A discussion on reincarnation

Well this is certainly an odd topic and not one that I would come by naturally I don’t think. However, the other week I saw a YouTube video, or at least the start of one, from a motivational speaker who was talking about a woman who had been legally dead for some amount of time and was revived. He (or the doctors or someone) asked her if she saw heaven. She said, “How do I know I’m not in heaven now?”

It posed an interesting question to me when you compare our lives to those of so many people from 40 years ago to 4,000 years ago: would our lives not be heaven-like to oh so many people? Even in today’s world, there are certainly those of us who are living lives that others on the planet would think are heavenly. But if they are alive and I’m alive, the reincarnation thing doesn’t work, so I have to go back in time for my subjects.

In the 1950’s, would not someone think it’s heavenly to have the communication, electronics, improved transportation and even microwaves? And that’s not to mention the medicinal improvements. 

If you go back to the 1930’s, it’s all of those things and more! The 1800’s and you mention cars, supermarkets, the availability of clean water, sewage treatment, indoor plumbing, cures for polio and a much lower infant mortality rate; would that not be heavenly? All of that and it would just be my great grandparent’s soul that I possess.

But the 1800’s would also seem heavenly to someone from the 1500’s right? And the 1500’s to someone from the 800’s. And so on. So maybe our souls are reincarnated right here on the earth, with new one’s added periodically to keep up with the population. Or maybe not. Maybe the number of souls has been constant, but many never made it to being born. Heaven to them would have just been given the chance TO live.

Just something I’ve been thinking about.

Crytpocurrencies

If anything other than the year of T-Rump, 2017 was the year of cryptocurrencies. I’ll let you look up what they are and their returns as that’s not the point of this entry. What I do want to discuss is MY experience buying Bitcoin.

Over the last few years I’ve known a few people that have owned Bitcoin and until last year really didn’t know much about any of the other cryptos. Heck, even Bitcoin was a bit of a mystery and at one point last year I even told Lovely Laura that Bitcoin is either the next internet or the next tulip craze. Even now I don’t know which it is, though I’m leaning towards the latter. If I believed that, why buy it? Because you don’t really have to believe in something to make money on it. For years I held Phillip Morris stock, despite not having smoked anything in my life. Those people I knew who owned it though.....they believed in it. REALLY believed in it. Almost blindly believed in it. 

Stocks. That’s a nice segue into my next section: valuation. There are no earnings or dividends or even assets behind Bitcoin. Hell, nobody even really knows who invented it!! In those ways it is dramatically different from a stock, but is not terribly different from a hard asset such as gold, silver, etc. If you buy gold, you don’t get earnings or dividends, you don't know who made it (for sure at least)  and its value (unless you personally make jewelry or computer boards) is dependent solely on demand. Bitcoins valuation is almost solely dependent on demand with its supply relatively fixed. Other cryptos have different levels of supply, some more fixed than others. XRP or Ripple is a crypto that’s owned by one company. They control 60 billion of the 100 billion potential Ripple. Every month they may, or may not, make another billion Ripple available in the market place as they are essentially in a series of CD’s that mature every month. If they are not put into the market, they are put back into the CD with an expiration in the month following the last current CD due date. But Bitcoin’s supply, while not completely in “circulation”, fluctuations are minuscule compared to the float. Demand is what drives Bitcoin.

In the month leading up to Thanksgiving, Bitcoin was making some impressive gains moving from $5k to $7,500, after being under $1,000 in January of 2017.  With those kinds of returns, I could just picture families getting together for Thanksgiving and talking about all sorts of things, but definitely cryptos would come up for those who were invested and probably even for those not. Who doesn’t want to stick it to Uncle Lou for mocking your investment in Bitcoin that was now worth 8 times what you invested (at least)!! Then news that the CBOE would begin trading contracts on Bitcoin starting in mid December fueled even more action in Bitcoin. Personally, I felt the listing on the CBOE would legitimize the asset class and would lead to further upside in Bitcoin.

