59

Today I am 59.  Crazy.  I remember when I was in grade school.  I don’t have any sage advice.  Maybe I am not old enough to give sage advice yet.  But, I am at the point where I remember a lot of stuff some generations have never heard of.

For example, if I tell a startup that the “Monty Python Black Knight strategy of growth” is not a sustainable strategy, I get blank looks.  Of course, the comedy I grew up on, Monty Python, Mel Brooks, and the Saturday Night Live from the 1970s is all banned now.  So are the books I used to enjoy reading.  This summer, I am planning on revisiting a lot of Ernest Hemingway.  His novels are great but I love his short stories.

I have been accused of being out of step and behind the times, but I don’t think so. There is a lot of stupid shit going on right now and hopefully, we will get through it without a lot of bloodshed.  The list of stupid shit is way too long for one blog.  Historians will have fun with it someday, as long as the correct side wins the day.  History is written by the winners.

We are packing up our Las Vegas house getting it ready for a gut rehab and heading to Minnesota.  I have what I hope is a final trip to Mayo for the all clear.  We drive to Chicago on May 13 for our daughter’s graduation from law school.  Back up to Minnesota to open up our cabin on May 17. I’ll be up there most of the summer but might head back to Chicago when the black flies hit.  Or, maybe I will just suffer through them for the third year in a row.  Next year, I am not heading anywhere until mid-June.  My golf game has finally turned a corner.

I have some trees to cut, and wood to split.  I have to rebuild another dock and hope that the little bit of lumber I have to buy won’t break the bank.  My wife and I have led pretty nutty lives the last three years.  Three rehabs, moving, and now another rehab.  Add in all the other stuff that everyone always has and I think this summer is made for doing not a lot.

The Las Vegas real estate market is nuts. I haven’t really ever seen a market like this.  Chicago was never really like that.  People are moving here from California en masse.  They are also coming from Oregon.  We are starting to see some Midwesterners too.  Las Vegas isn’t what you think.  It’s really outdoorsy.  When we bought this place, we estimated the cost to rehab it inside and out and of course, we were low.  But, it should be nice when it is finished in October.  My contractor’s adopted kid starts for Ohio State’s football team so we will have some fun with that.

Since I was supposedly on my death bed in January due to a misdiagnosis, it makes turning 59 a lot better.

The post 59 first appeared on Points and Figures.