else I can learn about using this tool.

Gothic Heros

The notorious Goths, who periodically swoop down on the Imperial Center that is de-I Towers are also allegedly our vassals. So the word went out to the Visigoths. Your contribution to the Imperial well-being is needed. 

In reality, a bit more than a month ago, Wife and I were projecting out all we were going to have to do finally getting our house back in order AND having to prepare and plant our garden. It seemed overwhelming. Daughter #1 offered to come with grandson 1.2 to help. We accepted. 

They arrive on Thursday night. We put them to work immediately. 

 I am #1...I will ALWAYS be #1 in the de-I hierarchy. I am here from the Visigoths to honor my pledge of fealty to the Seniors.

And this is my offspring, 1.2

 

 Her Excellency, Wife, greets us

 This what awaits us

 Let the Labor Begin!

 

 

 Final Results

PLEASE don't ask about the gnomes. It is our burden to carry.

There were still more things for #1 & 1.2 to help us with before they left. It was a blessing to have them come because I don't think Wife and I could have handled it without them.

On Being AI And Being Last

The wheel of karma goes round and round. You make a start, go to the middle, come to the end, only to begin all over. 

When I was in the fullness of my late career, I was part of a group that built and organization dedicated to teaching professionals the art and science of building a person a network. It was called Trusted Advisor Network. For a short period, it was a dynamic organization. It offered a different, a more fundamentally value laden way of interacting. At the core of all of it was the training program I'd developed called the TAN System. It was the heart and soul of the organization. A great many people benefited from it feeling that it provided themselves a sense of deeper purpose. 

Sadly, its ongoing development was not to be. It was torn apart by selfish forces that often occur in these situations. I was at that point where I was doing my great transition in 2014. I did help a part of the organization to restructure, but mostly I just moved on with my life. From time-to-time, I would hear this comment or that on how it was working or not working. Mostly it seemed that it was gradually coming to an end.

But I still had contact with many people who had been a part of it. Many who rued it having fallen down. Others who were committed to reviving it. So it was in January, as I was yet again looking to revive my own personal network to gain more business, that I was talking to two of these old TAN comrades that were part of this revival team. There message was simple. 

"de-I, we need your AI."

"What? I have nothing to do with artificial intelligence. And how is that going to help with your revival of TAN."

"No de-I, we need your ANCIENT INTELLIGENCE!"

"We need the founder of our system teaching us. Our people have forgotten all about the system that made us special. Will you come and and teach us anew?"

As I thought about this, I realized I had a lot to gain. I needed to rejuvenate my network. And this would be an ideal way to meet some younger professionals. So this last Thursday I found myself flying to Phoenix, Arizona to give a presentation on the TAN System. 

How long had it been since I'd done a 'business' trip? Over a decade for sure. As the vast majority of my travel over this period has been long-distance, long duration, I wasn't quite sure even how to arrange things for a same-day go and return flight. But I figured it out. And I had an interesting realization.

Virtually all of my travel for the longest time (including business travel) involved my having a carry-on bag. This led to a pattern of me wanting to get on the plane first to ensure I had overhead space for said bag. On this trip, I realized that was not the case. There was no need for me to get on the plane any earlier than absolutely necessary. So on both the outbound and return flights, I made sure I was THE LAST person to board. What a delicious and interesting feeling of nonchalance and freedom. 

Oh and by the way, my presentation was very well received and I met a number new, younger people to add to my network.

BiL And SiL

That would be Brother-in-Law and Sister-in-Law, Wife's Brother and his Wife. 

Of all our family, I would say, over the decades, we have been closer with them than any others. Yet it had been a long time since we'd actually been together. They had taken the initiative and asked if they could come visit. We were truly happy they did. 

So what does one do for three days with your close relative that you've not seen for years?

TALK

It is hard maybe for some to understand that we spent an immense amount of time talking. Talking about all kinds of things. It was truly impressive. However, there is a sub-plot in this...the talking relationship between Wife and her Brother. Each evening they would start talking. Often it was about aspects of their life growing up on the farm in Windom, MN with their somewhat dysfunctional parents. After a couple of hours both SiL and I would bail, go to my Library and sit quiet reading while the two siblings went on and on. Honestly, I haven't seen Wife this animated, engaged, and energetic since the November blood clot issue.

COOK AND EAT

Seriously? You think de-I is going to have guests and not pull out the stops cooking and eating?

