Today is the day I prepare for surgery to reverse my colostomy. It's not a pretty process, cleaning out the bowel, but the end result will be worth it.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow with mixed feelings. Yes, I want to have my body back to normal. And I have some apprehension about invasive surgery being done on someone my age. My intention is still to live forever. So far, so good.

In any case, I thought that since this may be my last entry, I should remark on the possibility in case someone wonders where I am in the future. My wishes are known to my wife: harvest all useable organs and burn the rest, scattering my ashes in a garden somewhere. If the possibility of my departure from this blog and the rest of the world upsets you, please memorialize me by having a drink of your favorite beverage and doing something that you enjoy in my memory.

For me, fun has been with my family. When we younger and prices were lower, we would load the kids and their friends into our car and "movie marathon". We'd try to see how many films we wanted to see that we could view in a day. That often required some serious planning since the theaters started playing the films at different times and not always in such a way that we could just hop along at random. We managed eight once. But that was because my daughter took us to a midnight showing of ROCKY HORRO SHOW.

I also love to visit places I have never been.

Both abroad and here in the USA.

Finally, I have become a gardener. Fran and I work on our garden year round and when it's not so hot and humid that it makes me miserable, it is fun. Planting flowers, watching them bloom and pulling weeds is a diverting occupation. But someone correctly said that, "Gardens require a lot of water... mostly in the form of perspiration."

So, how do I feel about life? I'm grateful. Many things have come my way that I liked and enjoyed. Some things made me stronger; others added to my knowledge. I'm not sure that I ever gained wisdom. But like Randy Pausch, I was able to do many of the things that I set as goals for myself when I was young enough to think I could plan my life. Unlike him, I don't have a list.

My life has been one, chiefly of contentment, with some excursions into joy and others into sadness. No complaints.