While this has been a super fun year for us it has been an especially ruff year for me when it comes to loosing friends. So far this year I have lost 4 good friends to various different causes from cancer to accidents.
Yesterday I just had to say good by to a co worker and friend who this coming October fourth would have been our twentieth year working together. Day in and day out we worked in the same office, shared stories, laughs, worked through issues, and became good friends through it all. I would usually hear him pull up outside the hanger walk through door on days that were suitable for riding his motorcycle to work and I would open the door so he could wheel it inside. This past Monday the weather was nice and I kept listening for him, but he just never showed up. About the time he would usually arrive I noticed a police Suburban racing around the corner. It was not till a couple of hours later we received a call to the office and I heard a distressed voice say "Oh my God!". Our friend and co worker never made it to work that morning because he had been in an accident with a semi tractor trailer just down the street about 3 blocks away, less than a mile from his house. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
It was just a few weeks ago that Cindy wrote in her blog entry how you never know how a phone call is going to change your life. Sometimes I wonder if she has the ability to predict the future as she was never more correct than Monday morning. It has been a crazy week at work trying to pick up the pieces and move on while trying to deal with the loss we are feeling. Yesterday at the funeral it was especially hard. I guess with the passing of each person I know I do a internal assessment of my own life and what if that was me.
Cindy and I truly do try and make the most out of every minute we have together. Till Cindy and I got together I was not in a situation that made me want to make the most of each minute. I just spent most of my time running and hiding from the problems I faced at home. That meant I spent a lot of time working. I was always doing something. Today work seems to be something that is harder and harder for me to get excited about. I enjoy my time with Cindy so much and we have so much fun together how can I be blamed for that. I still work hard and there are still many late nights at home that are spent working on projects but when the weekends come and I do not have to fly there is no where I would rather be than with the Cindy. She has opened my eyes to the importance of having fun and making memories, the good kind that you want to remember instead of the kind you hope you can eventually forget.
I can honestly say I never saw myself sailing on our own sailboat or having a jeep. I always wanted a boat and thought I would like a jeep, just never saw myself in a position of being with someone I could enjoy them with. Today we have one whole bay in our garage we call the toy box as it holds our jeep, kayaks, Patsy the paddleboard, fishing gear and such. We have skies stashed in the basement, pulks ready to haul our gear into a remote cabin in Michigan. While some people dread the end of summer and the coming winter we will be sad to see the sailing season come to an end but yet we are looking forward to evenings in front of our fireplace while we await the snow to start falling so we can go outside and play! Cindy says quite often how lucky we are to have fun things to do in all four seasons and that is so true.
Do you know what the what the significance of the number 86400 is to you? That is how many seconds you have to work with in each 24 hour day. I know people who are just miserable in their life and I feel so badly for them as I have been there myself. Each day that you continue down the same path of unhappiness and misery is another 86400 seconds of your life you just wasted and will never get back. While 86400 seems like a lot, just pause for a second and think how fast they pass you by. As I continue to age I feel as if the clock is speeding up and each second is passing me by faster than the previous one. Once they are gone they are gone forever and you have no idea of how many more you are going to get before your number is called.
I sincerely hope that as you read this you are finding yourself in a similar place in life as I am in today and you have a special someone to enjoy your life with you. That you are truly enjoying every second of it that you possibly can. If you are not, I hope the words I have shared with you make you stop, if just for a few seconds, and do a personal life assessment. Cindy and I sometimes wonder what the world would be like if everyone had something as special as what we share between us.
As I write this I am wishing I was somewhere else. Yes, with Cindy, doing anything but this. But instead I just landed and I am taking a few minutes before I go into the lab to develop film to finish this. I really hope my unlucky string of loosing friends is over for a long time. It is very saddening to scroll through my contact list and see the names of those who I have lost. I won't have to loose many more before the ones gone out number the ones who are not. I have always believed that in the end all we have left are our memories. Fortunately I still have a good memory and each time I scroll through my contact list in search of someone and I see the name of one of friends who has passed I always have a thought of them. I guess that might be why I have not removed there names. I miss them all and wish they were still with us but know that cannot be.
So instead of living in the past I chose to live for the future. Today I find myself doing something I thought I would never do. I am making plans for things to do not just today, and not just tomorrow, but I am making plans as far out as the summer of 2016 already! While that may not sound like something that far out there to some of you I just never thought I would do that. that I would ever be in a situation where I would even want to. But today I can't want for the next adventure and opportunity to make new memories.
I am going to go develop the film now then get out of here and go make the most of the rest of the 86400 seconds I have left in this day. Then tomorrow I am going to do the same! I hope everyone reading this can go do the same!!!
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