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MONORAIL ARCHIVES : October 2019
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LIFE 2019-10-11
obsessed.
how many things have you done 15,000 times and aren't perfect at? for me that list is remarkably short. so short in fact there is only one thing i haven't perfected in that many attempts--living the perfect day. and doing so repeatedly.

i am 50 years old and on my 50 birthday i have gone through this exercise more than 15,000 times. now if we take away the child years, and even the adolescent years, and even the college years and just leave me the years where i have had a lot of control over my time, that means i have failed to figure it out in more than 7,500 attempts. this fact makes me absolutely mental.

so fixing this is my current obsession. well, one of my current obsessions at least. because a part of my perfect-day theory is that the more obsession-based activities your can sprinkle into the hours of the day, the better chance you have of milking every minute of that day in a meaningful and purposeful way.
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ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, LIFE, WEB 2019-10-10
i'm in co-counseling


bella and i were having one of our, what she calls "red-leather chair chats". these happen when she and i are both around and have twenty open minutes. she will ask if we can meet in my office. this is a request i have rarely, if ever, said no to. once settled into our respective chairs we catch up with each other's life. these largely replace what used to be our dad hours which haven't happened for bella too routinely since, honestly, she began middle school. i blame this largely on me no longer being able too pull her out at lunch time for our father-daughter lunches like i used to in elementary. problem in both middle and high school is their lunches are not long enough for me to sneak them away and get them back in time for their next class, which is a bit bizarre to me.

on this day, after getting me up to speed on her life she asked what was going on in my world. i shared that we had just started a new marketing outreach campaign and i had to call about twenty people a day to see if they were interested in our service.

BELLA
why do you sound so unexcited about it? that is unlike you.

TROY
i don't know. it just hasn't been turning out the way i thought it would and i'm a little discouraged by it.

BELLA
how long have you been doing it?

TROY
two days.

BELLA
two days! that's it?

TROY
uhh. yeah.

BELLA
and who are you calling?

TROY
law school registrars.

BELLA
dad. you can't give up after two days. i mean you're still getting your script worked out. it took me weeks before i had my approach down at club fitness. AND the people you are talking to are professionals. they can't even be mean to you. has anyone hung up on you.

TROY
no.

BELLA
six or seven of the people i call every day just hang up on me. don't even say a word. just hang up.

TROY
i guess i didn't think of it that way.

BELLA
you can't quit after two days. it's not the dearmitt-way.

the next day i made ten calls. seven people answered. and all of them were pleasant and helpful. when i was done for the day i may have even thought to myself--well, that was kinda fun, but i would never tell bella that.
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ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, FRIENDS, LIFE 2019-10-09
empathy may be her super-power
i recently had reason to go on facebook and came upon this lovely bit of history. glad stacey wrote it down as i failed to and it was nearly lost. i don't recall this bit of wisdom but it surely has marty's thumbprint all over it. thank you stacey!

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FAMILY, LIFE 2019-10-08
slow your roll
at the end of every week, i write two journal entries--one for my business and one for my personal affairs. i do this with several things in mind. i like to reflect on the happenings of the prior seven days. this is both to celebrate any progress and achievements as well as help set the tone and priorities for the week ahead. last week's personal entry, shared below, felt a little more potent than most.

SEPTEMBER 22, 2019
it was another spectacular week. full of health. complete command of my time--via self employment. improving at tennis. dad hours with my kids. dates and love-making with my wife. hard to imagine a life more complete.

after writing the prior sentence a thought occurred to me that it would be nice to be more financially set, wealthy even. i think that is coming but i think with it will also come more professional pressures and monetary distractions. when the company crests this hill, a greater number of people are going to want our services which will certaintly take time. and with excess money in the bank, my mind will be pulled in directions and to distractions that are now out of reach (vespa, ball-machine, home-renovation, travel). the thing to know about each and every one of those things is that all of them will call for my time, time i must reserve to manage/enjoy those things (and it's not like i'm sitting on a huge bank of free time at the minute). right now, when they are not financially possible, i don't spend much time thinking on them, and since i have none of those things, i don't spend any time enjoying them, which creates a natural and healthy simplicity to life.

so, don't get all overwrought about a financial future that may or may not happen. make sure to enjoy the simple and easy-going cadence of these days. i have a feeling i may one day look back on this stretch of my life when i had enough money to pay my bills, all of my children living in my home, a perfectly working body, and in wild adoration of my wife and say these were the best years of my life.
there's more than a little truth in that closing sentiment.
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FAMILY 2019-10-07
Family Scrapbook: oh brother (2019)


i always wanted a sibling. i can't say if i wanted a brother or a sister more, but i always felt like i was missing out on something special living as an only-child. then over the years as a ravenous collector of people's personal stories, i heard some things that made me think maybe it wasn't all bad that i never had to share my toys or bedroom or mother with another. obviously that ship sailed l ...
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August 2019 (5)
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