Our first day, Wife and I had our contractor in and out a couple of times as we have been trying to get the last parts of our remodel finalized. I opted for a simpler meal. I took out a number of last summer's smoked meats (ribs, pulled pork, brisket) from the freezer. I made my crispy not quite mashed potatoes, and slow roasted (a la #1) a butternut squash to crispy outside/soft inside perfection.

Day two was pasta making. I had the lust to make pasta from scratch. My BiL, the curious learner and engineer he is, wanted to watch and participate in the whole process. I had him rolling and cutting the pasta. I made a very meat centric sauce using some goulash I had in the freezer, pressure cooked with pork rib meat. The pasta turned out top notch!

Day three was Cambodian Fish/Shrimp Amok. I showed SiL how to make curry paste from scratch. Another top notch winner.

de-I DIY APPRENTICE

My BiL is an amazing engineer and notorious fix it person. SiL bemoans the fact that if they visit family in their homes, it always turns into a home improvement project. We had small need. Our on furnace humidifier needed its internal canister replaced. BiL was confident we could do this ourselves. I volunteered to be his student not realizing that BiL, being a great teacher, would have me do everything!

Yours truly throwing himself into the task

 Let me tell you how much FUN I'm having

 After we'd replaced the canister, BiL insisted that we open up. It was amazing the amount of mineral deposits on in and on it!

 

 

 Evidently there are a lot of minerals in our water. I am not sure if we should be concerned about the amount of minerals we are consuming in our water, OR if we should be bottling our local water as natural mineral spring water!

Humidifier Canister Replacement Success

Holiday Shopping - Eldership Style

 While Wife slowly builds back her strength from the blood clot event, we're taking a decidedly low key approach to the holidays. As it is with family so far away, this has turned out to not be a time when we do a whole bunch anyway. 

We did put up our tree, an artificial thing that has gotten so misshapen and whose built in lights only partially work that we've committed to finally dumping it at the end of the season. While I did most of the heavy work, Wife did do the final decorating. I must say it is one of the more tastefully decorated trees we've put out. Probably because I was prevented from putting on the massive amount of tinsel I usually do. 

We were hemming and hawing on getting presents for each other. This is true for so many couples if you've had success in your life. You pretty much have what you want or if you want something, you just get it. So we've opted for version of that pragmatic approach. We each are going out buying things for ourselves. Then we are giving it to our spouse to wrap up and present as if they bought it. 

I'm telling you we will be like kids again as we open package after package getting all the things we had our heart set on for Christmas.

Europe Fall 2024 - Finale, Great Navel Gazing Post

We are back home after a relatively uneventful trip back home. Actually with the exception of the chaos of our getting out of Alicante to Amsterdam, the rest of the trip was smooth. We were even able to get our bags in Albuquerque and secure an Uber home in record time. Both Wife and I have done a good job at managing the jet lag and have been very productive despite having only been home for a couple of days. The transition from the travel life state to the home base state has been relatively smooth. I will discuss that in the next post. But, as I have done ever since we started our significant travel life a decade ago, I will conclude with my analysis of our experience or as #3 has called it the 'deep navel gazing'. 

Accept and Enjoy

The backdrop of this trip was Wife and my desire to transition from travel oriented on going to many places to a more single location oriented model in line with our decreasing capabilities as we age. However, finding the 'place', that locale where one would be happy going back again and again had proven to be a mighty challenge. 

Thus a major goal of the first part of our trip was trying to find this elusive 'El Dorado', the place that would have all the features we wanted. As you know, that turned into an exercise of extreme frustration. We even carried this attitude of looking for the 'perfect place' into Spain when we first arrived in El Campello and started to visit the other coast side towns of the Alicante area along with the accompanying frustration.

It was at this point that Wife had a powerful realization. Something she had read talked about the importance of accepting, meaning accepting where you are at and taking joy in that as it is. She said she was ready to make that leap. And if she was, I sure was too.

From that point, we just immersed ourselves into our lifestyle in Campello. I wrote four posts on the specifics of why this small city resonated with us and why the specific apartment we were in was such a big part of it.

The Transition Bullet Train Keeps Chugging On!

In July, I wrote about the growing realization that my 'transitioned lifestyle' was not an even but an on-going process with (it seems) no end in sight. I took this to heart for this trip. 

