With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going past them into the impossible.
August 28, 2009 - 11:59 a.m.
I'm writing this with an ice pack on my left elbow. That's no longer accurate I replaced it with my brace
Yesterday Alan invited me to be his guest at his pool club. He's invited me before but this was the first time I could make it this year. That was largely because I had a broken arm for most of the summer. Till recently I spent the summer either out of town, sick, or injured.
Alan is a bit of a luddite. He has a computer and a theoretical connection to the internet but he never uses it. He has a cell phone but is horrified that my cell is my only phone. As you might expect he doesn't have a GPS. He started to give me directions to the club but I didn't even attempt to write them down. It's a good thing as he didn't know the distances involved or even the names of the streets. He did know the name of the club so as soon as I found that out I went to the computer, found their website, and that gave directions. Apparently it doesn't have an address, it just says, "Pool Drive." I dislike following written directions, reading while your driving is not the best thing, so I programmed it in my GPS and it guided me there without a problem.
It's been over 80° for weeks now. So what happens the first day I plan on going swimming outside? When I woke up it was 66°. By the time I left it was up to 74°. It was up to 77° when I got there. The pool is heated so it didn't make a big difference. It was down to the low 70s again when I took my last swim, but the water was warmer than the air.
It was a really nice day. I ended up talking to Alan far more than I expected. He didn't do laps. We hung out in the pool together then on the lounges. Sitting around just talking to a friend is something I don't get enough of.
I managed to get some reading in too. That's something else I don't get enough of.
I did some laps and got some exercise. Guess what; I don't get enough of that either.
I had a bit of a misadventure when I went to leave. This is where you are expecting an "idiot story." Surprise! For a change it wasn't due to my not having a brain.
I didn't know the locker situation but I brought a combination lock with me. I not only knew that I had it but I knew where it was. I have no idea why I bought it. It was never used, the combination was still on the paper on the back.
When I got there I made sure to memorize the combination. I used my usual method, I made associations with the Mets. The combination was Jerry Grote-Mike Piazza-Ken Boswell. Raise your hand if you know the combination. Yes Gene, I know you know the answer. Give someone else a chance. To make things doubly sure I told Alan the Mets mnemonic. To make things triply sure I put it in my cellphone along with the locker number. Oh yes, that was Tom Seaver. Sit down Gene, we all know you know Tom Seaver's number.
To make things quadruply sure I tested the lock before I put it on the locker. It was a bit stiff but it worked.
I'm sure you can see where this is going. The lock wouldn't open. I tried over an over again. It was a very strange lock. It didn't have a brand name. Instead of having the numbers by fives and starting at 0 it had the numbers by fours and went up to 48; 4, 8, 12 … . 48. To find Buddy Harrelson you had to count one tick to the left of four or three to the right of 48. Did I buy it at a 99¢ store?
So now my clothes, my wallet, and my keys are locked inside and I can't get at them. What is it with me and my keys? Do they not love me? Are they trying to avoid me? This is the third time this year I was separated from them. Or is that the fourth?
I didn't panic too much. I figure the club had a bolt cutter for just this situation. The club I went to as a kid had one. Every school I went to had one. When you have lockers you have one to cut open locks. Well not this club but the life guard, a teenage kid, said he could break it open. He took a metal rod, gave it two whacks, and it opened right up. In other word it functioned exactly the opposite of the way it was supposed to. It kept the person who knows the combination out but was no barrier to thieves trying to break in.
I through out the lock, that's why I told the world the combination. Well that part of the world up on their Met history.
When I was swimming my laps my elbow started to hurt, the one that I had broken. It got worse so I stopped and just floated and used my right arm and legs to get around. That's why I needed the ice pack and the brace. I don't think the fracture opened up but things are clearly not 100% healed. I'll take it easy for a while.
I wanted to go clothes shopping afterwards but by the time I finished with my locker and had two phone conversations, one with Sue and the other with Lena it was too late. I wanted to head home.
I got a call from WFUV the other day. They had an extra ticket for Marcia Ball and Beasoleil on a Rockin' the River concert. That's on a boat. I've been to a number of them and by a total coincidence the majority of the time it was to see Marcia Ball. There is one fly in the ointment. Tropical Storm Danny is on the way. The weather is not going to be the best. I'm going to go unless it is cancelled.
Maybe I'll get the energy up to do back to school shopping today. That would be nice.
I've written a lot more than I thought I would. This is quite a change of pace from my last few entries. That's what I want. Some days write about my thoughts, other days my actions.
The Child That is Father to the Nerd - September 02, 2009
On the Natural Road to Auto Inspection - September 01, 2009
A Retro-Walk Into My Soul - August 31, 2009
Class Dismissed - August 30, 2009
I Can't Not Be On A Boat - August 29, 2009
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile August 28, 2009
