So this is going to be a short all over the spectrum post. Except for fear of the coronavirus, being sheltered in place for a month without seeing our children or grandchildren, my life has pretty much been the same.
See I’m a 69 year old family man, but beyond the my family, I don’t interact with many people. Prior to the pandemic, I worked part time at Target on Mondays and Fridays. And two or three times per week, I would babysit my grandson Logan and his sister Zoe.
While I may be less socially active than many people, I do have many interests and keep myself busy in a variety of ways
EK Reads Through The Pandemic….
I spend a lot of time reading. Over the last five years, I have read an average of 57 books per year. The majority of those books are mysteries or thrillers with some nonfiction, and science fiction thrown in.
While the pandemic has been raging, I have read 22 books. My total number of books read so far in 2020 is 31.
For years I’ve been writing about the books I read, lately, not so much. I will try I over the next few weeks to start to write again about the books I’ve read.
….And Listens to A lot of Music
I also listen to several genres of music including: folk, blues, bluegrass which collectively fit under the umbrella of Americana, Jazz, New Age and progressive (prog) rock. Oh, I also listen to the classic rock I grew up with in the 60-70s. Again over the last ten years I have written many a post about the music I love. Once again, lately, I have not been doing much writing about music either.
Lately EK has been taking on the German Language
Most recently, I have been spending a lot of time trying to teach myself German. There a several reasons I am doing this. First, it may be that both sides of my father‘s family have roots in Germany. My grandmother and her family came from Dresden in 1912. My grandfather was born in the US, his mother came from Switzerland and his father from Hesse. Hence, I have deep roots firmly planted in both sides of Germany.
Below is a picture of my grandmother Charlotte Meyer with her sister Irma and her mother Helena on the deck of the Grafwalderse on their voyage to America in 1920. My grandmother is the youngest girl.
A second reason is just to prove to myself that I can do it. I need to do that because the decision to drop the requires second quarter of German at the University of Florida is one that has haunted me for 40 plus years. The inability to complete a year of German resulted in me not graduating on time! I eventually got my degree by completing the course remotely. My final grade was a D which also upsets me!! Anyway, I’m working a little harder at learning German now than I did then!
Finally, I am studying German because learning a new language is supposed to be good for aging brains!! So it’s part of my drive to turn back my biological clock.
Here’s pictures of my great grandfather Herman Meyer. He was a member of the royal guard of the King of Saxony in the late 1800s.
Final Thoughts
While this was supposed to be post-coronavirus shutdown catch-up post, it morphed into more of a re-introduction post. I hope it gives you some insight into who I am, along with what I do and write about.
In the next post, I’ll provide a little more detail about mother steps I take to try to slow down and reverse my biological clock.
I hope you’ll join me on my LIfe Safari and along the way maybe find a new author or musician. Maybe, you’ll even find some ways to turn back your biological clock!