First, had to do with letting go of managing Theodora day-to-day. My Board members (aka #2 & #3) had beat me up with this at our annual meeting in July. When I was in Ghana in August, I worked with the team to let them know they would have to take responsibility for their day-to-day work. And with my departure to Italy in September, I did just that. And, low and behold, the team stepped up and have taken care of just about all of the regular execution of their business. I will write a separate post about this as it is actually a fairly major accomplishment.

Second was now filling in the time that we'd created by not running around all the time, and, for me, the time I was using to manage Theodora. We did this by renewing projects we'd both put on hold. Wife threw herself into her photography. She essentially created her own 'course' by going to multiple online resources. I found my 'new' passion going back to an old one, the writing of my 'Story'. This had been essentially been on hold/stuck (depending on your point of view) the whole time I'd been creating Theodora from scratch. Suddenly, I found breakthroughs in the story line. There followed an out flow of ideas that have led to an outlining of the end of the current book in the series, along with the first parts of a next book. I will write more about this in a future post.

Pluses and Minuses on the Physical Capabilities Front 

One of the most amazing things of this trip was a rebound of sorts by both Wife and I in our physical capability. Please! Don't get me wrong. We are not suddenly back in our early 50's. But over the course of our trip, particularly while we were in Campello, we found ourselves doing more and more walking, and particularly climbing. Issues we've both had for quite some time, seemed to mellow out.

Be assured, we felt it. I think there is another whole post I can write on dealing with pain as you age. But the point is we were doing things we couldn't do just last year. We still had to be very circumspect and not do too much, stop when we recognized the signs that we were going over the limit. 

But it was a joyous realization. It made us much more upbeat about what we will be able to do going forward. 

Now the negative. It is so clear that there is only so much stress I can handle. And if you combine stress with significant load bearing physical effort (i.e. moving luggage around), I am going to go into an exhaustion mode pretty quickly. This was fully brought to light during the Italy part of trip with our having to find and move into many different lodgings. I would find myself completely drained and barely capable of doing anything. Scary. Fortunately, it would only take 2 to 3 hours of rest for me to bounce back. Nonetheless, this yet another motivator to make the transition to staying at one place for longer periods of time.

The Miracle of Our Being European Drivers 

A key to our ability to do as much as we have done traveling in Europe during the decade of the transitioned state has been our ability to drive. I discussed this right after we arrived in Italy. As we continued our trip, especially during our time in Spain, I continued to be amazed at how much we've learned and incorporated. I am very proud to say during this trip we managed to not have ourselves inserted into narrow, dead end mountain village roads. We only went the wrong way in parking garages when there was little to no traffic. And for the most part, our guests seemed to not have their hair turn white while they were driving with us. I know this is a bit egotistical ("but hey, you're de-I? Isn't egotistical a synonym for you?") but I take a lot of pride in Wife and I (for we are a total team in this) in our late 70's being able navigate and get around in Europe.

Sharing the Experience 

One of the joys of our stay in Spain was our ability to share what we were enjoying with others. We had our niece, RMG, visit us. We went to see our granddaughter, 2.2, in Valencia twice. We had the VEFS mercenaries 3.1 and 3.2 visit us from Sweden. Seriously. This was such a joy. 

How Good Was This Transition? We're Going Back 

Yes, even before we had completed our trip, Wife and I talked and decided we wanted to come back to Campello, to this same apartment in 2025. And we have so committed. We booked the apartment again for October 2025. All our guests from this year have already expressed interest a desire to repeat. This is so exciting.

Conclusion

So there you have it. Two months of European travel with a lot of beauty and enjoyment. Some great personal growth and I believe the laying of a foundation for the next stage in our personal travel adventures.

Age: The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of de-I Sandia Outfitters' Eldership. Its mission to keep going and not stop. To go boldly go where few elderly have gone before.

Around The World In 72 Days - Next Phase Change - On To Thailand

I am writing this to you from Krabi, Thailand (and praying...I mean really praying...that there is some place here that sells Sponge Bob themed Krabi Patties). Krabi is just up the coast from Phuket in the very Southern part of Thailand. While not as chi-chi as Phuket, it is definitely Tourist Land. But we didn't come to Krabi for our typical travel experience. We came here to rest!

When we planned this trip, we had a strong feeling that we would be pretty beat up after our four weeks in Taiwan and China. We were not wrong. Our mid-70's bodies were pushed to reasonable limits with all the places we went to with air, train, and car travel, along with walking, walking, climbing, climbing. And (for me) over indulgence with eating and drinking.

