Time is the only currency we have. When we spend it all, it's over.

Nobody really knows what will happen after we die. Plenty of people believe one thing or another, but nobody really knows for sure.

So my intention is to take care of myself the best way I can, by making what I hope to be the best decisions for a long, healthy life. I constantly look at my body for feedback to guess whether I'm on the right track or not and hope the path I chose is indeed the best one.

Plus I try to live my life as a good person, playing by the common rules of most afterlife based religions including the one I was brought up with by my parents. That way if there is what many of us hope to be life after death, I'll go across to the "happy hunting grounds".

I guess that's playing the odds.

I'm having a great life, my work is my bliss, my wife is my ideal (and my best friend), and I have much better health than perhaps 95% of the other people of my age. I'll be 74 next month and I am still on zero medications. I catch a mild 2 or 3 day cold every 15 or so years, and that's it.

Keto seems to work for me. I don't know if another plan would work better, but I do know a half dozen that don't work this well.

I'll keep an open mind, and if Keto starts to look like it is giving me problems, I'll go exploring other options again.

Bob

Have to be careful when ordering ground beef in a restaurant. I have a history of diverticulitis which is being managed by low carb. As long as I stay completely off grains I'm ok. I also don't eat raw fish anymore like oysters or clams on the half shell. I have to be careful with the bacteria. I loved sushi back in the day. No more.

That's great Bob! I don't take any meds either. Just vitamins. I always surprise the nurses at the doctor's office when they ask what meds I'm on and I say none. Its a good feeling eh?

It is. And it always seems like they are amazed that we aren't taking anything.

I take vitamins too. I figure with my limited diet it will give me many of the good things I lack by not eating many fruits and veggies due to carb content.

If not, I've got expensive urine

But something must be working.

Another factor I believe is important, I have a purpose in life. I've seen too many retired folks sit in front of the TV and get bored to an early death. I turned off the TV in the late 1980s, no cable, no antenna, no nothing. I live my life by doing things instead of living my life vicariously by watching actors pretending to do things.

Instead I learned a few musical instruments, started a business, learned to write and manage two websites, learned to write aftermarket software for a musical auto-accompaniment app, read books, and had lots of fun, quality time with the most beautiful, kind, intelligent, fun, and generous person I've ever known, my sunshine aka my wife.

Life is too much fun to check out early.

Bob

That reminds me of my grandfather. When he retired and turned day to day business over to his partners, he still went into work every day gir the next 10-15 years.....lived into his early 90,s happy as a clam busybusy busy. He had a TV though. For news.

Although COVID has me unemployed now (governor's orders) I don't plan on ever retiring.

Japan has the greatest percentage of >100 year old people. The reason that comes up more than any other is ikigai.

https://medium.com/thrive-global/ik...ng-9871d01992b7

A purpose in life - a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Golf, fishing, and hobbies won't do it. You have to be needed in some way.

I am a musician. It's my career and my bliss. I gave up a potentially lucrative elecronic engineering career to follow my bliss, and as long as I can have an audience, I'll keep playing. And since I was in junior high school, I've never lacked an audience.

The formula is easy. I'm good at what I do, and I play what the people want to hear. When I'm performing, I'm in that place where there is no space, no time, no Bob, just the music flowing as if it were flowing trough me instead of from me as a bask in the glow of the audience as I can feel they are enjoying themselves.

I also write musical software to pass my music on to the younger folks.

Passing on our 'tricks of the trade' to the younger generation is what many musicians do. I remember the oldsters teaching me when I was a kid, and to return their favors, I pass on what they taught me mixed with what I learned on my own.

It's a good purpose. Music is my ikigai.

I intend to live well past 100.

And to keep this post on topic, there is a lot of bacon yet to be enjoyed by this middle-aged (at 73) guy.

Bob

Bob

Music is my drug of choice What kind of music do you play Bob?
What genre?

You and your wife sound like a very lovely couple.

My BIL picked electrical engineer..... for the money, job doesnt bring him bliss.... but the money does.

Baked up a pile of bacon this morning..... in a loafoan shoved in the oven at 250. Totally opposite texture than thin and crispy. Really noticed the no nitrate flavor..... getting used to it and actually liking it . It has not been my fav, but its growing on me. Ate half pound. lol

I've always known I wanted to be a writer. And now I am.

In the eighties I wrote three novels, got an agent, ran through the Habitrail of traditional publishing. But while everyone praised my work, it would get to Marketing and run aground. "We don't know how to market this!" Even though that's your job.

But now, with self-publishing, blogging, and social media, I can be my own publishing house.

I'm even going to revive those novels and add them to my list!

Any genre. It depends on the audience we have in front of us. We have about 600 songs on our list, and we learn new ones all the time.

I've played everything from the blues to symphonies. I like playing different genres, I have to put my head in the space where that music expresses itself and make it authentic. It's a challenge and a lot of fun.

In Florida there is a big Retirement market, and we gig at yacht clubs, country clubs, and retirement villages. So we play a lot of baby-boomer music and contemporary tunes that cross over. We started that when we got off the cruise ships (I was barely 40) when we hit that market, and at that time they didn't want much rock, just Sinatra era, but as the years go by we learn what they ask for and what they ask for changes.

For 12 years we've also played an outdoor restaurant on the water across from a state park. It attracts a mixed crowd from youngsters to the elders. It's like paradise. We get all kinds and might play top-40 from the 50s to the 21st century, country, Caribbean (Calypso, Soca, Reggae, Ska), Latin American (Mambo, Merengue, Salsa, Tango, Cumbia), blues, R&B, jazz, disco, funk, new age, hip hop, and one opera song.

