Counterclockwise……..

Victor, is this gonna be another stupid blog about how much you love “leftfield, and coming from?”……

Mebbe. Hehe. No. Different, very different.

Ok, so is it going to be another GD (gosh darn) sermon where you (up there) all high and mighty tell US how to live?

Mebbe. Hehe. No. Different, very different.

WTF then? What the fooey? Yeah, however u like to decode that, WHAT?

Strolled again yesterday down the steps of the community center… Whisked right by the workout area.. (lady, extremely gorgeous… in spandex.. Dynamite figure… close your ears: Stacked.. And while stacked has never thrilled me, on a tiny figured lady there’s just something about it. Married lady. VICTOR! Come on damnit, I didn't do nuttin' other than look.. Hell, her hubby should be proud us codgers look. )…… into the locker room… quick change into swim trunks….. And to the sauna….

Sauna was 190 degrees. Damn, but nice. Soon, the sweat was rolling outta my leathery arms… hey, your arms will look leathery too damnit when you’re fitty-seven! Once I was dripping, headed for the Jacuzzi… Hard to people watch on this day.. The lifeguard, his snotnose girlfriend in chair beside him… one dude swimming lane laps… a preschooler in the wading pool, with mom one eye on the paper, one on he……… and me……

Since I got hurt last gamea the year in softball, this has been my community center routine. Before, it included 30 minutes on the elliptical, weights, and then the sauna/Jacuzzi. (GD Windows keeps capitalizing Jacuzzi, must be named after some dude.)

Muscles soothed from jets, back to Jacuzzi with a capital. After ten more minutes of 190 degree heat, I needed a break from it. So, lone chair - there - katacorner from lifeguard, pimple faced gf, the preschooler, and the lap swimmer.

Then I noticed it. The clock. Digital. Ceptin’ it wasn’t ‘adding time’, twas subtracting it. 42:37, 42:36, 42:35, etc…. For the benefit of the lap-swimmer dude I’m sure - but too, it hit me. Mebbe all of our “life clocks” oughta run that way.. Backwards. Counting down. Counterclockwise.

Would serve as a reminder “yain’t getting this minute back, use it wisely.” I KNEW YOU WERE GONNA PREACH. Hold up just one second there cigarette-breath. How many times must I say “I write TO me, hitchhikers welcome.” So, said again.

You figure your age, you take the life expectancy of your gender, and you set your clock - living, but with the reminder of how precious time is. You can’t worry about what happened long ago (53:42, 53:41).. You must take on life in the present, 42:34, 42:33, 42:32, for it’s winding down. You mustn’t mire yourself in why “that one” ended, nor revisit (53:40, 53:39).. You’ve got to eyeball the counterclockwise clock,42:31, 42:30, 42:29, and realize, baby, this is all I got. Make the most of each minute.

And then it happened. Ain’t thata song? Lap dudes clock struck 00:00, and he, long gone.

Funny thing next… Clock went to 00:01, 00:02, 00:03... And my brain said “hmmmm, maybe that’s the reward for someone who lives PAST their life expectancy… maybe that’s the one that beat the doctor’s “You have 8 months to live”.. Maybe these minutes are for the one who divorced and thought “it’s over… I just know it’s over.”

Some don’t make it to 00:00. High School class reunion planning party today. Nine page spreadsheet, and throughout the (GD size 8 typed) list, interspersed periodically, “deceased.”

So sad, so very sad. We never know. Victor, pay attention to 42:28, 42:27, 42:26, it’s all you got. And, it may not even last that long.

So, please choose smile insteada shit. Please search for the good, not the evil. Be a boxer, you know you’re gonna get knocked down again, promise yourself to spring to your feet so not to miss a wonderful second.

We had an old style hand clock in the gym when I was in 8th grade… used it for our basketball games.. It was lit in white, and when the final minute arrived, suddenly went RED. As in “panic”… It too was counterclockwise. A reminder, one day this shit (said lovingly) will all end. Make the most of it. Choose smile over frown, up over down.

Anxiously await, and hopefully make happen: hugs, smooches, backrubs, friends, good times, work with a smile or a whistle, up. Not down, up.

I’m rambling, I better get outta here. Anyone got the time? Love, Victurd.