Legacy is defined as an amount of money or property left to someone in a will. Other definitions include the long-lasting impact of particular events, actions, etc. that took place in the past, or of a person’s life. It can also include values and traits that you have instilled in your children. The example sentence is, he left his children love and respect. Let’s look at each individual example. You pretty much know if you have instilled values in your children on how they are living their own lives. If you die when your children are very young, then you really won’t know for sure how they will turn out. Most people know, especially today if they are going to have some kind of lasting impact on society. They may not know to what extent their impact will be, but they know that people will remember the things that they have done long after they have passed. This brings us to the last meaning of legacy, leaving someone money or property after you die. This is what a will is all about. I have never understood making sure that you leave a large amount of money to your children or grandchildren or anybody for that matter. You will never see what they are going to do with all that money. Wouldn’t it bring you more joy to see them use the money or gifts while you are alive, even if it would mean you may have to cut back some on your own lifestyle. Do people do this because they think that after they die, they will look down upon earth and see what happens when their loved ones get all of that money. Sometimes receiving a lot of money may ruin some people’s lives. If you give them money while you are alive, you would be able to see how they are handling it. To answer the question, I am leaving no legacy. I am giving my money to my daughter’s family while I am alive and giving more as I age. This is easy to do when your goal is to die a pauper.
I Hate Them All
At first, I thought this was a repeat prompt and I was not going to answer it. I went back through the prompts, and the question was how do you celebrate the holidays? That is when I went on a rant about holidays in general. I will write about the holidays I hate the most. There are two by classification. First there are the fake holidays. Ones that are created for the sole purpose of making money. In no particular order they are Halloween, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and St. Patrick’s Day. The winner here hands down is Halloween. It is basically a disgusting and evil holiday that causes kids to eat loads of candy to help rot their teeth and brains. It causes older kids to destroy property and get into trouble. It is based on witch hunting and Pagen beliefs that caused people to be burned at the stake. Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy. Of the real holidays, those holidays where the vast majority of people have the day off and we all know which ones they are the one I detest and hate the most is New Years Day and Eve. This holiday brings out every bad trait of the human population. First on New Years Eve people drink to excess, make fools of themselves and do things that they may regret the rest of their lives. Then on New Years Day they make New Years resolutions that they are never going to keep and then just feel worse about themselves for having another perceived failure in their lives. Way to go the first frigging day of the year. Who gives a shit if it is the first day of the year. Even the football games are not as good on New Years Day anymore. Keep those holiday questions coming. I just love bashing the stupid holidays. Live your life like every day is special. You will be much better off. Screw Hallmark and every candy bar that was ever invented. Chew on this.
It’s Only Boring If You Lack Knowledge
It’s very tempting to say the daily writing prompts. First let us define boring. It is defined as something that is dull and uninteresting. The examples used are a boring discussion or lecture and a boring time. If you think something is boring it shows that you have not developed your brain above kid mode. This is one of the classic statements of the 6 to 12 year old crowd, “I’m BORED”! It is usually said, “I’m BORRRRRRRRRRED”! People will describe many things as boring when maybe they just mean that is bad or not very good. Movies, plays, and books can sometimes be described as boring when in reality they are not done very well. It is simply a misuse of the word. There are many activities, jobs, sports, and the arts that people will label boring. The reality is that nothing is boring. Individuals just do not take the time to explore and learn all of the intricacies of whatever they think is boring. The examples of this are too many to list. People just want to label something boring just so they will not have to learn something new. There are many things in this world that may disgust you, make you bewildered why so many people like to do something, seem ridiculous, or why something is so popular. None of those things are boring. There are many mundane things in life that we have to do. You can make all of these things better by doing things like reading about other things that you think are boring. Meditating during these times may be a way to learn how to meditate. Any time you say you are bored you are causing you brain to contract. Exploring and learning about things that you think are boring is a way to make your brain expand. There are always exceptions to such a philosophy, which brings us back to the daily writing prompt.
