Friday update

Last night, we hosted a drop in to say farewell to my sponsor.  It was nice to see so many people, some of whom I haven't seen in a few years.  We enjoyed cooking and always enjoy seeing people eat what we cook.  I think that my sponsor had a good time visiting with Al-Anon friends.

Quite a few people commented on the distance that I have to drive to get to meetings.  I have found that if a person wants something bad enough, they will do what has to be done to get it.  I wanted what Al-Anon offered so I got to meetings. It didn't seem unusual to me at all.  I was willing to go to whatever lengths were necessary.

One of my good friends is going through a hard time in marriage.  His wife is depressed, he's depressed and a marriage of over 30 years has become strained.  He goes to therapy and wants the wife to go also.  But whether or not she goes is not something he can control.  We talked about that a while last night.  When things are going well in life, it is easy to remember the steps.  But recovery is there to carry us through the stressful times.

Several people said that they would like to come back to this house and land to simply hang out.  They found it peaceful and serene.  One of my ideas is to have an Al-Anon retreat weekend here, where we could get together during the day for workshops, have a speaker or two, and a barbecue in the evening.  People could then go home to spend the night and come back the next day.  The house is large enough to have workshops in different rooms and even out doors on the porch or deck.  It is something to think about for the spring.

Today, I am heading to the boat to do some varnishing.  I won't be going out on her this weekend but will stay at the marina to do some work.  Next week, all being well,  we will head up the coast to the wooden boat show.  It is a fun event and one that I go to just about every year.  Going up and staying on the sailboat for the festival will be something new.

Finally, I want to say that I am glad to be a Mac person.  It is like being a gear head.  I am grateful for what Steve Jobs did.  He created some great tools. But I think that his greatest accomplishment was in educating so many of us about what technology can do.  When he would stand up in his black shirt, jeans and tennis shoes, I thought he was a kind of shaman, a guru who was about to announce something amazing and magical.

I've read that he wanted perfection.  He would say "Do it again" until it is right, profound and astonishing.  I think that he was a visionary who saw a path to something that would change technology and how we think of computers.  He worked to make the vision a reality which is something that makes him great. Thanks for your contributions that I found inspiring, intuitive, and magical.

We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. ~Steve Jobs


Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. ~ Steve Jobs