Halloween. A time for several of the annual “finer things”… costumes, candy, cold weather and collections! When the days grow short and the chill starts to reach our bones, it’s clearly a sign that now is the time for a return to the home and hearthside. For gents like me? Our better halves spent the summer in the shade, watching us wrench and grind on an old tin can, as we try in vain to breathe life and idle back into something that was welded to life some 66-odd years before this moment. The gasoline and chassis grease stains a shirt but feels almost right as we bust our knuckles in the pursuit of a proper claim to highway fame.

The evenings grow longer, we sit in warm chairs with stars shining through bay area fog creeping along the lawns outside and talk about menial things as we hesitate to retire on such a beautiful evening. With more scotch on the shelf and family holidays fast approaching, realizing so much time the next two seasons will be spent indoors, it’s a good chance to stop and consider how those hours will be spent.

Though I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a little TV, I know too many folks who while away their hours with it far too often. Still, it does not enthuse me as being creative does. Not like restoration, writing, sculpting, or simply spending time with a lovely (particular) dame tucked under my arm. Hell, I’d rather be driving some quiet river road than almost anything else… As Henry Rollins said,

“no such thing as spare time,
no such thing as free time,
no such thing as down time,
all you got is life time… go!”

Wise, serious man. He’s right, isn’t he? Our time is limited (often more than we understand or expect) and yet we have so little to show for our time here. I’m not taking anything beyond the grave so how I spend those minutes and miles is unconventional, but I know what I love and that’s where my compass will always point. In a way, it has led me through positive and significant personal changes. I have refined my interests, drawn the lines ever-closer on my personal “circle” of friends and acquaintances, and I find that the more I focus on filling the time between life’s necessities (employment, sleep, food, family) the greater an appreciation I have for those pass-times and the smarter I am in my pursuits. My ascension to a better man, a better person has been gradual but consistent… ever since the day I decided to turn off the world and be whatever I wished to be on a given day.

I’m happier, and it amuses me how badly that irks some of my old connections. Not that I dwell on it… but it’s good to recognize when you outgrow things. I enjoy writing, here I am. I love my old tin can, Eavie Rose. Sure I spend my days wandering a bit, my family all has that bug… on this sunny day, I had just enjoyed a fantastic (Obsidian Maduro Gordo) stogie and was enjoying the last of Summer. Sure, I might have been trespassing… maybe they should put up a sign!

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