We flew out of Shanghai on Saturday. Saying goodbye was not so painful this time as the #2's are being posted in the U.S. for a year and will be in Albuquerque for a month. Another part of our travel planning alteration to accommodate our aged state, is breaking up long distance travel with layovers. All the direct connections from Shanghai to Krabi involved flights leaving around midnight with long layovers and high prices. While planning, I had checked self-transfers in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur (KL). The best option was KL. We were able to take Malaysia Airlines leaving in the mid-afternoon arriving KL at night. KL has one of the better airport hotels, the Sama Sama, which we've stayed in multiple times. 

I have a love/hate relationship with KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport). It is not the most convenient place to get to and from your flights, and things like passport control and security are always backed up. But, frequently I find I get the best prices and connections for what we are looking for. This is in large part because it is the hub of Air Asia, THE major discount airline serving SE Asia. Air Asia is a true discount airline with all the lack of amenities that implies. However, their prices are so crazy low that I can buy every single upgrade (priority access, seats, extra baggage, etc.) and still be paying way less than you'd pay for any U.S. domestic flight. 

Thankfully, our flight to Krabi was not until early afternoon as things were delayed getting into KL and we didn't get to sleep until 1am. But we slept late. I used a convenient Grab rideshare (SE Asia Uber like company) to get to the KLIA 2 terminal. This is the 'discount airline' terminal (which means it is 90% Air Asia) and is a shit show.  But we got through and got our flight which was smooth. Arriving in Krabi, we were picked up by a driver arranged by our Airbnb host. The place we've gotten is really good for the rest we have in mind (I will do a detailed post on it in the future). 

We are such seasoned SE Asia hands now that within an hour of arriving, we'd figured where the closest supermarket was, used Grab to go and come back, gotten unpacked, ordered dinner delivered through Grab (Grab! Pay Attention Here! Hire me as your spokesperson!), were settled in fed, alcohol supply replenished, and ready to crash and rejuvenate over the next two weeks.

On Having Dodged The Bullet

 Deterioration is the constant companion of the aging. In almost all aspects of your life, you see that you are not what you were. This is normal. It is the trajectory of life. 

If you are at all self-aware, you have been watching this happen to others. You compare yourself. How far am I along the path? When will the eventual 'key event' take place? 

The 'key event' is some kind of injury or illness that causes you to be sidelined from your normal activities for a long enough period of time that you overall state (particularly your physical state) deteriorates significantly. If you are able to overcome the injury or illness, you find, despite work, you are unable to get yourself back to where you were physically. This accelerates the trend of deterioration leading eventually to death. This can take longer or shorter depending on the overall health and physical condition of the person. 

It was in April when I feared the 'key event' had occurred. I talked about it in this post. I didn't mention it during the posts in Spain. But it was there. Although I had overcome the pain, my leg strength had diminished substantially. And I had lost a lot of conditioning. Was this it? Was this the 'key event'?

When I got back to New Mexico in July, I made a concerted effort to get back to hiking. I was so way out of shape and my leg was not what it was. I found a new routine that allowed me to get out despite my schedule with calls so early in the day. I found that the extreme heat was not bothering me that much so I could go later in the day when it was more likely for me to have time. Slowly but surely I added a little more distance. 

Now I am much further along than I would have hoped. I have no illusions that I am going to be back to something of 5-years ago. But I am definitely a lot stronger. I really feel like I dodged the 'key event' bullet.

This time.

Humiliation

WhatsApp is a huge part of my communications life. It is the most commonly accepted tool outside the United States for texting, voice and video communication. I love it because it is free and because you can put it on your computer as well as your phone. 

And therein lies the root to our drama today.  

My WhatsApp computer version has been acting squirrelly recently. It kept freezing. I had toforce quit and reopen it a number of times a day. Finally, today at worked it completely crashed. I was forced to reinstall it. 

The instructions were very clear. Download. Open. Go to your phone settings and find Linked Device. Initiate and point phone at QR code. Then it should install. Easy. 

Except my phone settings page has no 'Linked Device' option. I searched in other places like Control Panel and Bluetooth with no success. I went online and put in many, many search inquiries. All said, "Go to Linked Device".  After 30 minutes of this I am seething. I am ready to pound my head on the table.

