A year later, twice, Candy is for kids, passed
Barely over a year ago I bought a dwarf mulberry tree from Amazon of all places. When it arrived it was basically a twig with a few tiny leaves on it. It reminded me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, it was sort of pathetic. I bought it shortly after my EUC accident last October where I somehow managed to escape serious injury after falling into three lanes of traffic. So I bought some dirt and a pot and planted this tiny tree with no expectations other than I would do my part to make sure it was watered regularly. Evidently that was all the tree required. Over the past year it has grown exponentially requiring me to transplant it to a bigger pot while the tree became as tall as me.
This weekend the tree took the next step in it’s growth when I removed an unattractive bush in the corner of the yard and planted the dwarf mulberry in it’s place. I repeatedly have thought about the correlation between the changes I have seen in the tree when compared to how my personal life has evolved during that time period. The change in my headspace from where I was last year at this time to present day is nearly as drastic. I hope the tree takes root and flourishes in it’s new spot. I will do my part to give it an opportunity to do so.
This weekend also marked the first time in well over a year where I played pickleball both days of the weekend. The fact that my lower body is resilient enough to allow me to do this again is encouraging. Much like the tree I need to keep doing the right things that allow me to be active like stretching and strengthening on a regular basis to insulate me from the pitfalls of being an old man.
On Friday I used my new Swing Vision set up to record our lunchtime games. The tracking of the game and the automatic cutting of dead space between points is pretty cool. I have to get more familiar with it’s functionality but so far I am a big fan.
On Friday, Halloween night I walked the neighborhood with my girlfriend and the dogs, who were in costumes. Even though we didn’t have kids with us the owners of the homes we passed seemed anxious to hand out candy to us, my girlfriend collected several pieces. On the way back to the house we walked down the other side of the road. We stopped at the last house that had people sitting in front, an older couple. The wife commented on how cute the dogs were. The husband had the candy in a container on his lap. He looked at me in an odd way and didn’t offer me candy but I assumed he would be ok if I grabbed a piece. I was wrong.
As I reached towards to bowl I asked my girlfriend if she would like a Kit Kat. The old man looks at me with a face of disgust and says “candy is for kids!” which caught me off guard. I said oh, sorry in an awkward way as I did not realize I had offended him. As we walked away my girlfriend and I laughed at how it was just my luck that the only person I approached was very strict with his candy guidelines. I thought the scenario was funny enough that I asked Sora to try to recreate it.
Unfortunately I received some pretty shocking news as well over the weekend that my old boss of nearly 15 years had passed away. She was only in her mid 60’s. She had retired in 2014. Since retirement I have not had much contact with her but the news of her passing still carried weight. Unfortunately at my age people that either were or are in your circle of reality are going to drop off with more regularity. She was a good person that came through some real struggles in her life. Rest in peace.