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Past experiences

What gives me direction in my life? Everything that I have learned or experienced in my life.

From birth until now everything that I have learned or experienced in life gave me direction. I learned the necessities in life like going to the bathroom in the toilet instead of my diaper. My mother raised me as a Catholic and that gave me direction in my young years. Going to kindergarten and twelve more years of schooling added on to this direction of life.

Army service gave me a vast source of knowledge of how to deal with many different personalities and cultures. You meet hundreds of people from different parts of the country, and this was a great help in my later years dealing with people. This learning experience was very helpful in my journey of life and do not regret it one bit.

Employment in private industry, marriage, raising children, divorce and the heartaches and hurt involved in all of the above made me realize that the perfect life I have dreamed of may not come true. These events made me realize that my dreams may not be the purpose for my time on this planet.

After a period of time, I found a new direction with a new loving wife and her loving family. This told me there is light at the end of dark tunnels. Following this I retired and discovered that “Every day is Saturday.” and the stress of full-time employment is over. We also moved into the home of my dream. These events also gave me a direction in life.

A little over a year ago I was standing in front of deaths door and Dr. Death was holding the door open. I survived and as my wife says, “your room was not ready yet.” Again, another life experience has changed my direction in life. Life is not over and according to statistics the survival rate of my illness was three to five percent.

In conclusion, many events in my life and learning experiences has changed my life. I believe the purpose in life is to learn, and one should learn as much as then can in this short visit on planet of earth.

Daily writing prompt
What gives you direction in life?
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Camping Tales

When I was Young the exciting thing to do during the summer school vacation was to sleep outside between the houses or in the back yard. Two or three of the neighborhood kids would have a campout. It was spooky and scary staying outside with no parents nearby. Of course, this was before your parents had to be concerned about rampant crime and many things could be done without that fear.

My next camping experience was after I started work full time and some co-workers were campers and they would invite me to go with them to camp up in the mountains. Fishing and camping over the weekend. What an experience. I never did like sitting around the campfire though. It seemed like the smoke from the fire always followed me and my eyes would burn, and my clothes would retain that smell of smoke for a long period.

My next camping experience was during basic training. You received a shelter half and you had to find a buddy so the shelter half could be combined to make a pup tent. The army didn’t call it camping though, they had their own name, it was called bivouac. Then In Germany they had maneuvers and had these large tents that held eight or ten troops. I can’t remember what kind of tent they called them.

My final tale was after I was married and had two sons. We had friends that had a van, and I became enthused about a camping van. I bought a delivery van from the company I worked for and converted it to a camping van. The kids would sleep outside in a tent and the adults slept in the van. It was a fun time of my life. Unfortunately, I became divorced, and the budget could not afford a van and camping.

After my life became more stabilized, we occasionally went camping. I would rent a RV for the weekend or the week. It was fun, but I did not enjoy driving the wide RV and the length of the RV. I learned to take a tranquilizer before I started the trip. It was fun and enjoyable though and it gave me many good memories.

My camping days are over now.

Daily writing prompt
Have you ever been camping?
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Reminiscing is My Interest

I think of the past more than the future. I am in my senior years and have over seventy-five years of memories, experiences, and good times. I am sure this is obvious in my articles I post. If it wasn’t for my past, I would have nothing to write about.

I am just a mere mortal. I don’t jump over tall buildings or stop speeding bullets. I have not done or accomplished anything spectacular in my life. I love my country and I am experiencing the American dream. I am praying that the American dream continues for many generations to come. I have been retired for over fifteen years and my American dream is close to being over. If you have read previous postings, you see that most are about memories or past experiences.

Friends and relatives have said I should print out my articles so they would not be lost. I said, “that is the purpose of TomT2.0 on WordPress.” However, that did make me think and that is when I came up with this Ramblings Magazine idea. Where this ends up only time will tell. I started with the WordPress postings and the next resource will be articles from a writing group I was a member in and then articles from Yourhub.com published in the Rocky Mountain Newspaper that was closed around 2012. I estimate that I have enough articles for over fifteen issues. What happens after that who knows?

Therefore, if the people who said that they would be interested in having a printed copy they have the facilities to order a copy of the magazine and it will be mailed to them. Talk is cheap and will see how many put down money for a printed copy.

https://www.blurb.com/b/11951453-ramblings-of-tom-treloar

ttps://www.blurb.com/b/11964112-ramblings-magazine-issue-2

https://www.blurb.com/b/11976660-ramblings-magazine-issue-3

Daily writing prompt
What topics do you like to discuss?
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My Regrets

As I reconcile my life, I have come to the conclusion that my biggest regret is that I could have been friendlier than what I was and kept in touch with friends throughout my life.

