Now to talk about what exhilarates me about working on this new series:​​

​     Pretty much everything else, and that seems remarkable to me, for a seventy-year-old person to say that there's something still in their lives that obsessively excites them. I'll tell you about an aspect of evolving into an elderly man that I didn't expect. You know how, sometimes, you can just be humming along through your day, not thinking about anything in particular, and suddenly an old humiliating or guilt-producing memory rises up seemingly out of nowhere to emotionally coldcock you?  That happens to me a lot since I've retired. I actually make a sound when the sting is strong enough. I say it out loud: "Ow!" Trudy hears me say that all the time these days around the apartment or when we're on one of our walks. "Ow!" I'm so grateful that I have something going on in my mind and heart and soul other than those "Ows!". I have more life to live. I am so grateful for that. I feel especially grateful these days because, at my age, I understand how precious it is to merely be in a position to feel grateful, to not have to spend my days in pain or in poverty or unloved, and, further, I understand how quickly my precious world filled with gratitude can melt away, just like that. One bad diagnosis or fall or economic downturn will do it. No one has ever gotten to be my age without having the old life rug pulled out from under them at least once. 

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