At times today I felt my own mortality a little more keenly than usual. For one thing, having my blood drawn in the lab this morning seemed like the beginning of a long-term relationship with those lab techs. I can always hope it will end there, with a hundred percent positive report, but I doubt that will happen. I’m not exactly the happy optimist when it comes to things like this. I’ve been waiting for the bad news all day, even though (a) I don’t know that there is any bad news, and (2) it’s too soon for the results.

But in general, I’ve been feeling older and more broken down, and all these doctor visits have got me thinking about things in ways I managed to avoid for a long time. Now I can see myself slowing down. I’ve been thinking I must be getting lazier (if possible) these days, but I’m not sure that’s the whole story. I think I’m less motivated to keep working long hours because my body wears out more easily now. Not to mention my mind.

I’ll tell you what helps. Going back about thirty years helps a lot, and I did that today. I discovered that Bobby Ocean, who was a Bay Area radio personality for a long time, has a show on XM radio’s seventies channel. It was almost as good as hearing Bobby Dale’s pool party show from the old KEWB, but I guess going back forty years would be asking too much. I was a little more well-adjusted when I was in my twenties than I was in high school anyway.

How many times can you get interrupted by a phone call before you give up trying to get any work done? I reached my limit pretty early in the day, but I had no choice but to keep plugging away. I’ve lost most of the last month (or at least that’s how it feels), and I can’t afford to be playing catch-up for another month. Sooner or later some work has to get done, no matter how many times I’m interrupted.