In my young years I was scared. Life scared me. I was afraid to try things and go places. The first day of kindergarten was traumatic. All those strange kids and a new environment really scared me. For safety reasons my mother walked me to school and would be waiting for me when school was out. Telling me to “don’t talk to strangers” didn’t help me either. I survived and went to junior high and high school next. During that time, I made many friends and did what was normal for the period. Unfortunately, high school was a difficult time in my life. I guess it was the hormonal change and just the period of growing up. But, during that time I was angry and mad. I was mad at myself, my parents and everyone around me. I do not know why. I graduated from high school, and I never attended one high school reunion. I never kept track of any high school friends.

On to full time employment and a period of army time and making friends. On to married life and raising children, making more friends. Life continues and retirement happens and a move to a new home. More friends.

I have had many friends throughout my life. However, my biggest regret is I never kept in touch with the friends. Once a period of life is over, I would lose contact with the friends. My wife Dee has kept contact with friends throughout her life. If fact she is having lunch with three from her grade school tomorrow.

Therefore, my biggest regret is that I never kept in contact with friends out of my past and I could have been friendlier than what I was.

Daily writing prompt
Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?
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My Eyes are Killing Me.

It is that time of the year again. Spring allergies have attacked me full force. A couple of days ago my nose started to run and I looked around and sure enough, the trees were starting to leaf up and the fruit trees were all filled with blossoms. I thought, oh no, it is the time of year for itchy, scratchy, red eyes.

Before I turned fifty, I didn’t have allergies, but as I got older, they started to attack me and the older I age the worse they get. I read that this is a characteristic of the aging process in some people. I guess I am stuck with the problem. Fortunately, it only lasts a couple of weeks and once the trees are finished doing their thing, I am ok.

Over the counter medication such as Alavert and Claritin work for the runny nose discomfort and the runny nose can be tolerated. The itchy, burning, running eyes are another issue. I don’t know how many eyes drops and ointments I have tried and to no relief. The best that has worked for me at the moment is Thera Tears and Pataday. Unfortunately, my itchy eyes bother me for about two weeks. I have learned to not rub my eyes no matter what. That only makes it worse. It sure has been difficult to refrain from an automatic response.

I have talked to eye doctors, and they just told me allergies are caused by your immune system and it thinks the pollen is a threat to your eyes and attempts to protect your body from infection. Apparently, they do not have any suggestions for the discomfort. one consolation is that it only lasts a couple of weeks, and it will all be over.

Time to go back being uncomfortable and grouchy.

Back To Writing

The decision was made last summer. I have had WordPress site since 2009 and I let it go dormant until last summer. I also opened up a Sub Stack account at the same time since I forgot that I had this account. Now I am posting on both accounts.

Over a year ago I had a life-threatening event and I thought I was going to breath my last breath. Miraculously I survived this serious event. My blood clot During the three days in ICU, I had plenty of time to search for the purpose of my survival. I still feel there is a reason I was given a second chance. After six months of recuperating and still searching for the reason I survived, and I had the thought maybe I should share my thoughts, ideas and stories in a blog type format. I heard about Sub Stack on a news article and started blogging and then I remembered about my WordPress account and revitalized it. I now have over 200 posts on WordPress and over 50 on Sub Stack. Some posts are the same on both sites.

I also Have a Blurb account. blurb.com/user/tomtreloar that I have also had for a long time with a selection of books I have published. I then discovered that they now have a magazine publishing section, and this would fit perfectly for me. Rambling Magazine

Recently Writers Digest started following me on X (formerly twitter) and this news excited me. People must be noticing this mere spec in this gigantic universe. Now I have seen about freelance copywriting. I am retired and it appears that my finances will last longer than me, so I do not need the money. However, I will consider the opportunity if it happens to come my way.

In conclusion, deciding to resurrect writing and posting has been a good decision for me. It gives me something else to do and I am learning more about the internet and software used. Where this all goes, who knows?

Daily writing prompt
Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.
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X, formerly twitter and their Grok feature.

I am a X member and use it very often. I noticed on their feature column a new box called Grok. What is that? I do an internet search and copilot comes up with this explanation.

Grok is indeed an AI chatbot developed by xAI, which was founded by Elon Musk. Unlike typical chatbots, Grok has a quick wit and a rebellious nature. It can answer questions about current events, pop culture, and more. But what sets Grok apart is its willingness to delve into topics that are usually off-limits for other chatbots, including polarizing political theories and conspiracies. Plus, it doesn’t shy away from using less-than-polite language when responding. Grok’s most significant selling point is its ability to access real-time data from X, something no other chatbot can do. For instance, if you ask it about AI developments today, Grok will provide up-to-date information, while other models might offer more generic answers based on their training data

I don’t have a clue what a chatbot is. I am not a premium+ member and don’t have a clue why I was allowed to access it. It appears that it similar to a Wikipedia format. You can ask any question about anything. out of curiosity, I asked, who is TomT2.0? In a few moments Grok came up this explanation.

