Mark, thanks for the compliments. From my perspective, not everything is behind me. Yes, I have done more things in my 76 years than the vast majority of people ever dream of doing. I am well aware that life is very, very short, and I'm going to cram every bit of living into each and every minute that I possibly can.

I've always had a can do attitude. I look at challenges with just one thing in mind - I can do that! Granted, there have been a few defeats along the way, but overall, very few. Like Don Mason always says, I've made hundreds of dollars playing music, and I guess that's a fairly good achievement for a guy who is self taught and cannot read a note.

As for the posture, until recently, it was pretty good. Now, with five herniated discs in my spine, I have difficulty standing and walking distances more than a couple hundred yards. I now use a cane to walk from the marina parking lot to the slip where the boat is docked, but once I get on the boat, the cane is not needed, and much of the horrendous pain goes away.

Now, though I am in the twilight years of my life, there are still things I have not yet done. I just looked out the kitchen door at a clear, blue sky and the leaves on the tree tops are rustling - might be a good day to sail. A beautiful, male hummingbird just landed on the feeder, fattening up for it's several thousand mile trip south in a few more weeks. I wish I could follow him with the sailboat, and I fully intended to do so next month, but alas, my wife of 54 years is in poor health and I can no longer leave her alone for months at a time. So, now I just sail for a week long trip at most, and get a friend to stay with her while I'm gone.

So, Mark, I guess my approach to life is a bit different than many others on this forum. I've got some nasty health problems at this stage of the game, but there are some things that I just need to do before I take the dirt nap in the not too distant future. And, with any kind of luck, I'll get to do many of them. Next week, I hope to drive to my son's home and go wet wading and fly fishing for smallmouth bass in the Monacacy River behind his home. The following week, I'll be sailing down Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the bay, then make a left turn and sail up the Atlantic Coast to Cape May, New Jersey, make another left turn, sail up Delaware Bay to the C&D Canal, then back to the Chesapeake's upper reaches and home, a trip of about 600 miles. I'll be doing this single handed - no one else on the boat. Should be fun. Never did that in a sailboat, so it's on my bucket list.

All the best,

Gary