As the price held and continued to rise even, I decided to open an account with Coinbase, the largest of the e-wallets that sell Bitcoin. You can buy with a credit card or link it to your checking account, though my first purchase was limited to $2,500. After it settled, my weekly transaction amount went up to $5,000.  It's very convenient and slick, so I can see how they became so popular. I was not alone however. 

The weekend of Thanksgiving, Coinbase opened over 100,000 new accounts! Apparently Uncle Lou heard the success stories and was convinced to get in on it. By the time the CBOE started trading futures contracts, Bitcoin was up over $18,000.

Then, demand dried up. But not only did demand falter, that economic boon of being listed on the CBOE came home to roost. You see, for the last eight years or so, you could poo-poo Bitcoin, but you couldn’t bet AGAINST it. There was no financial way to sell it short or bet that the price would drop. Suddenly, not only could you do that, but the PROS could do it. People who manage positions in asset classes everyday could do it. Future cab drivers, who are new to the investing game, could do it (haven’t we all ridden with a cabbie who used to trade on the exchange but lost all their money?).  Though there was a small run up, to about $20K, there was swift downward pressure applied and the value went scurrying below $13k. Having made close to 30% in a day or two, those contracts were covered by purchases or were sold and the value rebounded slightly to the low $14,000’s.  Eventually I sold in the $16,000’s and made about 40% on my investment which was great (paid for Christmas!), but some lessons were learned.

First, you need to know what’s driving the price and value of an asset. Is it earnings, expectations of earnings, dividends, expectations of dividends or just pure speculation? Second, if it’s pure speculation, you have to be ready to bail at any moment and not be tied to selling at a given price to make a profit. If the market turns, it will turn quickly. This is why well known investors (like Buffett) and leaders (like the top financial guy in the UK) said you could lose everything by investing in cryptos. Third, can investors bet against the asset? If you can’t bet against the asset, it’s really just a speculation, demand driven gamble. Those can be just fine, but you need to be able to identify it for what it is (like going to Vegas) and not bet the house (also like going to Vegas).

I’ve been in finance all my adult life and have a finance degree from the University of Illinois and I completely missed how important the last point is. What I thought would be a legitimizing boon for Bitcoin, will ultimately lead to its demise.

While all of this was going on, the government stepped in as well and told Coinbase that they needed to hand over the records for anyone having transactions involving more than $20,000 in a year. That really is another hit to the demand side of the equation as what was a viable way to exchange large sums of funds for potentially illegal or immoral transactions was now severely limited.

What will happen to the crypto currency world and Bitcoin? I have no idea. Am I glad I took my money and ran? Yes, yes I am. 

A little June update

So much going on today and this weekend that I had to make an entry. Let's start with the good things.

Marissa had her first ballet recital. She did pretty well for four years old. Quite frankly, even the high school kids were underwhelming for what I imagine to be years and years of training. The hip-hop kids seemed to have some good skills though. Anyway, the important thing is that Marissa enjoys it, despite getting up for class on Saturday morning. We'll see if that continues at older ages!!

Next up is young master Thomas, who, while mimicking Marissa's dance moves the night before her recital, took a tumble and broke his foot....on the carpet....without any collision whatsoever. Just a freak accident. Two to four weeks in a cast.

Other than not wanting to walk too far on it, he really didn't complain much. All the doctors mentioned what a great patient he was. 

Next up is the passing of yet another high school classmate: Terry Smith. Terry was a really nice kid with whom I played some sports as a kid. He had a dry wit, but was very funny and nice to everyone. It's a loss for all of us. My dad used to coach him in football and Terry always spoke highly of my pops. 

In the world of real estate today, I had not one but two agents set up inspections at homes I was listing, without telling me!! Who does that?? I always go through the agent when setting up inspections for my clients. This why I got into the business: incompetent brokers. Or more appropriately, keeping incompetent brokers away from my family and friends. One of them at least had a somewhat reasonable excuse; her father was hospitalized last week and she had to make an emergency trip out of state and just forgot to let me know. The other guy is just an ass. 

This summer I have three bachelor parties to attend....3!! But, when you're 51 and still playing softball, your 30-35 year old buddies start to get married. One though is only 25 I think...if that, but he's the son of a good buddy of mine that sits next to me at Bears games. So it's going to be a busy summer. Just need Joisey Ken to get his shit together so we can finalize our summer trip with the families! LOL!! Luv ya Ken!! 