Click to access tom-t2-from-grok.pdf

I was surprised at the response and somewhat impressed. However, it is kind of spooky knowing that AI can come up with so much information in such little time. The only glaring error was that I have never been involved in cryptocurrency. I guess it goes to show that whatever is put in cyber space it never disappears.

This is too good to not to share it.

Hormones in High School

Here I am 14 1/2 years old. I continued from junior high school (now known as middle school) and started high school in the fall. The junior high school was walking distance from home. The high school was far enough away that I had to take the public bus to get there. I have used public transportation before so that wasn’t scary. The size of the high school and the number of students were scary though.

In junior high there were boys and girls. No big deal. The girls ran around with the girls and the boys ran around with the boys. You did start to notice a little that the girls shape started to change a little bit. Maybe they should just stop eating so much.

After summer break you and start high school and see the girls from your junior high and think “WOW!” they have really become attractive and interesting. Also, during that time, you look down and see all this hair grown between your legs. When did that happen? It wasn’t there yesterday. You wake up in the morning and your male plumbing is acting and feeling very strange.

In high school, there is Junior and Seniors and you are exposed to street sex talk. There is a difference between boys and girls. One form of entertainment was to go the local drugstore and look at the Playboy magazines from the top of the display shelfs. WOW! The female body is really exciting and desirable. You want to join in on this excitement.

My mother sees the change and knows it is time for the traditional home sex education session. She goes through the biological difference of man and woman. She also takes the opportunity to bring up the religion aspect and reminds me that sex outside of marriage is very sinful and should be avoided. She reminds me that women can get pregnant very easily. This was the time before medical birth control and the condom was known to be not very reliable. Finally, she tells me that many women try to get pregnant so they can get their Mrs. degree. She also told me. “Tom do not let your hormones lead your life and change it that you may regret sometime later.” This really alarmed me and for a long time I thought, will I ever know if she married for love or married me just to get a Mrs. degree?

This is what I learned during high school, not in high school.

Daily writing prompt
Describe something you learned in high school.
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The Necessities of starting The Day

Normally my day starts between 7am and 8am. I put on my robe and go get my morning blood thinner medication with my vitamins. Then I turn off the oxygen concentrator located in the pantry and continue to the kitchen. Every other day I make a pot of new coffee. A pot usually lasts a couple of days. If some is left, I just turn on the maker to warm up the remaining coffee.

I then fill a glass with water and take my medication and vitamins. Then I walk around the home and open up the shudders and let in the light. That does depend on the time of the year. It may still be dark of sun shining in.

I then continue going down to the “Man Cave” located in the basement. Turn on the TV. One must find out if we are in a war yet or some natural disaster happened. How many shootings and death happened in Denver Metro overnight. unfortunately, the news is more bad news these days than good news. Oh, I also watch the weather to see what kind of day it will be. Then I wake up the laptop and read my emails and delete all the junk, spam, and phishing scams. Will the FBI ever learn that I do not reply to their email threats? I then go to X, formerly Twitter to see what is happening there and how many hits I have received. I then go to WordPress, Sub Stack and Blurb to look at the latest activity on those sites. Sometime in this hour nature calls and I do my daily duty to keep my bowels healthy.

By this time the hour is usually over, and I go to showering, brushing teeth dressing and eating breakfast. Since I am retired, if I run over an hour, it is no big deal.

Daily writing prompt
What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?
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Retirement Years

 

The big day came in September of 2006. That big day was retirement. I had good thought and bad thoughts. For example, the absence of the stress of a responsible job will be good. I won’t have to get up or be at work at a specified time. I can plan and do things that I never took time to do when I was working. I could go on and on about the benefits of reaching and being able to enjoy retirement. 

On the other hand, I had reservations about retirement. Will my financial planning be adequate? Will I fall into the rut of being bored and not have enough interest in my idle times? I also thought about that I am now on the downside of my life and the inevitable will happen sooner than later. Also, will my health remain to be good? 

In reality, I am enjoying retirement very well. over seventeen years since I retired and people ask me, “what do you do?’ I respond, “I am recuperating from the last forty-five years. Sure, I still have stress in my life and things don’t go as expected. I have had two medical issues in retirement. The first happened in 2018. I had an eleven-millimeter kidney stone in my right kidney and had to be removed by going up from the basement. I peed chocolate milk for twelve hours after the procedure. The next issue was a large pulmonary saddle embolism (blood clot) between my lungs. I thought I was going to breath my last breath during the removal. But I survived and it has been over a year now since that event with no long-term effects. (LINK TO MY BLOOD CLOT)

However, every day is Saturday and what I don’t get done today I can do tomorrow. My outlook remains to be good, and I pray that I retain this outlook as retirement and the later years of my life evolve.