I am an author—can you fucking believe that? It’s my being—consumes me. In my previous life as a dentist, I always wrote a little poetry and some short stories—never had time to do more—always working—growing a business and raising a family—not an easy task.
Then, in 2007, we sold our dental group—went from 100 mph to zero. Now, I would have all the time in the world to work out, take guitar lessons, manage our real estate, and play golf—blah blah blah. But, I had no identity. People would ask, “what are you going to do now that you retired?”
“Whatever the fuck I want!” But it’s not that easy—I went from being scheduled every second of the day to having an open slate. Mentally, I was a vacuum—I needed more, a lot more. My beloved and very talented wife has been an artist since the age of six and works all day in her studios—creating—never stopping. She doesn’t have a schedule—doesn’t need one. She loves me dearly but doesn’t necessarily want me hanging around all day doing nothing.
A management/development company runs our real estate, and you can only work out so long and then what? So, I took guitar lessons with my dog, Charleston by my side—she loved having me around—unqualified love. Well, I enjoy music and got to be pretty good but not good enough to please that guy in the mirror—that unforgiving son of a bitch who snarls back at me as if to say, “find something else to do, asshole!”
I’m OK and can imitate Neil Young’s scratchy voice singing This Old Guitar and can belt out a pretty good rendition of Toby Keith’s, Don’t Let The Old Man In—but that’s just for my sanity. So I sit at my desk and stare at my Martin acoustic knowing that I’ve hit the wall. Plus my dog died. For God’s sake, my grandson, Cooper is 1000 times better than me.
So that leaves golf which is a time-sucker and a brain-fucker. I still play a little just to be with my friends and win a few bucks. The truth is although I was decent in the old days, I’m not anymore—I’m shitty.
But now—I call myself a writer and—incredibly—a published author. How about that, sports fans?
You can now buy my newly released book: Altered State of Affairs | on Amazon!