Daily writing prompt

How do you want to retire?

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Retire? That is hilarious.

My career is going to end, and thus my retirement begin, when I keel over and die. That’s a fact, friends. I am going to spend my retirement in a casket. It’s that simple.

If we look at this question from the point of view of pure fantasy, which it literally is, then I guess Jen and I could move to San Diego in a nice little place on the water somewhere. I’d have a little music room setup where I could play my guitar and write and record crappy songs, just like I do now. Maybe I could have season tickets to the Padres. I hear those are pretty cheap. The closest NHL team would be Anaheim? Probably too far away too consider season tickets.

Mostly, Jen and I would just spend our days in the sunshine enjoying our quiet life together and digging the fact that we don’t have to go to work every day. I could handle a life like that. Hopefully our health will hold up in this fantasy land and we could do some traveling and live a good life.

It’s not happening though. I am never going to be able to retire. It’s just not an option in the real world. I’ve come to terms with it.

Daily writing prompt

What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?

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I can’t think of anything. Seriously. Something I use every day? It has to be my house, I guess. There’s nothing terribly old that I use regularly enough to list. My wedding ring is 15 years old and I wear it around the clock. That’s a good candidate. I don’t know how old my house is, but it’s older than that and I do “use” it every day.

I would like to say it’s my 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom but I fail to play daily so that’s out.

I guess the answer we’re going with is my wedding ring. Not because it’s older than my house, but because it’s super high on the list of my favorite things.

Rock on, brothers and sisters.

Daily writing prompt

Describe one of your favorite moments.

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There is one favorite moment that stands above all other favorite moments. Obviously there are a lot of favorites over the course of over 50 years, but there is one that is the clear favorite of favorites.

May 30, 2009. I stood at the alter and waited patiently, with the biggest smile ever, as my bride to be walked down the aisle toward me. We then stood together in front of family and friends and expressed our love for each other and vowed to share the rest of our days together.

As favorite moments go, that is the tipity top of the mountain, let me tell you.

Daily writing prompt

What notable things happened today?

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Suddenly my usual daily writing prompt workflow seems inadequate. It is 6:35am. The only thing that is notable that happened today is that I woke up and did my morning exercise without issue. There was one moment while I was still in bed where the cat jumped on me and missed landing on the family jewels by about an inch. That would have been notable for all the wrong reasons, right?

I guess I can extend the daily question to include the entirety of the last 24 hours. It’s my blog after all so I can do pretty much whatever I want… right? I guess.

Last night my step son came home. At the start of the day yesterday we weren’t expecting to see him this weekend. Toward the end of the work day we were expecting him to come later tonight. By the time I finished dinner he was on his way. That is notable for all the right reasons. I’m so happy he’s here. I just wish I wasn’t working in the office today, but it’s time to pack up and get ready for the morning commute.

Welcome home, Harry!

Daily writing prompt

What are you passionate about?

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Is it weird that I don’t feel as though I am terribly passionate about anything? I don’t think I am a passionate person, generally speaking. I don’t know. I think I am pretty level headed about most things. There are a couple of passions though.

I’m passionate about my love for my wife and my family. Would there be a point otherwise? That sort of goes without saying.

I am passionate about music. The intensity comes and goes, but it’s always there to some degree. Right now it’s running pretty high. The idea of playing with the band regularly again is pretty exciting for me these days.

Anyone who knows me could have guessed that those two things would be my answer. No surprises here.

Daily writing prompt

What is your favorite season of year? Why?

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Heh heh… if we needed any more proof that a crappy AI was writing the daily prompts, I think the grammar error is it.

What is your favorite season of THE year? Heh heh. Sorry. As someone who typos and grammar errors so often that you’d think I was doing it on purpose, I should be one to talk. Still… heh heh.

Summer! My favorite season of year is the Summer. Hands down, no question, no contest. I hate being cold. In New England the winter runs from about September 1st through June 1st. We get a month of Spring, a few days of Autumn, and about six weeks of Summer. The rest of the year is frozen tundra awfulness*.

