President's Hall, Kitsap County Fairgrounds, 06-09

Frankly, my dear, I think this "new" lifestyle of mine would kill you. But then, if you and I had pulled it off back in '06 I think none of this would have never happened. Life, oh life, as seen through the back end of a crystal ball.

All the same, what I do these days in order to pull myself and my world view together I believe would unsettle you. It's not as if I am scattered of mind or heart or living a desolute life. To the contrary. I still live each day fully and think as I always have, and that's generally in a positive and forward going manner. I still get up no later than eight, generally hit the bricks with some project or errand or activity to do before noon. I may be "in-between positions" at the moment but I am also looking at pulling off two, possibly four interviews by the end of the month. Not bad for a guy who always manages to hit the ground running.

But today was the kind of day that I think might have winnowed you out, or, at the least, given you pause. Today I went out and about and took in what I would consider to be an anti-retail kind of day, a gleaning kind of day. A day where finding things to enjoy came without the big time price tag attached. I think somewhere along the line you told me that you were a princess and at the time I had to agree. I have to wonder if you would have left me when faced with this kind of situation. Or, maybe, and this is the scenario I would like to think we could have pulled off, that you would have pulled yourself and our world up by the bootstraps and really dug in, made the best of it, really made the most of this time of hardship and turned it into a thing to write about and sing about later on.

See, I think of the gal that I got to know, the one who was born in the mesa region of the grand state of Colorado, the girl who was the jeweler's daughter, the dutiful one, the resourceful one. I think of what I experienced today, a late afternoon of co-mingling with vets, a morning spent looking at used books and films and such at the Friend's sale, an afternoon of finding practical things like sports chairs and a hose and heavy Danish enamel cookware and movies and such at Goodwill and think that the only thing you might have gotten me on was that I was spending too much money on music. "You already have waaay too much music, Roger". And I would had to agree with you.

I think of hardships, of our times, of my times right now and know that my visits to the fairgrounds over the course of the last few years would be a story of work and trust and hardship that always manages to rise back up to the top. I think of those vets I saw today and know that if I was along side you that you would have never allowed us to sink down that far. Hell, I suspect that you would have been right there right along side me on the other side of those tables providing services and handing out burgers and sorting clothes. No way in hell could I have convinced you to take any of those clothes away. Never mind that I did.

Today I walked out of President's Hall with some literature about veteran's services and a couple bags of used clothing. Three years ago I walked out of that same building with a rubber rug rake and you on my arm. I think of what time can tell and what time will do and what the mind is capable of handling and know that I can handle this, that this moment, one that I managed to steer right up to the minute is of my own devising but also that I am on my way to doing something that both you and I would be proud of. I hit the ground running, Jane, and that's the only thing I can imagine that you would you expect, hell, demand, out of me.

Love, your WHMB