It's so f'ing great to be alive!

[bob perry]

Back years ago when everything was just fine and dandy I'd come up to the old beach shack on the weekend in the winter. I told my wife I needed to "warm the place up".
I'd come up by myself, cook some calves liver, play some great music and sit and be lonely and kind of depressed.
Then one day it occurred to me, I like being lonely and depressed. It cheers me up.

[Orestes Munn]

Oh boy, Lin, that's some serious stuff. Suffice it to say, for now, that I understand.

If I were depressed, Bob, I would not eat the liver of a baby animal. Sounds like something my father would have done.

[Lin]

Oh boy, Lin, that's some serious stuff. Suffice it to say, for now, that I understand.

If I were depressed, Bob, I would not eat the liver of a baby animal. Sounds like something my father would have done.

Orestes, the substance abuse (alcohol) problem was nothing to do with me, personally. Only the short lived episode of depression and self pity.
It has however affected people I care about. Attempts to bring it up in the hopes of suggesting help and support have been met with resistance, anger and denial. Done all I can do.

Life goes on .... : )

[Orestes Munn]

Oh boy, Lin, that's some serious stuff. Suffice it to say, for now, that I understand.

If I were depressed, Bob, I would not eat the liver of a baby animal. Sounds like something my father would have done.

Orestes, the substance abuse (alcohol) problem was nothing to do with me, personally. Only the short lived episode of depression and self pity.
It has however affected people I care about. Attempts to bring it up in the hopes of suggesting help and support have been met with resistance, anger and denial. Done all I can do.

Life goes on .... : )

I was actually referring to the infertility stuff. That's a hard, hard thing.

[Lin]

Oh boy, Lin, that's some serious stuff. Suffice it to say, for now, that I understand.

If I were depressed, Bob, I would not eat the liver of a baby animal. Sounds like something my father would have done.

Orestes, the substance abuse (alcohol) problem was nothing to do with me, personally. Only the short lived episode of depression and self pity.
It has however affected people I care about. Attempts to bring it up in the hopes of suggesting help and support have been met with resistance, anger and denial. Done all I can do.

Life goes on .... : )

I was actually referring to the infertility stuff. That's a hard, hard thing.

Yep

[Rob McAlpine]

Orestes, the substance abuse (alcohol) problem was nothing to do with me, personally. Only the short lived episode of depression and self pity.
It has however affected people I care about. Attempts to bring it up in the hopes of suggesting help and support have been met with resistance, anger and denial. Done all I can do.

Life goes on .... : )

I was actually referring to the infertility stuff. That's a hard, hard thing.

Yep

I need to get you two on the boat together. Maybe you could fix me.

[Jamie]

O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

[Orestes Munn]

...handsome and tall as you.

In the category of "that's not saying much"...

[Rob McAlpine]

Back to the original topic, of how wonderful it is to be alive, I got got a nice note from a good friend this morning, which makes me happy. And I'm going to be unseemly here and brag a little.

My son, Chris, aka Little Loser, has been accepted to TAMS, the Texas Academy of Math and Science, a 2 year program at the University of North Texas. Basically, along with about 200 other smart-shit kids, he'll skip his last 2 years of high school and do his first 2 years of college. They have their own dorm at UNT so it's a pretty controlled environment recognizing that they are still kids. Admission is highly selective and competitive. I'm really proud of him.

[Lin]

Back to the original topic, of how wonderful it is to be alive, I got got a nice note from a good friend this morning, which makes me happy. And I'm going to be unseemly here and brag a little.

My son, Chris, aka Little Loser, has been accepted to TAMS, the Texas Academy of Math and Science, a 2 year program at the University of North Texas. Basically, along with about 200 other smart-shit kids, he'll skip his last 2 years of high school and do his first 2 years of college. They have their own dorm at UNT so it's a pretty controlled environment recognizing that they are still kids. Admission is highly selective and competitive. I'm really proud of him.

Huge congratulations to Chris, and well done to to you and Beth! Very cool.

[Orestes Munn]

Back to the original topic, of how wonderful it is to be alive, I got got a nice note from a good friend this morning, which makes me happy. And I'm going to be unseemly here and brag a little.