Bears draft 2017

As I sit down at my computer to type on this cold and dreary last day of April, I was faced with two topics: a letter to the 18 year old Marissa of the future or my thoughts on recapping the just held 2017 NFL draft. The former is not for public consumption, so that would have been in a Word document that would get printed out and placed with my letter to the 18 year old Thomas, in a safe place. Each year now, I plan to write one of those letters and maybe include my favorite pictures. Should be pretty awesome. While I'm trying to get family members to do it as well, they have not complied so far. We'll see.

So YOU get my thoughts on the Bears draft!! Lucky you.

As you may know, the Bears had the #3 overall pick and traded up to the #2 pick by giving away two third round picks this year and a fourth round pick next year. They were most likely bidding against themselves by making this move as SF, who had the #2 pick, had no interest in Mitch Trubiskey (he of 13 college starts out of NC, from where no Pro-Bowl QB's have hailed. The Bears WERE fielding calls from other teams looking to trade up though, but either those teams weren't willing to pay up (most likely) or the Bears didn't want to move.

Here's where it gets more interesting. GM Ryan Pace and the Bears didn't just give up three picks and the #3 pick for Trubiskey, they also TURNED DOWN at least two more picks if they would have moved down in the draft even one spot!! Probably more if they moved down to 10 or 12. So when you hear the Bears gave up four picks for him, it's really at least SIX. That's more than half of an entire starting offense or defense. That's incredible.

Instead, the Bears took Mitch the Bitch and gave up the picks. Then they chose a DII tight end who the scouts say is a "beast" and "demolished" the opposition. Yeah, well a guy who is 6'6" and 275 is going demolish anyone in DII. That's why those other guys are in DII?? Put me in Pop Warner and I'm going to score a 100 TD's too because I'm going to demolish much smaller players. We had a need at TE, though it was one of our lesser needs, but Pace, who worked in New Orleans with Brees and Graham and Sproles before coming to Chicago, is trying to surround his new QB with weapons. We won't be able to stop anyone on defense, but maybe we'll score. Not this year though.

The Bears first fourth round pick was a CB or S out of Alabama who broke his leg last year after tearing his ACL in the other leg two years ago. So he's basically a cripple. Who needs legs to play football??

Their second pick of the fourth round was Pace's "Darren Sproles guy"; small (5'6") sort of fast, who can catch.....so a midget.

Their 5th round pick was a DII left tackle who projects as a guard in the NFL, but maybe he'll still play left tackle. Oh yeah, he's out of Kuntztown State. I'll let you look that one up.

So a cripple, a midget and two DII players added on to a QB that was passed up by two teams who also needed a QB, but understand that you build winning teams through defense first. Oh yeah, don't forget that NEXT year's crop of college QB's is actually supposed to be talented, unlike this year's. So now, when we are picking top 5 again because nobody we just added will start, we'll PASS on those talented QB's to give this guy a shot. That's terrible. And yes, I said none of these guys will start. The Bears are 3-13 and they just held a draft taking 5 players and none of them will start. Possibly, possibly the TE will, but that's doubtful too.

What they should have done was stayed put and taken Jamal Adams at #3. IF they needed to trade down, it would have depended how far down they went. Adams slid to #6 with the Jets, which was a steal. They could have added a Budda Baker type in the second round and really solidified their DB's. Two third round picks could have netted the likes of Duane Smoot at DE or Daeshon Hall at DE or maybe you take Deshone Kizer in the second round and see what happens. Davis Webb went in the third at QB, so he was an option.

As a season ticket holder who actually has to pay money to see the team play, unlike those Bears fans who can sit at home on Sunday, I want to see a better product on the field now. Not adding any starters in the draft will not get there. My draft grade: D-.

