You Can’t Live Forever

I’m still on assignment, writing today from a lounge in a fabulous haunted mansion. The Beatles once stayed in this very location, and it’s easy to imagine them striding confidently down the main stairs to my left, wisecracking all the way. If I hadn’t accidentally left my time dilator in Albuquerque I’d jot back and watch their entrance and listen in on the Liverpudlian humor.

In case you missed it, John O’Neill at Black Gate held an interview with me and Joseph Goodman and the Magician’s Skull himself.

You might not have seen this, though. Nerdy Jobs invited me over for a chat about my writing, the new magazine, and gaming. If you want to hear me nattering on about all those things and a few more, now’s your chance. (My wife hears me nattering on about that stuff all the time and probably won’t bother.)

It’s not that I haven’t admitted to myself that I’m middle-aged. It’s impossible to miss the changed metabolism, the graying hair, the receded hairline, or the fact that I’m no longer biologically driven to stay up late and sleep in. (These days I seem biologically programmed to wake before 6:00 and begin to flag around 8:00 p.m. I don’t mind the former so much but the latter sucks.) And then there’s the unfortunate habit now of just not sleeping as deeply.

While I acknowledge all that, I hadn’t done anything about one other issue, and that’s that the eyesight is changing. I’ve needed glasses since I was in junior high, but only to see stuff further away. In the last two years when I’m wearing contacts I’m no longer able to read fine print or, more recently, even regular paperback book print. (I’m fine if I take the contacts out.) The other day after the enchantress and I finished an evening meal she just happened to stop at a kiosk selling reading glasses. She then proceeded to try them on. She was curious to see if they’d help her own eyes, I’m sure, but I know it was also a ploy, for she passed them off to me.

So now I have them, and I used them this morning to read stuff on my phone while waiting for breakfast. Hey, so maybe the old body is failing a little, but modern conveniences help even things out. And at least I have improved skills and wisdom, right? Also cool kids. All these things were developed over time…

Also, I have a second degree black belt, and I can crank off at least 60 pushups in a single session, and I sure as Hell couldn’t do that when I was 20. So there are still some compensations.

In other news, You Can’t Live Forever is another great ’50s style mystery. Also a window into how much and how little some societal conventions have changed. Now, I must get to writing.