about SpaceBrew
Throughout my life, I have engaged in (and endeavored to perfect my engagement with) many hobbies. As you see listed along the top in icon form, I have been interested in many things. I'm by no means claiming to be a master at anything. But personal mastery is a different story. If I have personally overcome an obstacle or mastered something to the point where I am happy about it, then my mastery of it may be different than yours. Or anyone else's. For instance, if I feel like I've mastered the guitar, I'm not talking about being able to play every lick and lead that Steve Vai or John Petrucci can play. Nay. I'm only saying, I've endeavored to engage in that as a hobby, and brought it to a level I was satisfied with, and had the ability to perform it in front of other people on-stage. That's good enough for me to say I've tackled it. Which may be a better word than 'mastery'. I'm by no means trying to boast about my talents or hobbies. In fact, I'll tell you right now as an aside, I'm not a very good guitarist. I'm only good enough to play rhythm well enough to support my voice. Disregardless, I digress.
But every icon you see in the banner represents a personal victory for me in achieving something I wanted to achieve. Bucket-list items, you might say. I wanted to fly a plane. Get my SCUBA certification. Learn to code a website. Brew beer. Each of those things was important enough for me to include it in my life banner. Things I am happy to have accomplished or achieved. I had two daughters. Hey, that's pretty cool. They're both extravagantly neat and unspeakably wonderful. Part of that is my doing, right? So please, again, don't translate these things as my saying I'm better than someone else at them. It's so far from that it's not even a relevant argument. This is a personal achievement.
Now, as I enter the third quarter of my life, I am starting fresh. Technically, I could be at the end of the fourth quarter, and not even know it. Right? But life-average speaking, if I live to 100 years, I'm starting the third quarter in December. I got the idea that I wanted to redefine myself as I approach that date. I have begun a diet, gotten back into fitness and tried to find other ways to better myself as well. The day I turn 50, I want to be back down to my optimal weight (10 pounds to go) and be back in shape where I feel like I look good again. I've taken up walking and disc golf, which have both given me greater stamina and energy. I'm trying to watch what I eat and counting calories, which is no fun, by the way, and generally just hoping for a different outcome than I had previously envisioned.
I'm not a pessimist. I am cynical, but that's a conversation for another time. I just see the way my mother went. And her parents before her. And what runs in the family. And what goes on around me. I was decidedly of the opinion that I probably wouldn't last much longer than my mid-fifties. Well, I've decided not to take that lying down. It's not that I was dark about it. Or depressed. I was casually complacent. Not too concerned. I'll take however many days the Good Lord gives me. But hey. There's another facet to it. You don't just take the days you're given. You work to earn more. That means exercise and health and making good choices. (Like what type of whiskey to consume in the evenings.) And now I see it in a little bit different light. I feel like I might get to 75 or 80, if I'm lucky. And when I hit 75, entering the "fourth quarter", I'll likely have new hobbies. But for now, I'm celebrating the dawn of my third quarter. I look forward to seeing what else I can find to tackle and overcome in the years ahead.
Thank you for visiting, and for reading. I wish you well, wherever you are.