Retired Just Like Me
When my parents were 73, they were retired just like me. My mother was a secretary who worked during World War II, before I was born. Once I was born, she stayed home which was the norm in those days. She went back to work when I went to college and worked until she was 62. My Dad owned a beer distributor until 1968 and then worked as a salesman for an appliance store until he was 67. I can honestly say that the retirement years were the best years of my Dad’s life. My parents owned rental property that consisted of two houses, two garage apartments, one small mobile home, and a building that contained 4 apartments, all on one floor. My Dad was a Mr. Fix It and he woke up every day hoping someone would have a problem with something so he could fix it. There were only the three of us, my parents and me. However, we had 3 washing machines, 2 dryers, 4 lawn mowers, and various motors everywhere in the garage. None of them cost a dime. My Dad would find them, bring them home, repair or replace whatever was wrong with them and we would have a new appliance or piece of equipment. He had the motors to replace the motors on the various pieces of equipment we had, in case something went wrong with them. I can say growing up, I never saw a repair man, plumber, or electrician the entire time. Back in the day, when TV’s had tubes instead of transistors, he would always be able to fix the TV. I can remember standing in front of the TV set telling my Dad, picture, no picture, sound, no sound. I can also remember us messing around with the test pattern. If you don’t know what a test pattern is, look it up. My Dad always made sure that the test pattern was always perfect. He even checked it when there seemed to be nothing wrong, just to make sure. My Dad died when he was 83, after about a 4-month illness. He had the best 15 years of retirement that anybody could possibly have had. Every day he was doing the one thing he loved to do most, fix something that was broken or doing the maintenance on something to make sure it would get broken.
Let Me Count The Activities
Daily writing prompt
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
This may be one of the best writing prompts for old people, like me. Looking back between 1970 and 1990, there were many things that held my interest back then that I either no longer do or have little or no interest in now. I am not sure that I have outgrown them. Maybe they outgrew me. Here are my more current activities or hobbies. I still play golf, watch golf, listen to music, all kinds, watch the Pirates, watch the Steelers, write, watch college football, cook, exercise daily, and have many posts on X, my handle is Reuther70, if you want to see how deranged I am. I still love to watch movies. Now to what I use to do but not anymore.
Jogging. I have a bum ankle from an occupational injury and now I walk. It is probably the only thing I do not do anymore that I really do miss. Walking is ok but naturally takes up more time to cover the same distance. I had to give up jogging about 9 years ago.
Gardening. Wow, this was a big one from 1976 until around 1995. I took it up again in the early 2000’s but not to the degree I had done it before. For those 20 years I was into it. I had three plots, one 17×18, another 10×17, and a smaller lettuce and herb plot, 10×10. This was totally a vegetable garden, and I grew almost everything. I grew all the “normal” stuff” plus melons, horseradish, corn, potatoes, spinach, and things I can’t even think of now. My only true failure was peanuts. I could not get those little buggers out of the ground. What ended my gardening hobby. One hundred plus rounds of golf per year while working 45 to 50 hour weeks. I was a stud in my 50’s.
The Boston Celtics. As much as I loved the Pirates and Steelers, from 1962 until 1988 no sports team got me as excited as they did. John Havlicek was born in my home town of Martins Ferry, Ohio and grew up in the adjoining town of Bridgeport. Once he joined the Celtics I was an immediate fan. Those years were so exciting and once Bill Russel retired, Havlicek got what I called two Havlicek NBA Titles in the early to mid 70’s. Larry Bird came in the 80’s, and another great decade followed. Then the game changed, the Celtics hit some hard times and even though they have been contenders through much of the 2000’s with one title, I only follow them peripherally now, rarely watching them even in the playoffs.
Watching Commercial TV Series. The Last TV series I watched on commercial TV was NYPD Blue. It went off the air in 2005. Even with the DVR I really have no interest in commercial TV. Maybe I did outgrow that.
Listening to the Radio. Thanks to streaming and podcasts I never listen to the radio, and I mean never. Even when I hear someone else listening to the radio, I walk quickly away. There is just something about radio that makes me regurgitate right away. Even Pepcid does not help with this reflux.
So, there’s the list. There is probably more but I really don’t remember. I do not miss any of it except the jogging. Nice writing prompt for a change. Yesterday, what’s your favorite candy? Dark Chocolate. I haven’t outgrown that one and never will. I turned this into a 2 prompt day.
Never?