One of the women of my Theodora team comes up and asks what the problem is.  I vent my frustrations. She takes my phone and goes to the WhatsApp home page. On the bottom right is a 'Settings' icon. She presses it and the menu shows "Linked Device". She presses that and initiates the sequence to capture the QR code information off of the computer screen. WhatsApp is back running on my computer. It took less than 90 seconds. 

She pats my shoulder and says BBC (born before computers).

Contemplating Age

There is so much happening. All good. The Theodora Project, of course. But, we are back in our travel mode again, getting ready for a big trip in just a couple of weeks with us contemplating a number of other travels. And I am consulting again. I have four new clients, the first new work I've taken on since 2019. During the dark days of 2020, I thought that part of my life was gone for good. But as I have needed more income to support our travel, behold, it has come back.

I have had a few people tell me in recent months that I had stopped being retired. I can't help the small minds of people who only can contemplate a binary world were you either are working (bad) or are retired (good). I find the whole play much more subtle. My state of mind is nothing like when I was 'working for a living'. Then, there was so much pressure to make money. I had to in order to hit our goal of not having to work. 

Now if I work, it is because I want to. If I want to do Theodora, it is because I want to. If I put time into Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking, it is because I want to. I only do what I want to. My state of mind is one of happiness and peace. It doesn't make any difference if it looks to others that "I am working." I know I have transitioned and am living 'the dream'. 

Another thread weaves through this awareness, the awareness of age. It comes in different forms. Part of me has a hard time accepting I have as much energy as I do. Not unlimited. I definitely have limits that I didn't 20 years ago. But within those limits, I am fully engaged. 

I find myself listening more and more to the news of deaths. Some are older, younger, or about the same. I have no illusions. I know my time is coming. It has to. I wonder when that one event will take place that puts me on the downward spiral. It has to. It is not a matter of if. It is a matter of when. I see peers who struggle to make their way around because of ailments. That will be me. It has to. It is the way it is.

And despite these thoughts, I revel in the joy of working, of promoting a cause. I lap up the pleasure of seeing young lives transformed. I get excited anticipating all the travel adventures to come. I have the deep contentment of knowing I have helped my clients through difficult periods.

It is an enigma. But it is my life.

Contemplating The Next Big Transition

Wife and I have been doing a lot of talking about what happens next now that it seems the world has decided we are just going to all be getting Covid all the time so let's go back to life as is was before. I will be turning 75 in six months. Wife is a year + behind me.

The pandemic years cost us (and most everyone else) two valuable years (in terms of age) of travel. Equally significant for our quality of life, it, along with other events (political policies, demographics) has led to the diminishing of the availability of people to do work. This has been written about relating to all types of situations (such as businesses being unable to find help). But for Wife and I, it is hitting us at our ability to stay in our house.

Long time readers know, the many years of additions and renovations to the Tower have led to an environment that Wife and I truly love and don't want to leave. The problem becomes maintenance. Whether it is the yard, cleaning, necessary repairs, things that 10 years ago we might contemplate doing ourselves, are now becoming physically more difficult due to age related deterioration. It is not hard to project out a continuing deteriorating trend. 

So much thought is going into the problem. No solutions yet.

Is Illusion Better Than Reality?

 In my last post, I bemoaned the fact that I had not magically lost 10 years of aging...Despite HAVING TWEETED LOUDLY THAT THAT WAS THE TRUTH. I mean because we know that saying something over and over, louder and louder makes it true. Right?

Well maybe it has had some effect.

Wife was talking to a fellow Rotarian today about a project. For some reason the subject of age came up (maybe because it is my birthday...not to late to send presents btw...cash is always good 😀.

This woman, who is 67, thought that Wife and I are IN OUR 50'S!!!!!!

Shit, that's 10 years better than what I was hoping for. Now if I can just get the Grim Reaper to buy into this narrative, I'm golden! 👍

Fractional Tasking

So much has been written over the last decade or so about multi-tasking. One should do it. One should not do it. Life is so complicated, how can you not do it. Doing it makes you do a lousy job of everything....blah, blah, blah.

As the last month has been incredibly busy, I find myself reflecting on this issue. And my sad but true realization is that for I, the transitioned person over 70, multitasking isn't really an option. In fact, even regular one-off tasking is a bit of an issue.

I think at this stage of life, you are much more doing fractional tasking.

What is fractional tasking, you ask?

