If my future continues to have a yard/field that needs mowing and I someday find that I have $5,500 just gathering dust this is what I want. It would be a great companion to my 80v Greenworks push mower which can do my yard (one acre) on a single charge.

No gas, not smell, no maintenance. Just the bliss of almost silently going back and forth and getting the grass/weeds cut. Of course, if my Robert were still alive our joint tax refund would more than cover the cost but that is not the case saddly. And the machine would be his. I would be lucky to get the chance to even sit on it. Mowing was his Zen and, I will never understand this, yardwork his happiest activity.

In the meantime my simple little Craftsman gas powered riding mower does the job albeit with a lot of noise and odor.

Beyond that and even though my PCP has me on a drug that is supposed to help with my sleep I am still getting up at 2 or 3 a.m. each day. Since starting the medication I find that i do sleep better just not more.

So, this morning, I was sitting here dealing with email, making sure all my bills had been paid, planning what I can avoid doing today and suddenly 1974 popped into my mind. Why I do not know, but there it was, the summer of 1974 living in my beloved Venice Beach California, bare foot most of the time, having a wardrobe of kaftans and long hair. Drinking cheap red wine bought by the gallon at Ralphs.

Those were the days, my friend, and we truly wished they would never end. But they did and my Venice Beach today is not a place I would want to live or wish on anyone else.

The summer of 1974 was like any other at that, the last poor peoples beach. Affordable food, enough drug exhaust in the air that you often did not have to spend your own money to get high (haven't indulged in that for over 42 years now). And suddenly one day the people on the beach were naked. Venice beach had become clothing optional. At least a small section was and it was a straight shot down from my apartment two blocks up Westminster Ave.

At that point in my life I was mid-transition from supporting myself hustling a living, and a good one I have to admit, and becoming the responsible adult member of society that was in my future. I still had a 28 inch waist, longish hair and the requisite moustache. Was considered to be attractive and desirable. So life was good. And, of course, I shed my kaftan and joined in on the nude beach with my friends. I got tan in places that I was not aware could be tanned, my hair (light brown by nature) became almost platinum from the sun. Thinking back on it, even I would have been attracted to me.

But, it was short lived. By late summer a judge ruled "boobs yes, pubes no" and Venice Beach began the transition to what it has become today. A haven for wealthy 30-odd year olds that can pay over a million dollars for a simple one bedroom apartment. Luxury cars, expensive restaurants and no where even near what it had been at its best.

At this same time I was discovering the power of the lie. I had read somewhere that you could be an imposter, a successful liar "if you can fullfill the promise of the lie". And so began my life lived on lies fullfilled to the point that many years later I would retire from an executive position with plans that have since taken on their own life and expect me to live within its constraints. Not all that I had planned but not as bad as it sometimes seems.

So that is the start to my day. I have to mow the part of the yard that is outside the fence, the driveway turn around and along the county road. The electric push mower does all that just fine except for along the county road where I use the riding mower.

And, today Sherman is coming to mow my field, a quarterly necessity to reduce the chance of fires. One of our property lines is along the highway and people just have no reguard for anyone living out here. And, I have a bunch of laundry needing doing and a way too large house to try to clean some.

Of course, I may just put it off and read. Plus I am still indulging myself with bingeing the entire Eureka series which is being doled out a little at a time.

Have a great day all, if you are in the path of what remains of Ian take care and be safe, if Ian did damage to your way of life be of good cheer knowing that things will, hopefully, improve.