Ah, yes, the good old to-do list. I have done them at various time in my life. I did them when I had a busy day planned. I would list up to about 8 things I wanted to do on that particular day. There would be a lot of basic things I needed to do but none of them were like life changing things to do. I don’t know if there was anything on those lists that never got done. I may not have gotten it done that day, but then I would do it the next day. I don’t read many of the responses to these prompts, but I can’t even begin to fathom what might be on a list that never gets done. I suppose if on your to do list is to mug an old lady and rob her of the money she is carrying, then hopefully that never gets done. I guess the other question would be how many times do you put this particular thing on your to do list before you realize that you are never going to do it. Would you write this thing on 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, or 100 to do lists before you would say ” What the hell am I doing? I am never going to do that. Here is example of what I would consider a pretty typical to do list. 1. Clean golf clubs (Now you know that one is getting done). 2. Clean golf shoes. 3. Go Grocery shopping. 4. Cut the grass. 5. Go to Apple Store to have them look at phone. 6. Clean spare bedroom closet. 7. Take car to carwash. 8. Make Dinner Reservation for next Saturday. Now if any of that does not get done on that day then the next day it will. This is not goal planning. It is a to do list. What would a list look like that would never get done. 1. Play the lottery until you are homeless. 2. Water the lawn until it becomes a swamp, or they take you away. 3. Put a new addition on the house, all by yourself. 4. Take as many showers as it takes to make drying off a painful experience where your prune like skin is just peeling off. 5. Try to do 10,000 tweets in one day. 6. Contribute your life savings to the Donald Trump defense fund. 7. Try to jog back and forth across the country as many times as Forrest Gump did. 8. Last but not least go to an all you can eat buffet and continue eating until they have to call the police. Now there is a to-do list that is never going to get done. At least, I hope so. The only one I have a doubt about is the 1st one.
Try Not To, But It Is Human Nature
What do you complain about the most?
I try not to complain about anything, because let’s face it, what good does it do? When we criticize something is that a form of complaining? Complain is defined as expressing dissatisfaction or annoyance about something. Criticize is defined as indicating the faults of (someone or something) in a disapproving way. Looks like it is just a matter of semantics to me. Saying you criticize something makes you look more intelligent than saying you complained about something. I have never heard the phrase constructive complaining. People seem like they really do not want to complain or be critical. How many times have you heard someone say, I don’t mean to complain but, or I don’t mean to be critical but. If we don’t want to do it, why do we do it? Is it because we do so many other things in life, that we do not want to do, that complaining is the one thing that in a way, we secretly enjoy. Sometimes complaining or being critical does seem to cause change. Whether that change is good or bad can be left up to debate. Some things that you complain about do go away. I mentioned using DVR to watch all sporting events and my complaining about all the commercials went away, because now I just fast forward through them. Some complaints you keep to yourself. Bad service at a restaurant is one that I keep to myself, because I do not want anything happening to my food and I get great joy in leaving a ridiculously small tip. I feel this is always better than leaving no tip at all, because the waiter knows, you know enough to leave a tip, it is just 3% of the bill. The things I complain the most about are the weather, traffic, slow play in golf, ruling bodies in sports, prices, crowds, holidays, and myself. If we lived in a perfect world, then the last one, myself, would be the only thing left to complain about. Complaining about other things is a way to give oneself a break from all the self-deprecation. I am definitely going to start complaining more and be a real pain in the ass for the rest of my life. Thank you oh great writing prompt, bloguary or whatever the hell your called. You have just turned me into a complaining asshole.
Sports I Watch And Play
What are your favorite sports to watch and play?
Finally, a prompt that I can sink my teeth into. The sports I watch are baseball, the Pirates which I blog on the Pirates Morning Report, pro football just the Steelers, college football, which is my favorite, and last but not least, golf both the women’s and the men’s tour. I do not watch the old farts tour. I do watch the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but I do not watch college basketball during the regular season. I watch the baseball and the football playoffs. I do not watch the NHL which I do not even consider a sport and I quit watching pro basketball when fast break basketball was replaced with the triangle offense or whatever it is called. The 80’s with the Celtics and the Lakers was the end of an era and the game became very boring. I used to watch boxing but not anymore. I do not even know the name of the heavyweight champ. That just shows you how times have changed. Back through the 70’s the heavyweight boxing champion was the most revered sports figure in the world. I love college football because of the atmosphere and the enthusiasm of the crowds and the students. I do not even mind all the bowl games, although even I think they should get to a more workable number say around 25 or 30. College football is just much more entertaining than the pro game. There is more running and the defenses in the college game are not quite as good as in the pros so you see more scoring and great offensive plays. It is a much more up tempo game. Seeing a game played before 100,000+ fans is something else. I love baseball because of the skill set that the players have to have. There are very few specialty positions in baseball. You have to run field and hit in order to play that game. The game has the most strategy of any sport. The game has speeded up with the new rule changes that has made baseball a much more entertaining product. I watch all events on the DVR. Speed up those annoying commercials and you don’t have to listen to the even more annoying announcers. Thank God for DVR, it may be man’s greatest invention.