I cherish my short, glorious, warm weather season every year. Of course it rains every day now. That didn’t used to be the case, but it is now. Rain every day, no sun to speak of, but warm temperatures. If that’s the best I can hope for them I’ll take it. At least until we pack up and move to San Diego… someday.

*You probably think I am exaggerating, and I am… but only a little.

Daily writing prompt

What’s the one luxury you can’t live without?

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Ah, luxury.

Is there anything in my life that can be described as a luxury? I bet there are some things that I take for granted that other people would consider a luxury item. I do live in a very privileged society after all.

Our house in the woods(ish), our two cars, my computer, my iPhone, my multiple electric guitars and amplifiers, our two cats, our mostly quiet suburban neighborhood. I guess to some those would all be considered luxuries. To me they are just normal stuff.

Do any of them rate as things I can’t live without? The house and the cars do in a way. I can live without our specific house (though I love it and never want to move away from it) but I don’t think I’d do very well without a place to live. Does that count? Same with the cars. I could live without these two specific cars, but without some motorized transportation that can get me where I need to be… that would suck. Losing the rest of those things would eliminate sources of happiness and productivity and whatnot, and make life more difficult, but would I be able to get along without them? Probably. I need a computer for work, but I don’t necessarily need my current personal computer, if you get what I mean. I could use it for work in a pinch, but I don’t have to.

I don’t know. There are a lot of things in my life that make things easier and (dare I say it) better, but if push came to shove I could probably get through my day to day without them. I wouldn’t want to, but I could if I had to.

Now let’s just hope that I didn’t jinx anything with this over confident, white male American privileged post. Duck and cover, Robert.

*Tell me you remember the 1970’s without telling me you remember the 1970’s.

Daily writing prompt

If humans had taglines, what would yours be?

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I would not have a tagline or a catch phrase or anything like that. Nope, not me.

The best I could do would be to steal something from a movie, a book, or a song. I’m not interesting or important enough for anything more than that.

• “There can be only one” from Highlander
• “Lookin’ real good” from Better off Dead
• “I have a bad feeling about this” from Star Wars
• “No kitty, that’s a bad kitty!” from South Park
• Literally every line from Spaceballs
• Literally every line from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• “Spinning, whirling, still descending
  Like a spiral sea, unending!
  Sound and fury drowns my heart
  Every nerve is torn apart!” from a little ditty by Rush

You know, something like that. Something subtle, right?

Daily writing prompt

What are the most important things needed to live a good life?

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Which branch of science was it that defined the three basic needs of life as food/water, shelter, and clothing? Was it psychology or sociology or philosophy? That’s the real answer to this question, right? Take away one of those three things and the good life gets pretty shitty, pretty fast.

What can we add on top of that to make life aces? Let me list a few things and then one final thing that outstrips them all.

• A job with an income. You know… so that you can get the things that you need to get through your daily stuff… and stuff.
• Transportation to get you to where you need to be to get/do the stuff you need to do.
• Music. Speaking for myself, which should be obvious gievn that I’m the red head who is writing this idiotic crap, life would be pretty much garbage without music. I’m including listening to and playing music in this statement as both are mega important to me.
• People to share life and experiences with. Friends, family, strangers. This is hinting at the one thing I will write about when I sum up this whole post, but really it’s about in good times and bad times I’ll be on your side forever more. That’s what friends are for. Right?

Which leads me to my summation. The one thing that supersedes everything else. For me, personally, in order to live a good life I need four things. Four basic needs, not just three. Food/water, shelter, clothing, and Jen and the kids. Take away all of the other stuff and leave me with those four things? I’ll be pretty good with that. That works for me.

Daily writing prompt

Who do you spend the most time with?

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I live with her. I travel with her. I have dinner with her every night. I spend as much time as humanly possible with her. I hate being away from her at all, even when I have to go into the office for work, or go to the store, or whatever.

Yes, kind readers, there is only one possible answer to today’s question and it shouldn’t be hard to guess who I’m talking about.

I spend the most time with the love of my life, my wife. Jen. My dream come true. No one on Earth even comes close and I wouldn’t have it any other way.