Tomorrow – Dave Glardon

Waiting for Tomorrow? It’s Here!

June 16, 2023 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning, and happy Friday! I hope your day is off to a nice start.

It’s been almost three weeks since my stroke, and I’m happy to report that I’m getting a little better each day. I’ve lost some strength on my left side, but that should come back. Other than a dull headache for the past two weeks, I feel pretty good. I guess God isn’t done with me just yet.

I can’t say enough about the staff at Tucson’s Banner University Hospital. Everybody there was just awesome, including the nurse who took the full brunt of my post-surgery nausea. I won’t go into detail, but if you’ve ever seen The Exorcist, that pretty much sums it up. She got two showers that day.

It’s hard going from working every day to full-time recuperation. Not that I miss work all that much, but sudden change is not always easy. I don’t plan to retire for another year, but one thing I can say for certain – I absolutely must find something to occupy my time before then. Sitting around is not my thing.

I’ve known for years that my retirement will involve some kind of ongoing income. That’s what happens when you wait until you’re almost 60 to start saving. Like most others, I spent my younger years scraping by, with little concept of the fact that time wasn’t standing still. Retirement is for old people, and only people like my dad planned for that eventuality.

Yet here I am. The young guy who used to live in the mirror has been replaced by the aging image I see each morning. Getting out of bed requires planning and pre-positioning, and even climbing the six steps into our motorhome can be an effort. Aging is definitely not for sissies. On the other hand, a little alcohol goes a long way, so that’s a plus.

The thing about aging is that, when we’re young, we wonder what tomorrow may bring. Later, we wonder where all those tomorrows went. All those things we planned to start “someday,” the trips we were going to take, the book we were going to write, the business we were going to build, the legacy we wanted to leave behind. What I wouldn’t do to have some of those tomorrows back.

Well, today is yesterday’s tomorrow. Waiting for “someday?” It’s here. Sure, there will be others, but how many are we willing to squander before we put our plans into motion? One? Ten? A thousand? They add up faster than we think.

Thankfully, I got through this challenge with the ability to continue my plans for the future. But that could have all changed in an instant. Nobody knows when a crisis may hit, or how severe it may be. All the more reason to plan for the future now and put those plans in motion while you still can. What’s the worst that can happen? Hitting your goal too soon?

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

Tomorrow is Here – Get Busy!

March 10, 2023 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning, and happy Friday! I hope your day is off to a great start.

So, there was an segment on the news last night about an asteroid that may or may not crash into the earth sometime in the year 2046. You know, in case you had plans for 2047. Okay, there’s about an 8 percent chance we’ll be in its path. Seems to me we could just step on the gas and get out of the way or blast it toward Pluto. Nobody liked that one anyway.

I would like to think I’ll be around to see what really happens. I would be 88 by then, so I’m not placing any bets. But I think we all tend to live our lives as if tomorrow is pretty much in the bag, even if “tomorrow’ is 8,400 days away. People ask all the time if you knew today would be your last day, what would you do differently? Well, sorry folks. I can’t say that out loud. But you can bet it would be fun!

We were asked that question in a class one time. I remember saying I’d go skydiving. My wife even offered to pack the parachute. This is the same woman who once gave me a gift certificate to the office of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, and I don’t know if she’s ever seen a parachute up close. Let’s just say she wasn’t a fan of my mid-life adjustment.

It amazes me sometimes how we put our complete faith in people we’ve never met, from airline pilots to investment brokers, or even astrologists. Yes, that’s the word I meant to use. I don’t argue with astrophysicists. They’re good at math.

The point to all this is, none of us knows for sure what tomorrow will bring. Sure, it may bring illness or heartache. But odds are, it’ll be another fairly routine day in a fairly routine life. If we want it to be anything more than that, today is the day to set the wheels in motion. From the driver’s seat, thank you. This is not the time to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Weekends are a great time for rest and reflection. Okay, they’re a great time to catch up on all the stuff you didn’t get done during the week. But they’re also the perfect time to sit back, have a drink, and focus on our dreams. You may or may not come up with a perfect plan for achieving those dreams. But nothing happens unless we try.