I love to play golf. I played 148 rounds this year which came close to breaking my one-year record of 150. I find it to be the most fascinating game of all. With the exception of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, it seems like every player has succumbed to the power of golf. What I mean by that, is they get to a certain point in the progression of their game or round and then become totally dysfunctional. They cannot perform a shot or putt that they have done literally thousands of times due to the set of circumstances at the present time. I do not care what you call it, choking, nerves, or the yips, it seems to get a hold of every golfer that has played the game. Some players make a recovery from this total incompetence and go on to win the tournament. Other players do not recover during the round and their careers are shortly over. At this time in my life, it is the one thing I would most like to figure out. I have been searching for that answer for over 30 years. I will never give up, but I wouldn’t bet money that I will find that answer. It is the one reason that I do not mind winter. It gives me a little time away from the problem. If I never do figure it out, I still know that I just love playing this mystifying game.
Would Not Do
What would you do if you won the lottery?
There was another prompt I believe that said what would you do if you found or were given a million dollars. Lottery pay outs are much more than a million dollars, usually. It is a lot harder to say what you would not do, without saying what the alternative might be. I find it more interesting to think about what you would not too with that much money. Most Jackpots, the winner wins around 30 to 60 million or more but let’s keep it in that ballpark. I would not invest it. I would not give it to charity. I would not buy a very expensive car over 100,000 dollars. I would not buy a million-dollar home. I would not give to any political candidate or party. I would not join a country club. I would not join any type of exclusive club. I would not give it to any college or university. I would not donate to a hospital. I would not start up a business or buy a company. I would not buy any commercial property. I would not buy an airplane. I would not buy a boat. I would not defer any money. I would not make any sports bets. I would not have more than one house. I would not put in a pool. There are probably other things I would not do but for right now I cannot think of any. That still leaves plenty of things that you can do with the money, that I am not going to divulge. All of this is a moot point because I never play the lottery. Come to think of it, I worked for 44 years and never played the lottery. Let me tell you what I did do with all the money I saved. Just kidding.
Concepts Of A Long Life
Daily writing prompt
What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
What anybody’s thoughts are on the concept of living a very long life are meaningless because we do not have a lot of choice in the manner. We may love the idea and do all the right things to live a long life according to experts and be dead at 50. On the other hand, we may not care how long we live, abuse our bodies with drugs and alcohol and live an active life into our 80’s. Just look at the Rolling Stones. The harsh fact remains that everyday someone at every age, 0 to 100, dies. You could say that death is the most fascinating thing about life. Nobody knows for sure what happens after you die. There are all kinds of beliefs and hopes that somehow our spirit or soul, or inner being will live forever. There is the belief of Heaven and Hell. Good luck with that one. Many people feel that this is it baby. You live and then you die and become nothing but elements. You decay and rot into a congealed mess that really stinks. Just look at roadkill. The most important question to ask is why. You are not going to get an answer but that is the question. Why is it that some people live to be over 90 years and others die young. There was a golfer in the mid to late 1800’s, Tom Morris. He won the British Open and so did his son Young Tom Morris to become the only father and son to win a major championship. He lived to be 86, almost 87 years old, and buried his wife and all 4 of his children. Living to be 86 in those days would be like living to 110 today. Losing all of his children, I have often wondered if he had ever wished that he would have died sooner. Living a long time can be a too edged sword to say the least. I have lived 73 years and not too far away from my 74th birthday. So far, I am able to do pretty much what I want to do when I want to do it. I have few aches and pains and can move around in a 3 story house with no problem. I am thankful every day for my abilities and my family’s good health and fortune. Even though I have no control over it, I hope I can live out my days having the same feeling that I have now. All I can do every night before I go to bed is to count my blessings and be so thankful for what I have. That is the best I can hope for when thinking of the concept of a long life.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 