Fractional tasking means that even when you put your full effort and attention into something, you may, at best, be doing about 75 to 80 percent of what you need to be doing. And that's when things are going well. If you are not on your game, you may be doing under 50%.

But with the wisdom and rationalization that comes with age, I have pretty much decided that "Hey. That's okay." Just so long as my fractional attainment is better than my peers fractional attainment.

Unexpected Opportunity...But First R&R

Yet another crazy week in the wild world of de_I's transition state. The week (gad it is not even half-way over with!) started with me getting a call from a dear friend who will be called to protect his identity, THE BENEFACTOR (he and his lovely spouse read this blog).

The BENEFACTOR calls and basically says, "Hey de-I we think this Theodora thing sounds like it could do some good. We would like to give you some money."

Mister Enrique Suave says, "Huh?"

"Dude, what's so hard to understand. I want to give you some money so  you can get this thing going."

Without going into too many gory details, the BENEFACTOR will give us enough (along with some money from Wife and I and a couple of other donations) to actually get this Theodora program off the ground! WTF!!!!

With this realization, I am sent into a state of bliss...for about 30 minutes...when I realize that all the stuff we have talked about in the vaguest of details, now will have to be executed in excruciating detail! Now I am in a state of absolute panic. I dash off a detailed list of all the things we need to deal with to my centers of influence.

And realize that I am exhausted. I mean really drained from the work over this last year. For crying out loud, I went to Ghana in February knowing nobody and only having the vaguest idea of what I might want to do in a county I knew nothing about. And in nine months have gotten a program that has real potential to a point where it is almost launched!

Thank goodness, we already had a 'fun' trip planned. We are leaving next week for Europe. We are going to see a city with Christmas markets, celebrate Christmas with the #3's, and finish up by seeing the Northern Lights in Norway with #2 and 2B. I am so looking forward to two weeks of just unconnected fun.

Now just a word here because I know what I'm going to hear. I am going to hear, "why are you pushing yourself like this? Do you think this is wise to be doing this at your age? Shouldn't you be taking it easier?"

Here is my response...so listen carefully for this is from the deepest part of my heart.

I Could Give A Shit How Long I Live! I want to do. If I want to experience. I want to make a difference. The last thing, THE LAST THING I want is to sit back, watch myself deteriorate and sit there not being able to do anything as I slowly become less and less of who I was.

You know who you are. Don't pass on to me your desire to see me live longer because it is your desire. I don't care. It is not MY DESIRE. I want to do as much as I can and love every moment of doing it. And if that means a shorter lifespan, I am totally cool with that. And you should be too.

The Between Time

I'm in one of those interregnums.

I have been digesting the Ghana trip, doing all kinds of follow-up, figuring out what the next steps should be, etc., etc., and aiming toward a next trip in June.

I am just putting the finishing touches on the fifth book of my epic - another 400+ pages of writing

We have finished all the planning we need to do for out next personal travel adventure (stay tuned folks for all new countries in a new part of the world!) which will begin in May.

Work, the activity that keeps my mind and heart filled in between all the adventures continues at a nice steady pace.

It is the Between Time.

It is too soon to do much active planning or work on the next Ghana trip.

It is the sad time when I've finished the intimate relationship with my latest book. To get the next one going will take a regrouping of energy and planning before I will be ready to start writing.

The next travel adventure just has to wait until its time arrives.

For a stimulus junkie like me it is a bit of melancholy period. But soon it will be followed by all the adventures that we have created for ourselves and I will be in bliss that at this stage of life we get to live like this.

Happy New Year 2019

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to see if I am in a dream. I can remember as I went into my 50's and 60's how all my peers would laugh and say that the 'Golden Years' were all a joke. You just deteriorated, got miserable and because of improved medicine you didn't die but just lingered on being miserable for a longer period of time. And I know that is indeed true for an awful lot of people.

But as I've related to before on this blog, despite the physical deterioration, the overall quality of life and enjoyment for Wife and I has seemed to expand and improve. We know we worked hard and a lot of it is our attitude, but some of it is just luck or God's grace as one's disposition would have it.

I mean 2018 was pretty awesome. We continued to travel. We continue to do the things we love. Our family is close to us even if physically far away. And 2019 promises to be an even more interesting year. We have a full slate of travel planned. Wife turns 70 and as said if anyone does a surprise party for her she will personally do surgery without anesthesia on them. (Actually Wife would never say anything like that. But I do think it captures her spirit about surprise parties). So no surprise party. Got it? Just well publicized party with no mystery whatsoever. Continuing to work at a controlled level continues to stimulate and bring satisfaction.