Catch up post

 

It's been a while since I've posted and I should include pictures of the kids, but I really wanted to note the changes (mostly physical) that age has brought on over the last few years. While few folks, if anyone, currently reads my "blog" (and I use that term loosely considering the frequency with which I post), I'm hopefully that someone in the future will find these missives and determine them to be of interest. The main reason for my lack of blog posting over the last few years has been reduced amount of time available with Marissa and Thomas consuming time and rightfully so. Additionally, the increased responsibilities with my real estate career, now in it's third year, also eats up time that would otherwise be spent pondering solutions to the great problems of the world.

 

But I digress. Health. About two years ago my eyes started to change after being stable for the last 15 years since my laser eye surgery when I was 35. Though I have always had some haloing around lights at night post eye surgery, my day time vision was 20-10 for most of the 15 years. When my vision slipped a little, it went to 20-20. After turning 49 though, not only has my far vision slipped further (to the point of preferring glasses to drive at night), but I developed some presbyopia and found that, while I don't have reading glasses, reading up close is tough without very good light and even then it's a struggle. Both of these have just slowly gotten worse over the last two years, but not dramatically.

 

Last year (February 2, 2016), I had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus bestowed upon me by a negligent driver on 5/25/2015. The surgeon, Dr. Ho, also performed microfracture surgery which prolonged my rehab stint significantly. Physical therapy didn't stop until early May, so I was a bit off most of the summer while I regained knee and leg strength.

 

Then we sold the condo at 660 Roscoe and moved out to Mokena. The move took it's toll in the form of allergies, ear infection, sinus infection and colds. Most of the summer I was pretty miserable and the day of the move I almost couldn't get out of bed due to an attack of menieres. Later in the year I finally switched from Claritin to Zyrtec for allergies and have been good ever since.

 

Also at the request of my PCP, I started taking baby asprin at night, fish oil and niacin in addition to a regular asprin in the morning. After about three weeks of this new blood thinning regime, I was playing softball and caught a ball off the calf. With super thin blood, it blew up almost to the size of a softball!! Needless to say I cut out some of the thinning ingredients, but the damage was done and it took about 2 months for it to return to normal size. It took so long that I went BACK to the doctor a second time to make sure it was okay!

 

At the time of my blood thinning prescription, I was informed that it was time to get a colonoscopy. It wasn't a surprise by any stretch, but the reviewing the prep left me.....lacking in desire to get it done. Plus, I was sick or hurt most of the year anyway.

 

So back to the hurt part. Over the summer, after sitting in an awkward position while painting the kids playhouse outback, I managed to tear the meniscus in my left knee. Now it also could have been from the added stress of making up for the right knee not being healthy, so I guess I could relate that injury back to the car accident as well. Anyway, while I was initially incapacitated, the swelling and pain eventually went down enough so that I could play some softball. Running was a problem of course, but I could hit. It needed to be fixed though so I picked November 1st to get that done, just after the Bears-Vikings game on Halloween and during a bye week and an away game or two for the Bears. That allowed me to recover to the point of walking at least before the next Bears game. The Cubs though, after I lived in the neighborhood for 27 years, decided to win the world series, so I wasn't around for the celebration. Bah. I did get to one game against the Giants and one against the Dodgers though.

 

The impact of aging was not done though. Over the last year in particular I noticed more wrinkles on my face (around my eyes) and on my throat. Not flattering. Then the kicker came on my 51st birthday while in the midst of closing on the condo. After having two slices of deep dish pizza, I was severely bloated and had some acid reflux. Now, I've been taking Prilosec for about 10 years or so and it has really controlled my sour stomach so well that I never really even thought about it. About a month prior to my birthday though, I decided to see if I really needed to take it anymore and found out quickly that yes, yes I do. It would appear that I developed a peptic ulcer, though my endoscopy has not confirmed that yet. Oh, did I mention I had an endoscopy AND a colonoscopy at the same time? Yeah, fun day. Actually, the day before (really 36 hours) of no eating and only drinking clear fluids plus some bowel cleanser was the most unpleasant part and even that wasn't too bad. The colonoscopy came back all clear and I'm waiting to hear on the endoscopy, though I'd bet dollars to donuts it's a result of H. pylori.

 

So that's where I'm at now and what I've been dealing with over the last few years (except for gaining about 10 pounds as well).  I'm hoping that this year I settle into some good routines, shed weight and get healthy!!