My son, Chris, aka Little Loser, has been accepted to TAMS, the Texas Academy of Math and Science, a 2 year program at the University of North Texas. Basically, along with about 200 other smart-shit kids, he'll skip his last 2 years of high school and do his first 2 years of college. They have their own dorm at UNT so it's a pretty controlled environment recognizing that they are still kids. Admission is highly selective and competitive. I'm really proud of him.

Congratulations to all of you. That is a great feeling.

My daughter recently failed to get a prestigious fellowship to study overseas, after making it to the final round. She was pretty beaten up and tearful about it for a while. I, however, was simply devastated on her behalf, more than I should have been, and I had to remind myself that this was happening to her and not to me. My thought now is, I would have rather she had gotten her first choice and I would have loved to go around casually mentioning it, but seeing her cope with the disappointment like a real woman and come back punching with a barrage of applications to other programs, maybe impressed me more because I already knew she was totally brilliant.

[BeauV]

Saturday was my youngest kid's birthday. I called and sang a rousing version of "Happy Birthday" into his voice mail. He rarely picks up on the first try.... oh well.

Sunday, while working on a regatta, he called back and we talked for more than two hours. Turns out he had gone to the beach with a lot of friends and was in no condition to talk on the phone, so he turned it off and enjoyed life. After a long long talk, life was much better.

On the earlier discussion about depression etc.... I certainly have seen folks and family who appear to just have some sort of chemical mis-alignment. Depression hits them like a low pressure zone and it doesn't fade until another high shows up. While sometimes predictable, it seem completely un preventable and damned hard to cure or improve.

Like all of us, I've had my battles with being bummed out. My cure, for what little it's worth, has been to go do things to take care of other people and forget about myself. The more time I spend thinking about myself the worse it gets. I tried self-medicating a few times - after all alcohol is legal and inexpensive. It made everything worse. Now, I go help someone with a boat, teach a kid to sail, haul crab pots for an old guy who can't quite do it himself, on and on until the Black Dog is gone.

"Healing Through Helping" is what my oldest daughter calls it - a pretty good name - and it seems to work.

BV

[Tim OConnell]

Back to the original topic, of how wonderful it is to be alive, I got got a nice note from a good friend this morning, which makes me happy. And I'm going to be unseemly here and brag a little.

My son, Chris, aka Little Loser, has been accepted to TAMS, the Texas Academy of Math and Science, a 2 year program at the University of North Texas. Basically, along with about 200 other smart-shit kids, he'll skip his last 2 years of high school and do his first 2 years of college. They have their own dorm at UNT so it's a pretty controlled environment recognizing that they are still kids. Admission is highly selective and competitive. I'm really proud of him.

Congratulations Rob to Chris and you both he certainly is a sharp fella. I like his T Shirt he wore on the delivery. It says it all

[kdh]

That's great, Rob. My congratulations to both of you.

[Olaf Hart]

Beau, I wish you could bottle that "healing through helping" stuff.
It is so hard to get that message across at the time people need it the most.

I just tell them if the answer was in their head they would have already found it.
I remind them their eyes look out at the world, not inside their head, and the answer they are looking for is out there.

In my experience this is a BIG problem in first world countries. People are programmed to take care of the food, warmth and shelter and to ignore the other two basic human needs, meaningful relationships and contributing to the greater good.

[bob perry]

This cheers me right up.

[kimbottles]

Back to the original topic, of how wonderful it is to be alive, I got got a nice note from a good friend this morning, which makes me happy. And I'm going to be unseemly here and brag a little.

My son, Chris, aka Little Loser, has been accepted to TAMS, the Texas Academy of Math and Science, a 2 year program at the University of North Texas. Basically, along with about 200 other smart-shit kids, he'll skip his last 2 years of high school and do his first 2 years of college. They have their own dorm at UNT so it's a pretty controlled environment recognizing that they are still kids. Admission is highly selective and competitive. I'm really proud of him.

Wow! That's pretty darn cool!! So is the picture of Ultra Violet riding Max......

[BeauV]

This cheers me right up.

Hell yes!!!