We don't play heavy metal, a duo can't do that genre justice. We don't play rap because as middle-aged white folks, we can't do that genre justice either.

My wife is a fantastic singer, better than most stars but unfortunately, like 99% of all great singers she didn't get the break she deserves. She also plays synthesizer and rhythm guitar.

I am a decent singer and an excellent sax player (first in the state every year I was eligible to compete) and also play flute, wind synthesizer, drums, lead guitar, bass guitar, and keyboard synthesizer.

Like most duos, we play to backing tracks. Unlike most duos, I make them myself (since I can play all the instruments) and save the most fun parts to play live on top of them.

I almost got famous once, being the opening act for major headliners in concert while their songs were in the top 10. But like the majority of people who got that far, it didn't happen because the record company didn't want to offer any money and could always find someone who didn't mind ending up owing the record company money after their "one hit wonder".

But that's all in the past. No regrets.

Leilani and I met while we were in different bands, as musicians do, when our bands broke up we ended up in the same band. When personnel problems happened and the technology was to the point where I could make baking tracks, we quit the band, went out as a self-sufficient duo. That was in 1985. Since then the only time we've been without work is when we blocked out time for vacations - that is until COVID. Now we are unemployed probably for over a year. But it's better being unemployed than under the ground.

We live together, work together, play together and laugh together. 24/7/365 is not too much time to spend together (in fact it's not enough). I think I'm the luckiest guy in the world, and every day I try to make her feel as lucky as I do. We've been together 42 years and counting, and it's better than it was 42 years ago.

OK back on topic. I am at 173.0 today (my goal was 185), so I'm going to grill some 100% grass-fed in Florida burgers, with cheese and bacon on a zero-carb almond flour bagel. Mmmmmmmmm.

Bob

It is satifying to hear when someone loves their work. A rare thing.

I feel blessed that I do.

I was a Cable TV Field Engineer for 5 years while still playing music on the weekends. I was testing out what normal was, and I found normal to be sooooo overrated for me. So I went back to music full time.

The pay and benefits were good, I got along with the electronics gear just fine, but the work was a PITA. The in-house engineers didn't support the field engineers so I got the brunt of the customer's dissatisfaction and often anger every week. I couldn't help them if I didn't have the gear to do so.

The company had recently been purchased by bean counters who thought of noting but short-term profits. Service? What's that? Well a couple of years after I left, they had driven the company down so low that a competitor bought it at a bargain price.

I love my work as an entertainer. I love playing music. I love interacting musically with my DW on stage, I love my audience - the regulars are like extended family to me, I love the energy that comes back to us, and I even love the people who hire us and the staff I work with (caterers, waiters/waitresses, bartenders etc.) I would do this for free if I didn't need to make a living.

My first pro job was when I was in junior high school. I was in the school band and after school I got in this little rock and roll band. We were terrible, but everybody was back then. Our first gig was a junior high school dance. There I was on stage with my very best friends in the world at the time. We were playing the music we practiced so many hours to get almost right, the dance floor was full of people enjoying themselves, and that cute girl who didn't even acknowledge my existence in English class was 'making eyes' at me. And at the end of the night they paid me money!!!!! That's when I said, "This is what I want to do for the rest of my life."

Other than testing what normal was, I have been doing this for all my life. Some people groan and say, "I have to go to work today". I grin ear-to-ear and say "I GET to go to work today!!!". That makes for a good life.

BTW, every pretty girl I ever dated in my life was introduced to me through my saxophone, including the very best of the best, and I married her. Now the prettiest, most talented, kindest, most fun living female I ever met smiles at me all gig long, and all day long when we aren't gigging.

I hope that's not TMI.

I did have that bacon-cheesburger today. I cooked the beef, my DW fried the bacon, and we had a delightful lunch. Took a short nap, brought some donations to a no-kill pet shelter (we've been doing some cleaning isolation), came home and played a dozen or two songs together. Then we read a book over tea (she reads aloud and we are on the same page - only non-fiction since our work is fantasy we escape with reality).

Life is the perfect way to spend the time of day.

Bob

Definitely not TMI.

My teens are reaching that age of striking out on their own. Difficult to guide them to find their zen.....and pay the bills. For most, its one or the other, rarely both. Add in the worries of a mother and this crazy mixed up world.

Had ham tonight. Out of bacon til midweek.

On top of which, the world is changing. For me, it keeps trending better.

Self-publishing is a viable route for my lifelong quest of becoming a writer. I'm building a brand which includes fiction and non-fiction. All because I started rescuing cats as soon as I starting really becoming an adult. A true follow-your-heart move that is turning into a career.

No one is more surprised than me

If I were giving a speech to new graduates, I would explain the mechanics of Do What You Love.

• Do What You Love even if it doesn't make money.
• Do something to make money that you don't hate.
• Don't listen to society's definitions of success and worth.
• Try to intersect the Love and Money so you can cross the streams.
• This is how you can transform your world to better everyone.

I read a Joseph Campbell book years ago, and the lasting advice I got was, "Follow your bliss"

If you can find out how to make a living doing what you would do for free, IMO you are more successful than if you work at a job you don't like and make tons of money.

I wake up in the morning, I go to bed at night, and in-between I do what I want to do. I'm a success.

I am not a wage slave for some faceless corporation, I don't drive Benz class vehicles, but I have no debt. I'm free.

I'm living life on my own terms and nobody's servant. I profit from my good decisions and learn from my bad ones, but they are my decisions, not those of someone else who has power over me. I'm very free.

And I'm happy.

If I had young people to teach, I would teach them this.

Bob