Facing the Retirement Blues

Yesterday’s post about “strange ripples in the bubble surrounding our solar system” reminded me of how much I loved writing about Cloud Creek Ranch, the magical Ozark property Gwen the Beautiful and I lived on way back when.

For those who aren’t familiar with yours truly’s life and times, while we were in Arkansas I wrote a newspaper column called Live! From Paradise! about the people, the animals, the full-out, in-your-face way of life Cloud Creek created. And loved it every bit as much as I did writing and producing TV shows that once upon a time were watched by millions and now are unknown to – and unremembered by – millions more.

(Uh-oh, I feel a digression coming on. “Out!” I say. “Focus” is the word for today.)

The more I think about it, the more I find myself wanting to write something similar to my former column. Cloud Creek Ranch (and its equally rural predecessor – hey, it bordered on Malibu and a country spot, right? – also called – you guessed it – Cloud Creek Ranch are no more, but our way of life here on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State is also rural and just as enveloped in magic as the others were.

In fact, in many ways, our current digs outside of a small, very independent-minded town called Port Townsend remind me of when Gwen and I first were first married and made our home on the Santa Clara Pueblo near Santa Fe, New Mexico. I haven’t talked about Santa Clara much on the web, but I it does figure prominently in a book of poetry I’ve published.

(Actually in three or four of them, but I see myself starting to commit the grandfather of all digressions, so I’ll come back to that some other time. C’mon, Brode get to the bottom line of this post.)

So–

Some of you may already know that for the past few weeks I’ve been on a kind of inner quest, a journey on which I’m looking for the right topics to discuss here at LarryBrody.Com. Topics that wouldn’t have fitted TVWriter™, the everything-you-need-to-know-about showbiz-but-were-afraid-to-ask site I ran for over twenty years. I’m still searching, but as of today, I think the ups and downs and joys and sorrows of living in the Pacific Northwest and its rain, rain, rain, and blue skies that actually are a kind of misty white definitely need get up on the interweb stage.

In other words, Live! From Paradise! meet Live! From the Olympic Rainforest! How’s that sound?

Other than being just a tad long and awkward, I mean.

Looks like I’m going to have to do some harder thinking about what I’m doing. Which definitely is something I was trying to avoid. But starting this blog has made me understand something I’ve also been trying to keep from facing.

Without hard thinking, how will I know I’m alive?