Man Cave Musings: When all you can do isn't enough.......

Man Cave Musings: When all you can do isn't enough.......: "This past Wednesday was one of the most surreal, gut wrenching days I have spent in a very long time. Because I am a male and required to wa..."

When all you can do isn't enough.......

This past Wednesday was one of the most surreal, gut wrenching days I have spent in a very long time. Because I am a male and required to watch the weather at all times I knew what was coming toward us. Tornado's were on the way and it wasn't if they hit us but where and when. Then the reports started about Mississippi and then the poor people in Alabama. They all had plenty of time to prepare. The hardest hit had between 30 and 60 minutes to seek shelter.

And yet 300 people were killed by one of the worst twisters in history. That begs the question I posed earlier: What if you do all that you can do and it still isn't enough? What if you get to that room or basement and the whole house becomes a Frisbee? What if you leave the area to avoid the storm and drive right into a larger, more deadly one? What if you played by the rules, worked hard and made a life for yourself and it is all blown away before your eyes?

How many people in Japan woke up expecting to die in an earthquake or tsunami? In Haiti? The twin towers on 9/11? I'm guessing not one single person. And of the thousands of those people I would also guess some were very well prepared for anything they could think of. And still it wasn't enough to keep them safe or even alive. How much more could they have done?

Most likely the answer is nothing. Perhaps the only thing they could have done is the same thing all of us should do. Hug your spouse everyday and tell them how much you love them. Hug your kids the same way. Treat your friendships with care and don't take them for granted. Try and be helping influence on people you meet without being judgemental. Work to the best of your ability at everything you do. Try and make the world a better place when you leave than it was before you arrived. None of this will protect any of us but it does insure that when the time comes for you to go you will do so with very little regret.

In a perfect world we would all get a chance to say the things we want to say to the people we care about before they pass on. The world is not perfect in that way. We don't have that luxury very often. But before death grabs us we can make sure we have said all there is to say. Could anyone give a better gift to someone they care about than the peace of mind knowing they were loved? If there is one I haven't heard of it. The one thing Wednesday proved is the Boy Scouts had it right: Be Prepared.

Till next.....

What a novel idea........

I have wanted to write a novel since I was twelve years old or so. One day a few months ago I decided it was time to go ahead and chase the dream. Every one of us has some sort of dream or goal that we wanted to do but life has a way of getting in the middle of things. Once the decision was made to write a book the only thing to do was to get started. And that proved to be the toughest part of the whole project. Telling a story inside my head was easy. Trying to type it out and make it coherent was a whole different matter. I would start and erase the entire thing and start over. Eventually I just decided to hell with it and started typing the tale.





A funny thing happened on the way to the end of the book. I began to get nervous at first and now I'm to the point of being scared. Scared of what I'm not sure. The novel was completed two days ago and I started reading it a final time before getting it to an editor. It's the first time I read what I wrote since I started and it shocked me. Try as I might I don't remember writing some of what I wrote. I know I did because I recognize my own stuff but I never thought I could write that well. Don't get me wrong here, I will never be mistaken for Earnest Hemmingway or even Dr. Seuss but I've read enough books to know this aint half bad. The reason it surprised me is this was just a dream I wanted to chase. I expected very little. I got much more. I can say I did something I always wanted to do. That makes it a success if it never does get pblished.





One added benefit for me is I can begin blogging again. I've really missed posting my ridiculous or sarcastic ideas everyday. There just wasn't enough time to write both. So if you missed the blog thanks for checking back in. There certainly is no shortage of things to laugh at in todays world.





Till next......