Playing Catch up

Since we arrived in Bali, every week or so Midori will say, “you should start writing your blog.”  I always nod in agreement and let her know that it is all up here, pointing knowingly at my noggin.  Knowing that my noggin is empty except for random thoughts and ideas that float by every now and then.  She introduced me to Kai-san, a Japanese gentleman in his 60’s who has lived in Bali for a bit now and started writing a blog for people in Japan thinking about making the move to Bali. I asked him some questions and got some ideas, although I don’t speak Japanese and he doesn’t speak English so we relied on Midori to guide the conversation.  So here we are, almost five months in to our next chapter and I am finally grabbing some of those thoughts and ideas as they pass through my head. 

Of course, I blame my oldest kid, Sara (who has given us two of the most beautiful and amazing grandkids in the entire universe).  She had a gentle, yet stern, talk with me back in September where she told me that I had been working my whole life at full speed and that I needed to just….relax.  She told me to stop worrying about the next chapter and what my new purpose in life would be and to just throttle back for a bit.  So I did.  Because she really scared me.  Actually it was perhaps one of the most loving and caring conversations I have ever had because it was obvious that she really likes the old man and wants me to be around for a bit and wants me to enjoy life.  So, all her fault.  Now I am refreshed and ready to go!  

One thing that will help me catch up is that every night I write an email to my kids.  I call it thoughts of the day and it varies from long ramblings about what happened on a particular day to a one liner that says “I’m tired….will write more tomorrow.”  I don’t do that one too much although they claim that seems to be the running theme in the emails.  It is perhaps the most successful New Years resolutions in the history of New Years resolutions as January 1, 2019 will mark five years since I started, writing every single day.  Anyways, the point being that much of what has happened since arriving in Bali in July is recounted in those emails, making it easy to go back and grab some significant moments.  

Occasionally in my email I will give them my Bali Moment of the Day, something that happened or that I saw that is uniquely Bali or, at least, nothing I have ever experienced before.  As part of the catch up theme, here is the first one that I sent (full disclosure, I made a few edits after reading through it again but it is 97 percent original) (oh, another disclosure, when you see me refer to Mom I am talking about my wife Midori since the email is to the kids) : 

(From July 31, 2018) “I figured I would talk about the Rooster in the Bonsai tree as the Bali moment of the day.
-But then we were at dinner and they brought Mom’s dish which was gnocchi.  She dug in and I tried a few pieces because it looked good. We both agreed it was good and put a pretty good dent in it but then the waitress came over, grabbed the plate and said “Sorry, wrong table….this is gluten free.”  She left with the plate and the fork.  I watched her to see if she took it over to another table but I don’t think she went that far.  It was another 30 minutes before she got her gluten gnocchi and she ended up liking the gluten free more. That had to be the Bali moment.
– Except I couldn’t give up on my buddy, Froggy the Frog.  He is a frog that showed up this morning and it looked like he came from inside the house.  We were sitting at the kitchen table and he looked like he had just come out of the bedroom after a good nap.  Then, when we got home tonight, he was there waiting for us.  He hopped into a corner and tried to get real small hoping we didn’t see him.  Reminded me of when I went to survival school.  We were suppose to get from point a to point b and evade capture.  My buddy and I Sid Ibarra were doing well until a couple of bad guys up on the ridge saw us.  We tried to hide in the brush. The guys came down from the ridge and walked right to the spot we were hiding. One of them was standing over me saying “Come out little froggy” but I was trying to be small and inconspicuous.  I figured if I couldn’t see him he couldn’t see me.  Until he kicked me of course. Then I had to admit that I was not invisible and gave myself up.  Anyways, Froggy was trying to stay small and quiet…..didn’t work for him either.  I left him alone though….no kicking.  But Froggy earned Bali Moment of the Day….right?
-No, the Bali Moment of the Day was when we got home and sat down at the kitchen table with Bayu to chat.  Mom had left a couple of glasses on the table with one of them being half full of water.  She reached for one of the glasses and let out a scream. What was in the glass?  Why it was Gary the Gecko (one of the many geckos hanging out on our walls) trying desperately to keep his head above water while he figured out how to get out of the glass.  Bayu took the glass out and released him back into the wild that is our garage.  So, Gary the Gecko was finally the deserving recipient of the Bali Moment of the Day. 
Maybe Gary and Froggy will get together for drinks. “

So much to talk about since something interesting happens every day.  I am glad the journey has finally started as I get my noggin focused on the next chapter!