 

Now for those kid pictures!!

Random thoughts for an October Sunday

This morning I was up early to get some coffee at my nearby Starbucks and then go to church with my family (we go to different churches, but they are near each other). On my way, I saw this wonderful site from the road and had to stop and take a picture.

It just made me think of how beautiful nature can be.

In church, the gospel from a few weeks ago was Luke 16, 19-31 which I'll reproduce here:

Luke 16:19-31New International Version (NIV)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰ At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

²² “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

²⁷ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family,²⁸ for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

²⁹ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Now, why would I bother with a gospel passage? Well, I did not remember ever hearing this particular passage and it's very compelling on several fronts. One is that we all have had "pacts" with someone that if they die first, we'll come back and tell them what the other side is like (hopefully while not scaring them). Per this passage, that won't be possible and based on this passage, it's unnecessary. I love the cynicism of Abraham here towards humans: even someone coming back from the dead won't convince people (and Christians believe this has already transpired once!).  There's also no way to help those in hell, even if you're in heaven at the right hand of the Lord. That's disappointing.

While at church, St. Rays in Joliet, I saw this display in the foyer of the church: 

That Cardinal, Daniel Kucera, is the one who presided over my confirmation. Just an interesting note.

While Marissa was at school one morning last week and I was on daddy duty, I sat out back with coffee while Thomas sat out back on the stoop with a snack. It was a good morning.

Another day this week, Thomas and I took in some TV while trying to get ready for the day.

It's Bears season and even though they aren't good, we do have fun tailgating!

Me, E-Money and Chrizzo at the Bears/Lions game....only our second win in the last 12 home games.

I've added a touch of class to the tailgate! A tablecloth!

Okay, it's not MINE, but I am able to use it regularly. Good advertising for the company!

Reversing Time

 

This weekend we had our World Series of Softball in Columbus Ohio. The organization was GSL, I do not know what it means, but the USSSA World Series is in Disney, a much better but costlier trip. Columbus is only a 6 hour drive, so that’s not bad. All beside the point. I started playing with a new team this year as my old team went up in competition and I needed to go down. Also beside the point. Our team finished in 5^th place out of 68 teams from around the country (though mostly Midwest). Also, beside the point.

 

The blog post is to document my year physically and set goals for next year to be better.

 

The year started off bad with knee surgery on February 2 that turned into microfracture surgery and had me in a bed for 22 hours a day for 6 weeks. I wasn’t able to work out in any normal fashion really until May, which was when we were buying and moving into our new home. Preceding the move, I developed a sinus infection that morphed into an ear infection by moving day and really didn’t clear up for almost a month. Though I played softball, I really didn’t have the time or energy to workout, not to mention that I have not as yet joined a gym locally. During one of those softball outings, I caught a ball on the ankle which shelved me for two more weeks, during which, while painting my kids playhouse in the back yard, tore my meniscus in my left knee. Again, no working out. So in total, since last November when my meniscus in my right leg was confirmed via MRI, I’ve probably worked out 3 or 4 times, and all very mildly. That’s not good for a man who turned 50 over that span.

 

 

So I have surgery scheduled for November 1, with explicit instructions to NOT do microfracture surgery. Hopefully come December, I’ll be able to resume workouts and hopefully hit a gym for some upper body stuff before the surgery even. That’s the plan. I want to really commit to getting into better shape for next year, even if I don’t play softball, so I can reverse the effects of this bad year on me physically. It’s doable!!

 

A day of accomplishments

 

I should probably add some pictures, so I'll see what's on the computer. Today was just a good day, full of accomplishments. These days haven't been frequent enough because of a number of things: moving, preparing the condo for sale, doing showings at the condo, selling another condo that's about 45 minutes away and helping someone buy a condo about an hour away from me. So all of those trips take roughly 3 hour chunks out of my day if I stay for an hour. That's a lot of time.

