“Forty Days and Forty Nights” sounds biblical, but it’s actually a welcome travel lull. It is in fact the longest stretch of unplanned travel that I’m facing since retirement. I will relish the down time with open arms until we head to Steamboat in late August. In the meantime, I’m waiting on my wife to schedule business trips to New York and Chicago, but elected not to go with her in a few weeks to Los Angeles. With two upcoming weddings, we have to save a few bucks. I’ve scheduled Hawaii honeymoon reservations for both of her bride-to-be daughters, so they’ll be doing the traveling, not me. After the September San Francisco wedding weekend, I’ll spend a week in Florida with my son and his family. It’s the last trip I have officially scheduled until late next year when we go to Egypt. There are lots of blanks to fill-in between times. Or, maybe more time at home?

I’m currently caught-up in watching The Man in the High Castle series, after recently meeting one of the producers. Once again, it’s all about the bastards, who in this case are the Lebensborn (literally: “Fount of Life”), an SS-initiated, state-supported, registered association in Nazi Germany. “The goal of the program was to raise the birth rate of Aryan children of persons classified as racially pure and healthy based on Nazi racial hygiene and health ideology.” As a bastard child myself, I find a special sense of intrigue watching these characters discover the identity of their real fathers. It adds such dramatic twists to these stories. In my case, however, I was never misled into believing I was someone else, or learned of grand birthright. Unlike the movies, I’m not entitled to wealth or power, but rather just glad to know some of my heritage outside of adoption. 

I’m scheduled for another acupuncture session this afternoon. This morning’s run was again without any back pain, but I feel the lack of circulation in my feet, so the aches of age simply move from one part of the body to the other.  They are always there, but you can’t feel more than one of them at a time; eliminate one and the other suddenly surfaces. It was day #3853 of my running streak. Yesterday, I installed our new Ring Doorbell, so my exit from the house this morning and reentry 40 minutes later to run was recorded on video. I’m now notified on my phone and I-watch every time there is motion at our front door. Similarly, my wife will now be able to monitor the number of times that I take the dogs outside, or leave for an errand. I’ve created my own electronic leash, while protecting our house from porch bandits. When we travel, I’ll also be in constant contact with the comings and goings at our front door. Knock…knock…who’s there? I already know!