No, tomorrow is not guaranteed. But if tomorrow comes, wouldn’t it be nice to spend it doing something you love? You can. We all can. It just takes a little imagination and commitment. The rest is easy.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

New Year, New Day … It’s How You Use It That Counts

December 31, 2020 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning, and happy New Year’s Eve! I’m not sure we EVER thought it would get here. Hope your day is off to a great start.

I’ve had a lot of fun reading the humorous (and sometimes not-so-humorous) farewells to 2020 on social media. It sure beats the political discourse that seems to work its way into every conversation from thunderstorms to family recipes. Well, call me old-fashioned, but I’d rather see pictures of puppies. Okay, and I watch Hallmark movies, too. So there.

Now that I’ve officially crumpled up my “man card,” let’s move on. It was faded anyway. But this is the last day of the year. It’s the day we bid farewell to what has, for most of us, been one of the worst years ever. And it’s my last chance to write something meaningful (if not at least a little funny) this year. Starting tomorrow, I get 365 chances to get it right. Buckle up!

Like many of you, I had things I needed to get done this year that just never floated to the top of the pile. As a consequence, I get to go outside today in near-freezing weather and finish up a couple of those chores. Every warm day we’ve had this winter somehow got filled with other things. You know, like sitting in front of the TV in my pajamas. Now I have to pay the piper.

Looking back on this year, it hasn’t been nearly as bad for us as it could have been. I got hired into my current job a week after the nation shut down for Covid, and I’m still employed today – “today” being the operative word. My contract expires in 14 hours, so all bets are off on whether it gets renewed in time. Guess I’m not the only one who didn’t get it all done in 2020.

As we reach this point in the year, most of us are saying pretty much the same thing. “I had the best of intentions, but life just got in the way. Other stuff came up, time was short, and I just didn’t get it all done. But I did my best!” Uh huh. So, if we gave it our very best this year, what makes us think next year will be that much better? “Because it won’t be 2020 anymore!”

It’s easy to view external factors as the driving force behind success and failure. Oh, we like to take credit for accomplishments, but when it comes to something that didn’t go quite right, it’s a lot easier to look for a scapegoat. And believe me, with 2020 behind us, finding a scapegoat is a piece of cake. It’s right there in living color. So what?

Let’s get real for a moment. 2021 is just a number. It’s one year in our lives that begins in less than a day. Will tomorrow be magically different just because you can write a new number on your checks? If you’re like me, you’ll get that wrong for a month anyway. But what about the day after tomorrow, and the days after that? We can’t blame 2020 forever.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Seems I’ve heard that somewhere before. We don’t need a new year, a new month, or even a new day to start working toward our dreams. Tomorrow is a figment of your imagination. It’s the day that never comes, because once it gets here, it’s “today.” Okay, that was a lot funnier in the second grade. But you get the point.

That said, we do have one shot at beginning a new year and a new day all at the same time. After that, you have to wait another year. And given that a good percentage of the world will be hung-over by this time tomorrow, I’m betting all those plans for the new year will come with a headache-induced caveat … “tomorrow.” Yep. Tomorrow. The day that never comes.

So, try something different this year. Start now. Get your plans in order and start filling in dates on the calendar. Do it early, before you spike the eggnog. Go to sleep with your dreams clearly in focus. Then, when you wake up tomorrow, pick up those plans and get moving. “But nothing is open on New Year’s Day!” Perfect. That means no distractions. Just you and your goal.

If you’ve been waiting for the new year to begin, it’s here. Make the most of it. Use all 365 days to accomplish your dreams. My hope for each of you is that, at the end of 2021, you can say, “There goes one of the best years of my life. Not because it was an inherently good year, but because I made it so.” Then, take a bow and have a drink. You’ve earned it.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

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