And in February, I will be testing a new project involving donating time and expertise in a developing country for the purposes of job creation that I have been working on for over two years when I travel to Accra, Ghana. More about that when we get closer.

So despite being in our 70's and our many decades of marriage (both Wife and I have been saying over and over to each other "45 years! That's a freaking lot of years. Can you believe we've been married for 45 freaking years!) life seems to continue to expand and enrich.

And let me leave you with this vision of beautiful, sunny New Mexico to lighten your spirits for the coming year.

2018 Eastern Mediterranean Trip - In Review - Lessons

Okay, I promise...I mean it...really...I do...you can count on it...go to the bank with it...

This is the LAST POST on the 2018 Eastern Mediterranean Trip.

So what great lessons have we learned on this trip?

Are we ready to act our age?

Accepting age limitations and restricting our efforts remains much more theory and a discussion point than practice. We talk a good game but the minute we are out in the field our will power falls faster than a souffle out of the oven. I mean really, the first day, the very first freaking day in Jaffa, we walked ourselves into the ground!

But the flip side of this is that I continue to return from these trips feeling (once I’ve recovered) physically stronger and mentally more alert. So what is the right balance? Not sure.

A subtle change in attitude about travel

When we first started doing these long trips, I felt a kind of pressure that we need to this or we might never do it. There was almost an urgency to take advantage of the opportunity. After nine of these long trips, there is no longer the feeling of needing to do them because you are afraid you never will. If it all stopped now, could say we did a helluva a lot. But on the other hand I believe we have also gained the understanding that we will travel and will continue to travel. We have openly talked about if as we become less physically able to travel the way we have been, we will just change the way we travel. It has truly become part of who we are. Which has led to…

A change in my perception of my life

An understanding that the travel life and the home/work life are one. When people now ask me how my vacation was or have I gotten back into the work routine, it really doesn't compute. Because for me all I have is one life, a life that is composed of my work transformed so it supports and nourishes me rather than drains me and my travel. Sometimes I am more traveling and work is less prevalent. And other times I am working more and travel is in planning mode. But they are just two sides of the same.

On using guides

One of the influences of aging has been an increase in our reluctance to do things like driving on our own in many situations. Another has been a reluctance to attack cultures that we are unfamiliar with totally on our own. This has led to our making greater and greater use of guides. Our first use of a packaged guide/driver/accommodation trip was in Albania last fall. We did two this time - Jordan and Turkey. In Greece, the Peloponnese, we used a guide to get us around but arranged our own housing. 

There are pluses and minuses to this system. Guides as a general rule, have their own agenda...by that I mean they have a certain world view and if you are with them you are going to get them. Based on what we'd heard from many people who have been to Israel and used guides, I was pretty glad we did our own thing there and could have our impressions be unsullied. But I would not have been comfortable doing that in the areas where we had our guide drivers because driving and navigating would have been really tough. We got all our big guides this time through the TourHQ site. I was pretty happy overall with what we got and after this experience think I can use that sites resources more effectively to get what we want.

And on to the future

When I discovered the joy of the long trip, I had a passion to do them, as if I didn’t I would be missing the opportunity forever. And it was clear that the whole process of planning the trips and then managing during the trip provided stimulation to an important part of me that used to come from working…a part that needed to still be stimulated at some level especially if I wasn’t working.

Then two things took place that caused me to reevaluate. One the voice of limitations I’ve alluded to before became stronger and stronger. Even before we started this type of travel, we had these ideas of things we were going to do when we traveled that never came to pass because of limitations that arose. It is clear we can’t do what we thought we might have even five years ago because of various limitations that inexorably keep growing.

But equally important, I have mastered how to do all kinds of different traveling to all kinds of different places. Now it feels like the whole process of how one does traveling like this has become less of an effort. Before it took so much thinking to plan out a trip and consider all the options. Now if you told me we could go off for long trip, I think I could put something together in weeks. The need to plan to the extreme is really not required. And frankly, it is not quite the challenge or as stimulating. Yet the need for challenge and stimulation remain.