 

Today was not like that though. Today was "productive". Those other days are productive, but this is better productive. Things were done around the house that made it better to live in....THAT kind of productive. A gate I installed at the top of the stairs to keep Thomas from falling down them had come loose. Doesn't seem possible since I used toggle bolts (3 of them), but there it was...loose. So yesterday I realized the toggles never deployed! They were just sitting inside the hole in the drywall, unopened and provided some support initially. Eventually they worked themselves loose though. When I saw the toggles not deployed, I knew what happened. User error, which is usually the case in DIY projects. This time I did it right though and that gate is definitely secure now!

 

We bought two toilet seats with inserts that come down so Marissa can start using the "big girl" potty. I installed two of them today and she immediately said "I am NOT going to use them!" Fortunately, that was incorrect and she even used it before the night was out. Very happy. Laura is REALLY happy.

 

Downstairs we have many boxes left to unpack and put away. The thing with moving every 24 years is that you accumulate a LOT of crap. Or maybe just stuff. Some crap, but lots of stuff. So there's about 18 boxes of stuff that we have NOT unpacked at this point. Today I decided I would unpack one box a week until they were all unpacked. That was before I realized there were 18 boxes so maybe I'll do two a week. Today I did two or three, so that's a great start. I also put some carpet samples up in the attic storage in the garage, which made the garage a little easier to move around in. I moved some other stuff around and it was even easier. Then I pitched some things and it was even better! Progress!!

 

Due to some problems with our movers, we blew them up on different websites and got them to settle with us at a number 10x what they initially offered (a laughable amount). Today we got the release document signed and the last of the websites to take down the review I wrote. That paves the way for payment.

 

For work, I followed up on a real estate lead and dug for information from a website that paved the way for me to help them out in the spring. Good stuff!

 

Every day has lots of interaction with my kids and Laura, so that's always good. Today we took a nature hike after dinner along a paved trail across the street that winds through some woods and a few ponds. I try to point out nature things and animals. We saw three deer, some yellow finches and we found a few acorns, which I was able to secure a good shell and made a super loud whistle out of it the first time I tried! It was awesome.

 

This Saturday is our 5th wedding anniversary and also a Bears home game (preseason) so I listed the tickets on Stubhub. But I also emailed two buddies to see if they could use them in the event that they don't sell.

 

And now I've written a blog post. That's a good day!!

 

 

  

Before pictures of the playset in the back yard. I have some blue painters tape around some things I couldn't remove or wanted to protect. I didn't remember to take "before" pictures right away. 

 

 

 

The rusty rungs.

 

 

Now they are spray painted forest green!

 

 

 

Look how rich and nice it looks now! My neighbors had one that looked like my "before" picture and after I was done with mine, they just tore theirs down. Already improving the neighborhood!

Trip to the Bay, Thomas Baptism

 

The spring real estate market this year brought three transactions my way, which is right around where I wanted to be for a year. If I did 3-5 possibly, that would be dandy for now: it pays all my real estate fees and covers my Bears season tickets plus a new appliance or three. Most importantly, at that transaction level, it doesn't hinder my quality of life. Plus I was made a partner in the company, which, while financially insignificant currently, is nice to have. Here's yard sign from my first listing, which sold in 10 days!

 

Of course, we had Thomas' baptism and a trip to Chesapeake Bay MD, about 45 minutes east of D.C., planned in the two weeks after after the accident. They never occur at a good time do they?? Anyway, the baptism went pretty well and the dinner that followed at Sapori Trattoria was awesome. For the trip to the Bay, we upgraded our Sonata to a Town and Country van, packed it to the gills and made the 12 hour drive in about 14+ hours (not bad with two kids!). Thomas was a champ as he slept for two almost 5 hour stints. Marissa was great too and she was much more cramped than Thomas. 

 

 

 

I'm still playing softball, but with the addition of 4-5 people during the offseason and my skills diminishing due to not being in as good of shape (since I can't work out nor sleep as much as I'd like) my playing time has dropped dramatically. While I still love going out and taking BP and infield practice, it's tough if all you get to do is pinch-hit periodically. I don't blame anyone as it's no one's fault really. I'm older, can't blame me for that. Other guys are younger and better, can't blame them. Can't blame the managers for playing the younger guys. I just have to decide for myself at what point do I draw the line. We'll see.  Golfing more looks pretty good though!