Doggy-Dog World

What a nice surprise this morning--overcast skies and rain, yes, rain in the desert. I remember cursing the skies in western New York when it would drizzle and drizzle for days on end. Now I look forward to the few rains we get.

Another weekend of sitting here at the computer and watching tv sports with my left eye, not only split vision but split attention. Right now Federer is playing Hewitt at the U.S. Open, and they're tied after two sets. Tennis on the tube is maybe my favorite sports viewing. So much about the game--the shots, the strategy, the mind games--is more obvious on tv than it would be for the live audience, especially those in the upper decks. And at noon, the Deutsche Bank golf tournament will be on. Tiger's putting woes continue and he's seven shots out of the lead after the first day. Maybe he'll figure it out and get back in contention. I hope so.

It's been sixteen years since I retired and I'm now wondering, in these economically depressed times, if I and the rest of the nation's retirees aren't the last to be able to live in places like Sun City West. My children and the rest of their generation may not be able to quit working until they're eighty or ninety or until they're dead. The Social Security pot will have to run dry soon. The present work force can't continue to support the growing numbers of retired people, and then there won't be anything left for them. How sad. One day, our little retirement oases, like all the Sun Cities around the world and the others like them, will be a thing of the past. I keep remembering Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, in which Clarke's society of the future has everyone living extended lives, technological advances providing for all human needs, no one any longer having to work, everone now able to devote themselves to many careers and intellectual pursuits. It would be nice if the world could make it to that level before killing ourselves or destroying the planet we live on.

The cover of my first novel, the one I was just sure would get published because it focused on amateur golf, club golf such as millions of us are involved in. But the major publishers didn't see it that way. It took me over twenty years of frustration before I finally had it published myself. I still think it would have been a successful venture for a paperback publisher like Bantam.