This has caused rethinking on what we might do and how we might do it. Result? An exciting new list of opportunities to explore. Maybe we shouldn’t lock into a destination, but should follow the availability of airfares to take us wherever that leads? Perhaps we should try to do things purposely with less notice. Maybe we should travel less long and more often? We are going to try this fall to do a completely unscripted, unplanned road trip in the US (the smart money is all on my caving just before the trip starts and make a bunch of reservations). I feel like a flower that is blooming. So many new ways for us to go out into this wonderful world and find experiences.

Happy 44th

Yes, today is Wife and my 44th wedding anniversary. Shit, I think pushing 50 years of marriage makes one feel even older than turning 70. As befits who we are and our chosen lifestyle, we are celebrating by returning home by airplane from a visit to the #2 Family.

Taking Stock At The Milestone

In a couple of days I will be officially 70. I have kind of felt like I was there already because of the family surprise party we had back in August when the clan was here.

In a lot of ways 70 feels a lot better rolling off the tongue than 69. I don't know, 69 just seems like such an awkward number. It's that point where you can't possibly fake that you're in your early 60's (which is just the 50's on steroids). But 70, that's a number you can get your hands around. No one is saying '70 is the new 25' or 'Age is just a number'. Nope. 70 is...well it's 70. And that's not young by anyone's definitions with the exception of those who are 85 and older.

I am feeling pretty good about things these days and being the over thinking, over analyzing person I am I kind of did an inventory of what's going well with life and realized there isn't much that I'm unhappy with. Love our lifestyle, traveling and working at a reduced level. Happy with our finances. Feel things are under control and don't have to worry about much. Feel we have good contingency plans for the future when things start deteriorating.

Very happy with my relationships. Love spending time with Wife and helping support the things that are important to her. Cherish the wonderful friendships I have with my children and the sons-in-law. Like how things are developing with the grandchildren considering the difficulties of being so far away.

Health? Honestly, I think in a lot of ways I am in better shape than I have been in a long time. I've lots of ailments for sure (arthritis, glaucoma, asthma, hearing loss). But most of these I've had for a long time and whatever regimes I'm doing seem to have them bothering me less than they have for many, many years. Don't have any illusions that I'm really getting any better but I feel I have more leg strength and better balance than just a few years ago.

Then I did a little exercise and did a quick review of my past. I asked myself, "When was the time you felt better than you do now?" The surprising answer (at least to me) was NEVER. I can't remember any time when I felt as good as I do now. When I was really young? No way. Hated growing up, and young adulthood was miserable until I met Wife. Raising a family? Felt  totally over my head not to mention dealing with all the crap and deprogramming of stuff from my Father. Financially? Ha! We struggled and had crisis after crisis. It wasn't until our 60's that any kind of feeling of getting ahead of the curve took place. Physically and pain? Pain has been with me my whole life because I was involved with athletics and pushing my body my whole life. Couldn't sleep for decades without a lot of painkillers. Seems more under control now.

So yes, I'd have to say that there is no other time in my life that I would have any desire to go back to. Think I am going do even more of what I have been doing...being grateful for each and every moment I have now, immersing myself into what I do each and every day and enjoying the heck out of it for as long as I can.

Cooking - Transition Style

A little of a year ago, I announced my retirement from the world of large scale entertaining cooking. Although this came as a part of my overall transitioning and recognition of the limitations that come with the aging process, it would be a mistake to assume that I gave up cooking. Instead the delight of gastronomy has transitioned as much else has in my life. There is more a focus on how to make a small amount of food taste very good, how to innovate with diet limitations and how to make things that might replace things we would buy.

The emphasis on reducing portion sizes substantially might lead one to not make certain types of foods that can only be done in a large amount like a roast or to not grow certain things because you would have more than you could eat. But I have adjusted by making these things any way and then breaking them down into smaller portions for freezing.

This Labor Day weekend was a case in point as I spent much of Saturday and Sunday doing various types of cooking and food prep. Among other things I:

• Processed many tomatoes into tomato pulp for freezing
• Made pesto from my quantities of basil
• Smoked two racks of ribs to be cut into individual ribs and frozen
• Made a home-made salsa from my plethora of tomatoes
• Made my FIRST EVER cake - an orange flavored Spanish style flourless cake
• Whipped up a dip using the pesto with sour cream

With all the food I had made, we invited our friends Cabinet Lady and Dr. Debbie to come over. They contributed a Greek style orzo salad and a warm German potato salad.

So I may not be doing the mega-entertaining but the cooking continues.