{"id":18480,"date":"2019-05-09T16:40:54","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T16:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/?p=18480"},"modified":"2019-05-13T16:44:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T16:44:01","slug":"life-island-times-ten-years-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/life-island-times-ten-years-after\/","title":{"rendered":"Life & Island Times: Ten Years After"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen-Shot-2019-05-09-at-12.31.16--PM\"<\/p>\n

While driving southwestward in South Carolina towards a Georgia sunset over the Savannah River this past Monday, an old blues tune popped into my head.<\/p>\n

Nearly fifty years ago, on a up state temporary stage in New York, the British blues rock group Ten Years After played to a cold, sodden, barely awake, night time crowd in Woodstock their signature fiery song, I\u2019m Going Home.<\/p>\n

It was so cold that the lead singer\u2019s breath could be seen in the film of that performance. A friend told me decades later that he watched this song while shivering with the remnants of a fifth of Jack Daniels as his sole source of heat until the next morning\u2019s sunrise.<\/p>\n

Alvin Lee\u2019s guitar work and singing woke him up in electrifying fashion.<\/p>\n

W and I arrived at our Savannah home less than five minutes after sun had set over the Talmadge Bridge.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

I awoke the next day with group\u2019s name turning over in my mind to ask myself how different am I than I was ten years ago? So here is a list of things different Ten Years After:<\/p>\n

I can see the finish line. No, not death. Daily joy. I never thought about or felt it ten years ago.<\/p>\n

A lot happier.<\/p>\n

I am forty plus pounds lighter and more of my hair is grey. To be fair, I was probably a bit overweight before.<\/p>\n

I can take a leak at a 45 degree angle. Huge progress. Cleaner floors.<\/p>\n

Have let go of the things I couldn’t change and changed the things I could.<\/p>\n

Work or accomplishments no longer define me — family and friends do.<\/p>\n

Less angry. Still working to focus on positive events and people. Trying to leave behind the cynical and sarcastic.<\/p>\n

Travel more with loved ones.<\/p>\n

Very attuned to the question “If not now, when?”<\/p>\n

I can sleep more than five hours a night.<\/p>\n

Over the hill but have yet to pick up speed.<\/p>\n

I drink much better wine.<\/p>\n

Less hair.<\/p>\n

Remaining constant are musical tastes, abiding distrust of politicians, and sports allegiances.<\/p>\n

I did not like proto-smart cell phones back then and now I loathe most everyone else\u2019s monster format, selfie taking, social media enabled, smart phones\u2019 use especially for gaming in movie theaters while the movie rolls and for the epitome of hipster\/Instagram\/political ethos restaurant dining.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago my grandkids thought I was cool. Back then they were 15, 13 and 11. Now they have a lot more education and wisdom.<\/p>\n

In 2009, I had visited France only twice since I spent a year at a French university during the interesting times of 1968-69. In the past six years including this past December, we have gone back there almost yearly.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going home daily.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Copyright 2019 My Isle Seat
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While driving southwestward in South Carolina towards a Georgia sunset over the Savannah River this past Monday, an old blues tune popped into my head. Nearly fifty years ago, on a up state temporary stage in New York, the British blues rock group Ten Years After played to a cold, sodden, barely awake, night time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18480"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18486,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18480\/revisions\/18486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}